Persuasive Preaching

A Biblical and Practical Guide to the Effective Use of Persuasion

R. Larry Overstreet

• Publisher: Lexham Press
• Year: 2021
• eBook ISBN: 9781683592198
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Music

Part 1

Issues Facing Persuasive Preaching

1

Identifying Persuasion

Pastor Jones prepared his expository message diligently, taking hours to exegete his text and formulate his sermon into clearly organized and relevant points. He carefully crafted his illustrations and precisely worded his applications. During the entire process, he fervently prayed, committing the sermon to God, desiring His Spirit to move in hearts. He visualized his congregation, cognizant of the concept that there is a hurting heart in every pew. When Sunday morning arrived, he confidently stood and sought to deliver his message with the authority of God. Yet, when the service concluded and the congregation left the building, Pastor Jones felt as if nothing really happened. What was worse, it seemed that each week was a repeat of the same.

Evangelical preachers, like Pastor Jones, proclaim God’s Word weekly around the world in a multitude of languages and cultures. Doubtless, these preachers desire the Holy Spirit to move in the hearts of their listeners and for the Lord to change lives, to mold people into the image of Christ. At the same time, however, many of them conclude each sermon with the sensation that a critical element is missing in their ministries. I am convinced that in too many cases that missing element is persuasion.

I have heard hundreds of well-crafted sermons over the years of my ministry. These were delivered by godly preachers who love the Lord, believe in His Word, and desire to honor Him. They preach with sincere hearts. However, many of them (perhaps most of them) came to their conclusion and simply stopped with a few generalized comments or final attempts at some sort of application. After this abbreviated ending, the congregation may have sung a closing song and exited the building, or the people may simply have been dismissed.

As they leave the building, we may wonder: were there any unbelievers who wanted to trust Christ? Were any believers under conviction of sin? Was God’s Spirit moving in any hearts to yield to His plan for their lives? Were people wrestling with options, and how do they decide which is best? Should they decide for Christ now? Should they yield to Him today? Should they follow His direction? Why? When? How?

Too often preachers neglect these issues in their sermons. Too frequently preaching stresses the teaching of God’s Word without a clear call to obey that Word. Too regularly sermons excel in exposition, but fail in persuasion. I am convinced that persuasion is essential if we are to proclaim God’s Word as He desires and as Scripture mandates.

But what is persuasion? All of us, preachers or not, have ideas as to what it is. We are bombarded through the media with hundreds of apparently persuasive messages every day. However, providing a precise definition of the concept is somewhat elusive. This chapter, therefore, examines various proposals as to what persuasion is, and precisely sets forth what persuasion should be for the preacher of God’s Word.

Persuasion Defined by Communication Scholars

Communication scholars study persuasion from a variety of perspectives.¹ Attempting to define persuasion, some researchers seek to be as inclusive as possible in their approach while others attempt brevity and conciseness. Both viewpoints will be presented.

Comprehensive Definitions

Some lengthy definitions seek to incorporate all essential elements of the persuasion process. For example, Woodward and Denton define “persuasion as a process composed of five dimensions. Persuasion is [1] the process of preparing and presenting [2] verbal and nonverbal messages [3] to autonomous individuals [4] in order to alter or strengthen [5] their attitudes, beliefs, or behaviors” (emphasis theirs).²

Gass and Seiter affirm that persuasion “involves one or more persons who are engaged in the activity of creating, reinforcing, modifying, or extinguishing beliefs, attitudes, intentions, motivations, and/or behaviors within the constraints of a given communication context.”³

Yet again, others assert that persuasive “speaking is the process of producing oral messages that (1) increase personal commitment, (2) modify beliefs, attitudes, or values, or (3) induce action.”⁴

Larson proposes: “a persuasive transaction as an instance of human behavior, inherently contains potential ethical issues because persuasion (1) involves a persuader attempting to influence other persons by altering their beliefs, attitudes, values, and overt actions, (2) involves conscious choices by the persuader among ends sought and rhetorical means used to achieve the end, and (3) necessarily involves a potential judge (any and all of the receivers, the persuader, or an independent observer).”⁵

Simons asserts that three broad purposes of persuasion are reduction of hostility, conversion, and intensification. He then identifies several possible objectives of persuasion:

• Reduce overt opposition;
• Reduce private opposition;
• Secure discontinuance of opposition and create genuine indecision;
• Convert disbelievers;
• Convert the uninformed and apathetic;
• Convert the conflicted;
• Reinforce favorable attitudes;
• Activate favorable attitudes, increase behavioral commitments; and
• Maintain high levels of attitudinal and behavioral commitment.⁶

While the elements stressed in the definitions vary, each has the same central focus: persuasion aims at change. It may be change of belief, change of attitude, or change of behavior, but change is the goal. This book will demonstrate that this change should be a major goal of biblical preaching.

