Charles Koller in the book How To Preach Without Notes writes: “Preaching at its best is the sharing of profound personal experience.” He backs up this claim by appealing to the apostles who simply told the story of their interaction with Jesus Christ (Acts 4:20).
What is the Three Points and a Poem Sermonic form? How can I use it in my preaching? Pastor Cox describes a method for doing just that in this Audio post.
Another one of the sources of Biblical Preaching is literature of all kinds. The preacher should have a knowledge found only in reading a wide variety of literature. This would include “devotional readings, some bibliography, poetry, fiction, archeology, studies in arts and sciences, and other general reading.”
After having looked at Scripture, one can find help in preaching the Biblical message from the next source for Biblical Preaching is History. This includes both an understanding of the history of the empires and people who interacted with the Biblical characters.
Charles Koller’s book How to Preach Without Notes is a goldmine of homiletical insight in a short amount of space. Not only does it attempt to teach how to preach without notes, but it also provides information on how to preach any kind of sermon.
When one expands the outline of the sermon, one normally uses some processes naturally. Charles Koller in his little work How To Preach Without notes attempts to explicitly show them so that preachers can make better use of them.
The appeal to reason is the final appeal that Charles Koller writes of in his book How To Preach Without Notes. Koller notes that Samuel “reasoned with his people.” (1 Samuel 12:7). In addition Isaiah says, “Come now and let us reason together.” (Isaiah 1:18).
Charles Koller’s next appeal is the appeal to love. Koller notes that all appeals can be reduced down to one of three possible appeals to love: “love of self, love of others, or love of God.”
All three are implicated in the great commandment, Love God….others…thyself. (Luke 10:27)
Charles Koller’s next appeal that he finds in scripture is the appeal to fear. Koller notes that this appeal has been greatly neglected. I would concur and say that among many it is no longer heard at all.
Learn to preach with stories. Pastor Cox describes a method for preaching stories in this Audio post.
Charles Koller continues his look at the basic appeals of Biblical preaching by his description of The Appeal to Duty.
The next appeal that Koller speaks of in his book How To Preach Without Notes is the appeal to Curiosity. This is a “susceptibility to that which appears novel, unfamiliar, or mysterious.”
Perhaps one of the most common errors in sermonic structure is to have too many competing points. Sometimes preachers exhibit this error when they go on tangents or on asides that are only marginally related to the main point.