A course of lectures on preaching - Dabney - IX - Lecture 9 (Constituent members of the sermon)

Required reading
A course of lectures on preaching by RL Dabney (Available from Amazon or free here) - Read Lecture 9 (Constituent members of the sermon).

My summary
Now Dabney begins to teach us about the constituent members of a sermon.  A sermon should have:
(i) an introduction;
(ii) an exposition;
(iii) a proposition;
(iv) a main argument;
(v) a conclusion.

This week Dabney focuses on introductions.  He gives us:
(i) reasons why an introduction is important;
(ii) what an introduction is;
(iii) thoughts from which an appropriate introduction may be taken (e.g. the recital of some history from real life);
(iv) the style and manner introductions should have.

What grabbed me
I liked this reason for why introductions are important: 'If the speaker has done his duty to himself and his subject, he has mastered it by previous study, and comes to the pulpit with his soul inspired and warmed with it. He cannot assume that his hearers are in this animated state. It may even be true that they are ignorant what his subject is to be. Now, this contrast between their state of feeling and his is unfavourable, at the beginning, to the institution of an active sympathy. When he is all fire and they as yet are ice, a sudden contact between his mind and theirs will produce rather a shock and revulsion than sympathetic harmony. His emotion is, to their quietude, extravagance. He must raise them, first a part of the way toward his own level.'

When you first start preaching, you cannot possibly expect your hearers to have the same level of enthusiasm for the text that you have after many hours of study. 

So you need to introduce your hearers to your text with an introduction.

Next week's reading
Read Lecture 10 (Constituent members of the sermon cont).

Now it's your turn
Please post your own notes and thoughts in the comments section below.