outside is better

Sermon Prep

Sermon Prep
Originally uploaded by chadbrooks

My good friend David Norman blogged about how he prepares for sermons this week.  I thought I would put my addition in a post instead of a comment. 

I prefer to spend time preaching through an extended piece of text, but I have only once had the opportunity to spend several weeks in the same book.  When I teach my youth I take my time, but that is a whole different monster, since most of the are biblically illiterate (thats another post).

Once I have my text down, and I usually shoot for at least for a few related verses, if not an entire literary segment, I gather my resources.  I am a huge fan of Oak Tree's softwares Accordance, and I use it throughout the process.  I translate the passage from the original languages first.  I don't do this because I want to have my own translation, but instead to see subtle word play and to hopefully spark some good ideas.  Some of my best sermons came from things I found once I translated the text.  I have a few lexicons inside accordance that I use too, and I bring them out when anything seems interesting or different from the usual english translations (NRSV, NIV and the NLT are my usuals).

Once I have my translation I spend a few hours thinking about the text structurally and theologically.  I do some basic level IBS, but I do not go as far as I would for a school assignment.  It is in this stage that I often find what I want to focus on.  I try to be honest and not take the text outside of it's greater scriptural family or to present it in a way that wouldn't make sense to its contemporary readers/hearers. 

Two of the places that I having been going to lately are, "Theological Interpretation of the Old Testament" and its partner "Theological Interpretation of the New Testament", edited by Kevin J. Vanhoozer and published by Baker.  I recieved both of these free at SBL last year and I find myself going to them often.  Theological Interpretation is a movement that seeks to rejoin the academic families of Biblical Interpretation and Theological studies.  It may seem surprising to you that they are separated, but inside the academy, this is a new and innovative movement.  It seeks to read the scripture theologically.  These books do a great job at showing a wide breadth of theological thought regarding the Bible. 

By this time I try to have some themes worked out.  I now go to The Essential IVP Reference Collection software that I have for Accordance.  I like this set of dictionaries (which can also be found in paper copies) because in Accordance I can surf around the different dictionaries.  Its almost like going to Wikipedia, but you can trust (and cite) the information found.  It is a quick way to get around alot of information, and I never do any work without it.  It is a pretty important tool to me.  I really like the Dictionary of Biblical Imagery, The New Dictionary of Biblical Theology and the Dictionary of the Latter New Testament and its Developments the best.  I would buy Accordance just for this set. 

When I have a couple of things that have really jumped out at me, I look for some academic articles surrounding the topic.  I rarely actually use anything from them, but they are a great way to see how others have put together the information.  I also have a couple of commentary sets I go to every time (the Sacra Pagina and the Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture), and then I start pulling things off the library shelf.

By now I have my sermon pretty much outlined and I start trying to put it all together.  My pastor usually tells me I need more illustrations, but I strive for a more narrative approach so I have a hard time with stories that are outside of my life.  I never speak more than 25-30 minutes so I have alot of triming to do, but I like having the information in front of me.  I speak from a manuscript that I am really familar with.  I outline my sermon and then annotate the manuscript with the outline.  I would say that I don't need it 65 to 75% of the time, but it is nice to keep me grounded. 

Well, thats how I prepare a sermon.  You need to tell us now as well.

Review: The Voice New Testament

It was several years ago that I first heard of The Voice translation project.  It was actually through my interests in Christian art and the release of The Last Eyewitness, a contemporary retelling of John 13-21.  I remember being interested with the work and made a mental note to keep up with it.  Meredith and I also visited Chris Seay’s church Ecclesia when we were at her parents in Houston.  The actual project of the Ecclesia Bible Society is interesting enough to warrant its own blog post.  Buts that’s not the point here.

The Voice New Testament is the first “long form” offering in the project.  While multiple smaller books have been put out, this is the entire New Testament.  I find that this translation actually answers many of the issues that I have in regard to a Bible that is stimulating enough to make people want to actually read it.  I know that is a statement that may make some uncomfortable, but its true.

What The Voice does offer is an accurate translation that is transmitted in un-orthodox manner.  What this means is that in sections of dialog sections, the text is broken up into script format, allowing the reader to follow along easier.  I also noted that in certain places in Revelation time based words have been rendered as in the Greek, and not inserted as part of the narrative. For example;

Rev 14
NIV
Then I looked, and there before me was the Lamb, standing on Mount Zion, and with him 144,000 who had his name and his Father's name written on their foreheads.

