Chapala Theological Seminary Kuhubiri kwa MasimuliziNarrative Preaching

Kwa Nini Simulizi? Hoja ya Kibiblia ya Kuhubiri kwa MasimuliziWhy Story? The Biblical Case for Narrative Preaching

Wahubiri wote wa Kiinjili wanajali kwamba mahubiri yawe ya Kibiblia. Wengi huhitimisha kwamba muundo pekee halali ni mahubiri ya kifafanuzi — na mara nyingi mno huja yakiwa yamejaa maelezo na makavu kama mifupa ya Ezekieli. Lakini tafakari mahubiri ya Yesu. Itakuwa vigumu kusema kwamba Yeye hakuwa akihubiri Neno la Mungu; hata hivyo hakuhubiri mahubiri ya kifafanuzi. Mara nyingi alisimulia hadithi.All evangelical preachers are concerned to make the sermon biblical. Many conclude that the only legitimate form is the expository message — and too often it arrives loaded with explanation and as dry as Ezekiel's bones. But consider the preaching of Jesus. It would be hard to say He was not preaching the Word of God; yet He did not preach expository messages. He mostly told stories.

1.1 Wasiwasi wa Mhubiri Kuhusu Hadithi1.1 The Preacher's Anxiety About Stories

Daima kumekuwa na swali kama kusimulia hadithi ni halali kwa mhubiri. Upande mmoja, watu husikiliza na kuguswa — lakini pia hufurahishwa tu, nasi tunahofu kwamba kusanyiko lililofurahishwa si kusanyiko lililolishwa. Upande mwingine, kusimulia hadithi si kuhubiri kwa kifafanuzi, nasi tunaogopa kwamba hadithi haina "nyama." Wengine huchukulia kielelezo kuwa kijazo tu, utamu wa sukari unaozunguka dawa halisi ya mahubiri. Tufanye nini basi? Kabla hatujajenga mahubiri ya simulizi, ni lazima tulitatue swali hili la dhamiri, kwa sababu mhubiri anayeamini kwa siri kwamba hadithi ni maafikiano ya kupunguza ukweli hataweza kamwe kusimulia moja vizuri.There has always been a question whether storytelling is valid for the preacher. On one side, people listen and are moved — but they are also entertained, and we worry that an entertained congregation is not a fed one. On the other side, storytelling is not expository preaching, and we fear the story has no "meat." Some treat the illustration as mere filler, a sugar coating around the real medicine of the sermon. What are we to do? Before we can build a story sermon, we have to settle this question of conscience, because a preacher who secretly believes stories are a compromise will never tell one well.

Huu si mjadala mpya. Tangu kanisa lilipokuwa na mimbari, watu wenye bidii wamehofu kwamba mahubiri yaliyojaa hadithi ni mahubiri yasiyo na kiini, na hofu hiyo si ya kipumbavu — tutatumia sehemu nzima baadaye kuchunguza hatari halisi inazozionyesha. Lakini hatari inayoweza kutumiwa vibaya si sawa na mbinu inayopaswa kuepukwa. Moto unaweza kuiteketeza nyumba au kuipasha joto; jibu si kuukataza moto bali kujifunza kuushughulikia. Ndivyo ilivyo kwa simulizi. Swali lililo mbele yetu si kama hadithi zinaweza kutumiwa vibaya — kitu chochote kinaweza — bali kama, ikitumiwa ipasavyo, simulizi ni chombo kinachofaa kwa Neno la Mungu. Kwa swali hilo, desturi ya Bwana Yesu inajibu "ndiyo" kwa sauti kama ya radi.This is not a new debate. Ever since the church had pulpits, earnest men have worried that a sermon full of stories is a sermon empty of substance, and the worry is not foolish — we will spend a whole later unit on the real dangers it points to. But a danger that can be abused is not the same as a method that must be avoided. Fire can burn the house or warm it; the answer is not to forbid fire but to learn to handle it. So it is with the story. The question before us is not whether stories can be misused — anything can — but whether, rightly used, the story is a fit vessel for the Word of God. To that question the practice of the Lord Jesus returns a thunderous yes.

Kozi hii yote ni jibu refu. Lakini inasimama juu ya mawazo mawili mafupi, na ukiyashika, mengine yote yanafuata. Hebu tuyaeleze waziwazi kisha tuyafunue.This whole course is the long answer. But it rests on two short ideas, and if you grasp them, everything else follows. Let us state them plainly and then unfold them.

1.2 Wazo la Kwanza: Simulizi Haibebi Ujumbe Tu — Simulizi NDIYO Ujumbe1.2 First Idea: The Story Does Not Contain the Message — the Story IS the Message

Pingamizi kwamba hadithi ni "burudani tu" lazima lijibiwe kwanza, nalo linajibiwa na desturi ya Yesu. Ingawa Bwana wetu wakati mwingine alihubiri kwa njia ya moja kwa moja zaidi, kwa kawaida alisimulia hadithi. Waandishi wa Injili wanatuambia kwamba "mkutano mkubwa wakamsikiliza kwa furaha" (Marko 12:37) na kwamba "pasipo mfano hakuwaambia neno" (Mathayo 13:34). Hadithi zake zilihusu watu na hali ambazo wasikilizaji wake waliweza kujiona wakiwa ndani yake. Simulizi haikuwa jambo la pembeni la ujumbe; ilikuwa ujumbe wa Mungu, wenye kuvutia na unaohusika na maisha. Kielelezo tunachoshawishika kukiita kijazo, kwa kweli, ni chombo kinachobeba ukweli hadi moyoni.The objection that stories are "only entertainment" must be answered first, and it is answered by the practice of Jesus. While our Lord sometimes preached in a more direct way, He characteristically told stories. The Gospel writers tell us that "the common people heard him gladly" (Mark 12:37) and that "he did not say anything to them without using a parable" (Matthew 13:34). His stories were about people and situations His audience could see themselves inside. The story was not a sideline to the message; it was the message of God, gripping and relevant. The illustration we are tempted to call filler is, in fact, the vehicle that carries the truth into the heart.

Tazama Luka 15. Kwa maana fulani Yesu anaulizwa swali, "Mungu yukoje?" Hajibu kwa hoja tatu kuhusu kupotea. Anasimulia hadithi tatu — kondoo aliyepotea, shilingi iliyopotea, na mwana aliyepotea. Zote tatu zinasisitiza jambo moja: Mungu ni mtafutaji ambaye hatapumzika mpaka kilichopotea kipatikane. Yesu angeweza kutoa hotuba juu ya fundisho la neema ya Mungu. Badala yake alitupa mchungaji akivuka vilima, mwanamke akiwasha taa, na baba akikimbia barabarani. Tukichunguza mahubiri ya Yesu kwa uaminifu, tunahitimisha kwamba alijitoa kikamilifu kuwasilisha ukweli wa Mungu — na kwamba alifanya hivyo hasa kwa njia ya hadithi. Simulizi haikuwa namna alivyoupamba ujumbe. Simulizi ilikuwa namna alivyouwasilisha.Look at Luke 15. Jesus is, in effect, asked the question, "What is God like?" He does not answer with three points about lostness. He tells three stories — the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the lost son. All three make the same point: God is a seeker who will not rest until the lost is found. Jesus could have given a lecture on the doctrine of divine grace. Instead He gave us a shepherd crossing the hills, a woman lighting a lamp, and a father running down a road. If we examine the preaching of Jesus honestly, we conclude that He was utterly committed to conveying the truth of God — and that He chiefly did it through stories. The story was not how He decorated the message. The story was how He delivered it.

