Making Sermon Application Easier.

In our discussion this week about different aspects of the ministry, Rev. Van Vliet talked about sermon application--perhaps one of the more difficult aspects of sermon writing for students, since the College atmosphere is artificial in terms of applying sermons to a congregation.

What Rev. Van Vliet talked about was, in part, taken from the book Christ-Centered Preaching by Bryan Chapell. In this book, Chapell identifies our human condition as, of course, a Fallen Condition. This much is pretty straight-forward. But then he writes that God's Word speaks to our fallen condition directly. Rev. Van Vliet, when explaining this to me, used 2 Timothy 3:16-17, in which Paul tells Timothy that all of scripture is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness. In this way, all of scripture speaks to our fallen condition: we are disobedient, and need correction, we are ignorant of God, and need teaching, we are stubborn, and need rebuke, we are despairing, and need hope, etc. So, when writing a sermon, the first step for application is to identify what aspect of our fallen condition is this verse, section, or whatever speaking to--is it targeting our pride, our despair, our ignorance? When we have identified which aspect it is targeting (and there may be more than one--actually it is most likely more than just one), the first step for sermon application is done.

The second step is to take that aspect of our fallen condition that the text is focusing on, which Chapell calls the Fallen Condition Focus (FCF), and then see how that works out in the life of a congregation. Does the congregation despair because they are struggling with a particular sin, or is the congregation to prideful? It will seldom be, I suppose, that the whole congregation will fit into one FCF, but there are other sermons and other FCFs to work with. Once a concrete example of an FCF has been identified or decided upon, then the application comes naturally.

For example, my first sermon in my Internship was on 2 Peter 1:5-9, in which Peter urges the believers to add certain fruits to their faith. As an FCF for this passage, I could have chosen pride, for those with faith can often feel superior in that respect to others. With that focus, I could have written my sermon (or edifying word, I suppsoe) to counter-act the fallen condition of pride, showing that faith is only the beginning, we must constantly work with our faith, and add to it goodness, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, brotherly affection, and love. I did, in fact, do this, but it was not as focused as it would have been if I had known this way of going about things. My application would have been tighter than it is (maybe I'll go over my sermon again and change it...)

I can foresee this gem being very useful in writing sermons (it has already helped in my Lord's Day 35 sermon for this Sunday, and the more I work with it, the easier it will become).

Below is a diagram which I made based on the diagram with which Rev. Van Vliet explained all of this to me. The diagram was very useful to me to see it all working out with clarity.



Anyways, I have a sermon to make a few changes on, and then prayers to write for Sunday, so I should get to it.