The Question-Answered Sermon Design

Pose the Focusing Question

The introduction begins by posing a focusing question. There are three qualities essential to this question:

First of all, it should be one for which there are several reasonable answers. The question should not be one that can be easily or obviously answered. Part of the dynamic of the sermon, the learning experience for the hearers, involves carefully working through reasonable or common answers as one relates them to the faith. To offer a question that can be easily answered on the part of your people hinders this dynamic and runs the risk of boring or, worse yet, insulting your hearers.

Second, the question should be simple and easy to remember. It will be spoken, not read, and will also serve as the unifying thread throughout the sermon. The simpler the question, the easier it is for the hearers to concentrate on the process of arriving at an answer. To compose a simple question, however, may be difficult. Often, only after the entire sermon has been written is the preacher able to finally articulate precisely what question he has been answering. That’s fine. Simply revise the sermon accordingly.

Third, the question should be significant for the hearers. It should carry real consequences for their daily living. Perhaps this question needs to be asked in order to reflect on past actions or to consider future behavior. Or, it may be necessary for people to know the answer in order to make sense of a biblical text or to relate to God’s mission in the world. The introduction is the place where the preacher develops this significance for his hearers. Rather than simply state the question, the preacher begins by depicting a current situation or considering the text, and then he slowly leads the hearers to the central question that will become the focus of the sermon. Sometimes it is necessary in this process to identify matters that, although significant, will not be discussed in the sermon. This helps to focus the attention of the hearers on the central question of the sermon rather than wait for the preacher to finish that question and address other concerns they might have.

The introduction of the question-answered sermon, then, begins by leading the hearers to a focusing question that has several reasonable answers and is simply stated and significant.

First False Answer

The next two sections of the sermon take the hearers through a process of posing, evaluating, and dismissing two false answers to the focusing question. The first false answer is either more commonly held by the people or more easily dismissed in evaluation. The second false answer requires more development than the first. The hearers move rather easily through the first false answer and its dismissal and then enter into a somewhat more complex consideration in the second. The first receives minor development. The second receives major development.

For each false answer, however, the process remains the same:

posing,

evaluating, and

dismissing the false answer.

Since the same process occurs with each false answer, these two sections will be considered together here.

Posing a Possible Answer

After the statement of the focusing question, the preacher poses a possible answer. The answer is not offered as a patently false delusion of non-Christian people but rather is stated as a reasonable and possible resolution that many might hold. The preacher considers for a moment why they might hold this position. This approach to the false answer is important. After all, some parishioners might be tempted to hold this false answer and, even if they don’t, the preacher is offering hearers a model of how Christians seriously consider and compassionately work through the beliefs of others. Such a model of theological reflection forms Christians in the practice of maintaining both compassionate dialogue with and faithful witness to others in relation to the teachings of God.

Evaluating a Possible Answer

After posing the false answer, the preacher then evaluates it. The criteria for evaluation are important at this point. In the question-answered structure, people learn more than an answer; they also learn to think theologically. How the preacher evaluates the false answer models such thinking for his hearers.

For example, one false answer offers an interpretation of a passage of Scripture that contradicts its larger context. The preacher considers this false interpretation in light of the larger context and, on the basis of such a contradiction, dismisses it. In this process, the preacher models a principle of biblical interpretation for his hearers: namely, that scriptural passages are to be read in context and not simply lifted from the pages of Scripture and made to mean whatever one’s heart says that they mean. Through evaluation like this, over time, the preacher models principles of interpretation for his hearers, reminding them how Scripture interprets Scripture or how Scripture is centered in Christ. In evaluating false answers, however, the preacher must avoid raising distracting issues that lead hearers away from the main question-answered design of the sermon.

Dismissing a Possible Answer

The preacher poses a possible answer, evaluates it, and then, having revealed its error, dismisses it as a false answer. This dismissal prepares the hearers to consider another possible answer to the question.

At the end of each section, then, the preacher offers a clear transition for the hearers. He states the false answer, returns to the original question, and poses the next possible answer.

These sections that work through two false answers constitute the Law proclamation of the sermon. In evaluating and dismissing the false answers the preacher wants to proclaim how they affect one’s relationship to God and to others. False answers involve trust and life. In these two sections of the sermon, the preacher reveals how far people fall away from God in both thinking and living, being troubled by and trusting in that which is untrue.

Second False Answer

Posing a Possible Answer

Evaluating a Possible Answer

Evaluating a Possible Answer

Dismissing a Possible Answer

For example, one false answer offers an interpretation of a passage of Scripture that contradicts its larger context. The preacher considers this false interpretation in light of the larger context and, on the basis of such a contradiction, dismisses it. In this process, the preacher models a principle of biblical interpretation for his hearers: namely, that scriptural passages are to be read in context and not simply lifted from the pages of Scripture and made to mean whatever one’s heart says that they mean. Through evaluation like this, over time, the preacher models principles of interpretation for his hearers, reminding them how Scripture interprets Scripture or how Scripture is centered in Christ. In evaluating false answers, however, the preacher must avoid raising distracting issues that lead hearers away from the main question-answered design of the sermon.

Dismissing a Possible Answer

Gospel-Based Answer

At the end of each section, then, the preacher offers a clear transition for the hearers. He states the false answer, returns to the original question, and poses the next possible answer.

These sections that work through two false answers constitute the Law proclamation of the sermon. In evaluating and dismissing the false answers the preacher wants to proclaim how they affect one’s relationship to God and to others. False answers involve trust and life. In these two sections of the sermon, the preacher reveals how far people fall away from God in both thinking and living, being troubled by and trusting in that which is untrue.

Gospel-Based Answer

As the false answers have revealed sin in both knowledge and life, the final answer proclaims forgiveness, offering faith and life as God’s gift. In this section, the hearers learn a basic teaching of the faith in answer to the question in the context of God’s grace. The preacher communicates the true answer to the question in relation to God’s gracious work in Christ. The answer might lead to that work or it might flow from it. Either way, the answer is placed in the context of Gospel proclamation.

For example, a question about prayer could finally be answered when that question is heard in terms of the relationship between a child and a father. Hearing that God has graciously made us his children in Christ creates a context in which the true answer is heard. As the false answers reveal how far people wander from God’s ways, the final answer reveals how far God goes to bring life to the world. God recognizes the error, intervenes through his Word and even now in this public proclamation, reveals faith and life according to his design.

At this point, it is important that the preacher not change the question being asked in the sermon to arrive at a Gospel-based answer. To do so is to answer a question that was not being asked. This either tricks the hearers into thinking that you really have answered the question or shames them for “asking the wrong question” all along. Such a technique insults the hearers and models the idea that they are woefully inept at ever thinking through matters of faith. In the question-answered structure, the preacher seeks to model theological reflection. He retains the original question throughout the sermon and, ultimately leads the hearers to a Gospel-based answer. By so doing, he reveals how hearers can pursue questions in theological reflection and how such thinking leads to a deeper understanding of and trust in God’s gracious ways. The basic teachings of the faith are seen to flow from the Gospel, and theological reflection brings hearers in repentance to the gracious presence of their God.

The question-answered sermon structure offers preachers another method for doctrinal preaching. Like other doctrinal sermon structures, it conveys the basic teachings of the faith. It does so, however, in a formative way: it guides hearers in the practice of theological reflection and thus equips people for witness. In addition to clarifying doctrinal teaching, the question-answered sermon structure also emphasizes God’s work. It participates in God’s preparation of his people “to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have” ().