Wala Yesu hakuwa wa kwanza. Manabii waliomtangulia walichukua simulizi kila mara neno la wazi liliposhindwa. Isaya alipotaka kufichua kutokushukuru kwa taifa, aliwaimbia wimbo wa mapenzi kuhusu shamba la mizabibu lililozaa zabibu-mwitu tu, na watu walisogea karibu kuufurahia wimbo kabla hawajatambua kwamba ulikuwa unawahusu wao (Isaya 5:1–7). Yothamu alipotaka kuwakemea watu wa Shekemu, aliwasimulia hekaya ya miti iliyokwenda kumtia mafuta mfalme (Waamuzi 9:7–15). Ezekieli aliamriwa na Mungu Mwenyewe kuuweka ujumbe katika vitendawili na mifano (Ezekieli 17:2). Na tangu Mwanzo hadi Ufunuo, sehemu kubwa zaidi ya Biblia si sheria wala mafundisho wala nyaraka bali masimulizi — simulizi ndiyo muundo hasa ambao Mungu aliuchagua kutoa sehemu kubwa ya Neno lake Mwenyewe. Mhubiri anayejaza kinywa chake masimulizi haachi Maandiko; anayaiga.Nor was Jesus the first. The prophets before Him reached for the story whenever the plain word had failed. When Isaiah wanted to expose a nation's ingratitude, he sang them a love song about a vineyard that yielded only wild grapes, and the people leaned in to enjoy the song before they realized it was about them (Isaiah 5:1–7). When Jotham wanted to rebuke the men of Shechem, he told them a fable about trees that went out to anoint a king (Judges 9:7–15). Ezekiel was commanded by God Himself to put the message in riddles and parables (Ezekiel 17:2). And from Genesis to Revelation, the largest part of the Bible is neither law nor doctrine nor epistle but narrative — story is the very form in which God chose to give the greater part of His own Word. The preacher who fills his mouth with story is not departing from the Scriptures; he is imitating them.

1.3 Wazo la Pili: Ukweli Halisi Unaweza Kushawishi Akili, Lakini Simulizi Huugusa Moyo1.3 Second Idea: The Facts May Convince the Mind, but a Story Moves the Heart

BWANA alimtuma nabii Nathani kwa Mfalme Daudi baada ya Daudi kufanya uzinzi, uuaji, na uongo wa muda mrefu uliovifunika (2 Samweli 12:1–7). Daudi alikuwa akijaribu kuficha dhambi yake, na Daudi alikuwa na mamlaka kamili — angeweza kumwua mhubiri yule maskini kwa neno moja tu. Kwa hiyo Nathani hakuanza na shtaka. Alisimulia hadithi: tajiri mwenye makundi mengi, na maskini mwenye mwana-kondoo jike mmoja tu aliyempenda, aliyekula katika sahani yake na kulala kifuani mwake; na msafiri alipofika, tajiri aliyahurumia makundi yake mwenyewe akamtwaa mwana-kondoo wa yule maskini. Hasira ya Daudi iliwaka juu ya mtu yule wa hadithi — na hapo tu ndipo Nathani aliposema, "Wewe ndiwe mtu huyo." Katika picha hiyo, Bathsheba ndiye mwana-kondoo jike mzuri, Daudi ndiye tajiri mwenye kondoo wengi, na Uria ndiye maskini aliyekuwa na mmoja tu. Haikutosha kumwambia Daudi ukweli halisi; alikuwa tayari anaujua ukweli huo. Ilibidi ashawishiwe kupitia moyo.The Lord sent the prophet Nathan to King David after David had committed adultery, murder, and the long lie that covered them (2 Samuel 12:1–7). David was trying to hide his sin, and David held absolute power — he could have put the poor preacher to death with a word. So Nathan did not begin with the charge. He told a story: a rich man with many flocks, and a poor man with a single pet ewe lamb that ate from his plate and slept in his arms; and when a traveler came, the rich man spared his own flocks and took the poor man's lamb. David's anger blazed against the man in the story — and only then did Nathan say, "Thou art the man." In the picture, Bathsheba is the beautiful ewe lamb, David is the rich man with many sheep, and Uriah is the poor man who had only one. It was not enough to tell David the facts; he already knew the facts. He had to be persuaded through the heart.

Alichofanya Nathani kina jina. Warren Wiersbe anaazima neno "kuunganisha" (connecting) kutoka katika fani ya tiba ya nafsi (psychotherapy) kueleza kinachotokea unapoweka pamoja mambo ambayo hapo awali yalionekana hayahusiani, ili msikilizaji apate ufahamu mpya kuhusu maisha yake mwenyewe (Preaching and Teaching with Imagination). Mhubiri hawezi kuwa mfereji tu unaomimina habari kutoka akilini mwake kwenda akilini mwa wasikilizaji wake; lazima aungane nao, na simulizi ndiyo njia ya uhakika zaidi ya kufanya hivyo. Hal Luccock aliliweka jambo hili kwa namna isiyosahaulika: "Kusudi la kuhubiri si kuwafanya watu waone sababu, bali maono" (In the Minister's Workshop). Sababu huiarifu akili; maono huusukuma utu mzima kutenda. Simulizi haiuachi ukweli — inaubeba ukweli kupita lango linalolindwa la akili na kuuweka moyoni, mahali ambapo maamuzi hufanywa kwa kweli.What Nathan did has a name. Warren Wiersbe borrows the word "connecting" from the field of psychotherapy to describe what happens when you put together things that previously seemed unrelated, so that the hearer gains a new insight into his own life (Preaching and Teaching with Imagination). The preacher cannot be a mere channel pouring information from his mind into the minds of his listeners; he must connect with them, and the story is the surest way to do it. Hal Luccock put it memorably: "The purpose of preaching is not to make people see reasons, but visions" (In the Minister's Workshop). Reasons inform the mind; visions move the whole person to act. The story does not abandon the truth — it carries the truth past the guarded gate of the intellect and sets it down in the heart, where decisions are actually made.

Maandiko yanaweka maamuzi yetu ya ndani kabisa si kichwani bali moyoni. Kama mtu aonavyo nafsini mwake, ndivyo alivyo (Mithali 23:7); moyoni ndiko zitokako chemchemi za uzima (Mithali 4:23); na ni kwa moyo, Paulo asema, mtu huamini hata kupata haki (Warumi 10:10). Ukweli unaofikia akili tu umesimama kizingitini mwa nyumba; bado haujaingia katika chumba ambamo mtu huyo anaishi kwa kweli. Ndiyo sababu kutamka tu jambo la kweli mara nyingi hakubadilishi chochote. Daudi tayari alikuwa na kila ukweli kuhusu hatia yake; alichokosa ni njia ya kuuhisi kuwa wake mwenyewe — na simulizi ilimpa hilo kwa sentensi moja. Mhubiri anayearifu tu anawaacha wasikilizaji wake mahali pale pale ambapo nabii alikataa kumwacha mfalme.Scripture locates our deepest decisions not in the head but in the heart. As a man thinks in his heart, so is he (Proverbs 23:7); out of the heart are the issues of life (Proverbs 4:23); and it is with the heart, Paul says, that man believes unto righteousness (Romans 10:10). A truth that reaches only the mind has stopped on the doorstep of the house; it has not yet entered the room where the man actually lives. This is why the bare statement of a fact so often changes nothing. David already possessed every fact of his guilt; what he lacked was a way to feel it as his own — and the story gave him that in a single sentence. The preacher who only informs is leaving his hearers exactly where the prophet refused to leave the king.

1.4 Kile Ambacho Utafiti Unathibitisha1.4 What the Research Confirms

Hili si tu jambo la kitheolojia lililoonekana; ni jambo linaloweza kupimwa. Rudolph Flesch alichunguza kinachofanya maandishi yavutie na akabainisha mambo mawili kuliko mengine yote. La kwanza ni matumizi ya maneno ya kibinafsi — mimi, sisi, wewe, na majina ya watu kama Sally, Fred, au Bwana Johnson. La pili ni kusimulia hadithi za kibinafsi (imenukuliwa katika Nash, The Christian Communicator's Handbook). Njia rahisi kabisa ya kulisema ni hii: watu hupenda hadithi kuhusu watu. Nomino dhahania huiteleza akili; mtu mwenye jina huingia moja kwa moja katika fikira.This is not only a theological observation; it is a measurable one. Rudolph Flesch studied what makes writing interesting and identified two factors above the rest. The first is the use of personal words — I, we, you, and personal names like Sally, Fred, or Mr. Johnson. The second is the telling of personal stories (cited in Nash, The Christian Communicator's Handbook). The plainest way to say it is this: people like stories about people. The abstract noun glances off the mind; the named person walks straight into the imagination.

