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While narrative sermons come in different forms, I have found one that captures for me the strengths of both inductive and deductive sermon structures. I call it the narration-implication model. Developing sermons with this model requires three phases.

Exegetical Phase

First determine where the story begins and ends. Most texts suitable for preaching have a tension-resolution dynamic. Stories are stories because something upsets the equilibrium of life, followed by increasing tension that is eventually resolved.

Give attention to the unique aspects of stories. Note how the story unfolds. Examine the characters, looking at their strengths and weaknesses. Examine the scenes and images within each scene. Our goal is to determine what the text reveals about the will and ways of God.

Next, summarize your exegesis in a central truth, a single sentence that summarizes the narrative. To find this truth, first identify the topic-question. Start with a single word that captures what the passage is about. Take that single word and translate it into a question—the very question the writer seems to be answering. Next find the all-encompassing answer to that question. Once you are certain the data you have collected from study supports this answer, write a statement that incorporates the topic-question and its answer. This assertion becomes the central truth of the sermon.

Narration Phase

The second phase of the narration-implication model requires giving attention to retelling the story. The sermon will follow the traditional three-fold structure of introduction-body-conclusion. However, the body of the sermon will have two major movements, the narration phase followed by an implication phase. The sermon will unfold as an inductive-deductive message in which the introduction presents the topic-question followed by a transition into the actual retelling of the story.

As you prepare the narration portion of the sermon, keep several things in mind.

First, the story will reveal one central truth. The narrative will have a beginning, where we briefly introduce characters and the setting. It will have a middle, where the tension increases with additional complications regarding what will happen to the major characters. And the narrative will have an ending that resolves the tension.

When you reveal the story's resolution, return to the topic-question presented in the introduction. The topic-question will serve as a transition to the central idea and the implication phase of the sermon. You may want to allow listeners to discover the central truth for themselves. But when you state a proposition, and even restate it at the end of a well-told story, you promote the clarity that hearers crave.

Implication Phase

In the final phase, the audience needs to know how the central truth relates to their lives. I make a distinction between implication and application. Applications tend to be specific action steps. Implications, however, refer not just to what a listener will do but where the truth might occur in the everyday events of life.

The truths of a biblical narrative have implications for all who sit under your preaching. Ask yourself, "Where might this idea show up in the lives of my people?" You can be more specific by determining where the idea would appear in the lives of groups like couples, singles, high school students, senior adults. Select several representatives from each category and describe in story fashion what the idea would look like in that person's world.

For instance, a central truth from 1 Samuel 25 might be stated as: "Instead of getting revenge with your own hands, place your vengeance in the hands of our good and sovereign God." If you were drawing implications for the singles in your audience, you might say,

Single people can identify with David. Perhaps you have faced the rejection of a love that was promised and then withdrawn. And with the rejection comes deep and devastating pain. In fact you have felt like getting revenge. But as God speaks to you this morning, you realize he wants you to give your bitterness and hatred to him. He is good. He is just. He is still caring for you.

If preachers are to be effective in a visually-oriented culture, we need to harness the power of story. When we do, our sermons will powerfully reveal God's ways and transform lives.

Storytelling suggestions:

Harry Shields is professor and chairman of the Department of Pastoral Studies at Moody Bible Institute in Chicago, Illinois.

Harry Shields is pastor of Calvary Bible Church in Neenah, Wisconsin.