This book review of Steven Mathewson’s The Art of Preaching Old Testament Narrative was written as part of Pastor Lane’s doctoral course work, and as such, it is written in a more formal, academic tone than the rest of this blog’s posts. Still, we hope the audience will find these academic book reviews useful, which is why we have published them for your reference.
Steven D. Mathewson is the pastor of Evangelical Free Church of Libertyville, Illinois. He is also adjunct professor at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School and Moody Bible Institute. His resume includes extensive teaching and pastoring. Prior to his current pastorate he served as the senior pastor at Dry Creek Bible Church and Mountainview Bible Church. He has also taught at Denver Seminary and Montana Bible College. He earned a Bachelor degree from Multnomah University, a Master of Arts from Western Seminary, and a Doctor of Ministry from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. He has also published a number of books.
The purpose of this book is to help those who are primarily committed to expository preaching in faithful exposition of Old Testament narrative literature and create meaningful sermons. The author writes from his own journey in preaching Old Testament narrative and his experience in teaching in seminary level preaching courses. The author is also careful to distinguish the target audience for the book as pastors and students.
The theological orientation of the author as evangelical is evident from a number of factors including his theological training, his academic teaching positions, and church ministry positions. He begins writing by expressing convictions that are consistent with strong evangelical orientation, especially to the Word of God.
The significant and unique contributions of this book begin with the author’s purpose. This book is written from a pastor to pastors. This gives a practical relationship to the nature of the book and helps the reader connect. The greatest single contribution of this book may be the way the author takes the best material from the best authors and brings them together into a coherent process to train the reader in this discipline. A significant contribution of this book is the numerous resources the author recommends throughout the book. This is a great help for the reader who desires to do more research to quickly identify good sources.
The Art of Preaching Old Testament Narrative is a handbook for the intermediate pastor or student to strengthen their understanding and skill in the preaching process of narrative genre. There is a wealth of material covered in the book, from research sources to practical suggestions and helps. But the book maintains a distinctive line of helping the reader work through the process — or “Art” — of preaching the narrative genre by not getting bogged down in any single detail of the process. The whole process remains the distinctive focus of the book. This focus makes this book practical more than any other overall focus.
The introduction begins with a strong commitment to the biblical text and expository preaching which establishes how the narrative genre will be approached and handled. This is foundational in consideration of this genre when one considers how it has been under such scrutiny over the last several decades. A strong overview of expository preaching is given. This goal for preaching helps to explain why the author will handle passages in a certain way later in the book. Four reasons why we have trouble with this Old Testament genre are offered. Finally, Haddon Robin’s biblical preaching ten-step process is identified as the path that will be used and the three major parts of the book introduced.
Part one of the book takes the reader from text to concept development. Chapter two begins with criteria and cautions and helps the reader to choose a passage of Scripture to study. Four main emphases in this chapter are used to help the reader, including finding the author’s meaning in a particular text, formulating the big idea which takes the original meaning to the modern hearer, not over-burdening the sermon with technical language, and saturating the sermon process with prayer.
Chapter three leads the reader through the key elements of a story’s plot features including a plot shape, archtypes, repetition, and time and place. These lead toward an exegetical outline of what the passage actually says to organize one’s thoughts and force one to think more accurately about the passage.
Chapter four is an in-depth look at the people of story. Three main aspects shape the study of characters. First is the classifying of the character types, identifying the role they play in the story of protagonist, antagonist, or foils. The second aspect is the means of characterizing. This considers how each character is introduced or described in the story. Finally, the character’s dialogue is a key aspect to shape the role they will serve in understanding the story.
Chapter five is a consideration of the context, or environmental issues. The author divides this into two principle issues. One is the setting of the story itself, the specific place and time in which the story occurs. The author refers to this as the “inner-textual setting.” Second is the position of the story within the flow of stories that make up the book. The author refers to this as the inter-textual setting. This chapter is brief but gives a good reference for considering the whole setting of a story.
Chapter six considers perspective in the story, or the writer’s point of view. Three principle aspects of the narrator’s point of view are identified: focalization, omniscience and irony. This chapter is helpful to train the reader in key elements of a story and how to read them. It also serves as an excellent example of one of the greatest strengths and benefits of this book. The material is presented in a well-organized format to introduce and process the information quickly for later use or reference.
Chapter seven leads the reader to narrow the focus to a unifying center and begin developing the sermon from the text. This takes the reader beyond their own study to consider what other scholars have said about this work, with a list of helpful resources on the subject. This chapter presents a helpful pathway for the reader in a critical step in the sermon process, developing the exegetical and theological idea.