Wakati mmoja nilipata nafasi ya kumleta mhubiri mgeni kanisani kwetu. Alijulikana sana kama mhubiri anayechosha, nami nakiri nilikuwa na wasiwasi. Kisha nikapata wazo: nilimwomba asimulie tu ushuhuda wake. Alisimama akaongea, naye alikuwa mchangamfu na mwenye kuvutia — mtu yule yule. Tangu hapo nimemsikia akijaribu kuhubiri mahubiri ya kawaida, na karibu macho ya kila mtu yalipoteza hamu. Tofauti ilikuwa nini? Ilikuwa nguvu ya simulizi. Hakuna kilichobadilika kwa mtu huyo; ni muundo wa ujumbe wake tu uliobadilika, na muundo huo ulileta tofauti yote.I once had the opportunity to bring a guest preacher to our church. He was widely known as a dull preacher, and I confess I was anxious. Then I had an inspiration: I asked him simply to tell his testimony. He stood up and spoke, and he was animated and interesting — the same man. I have since heard him attempt a traditional sermon, and almost everyone's eyes glazed over. What was the difference? It was the power of the story. Nothing about the man changed; only the form of his message changed, and the form made all the difference.

Muulize mshiriki wa kawaida wa kanisa siku ya Jumatatu mahubiri ya Jumapili iliyopita yalihusu nini, naye mara chache atakupa wazo kuu au hoja. Atakuambia hadithi aliyoisimulia mhubiri. Kielelezo si kile alichokisahau akiwa njiani kuelekea ukweli; mara nyingi sana ndicho kitu kimoja alichokibeba hadi nyumbani, na ukweli ukafika nyumbani ukiwa umepanda ndani yake. Huu si udhaifu wa msikilizaji unaopaswa kurekebishwa bali ni tabia ya nafsi ya mwanadamu inayopaswa kutumiwa. Tuliumbwa kukumbuka kwa picha na kuguswa na watu, na mhubiri mwenye hekima hufanya kazi akipatana na jinsi Mungu alivyowaumba watu kwa kweli, badala ya kwenda kinyume na hali hiyo.Ask the average churchgoer on Monday what last Sunday's sermon was about, and he will rarely give you the proposition or the points. He will tell you the story the preacher told. The illustration is not what he forgot on the way to the truth; very often it is the one thing he carried home, and the truth came home riding inside it. This is not a failure in the hearer to be corrected but a feature of the human soul to be used. We were made to remember in pictures and to be moved by persons, and the wise preacher works with the grain of the people God actually made rather than against it.

1.5 Yesu Msimulizi Mkuu — na Agizo Letu1.5 Jesus the Master Storyteller — and Our Mandate

Basi tunarudi pale tulipoanzia. Yesu ndiye Msimulizi Mkuu wa hadithi, naye ndiye kielelezo ambacho kila mhubiri hupimwa kwacho. Ikiwa Mwana wa Mungu kwa kawaida alibeba kweli za ndani kabisa za mbinguni juu ya mgongo wa hadithi kuhusu mkulima, shilingi, au kijana mkaidi, basi mhubiri anayeidharau simulizi amejiweka juu ya Bwana wake. Kuhubiri kwa masimulizi si usaliti wa kuhubiri kwa Kibiblia; ni muundo wa Kibiblia. Tukiazima kanuni tunayoifundisha katika seminari hii yote: kila mahubiri lazima yawe ya Kibiblia, lakini si kila mahubiri yanahitaji kuwa ya kifafanuzi. Simulizi iliyochotwa kwa uaminifu kutoka katika Neno, ikibeba ukweli wa Mungu hadi moyoni mwa msikilizaji, ni ya Kibiblia kama ufafanuzi wowote wa mstari kwa mstari uliowahi kuhubiriwa.So we return to where we began. Jesus is the Master Storyteller, and He is the model by which every preacher is measured. If the Son of God characteristically carried the deepest truths of heaven on the back of a story about a farmer, a coin, or a wayward boy, then the preacher who despises the story has set himself above his Lord. Narrative preaching is not a betrayal of biblical preaching; it is a biblical form. To borrow the rule we teach throughout this seminary: every sermon must be biblical, but not every sermon need be expository. A story drawn faithfully from the Word, carrying the truth of God into the heart of the hearer, is as biblical as any verse-by-verse exposition ever preached.

Tafakari maana ya jambo hili. Mungu ambaye angeweza kutupa theolojia ya kimfumo katika kauli zilizopangwa kwa namba badala yake alitupa maktaba ambayo kwa sehemu kubwa ni masimulizi — bustani, gharika, familia inayotangatanga, kichaka kinachowaka moto, hori la kulia ng'ombe, kaburi lililo tupu. Hakufanya hivyo kwa sababu watu wake walikuwa wajinga mno kwa mafundisho; Biblia hiyo hiyo ina kitabu cha Warumi. Alifanya hivyo kwa sababu Yeye ndiye aliyetuumba, naye anajua kwamba moyo wa mwanadamu uliumbwa kufikiwa kupitia mlango wa simulizi. Mhubiri anapojifunza kusimulia hadithi vizuri, hajishushi kwenye muundo duni; anachukua chombo kile kile ambacho Muumba wake alikichagua. Kuna unyenyekevu katika hili, na uhuru. Unyenyekevu ni kwamba hoja zetu za werevu zaidi si kilele cha juu kabisa cha mimbari. Uhuru ni kwamba mhubiri mwenye haya zaidi, ambaye hangeweza kamwe kushinda mdahalo, bado anaweza kulifanya kusanyiko liketi ukingoni mwa viti vyake kwa hadithi iliyosimuliwa vizuri — na kubeba ukweli wa Mungu moja kwa moja hadi moyoni huku akifanya hivyo.Consider what this means. The God who could have handed us a systematic theology in numbered propositions instead gave us a library that is mostly story — a garden, a flood, a wandering family, a burning bush, a manger, an empty tomb. He did not do this because His people were too simple for doctrine; the same Bible contains Romans. He did it because He made us, and He knows that the human heart was built to be reached through the door of the story. When a preacher learns to tell a story well, he is not stooping to a lower form; he is taking up the very instrument his Maker chose. There is a humility in this, and a freedom. The humility is that our cleverest arguments are not the highest reach of the pulpit. The freedom is that the shyest preacher, who could never win a debate, can still sit a congregation on the edge of its seat with a tale well told — and carry the truth of God straight into the heart while he does it.

Neno la tahadhari, ambalo sehemu zijazo zitalikuza: agizo hili si leseni ya kufanya lolote. Simulizi lazima kila mara ibebe ukweli wa Mungu, kamwe isiburudishe kwa ajili ya burudani yenyewe; lazima iwe ya kweli na yenye chanzo kinachojulikana, kamwe isitiwe chumvi wala kuibwa; lazima ilitumikie andiko, kamwe isilichukue nafasi yake. Shika uhuru na wajibu pamoja, nawe uko tayari kujifunza ustadi huu. Katika sehemu zilizo mbele tutajifunza jinsi watu wanavyojifunza, miundo mitatu ya mahubiri ya simulizi, jinsi ya kuhubiri masimulizi ya Biblia yenyewe na wahusika wake walio hai, mifano ya Bwana Mkuu, mahali pa kupata vielelezo vyako na jinsi ya kuvihifadhi, na mwishowe jinsi ya kusimulia hadithi ili ifike inapokusudiwa. Tunaanza, kama Yesu alivyofanya, kwa kuamini kwamba simulizi inastahili kusimuliwa.A word of caution, which the later units will develop: the mandate is not a license. The story must always carry the truth of God, never entertain for its own sake; it must be honest and well-sourced, never embellished or stolen; it must serve the text, never replace it. Hold the freedom and the responsibility together, and you are ready to learn the craft. In the units ahead we will study how people learn, the three forms of the story sermon, how to preach the Bible's own narratives and its living characters, the parables of the Master, where to find and how to keep your illustrations, and finally how to tell a story so that it lands. We begin, as Jesus did, by believing that the story is worth telling.

