Text Driven Preaching vs. Text Centered Preaching
What is the difference between a sermon that is “text-centered” and one that is “text-driven”?
Here is a chart I used at the Jacksonville Pastor’s Conference:
| Text-Centered | Text-Driven |
| Sermon from the text | Sermon about the text and derived from it |
| Sermon based on a text | Sermon explains meaning of the text |
| Focus on textual theme | Focus on textual theme as textually developed |
| Sermon has a point or points usually drawn from the text |
Sermon only has as many “points” as the text has and are always drawn from the text |
| Textual secondary information may or may not be developed |
Textual secondary information developed in relation to main point(s) |
| Sermon structure may be imposed on the text |
Sermon structure is borrowed from the structure of the text |
| Application relates to or has some connection to the text |
Application flows directly & exclusively from the text |
| Primary application may or may not be derived from the main point of text |
Primary application derived from the main points of the text |
| Creativity is generally unguided by the text |
Creativity is guided by the genre and textual clues of the text |
| Tendency to pick short preaching texts for preaching |
Demands a natural paragraph/pericope/ thought unit for a text |
| May ignore or sideline the author’s intended meaning |
Surrenders to the author’s intended meaning |
| Context may be easily overlooked | Context is key to sermon development |
| May not adequately express the substance, structure, & spirit of the text |
Expresses the substance, structure & spirit of the text |
This article first appeared on www.drdavidlallen.com
Category: Blog Post
Tags: Text-Driven Preaching
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