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PREACHING TRUTH TO A CONSUMERISTIC THERAPEUTIC CULTURE A THESIS-PROJECT SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF GORDON-CONWELL THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE DOCTOR OF MINISTRY BY MICHAEL S. ALLEN MAY 2017 Copyright © 2017 by Michael S. Allen. All Rights Reserved. To my loving wife Annemarie, my ministry partner and delight of my life. Thank you for believing in me. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. – Romans 12:2 Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth. – 2 Timothy 2:15 CONTENTS LIST OF TABLES viii PREFACE ix ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS x USE OF SCRIPTURE xi ABSTRACT xii Chapter 1. A PREACHING RESPONSE TO AN I-FAITH WORLD 1 The Setting 2 The Problem 4 Research Question 12 Thesis 14 Project Overview 16 2. THEOLOGY OF PREACHING TRUTH IN A WORLD OF NO TRUTH 20 Response to the Loss of Truth 21 Response to the Marginalization of God 27 Response to the Autonomous Self 31 The Preacher’s Response 35 Conclusion of Biblical and Theological Framework 40 3. AN ANALYSIS OF THE WRITINGS OF DAVID F. WELLS 44 No Place for Truth 45 God in the Wasteland 51 Losing Our Virtue 56 v Above All Earthly Pow’rs 62 The Courage to be Protestant 68 God in the Whirlwind 72 Time For Truth 78 Renaissance 78 Fool’s Talk 79 4. DEVELOPING AND IMPLEMENTING A WELLSIAN HOMILETIC 82 Issues to be Addressed in a Wellsian Homiletic 84 Table 1. Steps to a Wellsian Homiletic 86 First Interview with Dr. Wells 88 A Proposed “Wellsian” Homiletic (WellsHOM) 90 Table 2. Homiletic Steps in Sermon Exegesis 91 1. WellsHOM 1 92 2. WellsHOM 2 93 3. WellsHOM 3 94 4. WellsHOM 4 95 Initial Survey 97 Sermon Series 98 Table 3. Seven-Part Sermon Series Outline 99 Follow-Up Survey 100 Table 4. Follow-Up Survey Questions 100 Second Interview with Dr. Wells 102 Conclusion of the Project 104 vi 5. THE ONGOING PROCLAMATION OF TRUTH 105 Project Review 105 Lessons Learned 106 Survey Reflections 108 Wells Interview Reflections 108 Implications for Preaching 109 Where Do We Go from Here? 111 Conclusion 113 APPENDICES Appendix 1: Transcript of David Wells Interview #1 115 Appendix 2: Reflections of Wells Interview #1 123 Appendix 3: Survey #1 125 Appendix 4: “iFaith” Sermon Series 126 Appendix 5: Survey #2 142 Appendix 6: Qualitative Survey #1 Results 143 Appendix 7: Qualitative Survey #2 Results 147 Appendix 8: Transcript of David Wells Interview #2 150 BIBLIOGRAPHY 155 VITA 160 vii LIST OF TABLES Table 1. Steps to a Wellsian Homiletic 86 Table 2. Homiletic Steps in Sermon Exegesis 91 Table 3. Seven-Part Sermon Series Outline 99 Table 4. Follow-Up Survey Questions 100 viii PREFACE In his five-book series (No Place for Truth, God in the Wasteland, Losing Our Virtue, Above All Earthly Pow’r, and The Courage to be Protestant), David F. Wells provided a sweeping analysis of the weakening of faith and doctrine in the American evangelical church. It is out of my own concern for the doctrinal integrity of the church that this project was birthed. I have wrestled through the years in attempting to preach truth to people in a winsome way that clearly points out the world’s inadequacies and Christ’s absolute sufficiency. This project represents my attempt to connect sound exegesis to a preaching model that can confront our culture with God’s unchanging truth. ix ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank Dr. Arthurs who has served as a faithful teacher, mentor, coach and editor to help me solidify and articulate my passions into a sensible and readable format. I would like to thank my congregation of Lighthouse Christian Fellowship for being willing to be my “guinea pig” on whom to test my thesis. I would like to thank my loving wife for her ongoing encouragement to me to persevere, and for enduring many of my early mornings and late nights of reading and writing, and responding to my “what do you think about this?” interjections. And mostly I want to thank my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ for loving me, saving me, and calling me to the awesome task of preaching His word. Without his grace, I could not have completed this project. x