Jinsi Watu Wanavyojifunza & Ubongo wa KuliaHow People Learn & the Right Brain

Simama mbele ya kusanyiko lolote, nawe utakuwa unazungumza na zaidi ya aina moja ya akili. Baadhi ya wasikilizaji hufuata mfululizo wa hoja kama ngazi; wengine hawaamki kamwe hadi uwaonyeshe picha. Mhubiri anayejua tu kutoa hoja huwafikia nusu tu ya watu walio ukumbini. Kabla hatujashughulikia miundo ya mahubiri ya hadithi, lazima tuelewe jinsi watu wanavyopokea ukweli hasa — na kwa nini mawazo ya kubuni picha (taswira) si adui wa akili bali ni mshirika wake.Stand before any congregation and you are speaking to more than one kind of mind. Some hearers follow a chain of reasoning like a staircase; others never come alive until you show them a picture. The preacher who knows only how to argue reaches only half the room. Before we take up the forms of the story sermon, we must understand how people actually receive truth — and why the imagination is not the enemy of the intellect but its partner.

2.1 Njia Tatu za Watu Kujifunza2.1 Three Ways People Learn

Watu wote hawapokei ukweli kwa njia ileile. Tukifuata maoni ya Solomon, tunaweza kusema kuna angalau njia tatu ambazo watu hujifunza, na mhubiri mwenye hekima hujifunza kuzitumia zote tatu.People do not all take in truth the same way. Following Solomon's observation, we may speak of at least three ways that people learn, and the wise preacher learns to use all three.

Kwanza, njia ya maelezo ya kawaida (nathari). Hii ni kujifunza kupitia mihtasari iliyokuzwa kwa mantiki, iliyopangwa kwa utaratibu na kwa mfuatano — mafundisho yanayotolewa kwa mpangilio kutoka katika matukio, taarifa, na takwimu. Ndiyo njia inayotumika mara nyingi zaidi katika kuhubiri: kauli kuu iliyotamkwa, migawanyo yenye namba, mwendo wa utaratibu kutoka hoja moja hadi nyingine. Hakuna kosa ndani yake, na sehemu kubwa ya yale ambayo seminari hii inafundisha katika kozi yake ya kuhubiri imejitoa katika kuifanya vizuri. Lakini ina hatari iliyofichika. Taarifa inaweza kupitishwa bila kupokelewa kamwe. Maneno yanatoka kinywani mwa mhubiri, yanaingia hata sikioni mwa msikilizaji, lakini hayatulii moyoni kamwe. Njia hii ya kuhubiri ingetosha kabisa kama kila mtu aliyeketi kitini angekuwa Data, roboti-binadamu (android) kutoka Star Trek, anayeweza kunyonya mkondo wa ukweli wa mambo jinsi kompyuta inavyopakua faili. Lakini watu tunaowahubiria si kompyuta. Ni wanadamu waliochoka, waliovurugika, wanaoomboleza, wanaotumaini, na orodha ya kauli za kweli huwateleza kama maji yanavyoteleza juu ya kioo. Njia ya nathari ni ya lazima; ila, peke yake, haitoshi.First, the prose method. This is learning by logically developed, systematically and sequentially outlined summaries — lessons drawn in order from events, information, and data. It is the method most often used in preaching: the stated proposition, the numbered divisions, the orderly march from point to point. There is nothing wrong with it, and much of what this seminary teaches in its preaching course is devoted to doing it well. But it carries a hidden danger. Information may be conveyed without ever being received. The words leave the preacher's mouth, they even enter the hearer's ear, and yet they never lodge in the heart. This way of preaching would be perfectly sufficient if every person in the pew were Data, the android from Star Trek, able to absorb a stream of facts the way a computer downloads a file. But the people we preach to are not computers. They are tired, distracted, grieving, hoping human beings, and a list of true propositions slides off them like water off glass. The prose method is necessary; it is simply not, by itself, enough.

Pili, njia ya kuona. Hii ni kujifunza kupitia kile ambacho jicho linaweza kuona — maigizo, picha, mwendo, mfano unaoigizwa. Kanisa la Willow Creek Community Church lilijenga sehemu kubwa ya huduma yake juu ya matumizi ya maigizo kila juma, likiweka tukio mbele ya kusanyiko ili ukweli uweze kutazamwa kabla haujaelezwa. Jicho ni mlango wa kuingia moyoni ambao sikio haliwezi kuufungua kila mara. Nabii Ezekieli alipolala kwa ubavu mbele ya kielelezo cha Yerusalemu uliozingirwa, Yeremia alipovunja gudulia la mfinyanzi bondeni, Yesu alipomchukua mtoto mdogo na kumweka katikati yao, ukweli ulikuwa ukifundishwa kwa jicho. Mhubiri anayeweza kuchora picha kwa maneno anatumia mlango huohuo.Second, the visual method. This is learning by what the eye can see — drama, pictures, movement, the acted parable. Willow Creek Community Church built much of its ministry on the weekly use of drama, setting a scene before the congregation so the truth could be watched before it was explained. The eye is a door into the heart that the ear cannot always open. When the prophet Ezekiel lay on his side before a model of besieged Jerusalem, when Jeremiah smashed the potter's jar in the valley, when Jesus took a little child and set him in the midst, truth was being taught to the eye. The preacher who can paint a picture in words is using this same door.

Tatu, njia ya hadithi. Hii ni kujifunza kupitia ishara — kutumia taswira, simulizi, picha halisi kama chombo kinachobeba mawazo, dhana, ukweli wa mambo, na taarifa hadi ndani ya nafsi. Inaonekana tunanyonya na kuuingiza ukweli ndani yetu vizuri zaidi kupitia ishara kuliko kupitia nathari tupu inayotaja tu ukweli wa mambo. Hii si mbadala wa daraja la tatu wa hoja, wala si msamaha kwa watu wa kawaida. Kwa watu wengi, mara nyingi, hadithi ndiyo njia yenye matokeo zaidi ya kuingia moyoni — na ndiyo sababu hasa ilikuwa njia ambayo Bwana wetu aliipita mara nyingi zaidi. Mhubiri mwenye hekima hatachagua njia moja kati ya hizi tatu na kuzidharau nyingine. Atajifunza kumfikia msikilizaji wa kimantiki, na msikilizaji anayetazama, na msikilizaji aliyeumbwa na hadithi, katika ujumbe uleule mmoja.Third, the story method. This is learning through symbols — using the image, the narrative, the concrete picture as the vehicle that carries ideas, concepts, facts, and information into the soul. We seem to absorb and assimilate truth far better through symbols than through the bare prose that only states the facts. This is not a third-rate substitute for argument, a concession to the simple. For most people, most of the time, the story is the most effective road into the heart — which is exactly why it was the road our Lord traveled most. The wise preacher will not choose one of these three methods and despise the others. He will learn to reach the logical hearer and the watching hearer and the story-shaped hearer in the very same message.

