Could you not also effectively say:

1)What does the Bible say?
2)Why is this important and how does it relate to me?
3)What am I going to do with what the Bible says about it.

This way, we as the speaker are forced to first engage the text, even texts that we would not typically be drawn to, or maybe truths that we are intimidated by or scared to preach because of our own shortcomings.

Would this not be a more biblical and just as relevant approach?

I like this approach because it is audience driven. Someone asked me an interesting question on time: "can there be preaching without an audience?" As I thought about that I realized that the answer to that question depended upon the goal of preaching. If my goal is to simply "preach the bible" that answer is "yes...there can be preaching with no audience." But the fact is, our goal is to preach the Bible to PEOPLE. The goal is to build up PEOPLE and to build faith in PEOPLE and to persuade PEOPLE and to have PEOPLE respond to my message. With that being the case...it makes sense to start with the people. I like the outline that Andy Stanly uses for all his sermons Me We God You We. Check out his book "Communicating for a Change".

Caleb,

I would say, "sort of."

In my sermon prep, I put the scripture first and let it shape both the agenda and the direction of my message. (See the link in the article to my chapter on preaching.)

But, after that, and before I am about to speak... I ask, "Why should these people care about this?"

So, I say I "start with scripture" but I introduce the beginning with the "why should I care?" question.

Scott,

I sat down with Andy Stanley a few years ago and interviewed him on preaching.

Here is part of what he said:

"As a pastor we tend to err on: Is the information true? Not even helpful, but is it true? That is, if I present true information that is true to God’s Word, then I get an A. No, we are teaching the Bible, so we are assuming it is true. You don’t get any points for that. Good grief, we are teaching the Bible— it better be true!

"The more relevant questions should be: Was the presentation engaging? And was the information helpful? If you have an engaging presentation with helpful information, people will come back next week for more of that. If you are engaging but not helpful, after awhile they will grow weary. It is interesting but I did not learn anything. If it is helpful but not engaging, then I am bored. And it may be stuff that I really need, but if you didn’t engage me, I can’t stay with you.

"You need to be helpful and engaging."

For me, the text of scripture sets the "truth" question. My job is to communicate the word with fidelity and in a way that helps the listeners see it as essential to their lives.

I read the book. Thanks for the clarification, it helps me understand what you mean.

Ed,

Thanks for the article, it was both very encouraging and challenging. Being culturally relevant and biblical - easy to wholeheartedly agree with, difficult to do! I like the mental image that Dennis Cahill gives in his book "The Shape of Preaching" in his chapter on Culture and Sermon Form: "The listener must be given a seat in the pastor's study and be allowed to participate in sermon design".

Thank you for this information. I know that it is important to cont. to improve my preaching skills. At times after I've delivered a sermon often I think to myself was I clear? I feel that the imformation giving here will assist in keeping me on point thank you.