The Big Idea
Wednesday, February 16, 2011 at 9:58AM Seven years ago this time I was getting ready to study preaching under Haddon Robinson. I still remember sitting in the airport cramming on a final assignment: to study a number of passages, and to write a one-sentence summary of the overarching idea of that passage.
Looking back, I didn't have a clue what I was doing. I had been preaching for more than 13 years and had studied Haddon's book
Why The Big Idea is Important
Haddon isn't alone in arguing for the importance of a big idea in preaching. Check out this list, found in the excellent new book When the Word Leads Your Pastoral Search
A sermon should be a bullet, not a buckshot. Ideally each sermon is the explanation, interpretation, or application of a single dominant idea supported by other ideas, all drawn from one passage or several passages of Scripture. (Haddon Robinson)
I have a conviction that no sermon is ready for preaching, not ready for writing out, until we can express its theme in a short, pregnant sentence as clear as crystal. I find the getting of that sentence is the hardest, the most exacting, and the most fruitful labour in my study. To compel oneself to fashion that sentence, to dismiss every word that is vague, ragged, ambiguous, to think oneself through a form of words which defines the theme with scrupulous exactness - this is surely one of the most vital and essential factors in the making of a sermon: and I do not think any sermon ought to be preached or even written, until that sentence has emerged, clear and lucid as a cloudless moon. (J.H. Jowett)
Make sure every expository message so that it is crystal clear so that your people know exactly what you are saying, how you have supported it, and how it is applied to their lives. (John MacArthur)
The approach we are developing throughout this book assumes that a communicator has a destination in mind; a single idea they want to communicate; a specific thing he or she wants to accomplish. And once that point, that idea, that destination is clear, then the goal is to bend everything in the message towards that one thing. (Andy Stanley)
The 3 a.m. test requires you to imagine [someone] awakening you from your deepest slumber with this simple question: "What's the sermon today about, Pastor?" If you cannot give a crisp answer, you know the sermon is probably half-baked. Thoughts you cannot gather at 3 a.m are not likely to be caught by others at 11 a.m. (Bryan Chapell)
Worried that this is an idea that's foreign to Scripture? Keith Willhite makes the case in The Big Idea of Biblical Preaching
Why don't preachers do this? I can only reflect on why I didn't. First, I didn't see the value. Second, this is hard work. Third, I didn't have a lot of good models. There are probably other reasons that we need to address, because we need more of this kind of preaching.
But I can't emphasize enough the importance of wrestling with a text until you get the big idea. It's such an important part of preaching. I'm finding that many students don't get this. It's fun to watch the lights come on as they struggle and then experience the clarity that comes from this approach to reading and preaching Scripture.
Haddon's book Biblical Preaching
The Big Idea in the Rest of Life
That's enough, but there's actually more. A writer interviewed Haddon when he was in town. She told me after that she found the big idea concept useful in writing. The power of this approach is that it helps with thinking in general.
If you want to think critically, then you really need to be able to discern the big idea of what you read and consume. You know, for instance, that movies communicate messages. It's really helpful to watch a movie and then to try to discern the big idea that they're trying to communicate.
The big idea is not just useful for preaching. It actually makes you a better thinker, which is useful for all of life.
Reader Comments (2)
[...] ideas for a missional community The Big Idea (a must read if you are involved in speaking/preaching/teaching in any way [...]
..............When you start a new series of messages from a book the first message is a challenge. Not just because you want people to be motivated for the series but because the first message has to stand in its own right. Simply presenting the background information like the notes in a study Bible is not expository preaching. But if you give the background and then preach the first section you may end up with two messages or too little time to really preach that first section. What to do?.Option 1 - Dont give any more than brief background awareness and concentrate on the first section. This keeps you earthed in the text rather than the historical study notes. It may fall short on giving people awareness of the book as a whole but if that first section is preached well people should be motivated to hear more background information can and should be given throughout the series . Often the first section serves as a very effective introduction to the themes and issues that will follow in the book..Option 2 - Give background author date occasion etc. and overview of the books structure highlighting the main idea of the book and its initial application for the listeners. The important thing in an overview introduction like this is to make sure you have a main idea that comes from studying the text and make sure it is applied otherwise you dont have an expository sermon..Option 3 - Genuinely preach the whole book. Obviously with most books it is not feasible to read the whole text. However it is possible to preach the flow of thought through the whole book highlighting and applying the main idea just as you will with the individual sections later in the series. Historical background may be only briefly mentioned but preaching the book can be a powerful introduction to the series. Again as with the similar option 2 above it is critical to have both main idea and application of that idea. You will need to selectively read verses from the book in order to underscore the biblical authority for your explanation...