Angalia kwamba Bwana wetu alizitumia zote tatu. Alitoa hoja — aliwanyamazisha Masadukayo kwa hoja thabiti kuhusu Mungu wa walio hai (Mathayo 22:31–32). Alifundisha jicho — alichukua mkate na kikombe na bakuli la maji akaufanya ukweli uonekane. Na tena na tena alisimulia hadithi. Hakuzipanga njia hizo kwa ubora wala hakuiombea radhi iliyo nyenyekevu kuliko zote; alitumia ile ambayo ingebeba ukweli hadi ndani ya moyo fulani siku fulani. Mhubiri anayemudu njia moja tu amepunguza upana wa lango ambalo kupitia hilo Injili inaweza kuwafikia watu wake. Mhubiri anayejifunza zote tatu amelipanua.Notice that our Lord used all three. He reasoned — He silenced the Sadducees with a tight argument about the God of the living (Matthew 22:31–32). He taught the eye — He took bread and a cup and a basin of water and made the truth visible. And again and again He told stories. He did not rank the methods or apologize for the humblest; He used whichever one would carry the truth into a particular heart on a particular day. The preacher who masters only one method has narrowed the gate through which the gospel may reach his people. The preacher who learns all three has widened it.

2.2 Pande Mbili za Ubongo2.2 The Two Hemispheres

Mafundisho katika kifungu hiki ni kazi iliyochangiwa na Andi Cook.The teaching in this section is the contributed work of Andi Cook.

Katika miongo ya karibuni njia fulani ya kuieleza akili imejulikana sana: nadharia ya ubongo wa "kulia" na wa "kushoto." Kwa ujumla, kila nusu ya ubongo huelekea kubobea katika aina fulani za kazi. Ubongo wa kushoto ni upande wa mantiki na uchambuzi — ubongo wa mwanasayansi na wa msanifu majengo, ubongo wa muhtasari, wa hoja ya kimantiki (sillojismu), wa hoja iliyopangwa kwa uangalifu. Ubongo wa kulia ni upande wa ubunifu — ubongo wa mchoraji, wa mwanamuziki, na wa mshairi, ubongo wa taswira, rangi, na sitiari. Hatuhitaji kuisukuma sayansi hii mbali kuliko inavyoweza kustahimili; kama njia ya kuziwazia picha za uwezo halisi wa aina mbili ulio ndani ya kila mtu, inaangaza na ina manufaa. Wengi wetu huegemea upande mmoja, na — hapa ndipo hoja kwa wahubiri ilipo — mahubiri mengi huegemea sana upande wa kushoto. Yanafafanua, yanagawanya, yanathibitisha. Wakati huohuo watu walio mbele yetu waliumbwa na pande zote mbili za ubongo, na Injili inamwelekea mtu mzima. Mahubiri yanayozungumza tu na nusu ya mtu inayochambua, na kamwe hayabishi hodi kwenye mlango wa mawazo yake ya kubuni, yameiacha nusu yake bila kuiguswa.In recent decades a way of describing the mind has become widely known: the theory of the "right" and the "left" brain. Generally speaking, each half of the brain tends to specialize in particular kinds of tasks. The left brain is the logical and analytical side — the brain of the scientist and the architect, the brain of the outline, the syllogism, the careful argument. The right brain is the creative side — the brain of the painter, the musician, and the poet, the brain of image, color, and metaphor. We need not press the science further than it will bear; as a way of picturing two real capacities in every person, it is illuminating and useful. Most of us lean to one side, and — here is the point for preachers — most preaching leans hard to the left. It defines, it divides, it proves. Meanwhile the people in front of us were made with both hemispheres, and the gospel is addressed to the whole person. A sermon that speaks only to the analytical half of a man and never knocks on the door of his imagination has left half of him untouched.

Wawazie watu wawili walioketi katika kiti kimoja kanisani. Mmoja ni mhandisi; anataka hoja isimame, hesabu zilingane, hatua zifuatane kwa mpangilio, na ukimpa hayo ameridhika. Kando yake ameketi msanii; hoja inaweza kuwa bila dosari na bado ikamwacha baridi, lakini acha taswira moja ya kweli ishike nuru, na macho yake yatajaa machozi, naye atabeba picha hiyo nyumbani na kuishi kwayo kwa mwaka mzima. Wote wawili walikuja kusikia kutoka kwa Mungu. Mahubiri yaliyojengwa kwa ajili ya mhandisi peke yake yanamwacha msanii akifa njaa kitini mwake; mahubiri yaliyojengwa kwa ajili ya msanii peke yake yanamwacha mhandisi bila kusadikishwa. Mhubiri ametumwa kuwalisha wote wawili katika meza moja.Picture two people in the same pew. One is an engineer; he wants the argument to hold, the numbers to add up, the steps to follow in order, and if you give him that he is satisfied. Beside him sits an artist; the argument may be flawless and still leave her cold, but let one true image catch the light and her eyes fill, and she will carry that picture home and live by it for a year. Both came to hear from God. A sermon built only for the engineer leaves the artist starving in her seat; a sermon built only for the artist leaves the engineer unconvinced. The preacher is sent to feed them both at one table.

2.3 Mihtasari Miwili Kutoka Kifungu Kimoja2.3 Two Outlines from One Passage

Kutoka katika kifungu kimoja cha Maandiko tunaweza kujenga mihtasari miwili tofauti sana, na kuiona ikiwa kando kwa kando kunalifanya somo liwe halisi. Chukua Mathayo 14:22–33 — Yesu akitembea juu ya maji, na Petro akizama. Muhtasari wa ubongo wa kushoto hupanga tu taarifa. Unaorodhesha yale Yesu aliyofanya (aliwalazimisha wanafunzi waingie katika chombo, akawatanguliza ng'ambo, akauaga mkutano, akapanda mlimani kuomba, akawaendea juu ya maji), kisha yale wanafunzi waliyofanya, kisha yale Petro aliyofanya, na kadhalika — orodha ya utaratibu ya ukweli wa mambo katika kifungu. Warren Wiersbe anatoa muhtasari wa namna hiyo hasa wa kifungu hiki. Hakuna uongo ndani yake. Lakini katika Zama za Kati muhtasari wa aina hii, uliogawanywa bila mwisho, ndio uliokuwa mahubiri ya kawaida, na bado unaweza kuwasikia wazao wake leo, na ukweli ni kwamba kuhubiri ni zaidi ya kukariri ukweli wa mambo ya kifungu kwa mpangilio. Kunahusisha mawazo ya kubuni, tafsiri, na matumizi.From a single passage of Scripture we can build two very different outlines, and seeing them side by side makes the lesson concrete. Take Matthew 14:22–33 — Jesus walking on the water, and Peter sinking. A left-brain outline simply organizes the information. It lists what Jesus did (He made the disciples get into the boat, sent them to the other side, dismissed the crowd, went up the mountain to pray, and came to them on the water), then what the disciples did, then what Peter did, and so on — an orderly inventory of the facts of the text. Warren Wiersbe gives exactly such an outline of this passage. There is nothing false in it. But during the Middle Ages this kind of endlessly divided outline was the typical sermon, and you can still hear its descendants today, and the truth is that preaching is more than reciting the facts of a passage in order. It involves imagination, interpretation, and application.

Kwa juhudi kidogo sana kifungu hichohicho kinatoa muhtasari wa neno kiini ulio "rahisi kuhubiriwa" zaidi. Somo linaweza kuwa kazi za Kristo katika maisha yetu, na migawanyo inakuwa: Yesu anaamuru maisha yetu — kwa hiyo mtii; Yesu anatawala hali zetu — kwa hiyo mtumaini; Yesu anatuliza hofu zetu — kwa hiyo mwabudu (Wiersbe). Huo ni muhtasari mzuri, na bora zaidi kuliko orodha tupu, kwa sababu umesonga kutoka kwenye taarifa hadi kwenye matumizi; unamwambia msikilizaji si tu kilichotokea ziwani bali pia afanye nini Jumatatu. Na bado — huu ndio mlango ambao sehemu hii inataka kuufungua — kuhubiri kunaweza kuwa zaidi hata ya hoja tatu zilizoundwa vizuri zenye mwanzo unaofanana.With very little effort the same passage yields a more "preachable" keyword outline. The subject might be the activities of Christ in our lives, and the divisions become: Jesus commands our lives — so obey Him; Jesus controls our circumstances — so trust Him; Jesus calms our fears — so worship Him (Wiersbe). That is a good outline, and far better than the bare inventory, because it has moved from information to application; it tells the hearer not only what happened on the lake but what to do on Monday. And yet — this is the door this unit wants to open — preaching can be more even than three well-turned, alliterated points.