Narrow Definitions

In contrast to the comprehensive definitions, other communication experts emphasize those which are brief and more general in nature. Jabusch and Littlejohn simply assert that persuasion “is responsible communication leading to mutually desirable change or resistance to change.”⁷ Beebe and Beebe similarly declare that persuasion is “the process of changing or reinforcing attitudes, beliefs, values, or behavior.”⁸ Others avow that persuasion is “the shaping, changing, or reinforcing of receivers’ responses…, including attitudes, emotions, intentions, and behaviors.”⁹ Once more, Bettinghaus defines persuasion as “a conscious attempt by one individual to change the attitudes, beliefs, or behavior of another individual or group of individuals through the transmission of some message.”¹⁰

As was the case with the comprehensive definitions, so it is with those which are narrow. Each recognizes that the critical element in persuasion is change.¹¹

Persuasion Defined by Christian Scholars

Although the vast majority of research on the subject of persuasion is done by communication scholars, Christian researchers also recognize its importance. They discuss persuasion with varying degrees of detail concerning its definition.

Emory Griffin, for example, never gives a precise definition of persuasion, but does assert that the “target is attitude change,”¹² which ultimately leads to behavior change. He also asserts that “Behavior change provides satisfying evidence of successful persuasion. It is readily observable and often dramatic.”¹³ Katt, likewise, never gives a precise definition of persuasion. However, throughout his book his clear emphasis is that he regards persuasion as effecting open change in those who are persuaded.¹⁴ Sleeth, on the other hand, presents a straightforward definition, “Persuasion is the process of influencing belief and behavior by the use of various appeals in order to win a desired response.”¹⁵

Hogan and Reid consider persuasion from the perspective of rhetoric. In so doing they incorporate into their position the view of Karlyn Kohrs Campbell. Thus they define rhetoric as, “The study of all the processes by which people influence each other through symbols, regardless of the intent of the sources.”¹⁶ They conclude that rhetoric is “the study of what is persuasive in human communication, whether intentional, or simply a consequence of the human condition.”¹⁷ I believe, however, that a more accurate definition of “rhetoric” is found by adapting the concepts of Richard M. Weaver’s, “Language Is Sermonic.”¹⁸ My adaptation of Weaver leads me to this definition: Rhetoric is persuasive communication in the service of Truth which should create an informed appetite for the Good.

Persuasion Defined for Preaching Purposes

Homiletics books generally consider the process of preparing and presenting biblical messages. Commonly they do so from the perspective of being true to the exposition of the biblical text(s). Indeed, such is the emphasis in my previous book, Biographical Preaching: Bringing Bible Characters to Life (chs. 4 and 5 in particular). At the same time, homileticians often stress the need for preaching to effect change in the listeners (as in ch. 3 of my book).

Preaching books frequently stress preaching for change. This emphasis among homiletics books is appropriate; yet these same books commonly neglect to provide a precise definition or detailed and helpful discussion of exactly what persuasion is, or the process to effect change.¹⁹

I believe Scripture mandates that the goal of preaching is ultimately to effect change in the listeners, that is, to bring them into conformity with the will and Word of God. Therefore, I present the following definition as the foundation of persuasive preaching to be considered in this book.

Persuasive preaching is

(a) the process of preparing biblical, expository messages using a persuasive pattern, and

(b) presenting them through verbal and nonverbal communication means

(c) to autonomous individuals who can be convicted and/or taught by God’s Holy Spirit,

(d) in order to alter or strengthen

(e) their attitudes and beliefs toward God, His Word, and other individuals,

(f) resulting in their lives being transformed into the image of Christ.²⁰

The following chapters of this book will expand and explain the implications of this definition. Although my emphasis is on preaching that results in the persuasion of an audience, we must never forget that much persuasion is also interpersonal. Interpersonal persuasion is when one individual seeks to persuade another. Therefore, much of the material in this study will also apply to the element of interpersonal persuasion.

The preacher who accepts the Bible as God’s Word faces a contemporary dilemma, however, when it comes to the issue of persuasive preaching. In our current cultural mindset, particularly that of postmodernism, is persuasive preaching still...

Table of contents

• Persuasive Preaching
• Foreword by Michael Duduit
• Foreword by Warren W. Wiersbe
• Acknowledgments
• Prologue
• Part 1 Issues Facing Persuasive Preaching
• 1 Identifying Persuasion
• 2 Problems Facing Persuasive Preaching
• Part 2 Biblical Support for Persuasion
• 3 The Challenge to Persuasive Preaching
• 4 Persuasion Words in Paul’s Epistles
• 5 A Pauline Theology of Preaching
• 6 Paul’s Proclamation Exhortations
• 7 Biblical Persuasion Principles
• Part 3 Structuring Persuasive Messages
• 8 Structuring Persuasive Messages: Motivated Sequence
• 9 Structuring Persuasive Messages: Problem-Solution
• 10 Structuring Persuasive Messages: Cause-Effect
• 11 Structuring Persuasive Messages: Refutation
• Part 4 Pertinent Applications in Persuasive Preaching
• 12 Persuasion Versus Manipulation
• 13 The Holy Spirit in Preaching
• 14 The Invitation
• Epilogue
• Appendix A πείθω in Greek Literature
• Appendix B πειθός = πιθανός in Greek Literature
• Appendix C πειθώ in Greek Literature
• Appendix D Tables of New Testament Uses of πείθω Word Group
• Appendix E Sample Sermons
• Bibliography