Smith, Steven W. Recapturing the Voice of God: Shaping Sermons like Scripture, Nashville, TN: B&H Academic 2015. 243 pp.
Biographical Sketch of the Author
Currently, Steven W. Smith serves as Senior Pastor at Immanuel Baptist Church in Little Rock, Arkansas. Additionally, Smith is on the faculty of Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary as Professor of Preaching and Pastoral Ministry, Senior Preaching Fellow, Spurgeon Library. Prior to his roles at Immanuel Baptist Church and Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, Smith served as Vice President for Student Services and Professor of Preaching at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas. Pertinent to this review, Smith has a robust background in Communication holding a B.S. in Communications from Liberty University, MDiv from Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, and Ph.D. in Communications from Regent University. Smith has authored two books: Dying to Preach and, Recapturing the Voice of God. Additionally, Smith co-authored Preaching for the Rest of Us[1].
Summary of the Contents
In Recapturing the Voice of God, Smith “unashamedly” hopes that the book will “contribute to the work of those who want to explain the text” of the Bible (1), adding that “expository, text-driven preaching is not a style but a theologically driven philosophy of preaching whose purpose is to get as close to the text as possible” (1). His justification, or rationale for the book “hangs on two axioms” that “Preaching is re-representing the Word of God” and “The structure of the text influences its meaning” (1-2). Smith states that “we preach the Word of God as influenced by the voice of God” (2), adding that “the simple proposition is that the shape of the text determines the shape of the sermon” (4). To persuade the reader of this, after a brief introduction, Smith utilizes twelve chapters to convert the reader to align themselves with his thinking. The first two chapters are devoted to the mechanics of preaching. Chapter one focuses on “Recapturing the Voice of God: Pitch, Rate, Volume” (5) whereas chapter two centers on “Text-driven Preaching: Substance, Structure, Spirit” (17). Chapter three covers “Preaching and the Genre of Scripture: Story, Poem, Letter (27), and with chapter four, Smith turns his attention to preaching the various types of books and genres in the Bible, beginning with the Old Testament (37), and concluding with chapter twelve which examines preaching the book of Revelation (197).
Critical Evaluation
The simple proposition that Smith propagates is that “the shape of the sermon should be influenced by the shape of the text” (3). The “shape”, that is, the genre in which a certain text is written, is what communicates the “author -intended emotional design of the text” (2). Primarily, this book seeks to not only be used as an introductory reference to assist less experienced preachers but also to be used by the experienced preacher with many years of preaching familiarity. Smith unmistakably and successfully shows the significance of genre translation in homiletics. He adequately clarifies the inadequacy of a cookie-cutter type of sermon structure considering the unique nature of sacred text (10).
Stating that the goal of preaching “is not to sound like preaching”, but rather “to sound like God’s word”, Smith essentially calls out countless preachers who, for lack of a better term, parrot, other preachers (10). Smith continues this line of attack saying that “preaching that makes points from a text but avoids the meaning of the text makes our people vulnerable” (19). His reasoning that preaching of this sort results in congregations that are vulnerable is that in doing so, “Avoiding the meaning of the text is not lying to people, but it prepares our people to accept lies” (19). Smith states that “everything we say in the pulpit we say to the exclusion of something else” which could be one of the sub-themes of this book as Smith repeats it throughout the work (19). He stresses the importance of this idea because every person who stands in the pulpit to preach on any given Sunday only has a limited time in which to preach the sermon. And even if one creature is allotted forty-five minutes or more, that is still a minuscule amount of time when one realizes that this might be the only time that the congregation here’s the word of God preached in seven days. Therefore, according to Smith, it is key that the preacher rightly interprets but re-presents what God is saying not forcing the text into a rigid homiletical structure (21). Smith effectively drives this concept home stating that “The point is clear enough: there is someone who is responsible for the explanation of the Word to the people”, and that person is the under-shepherd, the local pastor of any local congregation (24).
A strong argument with numerous examples regarding the situational and moving nature of genres, the focus of Smith in chapter three (30). Smith successfully Is how every genre is ultimately influenced by it immediate and macro context; and further, he shows how each genre essentially points to Jesus Christ (40,55,68,70, 91, 197). Smith delineates the significance setting plays by showing how the book of Hebrews cannot be completely understood without a comprehension of Psalm 110 (180). Peculiarly to this reviewer, Smith invests a lot of energy in interpreting the various books of the Bible according to their genre. However, he does so effectively, and, moreover, this content would be advantageous to any student of the Bible, but even more so for the preacher of the Word.
The chief criticism of this book is the absence of its supposed main thrust: the structure of the sermon based on the shape of the text. The amount of time that Smith spent on interpretation seemed to overshadow the portions devoted to the structure and shape of the text. And while the interpretation content was solid and beneficial, it seemed to outshine the shape and structure theme. Furthermore, some preachers might be discouraged, or at the very least confused, if they recently read any of the sermon books published that focuses on the traditional sermon and homiletical principles.
Conclusion
Recapturing the voice of God is a beneficial read for any pastor or teacher who preaches the Word. Smith Has done a fine job of making the case that a cookie-cutter approach to sermon creation should not be the standard and furthermore, he has shown that it can be irresponsible at the very least but could be dangerous at its worst. Having read a later work of Smith’s, Preaching for the Rest of Us, this reviewer feels that Smith was able to succinctly make his case more so than he does in Recapturing the voice of God.
Even though Smith spent much of his writing focused on interpretation, his writing was solid and grounded in Scripture which is commendable. The thesis of the book was, “The humble ambition of this book is to show a preacher or teacher how the genre influences the meaning of the text and give practical help for those who want to know how we can shape our sermons to reflect this meaning” (2). To this end, Recapturing the voice of God adequately fulfills this goal.
[1] “Steven W. Smith,” October 23, 2021, https://www.mbts.edu/about/faculty/steven-w-smith/.
Bald Believer 