Tofauti kati ya mihtasari hii miwili si kwamba mmoja ni wa kweli na mwingine ni wa uongo; yote miwili imetolewa katika mistari ileile. Tofauti ni kile ambacho kila mmoja unamtendea msikilizaji. Orodha inampa taarifa: anaondoka akijua mpangilio wa matukio ziwani. Muhtasari wa neno kiini unamfundisha: anaondoka akijua afanye nini. Lakini hakuna hata mmoja kati ya hiyo unaomfanya bado auhisi upepo, au mtikisiko wa chombo, au mshiko baridi wa hofu maji yalipofunika magoti ya Petro. Hiyo ndiyo kazi iliyohifadhiwa kwa ajili ya picha — na sasa tunaigeukia picha.The difference between the two outlines is not that one is true and the other false; both are drawn from the same verses. The difference is what each one does to the hearer. The inventory informs him: he leaves knowing the order of events on the lake. The keyword outline instructs him: he leaves knowing what to do. But neither yet makes him feel the wind, or the lurch of the boat, or the cold grip of fear as the water closed over Peter's knees. That is the work reserved for the picture — and to the picture we now turn.

2.4 Sitiari Tawala2.4 The Controlling Metaphor

Kilele cha juu kabisa cha mahubiri ya ubongo wa kulia ni sitiari tawala. Hapa mawazo ya kubuni hukichunguza kifungu si ili kupata ukweli zaidi wa mambo wa kuorodhesha, bali ili kupata uhusiano mmoja, picha moja, inayofunua ukweli kwa njia mpya na ya kuvutia. Kwa Mathayo 14 uwezekano ni mwingi: "dhoruba za maisha," "uzoefu wa Petro katika chombo," "kuondoa macho yako kwa Yesu," "imani iliyojaribiwa." Shauri la Wiersbe ni sahihi kabisa: "Kwanza, amua sitiari kuu (au ishara) itakayotawala ukuzaji wa ujumbe." Angalia neno kutawala. Sitiari ikishachaguliwa, inaongoza kila kitu kinachofuata — utangulizi unaiweka picha, mwendo unaikuza, vielelezo vinailisha, na hitimisho linaifikisha nyumbani. Mahubiri si orodha tena iliyoshikamanishwa na namba; ni taswira moja iliyoshikamanishwa na uhai wake wa ndani.The highest reach of the right-brain sermon is the controlling metaphor. Here the imagination searches the passage not for more facts to list but for the one relationship, the one picture, that reveals the truth in a fresh and arresting way. For Matthew 14 the possibilities are many: "the storms of life," "Peter's boat experiences," "taking your eyes off Jesus," "a tested faith." Wiersbe's counsel is exact: "First, decide on the overriding metaphor (or symbol) that will control the development of the message." Notice the word control. Once the metaphor is chosen, it governs everything that follows — the introduction sets the picture, the movement develops it, the illustrations feed it, and the conclusion brings it home. The sermon is no longer a list held together by a number; it is a single image held together by its own inner life.

Njia hii haikomei kwenye kifungu kimoja. Tazama jinsi sitiari moja inavyokifungua kifungu. Kuepuka jaribu ni kama kuepuka moto mkali — na Mungu "atafanya na mlango wa kutokea" (1 Wakorintho 10:13). Kufanya maamuzi ni kama kusimama kwenye uzio na kuchagua upande (Kumbukumbu la Torati 30, ambapo Musa anaweka uzima na mauti mbele ya watu). Kumtumaini Mungu ni kama kuitumaini kompyuta usiyoielewa kikamilifu lakini unaitegemea kila siku (Kutoka 3–4, ambapo Musa anabishana na Mungu ambaye ametoka tu kumwambia afanye nini). Kukabiliana na kuvunjika moyo ni kama kupanda mlima mkali sana hata huwezi kuona kilele chake (Warumi 8:26 na kuendelea, ambapo Roho hutusaidia udhaifu wetu). Katika kila mfano, sitiari inatimiza kwa mara moja kile ambacho ukurasa mzima wa maelezo usingeweza: inamwezesha msikilizaji kuuona ukweli. Na wakati mwingine mahubiri ya ubongo wa kulia hayatakuwa na muhtasari wa kawaida hata kidogo — sitiari yenyewe, au hadithi yenyewe, inaenda kuanzia sentensi ya kwanza hadi ya mwisho. Tutalishughulikia hilo kikamilifu tutakapofikia miundo mitatu ya mahubiri ya hadithi.The method is not limited to one text. Watch how a single metaphor cracks a passage open. Escaping temptation is like escaping a raging fire — and "God will provide a way of escape" (1 Corinthians 10:13). Decision-making is like standing at a fence and choosing a side (Deuteronomy 30, where Moses sets life and death before the people). Trusting God is like trusting a computer you do not fully understand but rely on every day (Exodus 3–4, where Moses argues with the God who has just told him what to do). Facing discouragement is like climbing a mountain so steep you cannot see the top (Romans 8:26ff, where the Spirit helps us in our weakness). In each case the metaphor accomplishes in an instant what a page of explanation could not: it lets the hearer see the truth. And sometimes the right-brain sermon will carry no conventional outline at all — the metaphor itself, or the story itself, runs from the first sentence to the last. We will take that up fully when we come to the three forms of the story sermon.

Tahadhari moja inafaa hapa, na sehemu ya baadaye juu ya hatari za hadithi itaisisitiza zaidi. Sitiari tawala lazima itoke katika kifungu, isiangushwe juu yake. Picha ya werevu inayokipotosha kifungu ili kiifae ni mbaya kuliko kukosa picha kabisa, kwa maana inahubiri ujanja wa mhubiri badala ya Neno la Mungu. Ipime kila sitiari kwa kuuliza kama inasema kweli kuhusu kifungu. "Kuondoa macho yako kwa Yesu" ni mali ya Mathayo 14 kwa kweli, kwa sababu hicho ndicho hasa kilichomzamisha Petro. Lazimisha taswira inayopendwa na watu wa wakati huu juu ya kifungu kisichoweza kuibeba, nawe umeuacha ubongo wa kulia na kuingia katika ule usio sahihi.One caution belongs here, and the later unit on the dangers of the story will press it harder. The controlling metaphor must rise out of the text, not be dropped on top of it. A clever picture that twists the passage to fit is worse than no picture at all, for it preaches the preacher's ingenuity instead of God's Word. Test every metaphor by asking whether it tells the truth about the text. "Taking your eyes off Jesus" genuinely belongs to Matthew 14, because that is precisely what sank Peter. Force a fashionable image onto a passage that will not bear it, and you have left the right brain and entered the wrong one.