NASB
Then I looked, and behold, the Lamb was standing on Mount Zion, and with Him one hundred and forty-four thousand, having His name and the name of His Father written on their foreheads.

The Voice
The scene changed. I looked and saw the lamb standing on top of Mount. Zion, and with Him were the 144,000 who had His name and His Father’s name inscribed on their foreheads.

This sounds like it really doesn’t matter, but the translators of the voice have paid attention to the difference between written prose language and the idea of narrative community story-telling.  This is just one of the features about the voice that I enjoy. The writers identify this italic type as "words not directly tied to a dynamic translation of the Bible."  These are pieces of information that would be obvious to the original hearer (or reader), but in English don't carry the original meaning.  Solving this is the answer to one of my largest pet peeves in regard to English translation and how people read the Bible.

Another feature is the addition of devotional content that is placed amongst the text.  It is written by several writers who are well known in the more “emerging” contexts that The Voice is unofficially associated with.  The Voice also steers clear of some of the more recent issues in evangelical textual criticism dealing with authorship and dating.  It does this my simply staying away from the subject and not veering of into an inherancy/infallibility discussion.

My only problem with The Voice is the dual column format.  I know that this is a standard, and that not doing this could potentially disrupt the flow regarding the devotional section, but for a Bible that is really trying to get out of the mindsets of Bible publishing it was a surprise. 

Overall though, The Voice is a wonderful Bible and translation.  For those who minister to non or de-churched people it is a great Bible to use because it is able to communicate without assuming a Biblical worldview, which is hard these days.  Many Christian publishers understand it as a problem but don’t offer a good solution. The Voice has a high level of readability that gets out of the "a verse here.....and a chapter here" mentality of scripture reading. 

To download a free copy of the Gospel of John click here.

New Bibles: Oxford NRSV Pocket Edition and Zondervan "A Reader's Greek New Testament"

For my birthday a week or so back I dropped the hint about two Bibles that I wanted.  Lets just say it was more than a hint, I sent links for one and outright bought the other.  But I am a self-confessed bible geek...its what we do when birthdays/Christmas roll around.

The first (top) is my Oxford Pocket NRSV.  I have been wanting another NRSV for around six months (you can read my posts here and here about my translation struggles).  I finally decided that I wanted to go with the NRSV for my primary translation for daily reading, scholastic work, and preaching.  I have an NRSV already (the great spiritual formation study bible my Mother-in-law got me a few years ago), but is big enough to go squirrel hunting with and isn’t conducive to all around use.  I saw this bible on C. Wess Daniel’s blog and went for it.  After just a day or so of use I can say how much I am enjoying it.  It is a pocket size, but it seems a bit bigger than most I have owned before (it measures 7.1 x 5.4 x 1.3 inches).  The edition I bought was in black bonded leather, with what seems to be a sewn binding.  The binding and bonded leather is in good enough shape to be fairly supple (for bonded) and if it where larger I would imagine that it would be very flexible.  It has a beautiful pebbled grain to it as well.  While some complained that they couldn’t read the type because of it’s size, I just chalk that up to you get what you get when buying a Bible this small.  I wanted a bible I could bring to school and wouldn’t get in my way when going to chapel.  I am looking forward to this bible replacing my brown bible as a daily reader.

The Bible on bottom is the “Reader’s Greek New Testament”,  Aimed at the second year greek student, this bible offers and interesting approach to the more tradition Greek New Testament.  I have been wanting one of these guys for months.  Based off of the manuscripts used to translate the NIV, this bible is made for daily greek reading.  Every word that appears on the page that is in the GNT less than thirty times is glossed at the bottom of every page.  Every word appearing more than 30 times in defined in a small lexicon in the back of the book.  This bible is a bit larger than your average thin-line, and is just a little thinner.  The bible is bound in “Italian Duo-Tone”, and interesting new style that came out when I was selling bibles.  Unlike others, this duo-tone is not garish at all, but a simply brown.  I am looking forward to using this Bible to keep my greek chops up.
I love the fact that one can buy in-expensive, interesting versions of the Bible now.  And it has even expanded into the Biblical language market!!!  My hope is that both of these Bible will see many years of good use.  If you want to see more pictures, I have a flickr set here.

You can't always get you want...(notes for the beginning greek student)

...but if you try sometimes you get what you need.

