Integrative Preaching

A Comprehensive Model for Transformational Proclamation

Kenton C. Anderson

• Publisher: Baker Academic
• Year: 2017
• Print ISBN: 9780801098871
• eBook ISBN: 9781493411276
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Christian Ministry

Integrative Preaching offers a compelling conceptual model of biblical preaching that helps preachers better understand what they are doing when they step into the pulpit. Kenton Anderson, an experienced preacher and professor, explicates the integrative preaching model he has been honing for a lifetime. His fresh, holistic approach aims at whole-person transformation and is well suited for contemporary listeners. The book includes theoretical underpinnings and practical guidance to both instruct students and motivate working preachers. Sample sermons show how the model unfolds in actual sermons.

Part 1
Understanding the Integrative Model of Preaching

My wife and I purchased our current home prior to its construction. Talk about an act of faith. Committing hundreds of thousands of dollars on a home that doesn’t exist yet might be an act of confidence, or it might be an act of ignorance. It was helpful to us that the developer offered us a model. This miniature physical replica of the building allowed us to imagine the possibility of living there. When we eventually moved into our condominium, we were amazed to see how accurately the model projected the actual.

This book presents a model for integrative preaching. It will be helpful for preachers to gain a conceptual overview of the task. The better we can understand the model, the more likely we are to be able to replicate the practice. The preaching that happens in the context of community most often happens on a schedule. Week by week the preacher prepares and presents the message intended from the Word. If we are going to be able to sustain an ongoing intentional and purposeful plan for preaching, it will help us to work from a reliable model.

The integrative model of preaching lays across two axes, the horizontal and the vertical, in a kind of map of the homiletic landscape. The horizontal (physical) axis overlays the vertical (spiritual) axis in the shape of the cross. As the sermon moves, it works by centripetal force to draw everything toward the center point. Head integrates with heart, and heaven comes in contact with the human. The model leads us to a set of elements and compounds that become helpful in our work of preaching.

The next four chapters will sketch out theory behind the integrative preaching model. We will think biblically and theologically. We will dig into texts in Scripture. In so doing, we will lay the groundwork for the practical instruction that is to come. We will preach well when we understand our task and grasp the nature of this integration.

This conceptual model of preaching describes the manner in which transformational force can be applied. It all comes together in an act of listening, as the self-revealing God achieves his purpose. More than just a model, the cross becomes the means by which we are made congruent with our Creator. Having heard from God, we are transformed by the message. We become integrated in the Spirit to the purpose of the cross.

1
Preaching Is Integral (Cohesive)

Living well is about finding integration. It is about cohesion—overcoming the disintegration of elements that pull apart and separate. We often feel the need to choose between things like head and heart, heaven and human, with the result that we disintegrate. We fall to pieces, unproductive and unfulfilled.

Integration offers the idea that separated elements can be united in a single substance such that the integrity of each element might be sustained. Integration is about finding wholeness, as can be seen by its cognate expressions. An integer is a whole number, not a fractional number. Something that is “integral” is something that is necessary or essential to the wholeness or completion of a larger entity. A bridge requires “structural integrity” if we are to trust it with our weight. Integration, then, is about the cohesion of elements such that the integrity of each remains undiminished and without compromise.

This kind of integration is necessary if life is going to work. A baseball pitcher’s effectiveness depends on the ability to integrate power and control. A relationship’s durability depends on the ability of two people to be able to form a union out of unique human characteristics, without diminishing the integrity of either individual.

I have been married a long time. I would say that my marriage to Karen has effectively modeled the biblical ideal of two becoming one. Our lives have been integrated in every possible way—physically, financially, socially, and spiritually. We are, somehow, indissoluble. And yet we are still ourselves. Karen’s personality is intact. She is still the woman I first met so many years ago. I believe that I am still the same person also. I may be older and heavier, but I am still me. Marriage does not diminish the personhood or personality of the individual partner. It simply makes something more of the individual partners to the mutual benefit of both. You could say that my wife and I are integrated.

The Integrative Nature of the Bible

If you don’t understand integration, you will not really understand the Bible. Integration is seen throughout the Scriptures. Marriage is just one of many biblical expressions of this reality. The church, for example, has struggled for centuries to appreciate how God’s sovereignty relates to human responsibility. How can women and men live with the freedom of their choices if God is sovereignly determining the course of the universe? How is it possible that Jesus can exist as both God and man, his two natures coexisting without compromise? What does it mean that the Word became flesh? Words are intangible, conceptual expressions, but flesh is meaty and grounded. That this Word could express the fundamental truths of the universe, transcending all of creation while consisting of the very stuff of creation—earth and dust and blood and guts—requires the most profound integrity.

“The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son . . . full of grace and truth” (John 1:14). This is a profound theological oxymoron that must be integrated if it is going to carry the intention of the text. Truth can weigh heavy when dealt with a hard and determinative hand. Grace can seem light and untethered from the considerations and consequences that truth requires. But if the two can find a sense of integration, we can appreciate the integrity that Jesus bore and which seems to lie within the heart of God.