2.5 Kumhubiria Mtu Mzima2.5 Preaching to the Whole Person

Usiisikie sehemu hii kama wito wa kuyaacha mahubiri ya kimantiki. Ubongo wa kushoto nao ni zawadi ya Mungu. Mgawanyo wa uangalifu, hoja ya uaminifu, muhtasari uliojengwa vizuri si maadui wa Injili, na mhubiri anayevitupa kwa jina la mawazo ya kubuni hivi karibuni atakuwa akisimulia hadithi za kupendeza zisizo na maana yoyote. Hatari haikuwa kamwe katika kutumia vipawa vya uchambuzi; hatari ni kusimama hapo — kuizungumzia nusu ya mtu inayofikiri, na kamwe kutoifikia nusu ambamo upendo wake na hofu zake na maamuzi yake hukaa hasa. Yesu aliwafikia wote wawili. Katika juma moja aliweza kujadiliana na mwana-sheria juu ya amri kuu kuliko zote na kumsimulia mwana-sheria huyohuyo hadithi ya mtu aliyekuwa akishuka kwenda Yeriko. Lengo la mhubiri ni mtu mzima: mahubiri ambayo akili inaweza kuyafuata na moyo unaweza kuyahisi, mahubiri yaliyo ya kweli na yasiyosahaulika. Katika sehemu inayofuata tunageuka kutoka kwa nini hadithi inafanya kazi hadi jinsi mahubiri ya hadithi yanavyojengwa — na tutakutana na miundo yake mitatu ya kawaida.Do not hear this unit as a call to abandon the logical sermon. The left brain is God's gift too. The careful division, the honest argument, the well-built outline are not the enemies of the gospel, and a preacher who throws them away in the name of imagination will soon be telling charming stories that mean nothing. The danger was never in using the analytical gifts; the danger is in stopping there — in addressing the reasoning half of a person and never reaching the half where his loves and his fears and his decisions actually live. Jesus reached both. In a single week He could reason with a lawyer over the greatest commandment and tell that same lawyer the story of a man going down to Jericho. The preacher's aim is the whole person: a sermon the mind can follow and the heart can feel, a sermon that is both true and unforgettable. In the next unit we turn from why the story works to how the story sermon is built — and we will meet its three classic forms.

Miundo Mitatu ya Mahubiri ya HadithiThe Three Forms of the Story Sermon

Mtu anapoanza kuhubiri mahubiri ya hadithi, swali la kwanza analouliza kwa kawaida ndilo lisilo sahihi. Anauliza, "Je, niwe na muhtasari au la?" — kana kwamba hiyo ndiyo tofauti kubwa. Sivyo. Mahubiri ya hadithi yenye muhtasari na mahubiri ya hadithi yasiyo na muhtasari yote yamehubiriwa kwa nguvu. Swali halisi liko ndani zaidi: hadithi na ukweli vitaunganishwa vipi? Kuna majibu matatu ya kawaida — miundo mitatu ambayo mahubiri ya hadithi yanaweza kuchukua — na kuijifunza ni kujifunza usanifu wa kuhubiri kwa masimulizi.When a man sets out to preach a story sermon, the first question he usually asks is the wrong one. He asks, "Should I have an outline or not?" — as though that were the great divide. It is not. Outlined story sermons and outline-free story sermons have both been preached with power. The real question lies deeper: how will the story and the truth be joined? There are three classic answers — three forms the story sermon may take — and to learn them is to learn the architecture of narrative preaching.

3.1 Muhtasari au Bila Muhtasari?3.1 Outline or No Outline?

Yote mawili yamelitumikia kanisa vizuri. Mahubiri ya kimapokeo hutundika hadithi zake juu ya kiunzi cha hoja zenye namba; mahubiri ya hadithi tupu yanaweza kukosa kiunzi kinachoonekana kabisa — na bado nayo yamejengwa, kwa maana kila hadithi nzuri ina umbo: mvutano unaopanda, mgeuko, na kutua. Martin Thielen anatukumbusha kwamba "kuhubiri hatimaye hakuhusu hoja zilizo katika muhtasari bali kuwasaidia watu kukutana na Mungu." Hilo ndilo neno linaloweka huru, na kila mhubiri aliyefungwa kwa minyororo kwenye hoja zake tatu anahitaji kulisikia: muhtasari haukuwa kamwe ndio jambo kuu. Kukutana na Mungu ndiko kulikokuwa jambo kuu siku zote.Both have served the church well. The traditional sermon hangs its stories on a frame of numbered points; the pure story sermon may carry no visible frame at all — and yet it too is built, for every good story has a shape: a rising tension, a turn, a landing. Martin Thielen reminds us that "preaching is ultimately not about points on an outline but about helping people make contact with God." That is the liberating word, and every preacher chained to his three points needs to hear it: the outline was never the point. The encounter was always the point.

Lakini msikie Thielen ipasavyo. Hafuti muundo; anauondoa kwenye kiti cha enzi. Mahubiri yasiyo na muundo wowote si mahubiri ya hadithi; ni porojo, na porojo hazijawahi kumsaidia mtu yeyote kukutana na Mungu. Tunachokaribia kujifunza ni miundo mitatu — njia tatu zenye nidhamu za kuiunganisha hadithi na ukweli. Hata ule muundo usiotumia hoja ni muundo. Kwa hiyo weka chini wasiwasi wa uongo juu ya mihtasari, na uchukue mahali pake swali lililo bora zaidi: kati ya miundo hii mitatu, ni upi ambao kifungu hiki, ukweli huu, na watu hawa wanauhitaji? Solomon anaiweka mitatu hii mbele yetu, nasi tutaichukua mmoja baada ya mwingine.But hear Thielen rightly. He is not abolishing structure; he is dethroning it. A sermon with no structure at all is not a story sermon; it is a ramble, and a ramble has never helped anyone meet God. What we are about to learn are three structures — three disciplined ways of joining the story to the truth. Even the form that uses no points is a form. So lay down the false anxiety about outlines, and take up the better question in its place: of these three forms, which one does this text, this truth, and these people require? Solomon sets the three before us, and we will take them in turn.

3.2 Mahubiri ya Hadithi ya Kideduktivu — Hoja, Kisha Hadithi3.2 The Deductive Story Sermon — Point, Then Story

Muundo wa kwanza ndio ambao wengi wetu tulilelewa nao. Katika mahubiri ya hadithi ya kideduktivu mhubiri hutaja hoja zake kwanza, kisha husimulia hadithi zinazotumika kama mifano, visa vya kuchunguzwa, au ushahidi wa kila hoja. Kauli kuu inatangazwa; migawanyo inapangwa; na chini ya kila mgawanyo hadithi hufanya kazi yake ya kuufanya ukweli uwe hai na wa kuaminika. Huu ndio muundo ambao mbinu ya WiseSpeak huuzaa muhtasari wake wa neno kiini unapovikwa vielelezo: Yesu anatuliza hofu zetu — kwa hiyo mtumaini — na hii hapa ni hadithi ya mjane aliyejifunza kufanya hivyo hasa.The first form is the one most of us were raised on. In the deductive story sermon the preacher states his points first, and then tells stories that serve as instances, case studies, or proofs of each point. The proposition is announced; the divisions are laid out; and under each division the story does its work of making the truth vivid and believable. This is the form the WiseSpeak method produces when its keyword outline is clothed with illustrations: Jesus calms our fears — so trust Him — and here is the story of the widow who learned to do exactly that.

