I found two things floating around the internet that to my mind had convergence. The first is Dr. Lenny Luchetti’s recent book Preaching Essentials: A Practical Guide and the second is Pixar’s 22 Rules of Story Telling.

Among many other things, I learned two key preaching tips from Lenny: 1) a sermon should have a single, one-sentence, focus statement, and 2) preachers should use narrative preaching (story-telling), and not simply rely on linear/parallel structure preaching, as story-telling engages the imagination and memory.

I will not cover all 22 of Pixar’s rules, but a few stuck out to me.

#2 Just because I, a seminary graduate, found something interesting does not mean my congregation will find it interesting or relevant. Thus it is not always necessary to go into the Hebrew and Greek during the sermon.

#3 Know the grand theme of the Bible, and of the individual book.

#4 There is a proper and engaging way to progress through a story. 1) Oops: upsetting the equilibrium of the congregation 2) Ugh: the plot thickens 3) Aha: disclosing the clue to the resolution 4) Whee: experiencing the gospel 5) Yeah: anticipating the future (Allen, 1998). OR 1) Setting/Character Development 2) Problem 3) Plot 4) Climax 5) Resolution (Luchetti, 2010, Aug. 23). This movement to a crescendo is different from a linear sermon in which the points are usually parallel.

#5, #11, and #14 Have a simple focus statement. As a side note, I am just finishing up preaching exegetically through the book of Ezra, and I could preach the whole book again right now, still doing justice to the text, not repeating a sermon. I could do this because I did not try to exhaust every nuance from the text, but instead focused from the text.

#7 The ending is always Jesus.

#13, #15, and #21 Get in the head of the biblical character or writer. How would I feel if I was Ezra in chapter 9? Sometimes the text tells us; sometimes we just have to think about it. Emotions convey much.

#16 The stakes are salvation.

References:
Allen, R. editor. (1998). Patterns of Preaching: A Sermon Sampler. St. Louis: Chalice Press.
Luchetti, L. (2010, Aug. 23). “Narrative Preaching.” Wesley Seminary at Indiana Wesleyan University Seminary Blog. Retrieved from http://wesleyanseminary.wordpress.com/2010/08/23/narrative-preaching-by-lenny-luchetti/