Part two picks up the process and leads the reader from concept to sermon. The author provides an appropriate encouragement to the reader here that the process is only half complete. He calls for increased fervency and continuing to saturate the process in prayer. This section includes chapter eight through fifteen. Chapter eight focuses on thought development through three functional aspects: explanation, validation, and application. This chapter leads the preacher to develop his thought in sermon development as the author of the text developed thought in writing. This chapter is an exceptional instructor to help the preacher stay on the right path of faithful exposition in moving from study to sermon.
Chapter nine is a short but adequate consideration of packaging the big idea of the sermon. The author’s main point in this chapter is to encourage and help the preacher to creatively think about how to articulate the main point of the sermon in such a way so the hearer can easily remember it while remaining faithful to the exegetical idea.
Chapter ten moves the sermon from the big idea to the purpose, which will describe what the preacher wants to accomplish through the sermon. Two goals should be accomplished by the purpose statement: reflect the purpose of the author and describe measurable results. The distinction between the big idea and the purpose of the sermon in this chapter is helpful to train the preacher in how to accomplish what the big idea states by using measureable results.
Chapter eleven helps the reader to shape the sermon by introducing inductive preaching. This is the style of preaching where the sermon follows the contours of the story to work toward the conclusion. Several approaches and variations of this method are offered as to help the preacher handle different types of stories found in the narratives. As stated by the author, when this method is done well it gives the preacher an edge in the sermon by using the story to hold the listener’s attention.
Chapter twelve considers the sermon outline. Four specific tips for outlining a narrative sermon are offered. This is a key distinctive that helps in effective narrative preaching. The author uses a sermon outline from Genesis 22 to show how he developed his main points as an outline. He offers helpful insight into his process that strengthens the reader’s understanding.
Chapter thirteen helps the reader to craft the way in which the story will be told. A sermon manuscript becomes a tool toward the sermon and not just the sermon itself. Attention to telling the story well is a key tool for the preacher, including elements that enrich the storytelling process. The value of images, illustrations, quotations, and factual information are also identified to help the reader prepare to tell the story well.
Chapter fourteen leads the reader to craft an effective introduction and conclusion. The purpose that the introduction and conclusion serve are given, best places to find this material are offered, and ways in which they can be used in the sermon. Two pieces of counsel are most remembered. “Initial words set the pace,” and, “Last words get remembered first.”
Chapter fifteen addresses the sermon delivery. Four simple pieces of advice are offered in preaching without notes. Some simple comments are made regarding the preacher’s attire, the stage décor, and the sermon delivery. This chapter helps the reader consider what might otherwise be forgotten but without long dialogue about the issues.
Part three includes chapters sixteen through twenty. Each chapter is a sermon manuscript from five different preachers and follows the format of a foreword, manuscript, afterword, and interview. This is very interesting because it gives insight from each author into the sermon process and product. There is much to be gleaned by the reader from this part of the book.
The Art of Preaching Old Testament Narrative doesn’t try to “recreate the wheel” of preaching. The author states that he uses Haddon Robinson’s ten steps in sermon prep and applies his own methodology and insight to it. The pastoral insights given provide a unique trait to this book that helps the reader connect continually throughout the book.
I characterize this book as intermediate because a basic understanding of Old Testament genre and an awareness of linguistics is most helpful to glean the most value. A beginner could use this text but may have more difficulty with understanding some of the details of genre.
The author’s writing style is very smooth and easy to follow. I found this book to be very helpful in the way the author presented, illustrated, and organized content, as well as the insights offered to explain the content. Tables help the reader to more efficiently track while reading. These serve the reader as an excellent way to use the book as a quick reference for future use.
I appreciate the two appendices. The first offers encouragement and advanced help for analyzing the plot of the narrative genre based on the linguistic studies of the Hebrew language. This is an excellent help for the pastor who has studied Hebrew and can use it as a refresher in preparing to preach a narrative passage. The student with Hebrew will also find it helpful. The reader who has not studied Hebrew may find it helpful in familiarization with concepts, but it probably will not be entirely beneficial. The author offers the reader a plan to work with the language and look for textual and linguistic clues to deepen understanding and insight. Several excellent tools and resources are included. The second appendix lists helpful commentaries on the Old Testament books. This adds another helpful resource to this volume.
The author accomplishes his purpose very well in this book. The purpose is carried throughout while also including of a wealth of resources, helpful practical tips, organization of material and content and sources for further study.
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