Preaching

I've also just finished listening to a lecture about preaching by Keller. He notes that there are 3 components to preaching. Content/Knowledge, Art/technique/rhetorical skill and life/virtue (of the speaker). Within each component, he specifies what needs to be done: The knowledge component needs to proclaim Christ not just biblical principles (using his and Carson's 'inter-canonical themes' to show how Christ is the fulfilment of that theme), the rhetorical component needs to make Jesus' achievement real, not just clear, to change the listener's heart 'on the spot' (stories, etc). And the message needs to lead the listener to adore Jesus while he speaks and the effect of the message needs to be seen the speaker's life.

So, he says, proclaim Christ and apply to life/how they need to change >> show that faith in Christ is required for change rather than just trying harder (moralism) >> make it REAL not just clear.

A note in passing- in his own mind Keller is clear that we all have our own idols to which we surrender to (or 'idols of the heart'), instead of worshipping the true God seen in Jesus. So Keller seeks to present Jesus and his substitution on our behalf so adoringly that our hearts are moved to grasp him, rather than the idol. It's when we do this that we grow and move on in our spirituality.

A ramification of this view is that we need to know our culture intimately to not only know its major idols, but to know how to effectively contextualise the message so that it can move hearts.