PT 508 - HOMILETICS I Fall Term 2010, Tuesdays 9:00 a.m. - Noon Reformed Theological Seminary/Charlotte Dr. John W. P. Oliver COURSE PROSPECTUS The fall terms of Communication/Homiletics Classes are primarily lecture courses. The spring terms are laboratories. This course concentrates on the understanding, the construction and delivery of biblical expositions. The latter part of the term is reserved for each student to deliver a Bible exposition from a text of his own choosing. Preaching by students will begin at the end of October or the first week in November, depending on the final tally of those taking the course for credit. A second section for preaching sermons will be established. While the course is a lecture course, assignments accompanying the lectures will provide opportunity to implement the material being presented. For example, when the lecture material deals with the introduction of a sermon, students will prepare and submit an introduction for a sermon on an assigned passage from Scripture. The text to be used for these assignments will be the same for all and different from the sermon to be preached. All will use Romans 8:1-4 for assignments, i.e. an introduction, a proposition, an outline etc. until a full sermon structure (without a full manuscript) has been constructed in the course of the term. Passages/texts selected by the student for the biblical exposition to be preached this term are to be submitted in writing during class on September 28, 2010. A form is attached at the end of this prospectus. The sermon to be preached during the latter portion of this term must be presented in written form (full manuscript) to the professor on the day it is delivered orally. While a full text of the sermon must be submitted for grading, the student does not thereby necessarily need to deliver the sermon by reading the manuscript. The delivery may be from memory, the use of full notes, the use of limited notes or by using the manuscript. Delivery may (possibly) be commented on as a part of the evaluation. However, the construction and content of the sermon are the primary bases for rating the sermon delivered during the fall term. Delivery is a major portion of the laboratory experience during the spring term and forms part of the basis, along with the construction and content, of the spring term grade. The sermon in both written and oral forms constitutes a significant portion of the grade earned for the fall term. “Unannounced quizzes,” in the form of a brief assignment given without prior notice and to be submitted the following week, may be expected. These can serve as a means of discipline to keep pace with lectures in the incremental development of a homiletical structure for a sermon on Romans 8:1-4. The written assignments related to the sermon construction from Romans 8:1-4 will be evaluated and returned during the term. There will be no mid-term examination.A supplemental/complementary text is required: the one by Haddon W. Robinson, Biblical Preaching, the Development and Delivery of Expository Messages. This is to be read in its entirety as a supplement/complement to Broadus. Robinson, as other writers on the expository method, base a considerable amount of their writing on Broadus, but speak in the present setting and reflect their own developments and insights. Students will be required on the final examination to indicate whether or not this supplemental text and the 23 chapters of Broadus were read in their entirety. Robinson will be a tremendous help in expanding the student=s understanding and employing that understanding in the development of the homiletical structure. There will be a relatively brief, objective final examination during the examination period at the end of the term. The content will be a basic review of what constitutes a biblical exposition and the construction of the various parts of it as those things are learned from reading Broadus and Robinson and from the lectures. Two CD’s will be listened to during the term. The first is by the Rev. Ian Hamilton, a Presbyterian pastor in Cambridge, England, from his series of messages on Experimental Calvinism. The second CD is a Bible exposition by the Rev. Vaughn Roberts, rector, St. Ebb’s Church, Oxford (Church of England). Dr. Oliver will provide those CD’s early in the term. A one page critique on each CD and on separate pages when submitted should indicate an understanding of the spirit called for in Calvinistic preaching in Hamilton’s tape and the exemplary construction and development of a biblical exposition in Roberts’s tape. These reports are due on November 2, 2010. Reading assignments for the basic text (Broadus) will be generally indicated week by week as lectures and assignments develop. This will indicate the pace to be maintained. Again, the reading of the text by Robinson is at the student’s pace, but it must be accomplished! PUBLIC READING OF SCRIPTURE LESSONS Each student will read an assigned chapter of Scripture as a means of developing skill in the immensely important art of public reading of Lessons from the Word of God. This term the following Gospels will be used for such reading: St. John and St. Matthew. Oral Interpretation is a needed skill for pastors/preachers. TEXTS Required On the Preparation and Delivery of Sermons, John A. Broadus (Fourth Edition, revised by Vernon L. Stanfield) Biblical Preaching, the Development and Delivery of Expository Messages, Haddon W. RobinsonRecommended (Herewith are some suggestions. This is far from a full bibliography!) The Art and Craft of Biblical Preaching, Robinson and Larson The Art of Prophesying, William Perkins Biblical Preaching, Proclaiming Truth with Clarity and Relevance, Donald Sunukjian The Big Idea of Biblical Preaching, Keith Willhite & Scott Gibson (editors) Expository Preaching, John MacArthur Feed My Sheep, Albert Mohler et al Heralds of God, James Stuart Stewart Him We Proclaim, Preaching Christ from All the Scriptures, Dennis Johnson Making a Difference in Preaching , Haddon W. Robinson The Moody Handbook of Preaching, John Koessler (ed.) The Preacher and