Preaching the Topical Sermon

The different types of sermons that can be preached seem to the casual listener to be endless; those who spend a lifetime in church will begin to pick out certain strategies and patterns - sometimes the long-standing (and perhaps long-suffering) parishioner will recognise what the preacher is going to say even before she or he says it. It is easy for preachers to get into a rut, using the same material and the same strategy over and over. It therefore is important for preachers, even the most dynamic of them, to continue their studies and perfecting their craft, much in the way musicians continue to practice, develop new pieces, and keep current with new trends.Ronald Allen, professor of preaching and New Testament at my seminary, provides books that serve as a great resource for this task. Allen has published extensively in homiletics, with a primary focus on the practical aspects of preaching. His texts are admirably useful, and this text, 'Preaching the Topical Sermon', is no exception.In much of Allen's work, he identifies two primary modes of preaching (deductive and inductive) coupled with two primary types of sermons (expository and topical), leading to four basic types of sermons. The purpose of the text at hand is to look at the topical sermon - those sermons that do not focus on an exposition of a particular biblical text or pericope per se, but rather develop a theme or topic, drawing biblical support. This can be important for various congregational purposes - weddings, funerals, dedications, national events and emergencies, community concerns, and more are often dealt with topically, as they are not likely to have direct biblical passages as guides, and for those churches that follow a lectionary cycle, one can never count on the relevant passages to fall at the appropriate time.Allen refers in his introduction to David Buttrick's 'Homiletic' as being a great contemporary discussion of the topical sermon, albeit under another name. There are indeed few books that deal with topical sermons directly, Allen gives several short appendices at the end of the text that offer suggestions for further reading in theological, issue-oriented, biblical studies, historical and other contexts, including earlier works on topical sermons.Allen's primary concern here, as in all his texts, is to present a theologically credible method of preaching that is faithful to the gospel message and meaningful to the congregation listening. Allen looks at the topical sermon from the ground up, first exploring the purpose of topical sermons, the occasions for using topical sermons appropriately (Allen here assumes that expository preaching would be the default type), methods for constructing a sermon, different forms (inductive, deductive, Buttrickian, etc.), and finally examples of topical sermons preached to congregations as models for structure and inspiration.Perhaps the strongest part of the text is the collection of sample sermons at the end. Inte