Professional Dissertations DMin

Date of Award

2000

Document Type

Project Report

Degree Name

Doctor of Ministry

College

Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary

Program

Doctor of Ministry DMin

First Advisor

Kenneth B. Stout

Second Advisor

Robert Johnston

Third Advisor

Alfonso Valenzuela

Abstract

The Topic

The topic of this project is narrative preaching. Post-modern culture is characterized by a surfeit of information and a famine of meaning. A cacophony of voices competes for its attention and in such an environment God’s Word frequently goes unheard. Thus it is of critical importance that the gospel be heard in a "language" this culture readily understands. Because it is specifically attuned to the contemporary sensibility of human beings (i.e., it is a “language” most individuals intuitively understand), narrative and narrative forms of preaching have particular power to assist individuals in coming to saving faith in Jesus Christ.

The Purpose

This project seeks to develop a model for narrative preaching, to implement the model through a series of narrative sermons presented in a collegiate church, and to evaluate the impact of the sermons on a representative group of listeners. Another goal of the project is to enhance the researcher’s skill in the development and performance of narrative sermons.

The Sources

Sources for this project include a select list of books and periodical articles, primarily published since 1970, on theories of time and narrative structure, foundational, historical, and practical theology, the Bible as literature, hermeneutics, general homiletics, and comparative narrative homiletics. Data pertaining to the evaluation of the narrative sermons and their presentation to the congregation were gathered by way of an evaluation instrument constructed specifically for this project.

Conclusions

The general conclusion is that narrative preaching is an effective means of reaching contemporary listeners, even for some who may not consider themselves narratively inclined. The integrative model presented in this project is based on a synthesis of the elements of several established models and appears to be a useful approach to narrative preaching. Further deployment and testing of the model are merited, based on the initial evaluations.

Subject Area

Walla Walla College Church; Narrative theology; Preaching; Seventh-day Adventist preaching

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.

DOI

https://dx.doi.org/10.32597/dmin/461

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