What is homiletics? I was stumped too at first. So I took the seminar offered by BSF a while back.
According to Webster’s Dictionary, homiletics is the art of preaching. BSF defines homiletics as analyzing and studying the Bible passage in preparation for teaching this to others.
In essence, you figure out what the passage is saying and then narrow it down into the main thesis of the passage and then apply application questions to those whom you are speaking too.
Come to find out, I was doing Homiletics all along; I just wasn’t writing it down. My summary is basically the content of the whole passage and my conclusions is the thesis or what I got out of it–what the passage says to me.
I think some are intimidated by homiletics (the name alone does it for most people–blame the Greeks) but it’s really not that bad. It’s just what the passage is saying and what it means to the Biblical world and how it can be applied today.
I would wager most of us do at least some of form of an informal homiletics when we do our questions. You have to to get an answer and be able to explain it to others. I’ve ran into a couple of people who thought themselves better because they ‘did’ homiletics every week.
I wish BSF would change their final question because at first I thought it was just for the leaders and we weren’t supposed to do homiletics. That’s what the question says, right? “For Group and Administration Leaders.” Well, that’s not me, I thought. It seems unnecessarily restrictive when put this way.
No one explained homiletics to me or the last question. We never talked about the last question in our small group or in lecture or in the notes even (I never heard the word even mentioned until the seminar came up and I had to attend it to find out what it was). So why have it on the “Discussion Questions” if its never going to be discussed?
Homiletics is for everyone–not just the leaders. You don’t have to be an expert in the Bible or have been in BSF for multiple years to do homiletics as I believe BSF implies.
As most of you know, the BSF process was never explained to me. I was just thrown in, handed the questions, and wished good luck. I think Homiletics needs to be explained on the first day. I think everything needs to be explained much better. I think BSF assumes attendees know it all or you’ve been attending for a while.
I think we all need to go over this stuff every year so we’re all on the same page. For an organization who adheres to their way of doing things stronger than super glue, you think they’d be sticklers on such things.
This year in Isaiah we’ve talked a lot about control–a lesson I think BSF could learn from. I think BSF needs to loosen their grip a bit and let God use the tools of the modern age to bring more to Him.
BSF does not exist without the generosity of those giving and supporting what they do. Still, I’m left wondering how many calls they do get from those desperate for Christ who are turned away because “we don’t do that here.”