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A good map makes a difference. I learned that on vacation this summer as I drove my family across the continent and back. We spent two very miserable hours in a late night storm in Buffalo, New York, trying to find our way across the border. It would have been a lot easier if our map had been up to date.
An old map might look similar to the territory. There might be some common place-names and a few familiar looking roads, but an old map can still get a person very, very lost.
A New Map For Preaching Today
It is time we had some new maps for preaching. The old maps were suitable in their day. The places that they mark still sound a little bit familiar, but a preacher could get lost if she tried to follow one of them.
Maybe the most well-worn map of the preaching landscape was written by that pioneer homiletic cartographer, John Albert Broadus. Writing in 1870, Broadus’ map described ‘the textual sermon,’ ‘the topical sermon,’ ‘the textual-topical sermon,’ and ‘the expository sermon.’ While these categories may have served the preacher of the late 19th century they are not sufficient to describe all of the territory explored by preachers today.
We need a new map of the preaching landscape, that describes more than just what we know as the traditional listener. A good map will give us insight not only into the quality of preaching, but the manner of listening as well. It will assist the contemporary preacher with a sense of the possibilities involved in a biblical communication across cultures.
A Map of the Landscape
A new map of preaching needs to be correctly oriented. Geographical maps are set to the standard of North and South, East and West. The homiletical map has a different set of poles that mark the territory.
Let us replace east and west with the polar sources of process for preaching, deduction and induction. These poles address the question of where the sermon comes from and what it is designed to do. The deductive or objective sermon is concerned with submission. It is designed to bring the listener to bow the knee and to submit in faith to a transcendent God and an ultimate truth. The inductive subjective sermon is concerned with solutions. It exists to help the listener find meaningful ways to fix problems and respond to needs.
Next, we will replace north and south with the two poles of homiletic input, cognition and affection. These poles describe the question of how the presentation will be structured in order to achieve its purpose. The cognitive sermon seeks to explain the necessary concepts and ideas through means of reason and logic. The idea is to bring the listener to a place of understanding. The affective sermon seeks to bring the listener to an experience of the material on offer in the sermon.
These four poles match nicely with David Kolb’s map of learning styles. The deductive pole describes Kolb’s ‘watcher’ (reflective observation. The inductive pole represents the ‘doer’ (active participation). The cognitive pole stands in for Kolb’s ‘thinker’ (abstract concepts) and the affective pole for the ‘feeler’ (concrete experiences).
Put all of these together, then, and we have a useful map of the homiletic landscape with four primary territories:
The primary interest in the land of the cognitive/deductive sermon is proclamation. The preacher seeks to explain the need of the listener to submit to the person and will of God.
The key concern for the inductive/cognitive sermon is instruction. The preacher works to inform the listener of the principles necessary to an enhanced life situation.
The focus of the affective/inductive sermon is persuasion. Here the preacher uses narrative, image, and other persuasive means to bring the listener to submission.
The critical factor for the affective/deductive sermon is motivation. Here the preacher tries to create an experience that inspires the listener to a resolution of his or her felt needs.
While every preacher is interested in proclamation, instruction, persuasion, and motivation, each sermon will be tinged differently depending upon where the sermon lives.
Those who Inhabit the Territories
People tend to inhabit the different territories because that is where they are the most comfortable. Listeners who appreciate story, tend to live in inductive/affective territories. Preachers who want to speak powerfully to them might want to read the map carefully. Sometimes people live in territories for theological reasons. For instance, they believe that submission ought to be primary over solution seeking. Others have no strong reason for the territory they live in. They have just always lived there and they have no intention leaving. A preacher who tells a lot of stories to people who live in deductive territories are going to come off like foreigners. For some, it is as if they are speaking a different language.
There are many examples of preachers and homiletic models for each of the territories. In most cases, these models are not specific to one territory, but range over across the lines into other lands. The borders tend to be porous, though there are always those who argue the need to police them diligently. It is probably fair to say that these are all ‘mostly models.’ That is to say that they mostly inhabit one territory or another, but can find a home beyond their natural borders as well.
The land of DedCog: Here we find the home of the declarative sermon favored by classic biblical preachers who value traditional approaches to biblical exegesis. A good model for Dedcogian preachers is the lawyer. Preachers and listeners living in DedCog (John MacArthur comes to mind) won’t want to ‘waste time’ telling too many stories. Dedcogians are watcher/thinkers.
The land of CogInd: The land of CogInd is where you will hear a pragmatic sermon. CogInd is where the sermon seeks to solve problems for listeners through biblical truth. Cogindian preachers (like Rick Warren) might look to the detective for a model. Cogindians are doer/thinkers.
The land of IndAff: Indaffian preachers (Eugene Lowry) offer narrative sermons. Their model is the novelist. Indaffians are doer/feelers.
The land of AffDed: Affdedian preachers (like Calvin Miller) offer visionary sermons. The preachers, modeled on the artist, like to paint pictures for their listeners motivating them to respond to truth. Affdedians are watcher/feelers.
Travelling the Territories
Different people take different approaches to the homiletical map. As is often the case with maps, people who live in one territory often take exception to those who live elsewhere, suspecting, for instance, that Indaffian culture is somehow inferior to that of the Dedcogians. People who can see the entire map, see the problem with this kind of thinking. Certainly, preaching ought to encourage submission to God and to his truth. But that doesn’t mean that it is illegitimate to seek solutions for human problems. Explaining truth is great, but so is experiencing it. Clearly, then, we need to think about how we can get people traveling the territories. A great sermon will work for people of many different territories.
There are several ways to think about the challenge of inter-territorial concern.
Put down roots: Some people prefer to choose a favorite territory and to settle in. This approach will ensure an agreeable relationship between preacher and people, but it might not help the listener to grow in all of the desirable directions.
Go on a journey: Another way to preach across the territories is to build sermons that travel from territory to territory, using explanation and experience, submission and solution. This works well for preachers who speak to multi-territoritorial congregations. It also serves to build a greater tolerance among people with different cultural leanings.
Tear down the borders: Another approach is to seek to erase the distinctions between territories, liberally mixing the elements of object and subject, induction and deduction.
In fact, this latter approach might be forced on us soon. We are already beginning to feel the earthquakes as the tectonic plates shift beneath us. As territories begin to collide we find peaks and valleys. Sometimes explaining difficult doctrine will feel like climbing a high mountain. Other times, we will feel like we are experiencing a pleasant valley. Neither is better than the other, but both will be part of pan-territorial preaching.
Specifically, integrating cognition and induction might lead to an abductive approach to process. Uniting cognition and affection results in a behavioral response. The integrative preacher is something of a missionary engaging and crossing cultures to communicate truth.
It’s A Small World After All
In the real world, we are discovering that the globe is smaller than we had ever thought. The experience-based cultures of the south are influencing the more explanation-based cultures of the north. The subjective ‘enlightment’ focus of the east is rampant in the more objective cultures of the west. We just can’t avoid one another like we used to.
Preachers that want to speak powerfully in the new world will need maps that help them travel the territories, climbing the peaks and resting in the valleys, and speaking God’s word meaningfully to whoever they find.