Task 2: Convert the exegetical outline into a first draft homiletical outline
Essence of the task
Convert the exegetical outline into a first draft of your homiletical outline, which retains the essence of the original message while presenting it in a contextualized manner that achieves the stated purposes.
Detailed description
Having established the purpose of the sermon in the previous task, we have all the necessary components to begin to give structure to our sermon. Therefore, in this task we want to begin to lay out, in a preliminary way, all of the key points that will make up the skeleton of our sermon.
Fortunately, we have already completed several tasks that will help us a lot. We already have an exegetical and homiletical idea. We already have an exegetical outline. We already have applied interpretations for each important statement in the text. With all this in hand, we need to write the basic structure of our sermon thinking about the best way to do this so that it achieves the purpose or purposes established in the previous task.
To Do
In a sense, the task at hand is extremely simple, although not easy.
Simple, because in essence it is only a matter of “translating” the exegetical outline for a contemporary audience, based on everything concluded at the level of “interpretation” and “purpose” in the previous tasks. Therefore, it is entirely possible to look at the exegetical outline you have drafted and more or less intuitively “pull out” a homiletical outline that “says the same thing” in a contextualized and “preachable» way.
However, anyone who has experience in doing this kind of activity knows that often it is not so simple. Hence I add the nuance that it is not easy. For those occasions when it is necessary to engage more deliberately in this type of “translation”, perhaps thinking in parts and in some of the interpretative elements that we already have at hand can be very helpful.
Specifically, it is about applying what was concluded on Thursday (meaning) to Wednesday’s conclusions (structure) to achieve the stated purposes (task 1, Friday). At the conceptual level, Thursday’s work represents a type of funnel: textual structure > interpretation < sermonic structure. Or, in the terminology we have been using: structure > meaning < outline = Wednesday > Thursday < Friday.
Returning to the specific task that we need to do, or that happens intuitively, by analyzing the process in three steps, we could trace it like this: 1 > 2 < 3: 1 > 2 < 3. In detail, these steps could be described as follows:
- Revisit the exegetical idea together with the exegetical outline.
- Analyze these in terms of the homiletical idea and the applied interpretations.
- Draft a homiletical outline that conveys the same message as the original, but to a contemporary audience in order to achieve the stated purposes.
Some days this process will be easier; other days, less so. But the work has to be done. So spend a few minutes working with your passage on the points described above. It is not essential to achieve something polished and definitive on your first attempt. You will be continuing to reflect on it as you flesh out the outline, applying additional criteria to your first draft.
But getting a first “interpreted” draft of the original message will prove to be a considerable accomplishment toward the final development of the sermon.
To Keep in Mind
Should it not be obvious, the reason I speak of a “first” homiletic outline is because it is possible that we will modify this outline based on the ideas that I will present in task 3 and we will definitely expand and refine this outline based on tasks 4 and 5. In any case, as anyone who has preached more than once knows, no outline is “final” until you are actually preaching! It can always be improved at any time during the preparation.