I think The Stones nailed it with this one.  For the last year I have been FIGHTING my way through Greek.  I have my final Thursday and I have been in heavy prep these last few days.  After realizing my translation skills need some help I started from the very beginning of my book and I have been going through a few chapters a day translation the exercises in the back.  While I want to excel at Greek, what I have now is a functional understanding of the language.  Below are a few tips for the beginning Greek student, I plead with you to learn from my mistakes.

1.  Know your vocabulary like you know your favorite brand of toilet paper.  Sometimes its the only thing you can count on.

2.  Learn to parse like your life depends on it.  Because it does.

3.  Take little notes above each greek word with an abbreviated parsing.  That way at 3a.m when you      get to plural adjectives in the dative case you won't be confused when you can't figure out where "to"     and "men" came out of τοις πιστος. 

4.  Your flashcards are now your protestant rosary...or if you are like me, they just turn into a rosary       made of paper that has nothing to do with the "real" one you carry in your pocket.

5.   Get more than one grammar.  I have 4.

6.  The BDAG is heavy enough to break your foot. :) Amber

Well, I will be quiet around here for the next few days.  This should hold you over until I release my plan for the summer.

Shout to the What???

I know I am late jumping on the bandwagon with this,  but did anyone catch the two performances of Hillsongs "Shout to the Lord" on American Idol last week?  It has been creating quite a stir in the blogosphere and I thought I would put out a few links.

My friend JD Walt has a few words, plus the youtube video of one of the performances.  There are actually two posts on the subject.

Bob Kauflin brings up the subject as well.

You can link chase with these two guys.

I will say that it leaves me sitting kinda shaking.  I know that there is probably some Christian producer on the staff that really tried to get this song in, and it does make sense musically in the context of the show.  But can a non-Christian truly sing this song and give glory to God?

How do we recognize Christ as Lord?  It is only through his relationship to the Father that this title is given to him.  The idea of calling Christ "Lord" was a radical part of the development of Christian faith.  To the Jews this "Lord" was a substitute for the holy, unutterable name of God.  In the Septuagint, we see Kyrios as the OT word for Lord (Yahweh).  This makes us think that this was an easy assimilation, but actually it is the exact opposite.  Equating Jesus as the co-divine and rightfully being able to carry the title "Lord" was part of the early churches creative transformation of not creating a new deity, but referencing Jesus in terms of His relationship to the Father.

So we can't just throw the title Lord around.

Believe Into Jesus

This last week I was really challenged at church.  Let's just say I need to put my foot down concerning the behavior of the youth.  They aren't doing anything outside of what bored teenagers normally do (knowing that I got into alot more when I was their age).  I am also starting to find out that many of them have a basic level of belief regarding Jesus Christ.  What I don't think they have ever understood is what this truly means.

Last week I was recording one of my favorite Asbury profs, Dr. Robert Mulholland, reading a few chapters in John's gospel and offering some commentary.  When everything was done, he sat back and spent some time talking with my friend Matt and I.  One of the things that we talked about was John's unique use of the preposition εἰς.  You see, εἰς can be translated as "in or into".  In most of the gospel, we see the preposition εv meaning, more specifically "in".  Dr. Mulholland pointed out that John was careful to use the phrase πιστεύων εἰς (from John 3:16) whenever he was talking about believing in Christ.  By using a fuller translation of εἰς we read the idea of "believing into Christ", instead of "believe in Christ".  I know he can explain it better, and grapple the grammatic usage of the phrase better than I can, but the concept was very interesting.

So what does this have to do with youth?  I think it is a matter of explanation.  The idea of believing in Jesus has pretty much become a static thing, kinda like I believe every Wilco record will be the best record of the year.  But when we take a robust idea of the gospel, mix it in with a good understanding of the kingdom of God, and explain by believing "into" Christ, we see ourselves as part of this cosmic, eschatological event that is know as the incarnation.  Christ's life and death becomes the thing that we wrap our entire idea of existence around, not just another happenstance that slightly affects us.

More Greek resources

Before I have posted about Greekstudybible.org.  I found a new site this weekend that doesn't have the ability to save work, but does fix the one complaint that I have with Greekstudybible.org, the fact that it seems archaic at times .  The Resurgence Greek Project is found at zhubert.com.  I am not sure if it uses the NA 27th edition text or the Tischendorf manuscript, but it seems to read easier AND it used the ESV for an english text.

So go check it out.