Integrative Option 1: The Coin

One model worth considering is the coin. A coin has two sides, each equal to the other—heads and tails. You cannot entertain the one without a spurning of the other. Have you ever tried to view both sides of a coin at the same time? Go ahead and give it a try. Take a coin out of your pocket and see whether you can do it. The only thing you can do with a coin is to flip it—heads or tails, one or the other. You cannot have both sides. You must make your choice.

The coin is effective as a means of gaining clarity. One can step around the muddle by simply committing to one’s choice. The coin is activated by the word or. It offers divinity or humanity, Word or flesh, grace or truth. But while such a choice offers the benefit of focus, it comes at an unacceptable price.

Integrative Option 2: The Continuum

A second model is the continuum. On a continuum, disintegrated elements are established in polar opposition. One then locates oneself somewhere along the continuum in between the separated options. This model requires compromise. Moving in the direction of one alternative comes at the expense of the other.

The advantage of this model is that it offers fluidity. One can move back and forth along the continuum without a fixed sense of finality. The continuum is identified by the conjunction yet. Jesus was human, yet he was also God. Christ is the Word, yet he is also flesh. He offers grace, yet he offers truth as well. There is a sense of regret about the matter, that the one is compromised by the presence of the other. Word is moderated by flesh. Grace is countered by truth. The emphasis of one requires some abandonment of the other, though perhaps just temporarily.

The normal way to function on a continuum is to try to find the center point, equidistant from the severed poles. It is an attempt to find a kind of balance, whereby each element finds an evened weight. But these attempts at balance are usually inadequate, given that they almost always require unwelcome compromise. The typical way of balance is to take from one side in order to give to the other—we rob Peter to pay Paul, and in so doing, both become less than what we would otherwise hope for.

Balance can leave a person wanting. You can have two flat tires in balance with one another, but they are not going to get you very far. What we really need is a model that will not require a sense of compromise. We need to go one hundred miles an hour down both roads at the same time.

Integrative Option 3: The Cross

The most promising model is the cross. The cross is an integrative model wherein the horizontal overlays the vertical, creating intersection. The cross is a way of picturing cohesion instead of choice or compromise. Mathematically it describes a plus sign, indicating the addition of one element to the other.

The cross aspires to a new and heightened form of unity, expecting something greater, beyond the possibility offered by less holistic options. The cross is driven by the genius of and.1 We observe this theologically in the actual cross on which Jesus died and all that it represents. Jesus himself is humanity and divinity, Word and flesh. His death on the cross spoke of grace and truth. As we think toward our model of preaching, we can similarly see the possibilities available through integration, where the addition of one thing to another can lead to something greater than the sum of individual parts.

Just as plotting one’s global position requires the fixing of both latitude and longitude, our formation in Christ requires both the horizontal and the vertical dimensions. Horizontally, we appreciate the physical nature of our life on earth. Human beings are grounded—subject to gravity as we live and move on the earth. We all appreciate that somehow we were made for more. We hold within ourselves a latent aspiration for something that might transcend what we can reach within our grasp. We long for heaven, but heaven is beyond us.

Another way to put this is that we are more than merely material. As human beings, we are both physical and spiritual beings. We have been formed with the capacity to appreciate the transcendent. Having been created in the image of God, we are hardwired to know God and to recognize his voice. But our knowledge of God is dependent on his willingness to make the introduction. Living horizontally, we cannot command his presence or his power. We depend on his initiative to make himself known within the world.

Vertically, we understand our spiritual dependence on the God who was willing to come down from heaven to engage us at the point of our need in the context of the created earth. The vertical line moves from the top down in description of his incarnation. The downward movement of the cross describes God’s loving condescension. He literally descended, eschewing the glories of heaven in exchange for the opportunity of our salvation here on earth. The vertical line is a symbol of God’s willingness to pursue us on our terms—working our ground to overcome the problem of our sin.

The cross, then, is both the model and the means of our formation. Physically, the cross was the instrument on which the Lord Jesus Christ made the ultimate sacrifice for us. Theologically, the cross also models the integration of the material and the spiritual, heaven and earth, in the person of Jesus and for the good of all God’s children.

The Benefits of Cross-Shaped Integration

The benefits of a cross-shaped integration are experienced on many levels. For example, an emphasis on the physical guards against the potential for an untethered spirituality, just as a concern for the spiritual serves as an antidote against the threat of a myopic materialism. This dual emphasis keeps both elements from careening into unhelpful and unhealthy extremes. But integration offers more than mere correction.

Integration empowers, even multiplies, the other. An emphasis on grace is only deepened by its corresponding truth. For example, people often offer forgiveness by belittling the hurt that they have felt.

“Will you forgive me?”

“Don’t worry about it,” comes the answer. “It’s no big deal.”

No big deal? Of course it is a big deal. Whenever someone sins against another, causing someone else pain, it is significant. Hurt is not forgiven by pretending that it does ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Endorsements
• Contents
• Preface
• Introduction
• Part 1: Understanding the Integrative Model of Preaching
• Part 2: The Functional Elements of Integrative Preaching
• Part 3: The Material Compounds of Integrative Preaching
• Part 4: The Method of Integrative Preaching
• Conclusion
• Appendix: Sermon Examples
• Suggested Reading
• Postscript
• Index
• Back Cover