What NCIS Taught Me About Preaching

Lately, I've been trying to explain to my Senior Minister, an older man, how I preach. We younger generations have a new way of preaching, deviating from the old three-point sermon. I tried to explain that I write less like a research paper and more like writing a story. I finally found a particular style of story that helps illustrate story in a way that is easier to match in a style that applies to preaching: NCIS.

An episode of NCIS or any other crime drama follows a basic formula, usually divided by commercial breaks. In trying to write a sermon like a story in a way that younger generations understand, I think this formula is useful.

Introduction
This introduction in a crime drama, it usually includes discovering the body. It usually includes some people doing something that doesn’t necessarily relate to the overall story. It is only an introduction that grabs the attention and sets up the overall narrative. This can often be done through a humorous story, but can also be a video clip or even a special song.

Credits
NCIS, staring Mark Harmon. Ok, that doesn’t quite apply. What usually comes here is me first telling people where to turn in their Bibles, and describing what the series is.

“Grab your gear.”
When this order comes in NCIS, the team heads to the scene. This is where you actually take a first look at the text and start the investigation.

The suspects
The team starts to interview people that knew the victim and witnesses, which serve as the usual suspects. Often those friends and witnesses turn into suspects. As this applies to preaching, this often means looking at the world’s perspective. As we know, the world’s perspective is often that of Jesus and those who follow him. This focuses on the ways that we want to be apart from God, and also the things that keep us from following God.

Continued investigation
Gibbs heads to talk to Abby and Ducky. In preaching, we look deeper at the text. This often includes things that you have gleaned from Commentaries, Bible Dictionaries, and other sources. This is where background information helps reveal more depth in the text, and this is also where I usually use quotes from others who have written or spoken on the text.

Busted
This ends with a suspect in the Interrogation Room, who someone on the team gets to confess. This is where you really shut the door on the world’s perspective and show God’s true perspective. It is that this point that they have the choice: the world or God. This involves challenging your hearers to specifically apply the text to their lives, which also may include a testimony of how you applying it to your life if relevant.

End
The team usually sits around the office talking about the case. In many cases, one or more of the team members had some type of change or development throughout the episode. In every text, there is some type of what has been called an “evangelistic nugget.” There is something in that text that points directly to who God is: His grace, His forgiveness, the cross itself. Use this evangelistic nugget to lead people to the cross, and offer an invitation based directly upon that nugget.

*I should also point out that as the sermon progresses, especially moving from "the suspects" forward, it should start far away, and draw closer and closer to God's standard until you meet God Himself. In other words, the world's standard, usually the churchy compromise, and then how we should be.