Thoughts on Thematic Preaching

This is the second year that we’ve attempted an over-arching preaching theme for Trinity.  Last year our theme was “Who is my neighbor?” This year our theme is “He restores our souls!”

Now some have asked me whether or not its a good idea to have an annual preaching theme that becomes so central to the pulpit ministry of the church.

It’s a good question!

The heart of the question arises out of a fear of preaching becoming too eis-egetical. That’s a strange word, so let me explain.

Ex-egesis is reading out of something.  Eis-egesis is reading into something. So, the fear is that when a church has an annual preaching theme the preacher is going to be compelled to be eis-egetical, that is, he will be forced to read his theme into every text he preaches, even if it is not there.

So, does an annual preaching theme risk too much eis-egesis?

My answer is a qualified “no.”

My qualification is that some themes can indeed be too eis-egetical. For instance, if I made the theme “Being good parents” it would be very tough to not become allegorical in interpreting certain texts.  This is because “being good parents” is only a narrow part of the Bible’s message. On the other hand, if the theme fits a more fundamental biblical theme (i.e. grace, showing mercy) then it already appears in almost every part of the Bible anyway.

In terms of more specific reasons why I think a big picture preaching theme is ok, here are just a few thoughts.

First, the big theme must first be subservient to the local theme. We must place the local theme in its context and then prove, from the text, how that theme connects to the over-arching theme.

Second, there is a difference, in every sermon, between exegesis, illustration and application. Exegetical insights on a text should be fairly standard.  Illustrative demonstration of a text’s teaching is going to vary, preacher to preacher. This is because the application of almost every text of scripture is manifold and tuned to the hearers particular context.

For instance, if we are teaching about sexual faithfulness from Matthew 5 and our audience is a youth group, the way we illustrate and apply the text will be very different than how we might do so at a marriage conference or even a mixed morning worship setting.

This applies to theme in the fact that often thematic preaching is aimed at contextual application.  This is perfectly acceptable so long as the text has been adequately and contextually exegeted.

Third, the Bible still presents overarching themes, no matter what the narrow or local situation in a given text.  Whether talking about Abraham’s sacrifice of Isaac or the fall of the wall of Jericho, the bottom line is that both of these stories still speak of the grand overarching theme of God’s covenant faithfulness to His people.  And not only this, but also his love for his people, his provision for his people (even miraculous) or even his attentiveness to the needs of his people.

This is why you could sit in ten different churches over ten different weeks and listen to ten different sermons on the same text and still come out every week with new and fresh insights to what a text means in a range of different applied contexts.  Fundamental exegesis may not vary much but focal point of exegesis can. In other words, a preacher preaching on the fall of the wall of Jericho may take an angle focused on God’s call to faithfulness for his people or, an angle of the unfaithfulness and resistance of the people of Jericho.  He might zoom in on Joshua’s role as the leader of God’s people or the particular function of the priests in wartime. The possibilities are quite wide, so long as the fundamental and over-arching purpose of the text is not mistaken for a particular point of preaching emphasis.

Fourth, its very possible to pursue an annual preaching theme either aggressively or passively. What I mean by this is that some weeks the theme may be heavily underlined in a direct way in a specific text. Other weeks, the theme may simply float overhead of the text, like a puffy summer cloud…always in our vision, sometimes casting a shadow, but never directly raining on us. It’s simply reminding us by its occasional shadow, that it is there.

This is the way that I think of annual preaching themes.  Some weeks they will be heavy and close and specific, other weeks they will be like that puffy cloud.

I hope and pray that this year’s annual theme “He restores our souls” will resonate with us precisely because it echoes and enlightens the theme of God’s restoring grace for souls that feel sometimes adrift and thin. And at the same time, I pray that each text we preach will come alive with time tested exegetical and contextual insights that were acutely germane to the specific situation in which they were originally delivered. Both of these must be true in biblically faithful preaching.