Discussion Post 2- After reading about the legacy of seven different
preachers throughout this course, focus particularly on the sermon
excerpts for this discussion. Specifically, choose two of these excerpts and
analyze where this excerpt fits within the sermon, using McDill’s
terminology. For instance, does the excerpt model the natural analogies,
human experience, persuasive elements, or preaching for faith. Feel free
to use any of the elements from McDill to analyze these excerpts. It might
also be worthwhile to find the full sermon from these examples for greater
context.
Part One: Nineteenth-Century European Preaching
Rodney “Gipsy” Smith-Forgotten Evangelist. 1860-1947.
Background
55555555555 Rodney Gipsy Smith’s background in fundamental orality formed
his preaching style and encouraged those who heard him. 5Like Moody [1]
and Sunday, he brought the language of “everyday people into the pulpits
of the world.” 5Smith’s use of “simple words and sentence structures [2]
made the gospel message available to all, not just the educated
elite.”[3]5Smith also “demonstrated the remarkable skill to communicate
the gospel in the most descriptive of terms.” 5His sermons were [4]
inundated with “beautiful pictures of the world around him.” 5His was [5]
the “language of poetry and pathos, capable of evoking memory and
moving emotion in the hearts of his listeners.” 5Smith also combined the[6]
“language of narrative.” 5As a result, his sermons were not “artfully [7]
constructed expositions, filled with points and sub-points; they were filled
with stories, which were based on the stories of the Bible.”[8]
55555555555 The excerpt sermon from Smith’s “Repent Ye” models Wayne
McDill’s “persuasive elements and natural analogies sermon.” 5In this [9]
excerpt, Smith used descriptive language to explain what repentance is,
argued what repentance is not, illustrated the analogy of sin and
repentance from “darkness to light.” 5In this sermon, Smith uses [10]
metaphor to investigate the significance of repentance; “Repentance is
turning from darkness to light, from sin to God.” 5I “cannot make it [11]
easier; the Bible does not; Jesus does not.” 5There must be “the [12]
surrender, and nothing less than that will satisfy your conscience, nothing
less will be acceptable to God, and nothing less will bring you peace.”[13]
Part Four: Twentieth-North American Preaching
Edward Victor Hill-Preaching God’s Word for Spiritual and Social
Transformation. 1933-2003.
55555555555 Edward Victor Hill’s preaching theology was a 5Christ-centered
message that did not violate the “Great Commission by preaching to one’s
culture context.” 5 Hill’s method of “preaching was not that of an [14]
expositor, but that of a textual preacher (a textual preacher is one who
preaches a sermon based on one or two verses from the Bible), who had
characteristics of a middle style preacher; Hill’s middle, or persuasive