Muundo wa kideduktivu una nguvu halisi. Ni wazi; msikilizaji daima anajua yuko wapi na anaelekea wapi. Unafundisha vizuri, kwa sababu ukweli unatajwa waziwazi kisha unakazwa kwa picha. Na ni salama — hoja haiwezi kukosekana kwa urahisi wakati imeshatamkwa kwa sauti. Kwa mafundisho, kwa ujenzi wa subira wa mafundisho ya imani, kwa msikilizaji anayehitaji kukabidhiwa ukweli kwa maneno ya wazi, mahubiri ya kideduktivu ni mtumishi mwaminifu na bora. Lakini yana kishawishi kimya, kilekile ambacho Sehemu ya 1 ilionya juu yake. Hoja ikishatangazwa, hadithi inaweza kusinyaa na kuwa kijaza-nafasi tu — pambo lililotundikwa juu ya ukweli uliokwisha kutolewa, sukari iliyokorogwa ndani ya dawa iliyokwisha kumezwa. Tiba ni kukumbuka, hata hapa, kwamba hadithi si kielelezo cha ujumbe bali ni chombo chake: mahali ambapo ukweli huingia moyoni hasa. Hubiri mahubiri ya kideduktivu kwa uhuru, lakini acha hadithi ibebe uzito na isiwe pambo tu.The deductive form has real strengths. It is clear; the hearer always knows where he is and where he is going. It teaches well, because the truth is named plainly and then nailed down with a picture. And it is safe — the point can hardly be missed when it has already been spoken aloud. For instruction, for the patient building of doctrine, for the hearer who needs the truth handed to him in plain words, the deductive sermon is an honest and excellent servant. But it carries a quiet temptation, the very one Unit 1 warned against. Once the point has been announced, the story can shrink into mere filler — a decoration hung on a truth already delivered, a sweetener stirred into medicine that was already swallowed. The cure is to remember, even here, that the story is not the illustration of the message but the vehicle for it: the place where the truth actually enters the heart. Preach the deductive sermon freely, but let the story carry weight and not merely ornament.

Usiache maonyo haya yakufanye uudharau muundo huu mwaminifu wa zamani. Sehemu kubwa ya mahubiri bora katika historia ya kanisa imekuwa ya kideduktivu, na kuna kweli ambazo watu wanahitaji tu kuambiwa waziwazi, si kuingizwa kwa kujificha. Kusanyiko linaposhambuliwa na fundisho la uongo, halihitaji hadithi ya hila inayowaacha wakibahatisha; linahitaji ukweli utajwe, utetewe, na uelezwe kwa vielelezo hadi usimame kama ukuta. Mahubiri ya kideduktivu hujenga ukuta huo. Uwazi wake si udhaifu bali ni rehema kwa msikilizaji aliyekuja, amechoka na kuchanganyikiwa, akitaka tu kuambiwa waziwazi kile Mungu alichosema.Do not let the warnings make you despise this honest old form. A great deal of the best preaching in the history of the church has been deductive, and there are truths the people simply need stated, not smuggled. When a congregation is being battered by a false teaching, they do not need a subtle story that leaves them guessing; they need the truth named, defended, and illustrated until it stands like a wall. The deductive sermon builds that wall. Its plainness is not a weakness but a mercy to the hearer who has come, tired and confused, wanting only to be told plainly what God has said.

3.3 Mahubiri ya Hadithi ya Kiinduktivu — Hadithi, Kisha Hoja3.3 The Inductive Story Sermon — Story, Then Point

Muundo wa pili unageuza mpangilio, na katika kuugeuza unagundua nguvu ya ajabu. Katika mahubiri ya hadithi ya kiinduktivu mhubiri husimulia hadithi bila kuifichua hoja. Analiacha kusanyiko liisikie kana kwamba kwa bahati, livutwe ndani yake, lichukue upande ndani yake — na mwishoni tu, wakati mwingine kwa sentensi moja, hoja hufika, na msikilizaji huigundua kana kwamba ameiwaza yeye mwenyewe. Kwa nini hii inafanya kazi vizuri hivi? Kwa sababu hoja inayolazimishwa juu ya mtu mlangoni pa mbele huinua ulinzi wake, lakini hoja anayoigundua mwenyewe anaimiliki. Tunakataa kuambiwa; hatuwezi kukataa kile tulichokiona kwa macho yetu wenyewe.The second form reverses the order, and in reversing it discovers a strange power. In the inductive story sermon the preacher tells the story without giving away the point. He lets the congregation overhear it, be drawn into it, take sides in it — and only at the end, sometimes in a single sentence, does the point arrive, and the hearer discovers it as though he had thought of it himself. Why does this work so well? Because a point forced on a man at the front door raises his defenses, but a point he discovers for himself he owns. We resist being told; we cannot resist what we have seen with our own eyes.

Hii ndiyo njia ya Nathani, mfano ulio safi kuliko yote katika Biblia nzima. Hakuanza, "Wewe, Ee mfalme, ni mzinzi na mwuaji." Alianza, "Palikuwa na watu wawili katika mji mmoja; mmoja wao alikuwa tajiri, na wa pili maskini." Hasira ya Daudi iliwaka juu ya yule tajiri wa hadithi; mfalme akatoa hukumu — kisha mtego ukafunga: "Wewe ndiwe mtu huyo." Ukweli ambao ungekwepwa kama shtaka uliingia ndani kama hukumu ambayo mfalme alikuwa amejitamkia mwenyewe. Isaya alifanya vivyo hivyo kwa wimbo wake wa shamba la mizabibu: watu waliufurahia muziki hadi walipotambua kwamba wao ndio shamba la mizabibu. Ndiyo sababu kuhubiri kwa kiinduktivu wakati mwingine kumeitwa kuwaacha watu "waisikie kwa bahati" Injili — wanasikiliza kwa uhuru kwa sababu bado hawajui kwamba imeelekezwa kwao.This is the method of Nathan, the purest example in all the Bible. He did not begin, "You, O king, are an adulterer and a murderer." He began, "There were two men in a certain city, the one rich and the other poor." David's anger blazed against the rich man of the story; the king passed judgment — and then the trap closed: "Thou art the man." The truth that would have been deflected as an accusation went home as a verdict the king had pronounced upon himself. Isaiah did the same with his vineyard song: the people enjoyed the music until they realized that they were the vineyard. This is why inductive preaching has sometimes been called letting people "overhear" the gospel — they listen freely because they do not yet know it is aimed at them.

Alikuwa Fred Craddock ambaye, zaidi ya mtu yeyote katika karne iliyopita, aliirejesha njia hii kwa mimbari ya kisasa na kuipa jina. Katika vitabu vyenye majina kama As One Without Authority (Kama Mtu Asiye na Mamlaka) na Overhearing the Gospel (Kuisikia Injili kwa Bahati), alihoji kwamba mhubiri anayeshusha mahitimisho kutoka juu atapuuzwa na kizazi kisichoamini mamlaka, ilhali mhubiri anayewaongoza watu katika njia ileile ya ugunduzi ambayo yeye mwenyewe aliipita atawabeba pamoja naye. Mahubiri ya kiinduktivu hayatoi hotuba kutoka kileleni mwa mlima; yanalishika kusanyiko mkono chini ya njia ya mlima na kupanda pamoja nalo, ili wafike kileleni pamoja na mandhari iwe yao kwa sababu walistahili kwa kupanda. Huu si ujanja wa saikolojia; ni heshima kwa jinsi Mungu alivyoiumba nafsi ijifunze.It was Fred Craddock who, more than anyone in the last century, recovered this method for the modern pulpit and gave it a name. In books with titles like As One Without Authority and Overhearing the Gospel, he argued that the preacher who hands down conclusions from on high will be tuned out by a generation that distrusts authority, while the preacher who walks the people through the same path of discovery he himself walked will carry them with him. The inductive sermon does not lecture from the mountaintop; it takes the congregation by the hand at the foot of the trail and climbs alongside them, so that they reach the summit together and the view is theirs because they earned the climb. This is not a trick of psychology; it is respect for the way God made the soul to learn.

Muundo wa kiinduktivu haukatazi hoja — mhubiri anaweza kuunganisha mfululizo wa hadithi za kiinduktivu, kila moja ikizaa ugunduzi wake — lakini ustadi wake ni hitimisho lililozuiliwa, ukweli unaopambazuka badala ya ukweli unaomwagwa. Na hatari yake ni kioo kamili cha ile ya kideduktivu. Pale ambapo mahubiri ya kideduktivu yanahatarisha hoja kutajwa kwa ukavu mno, ya kiinduktivu yanahatarisha hoja kutua kwa ufifi mno. Ugunduzi lazima ufanyike kweli; ikiwa msikilizaji anarudi nyumbani bila uhakika wa kile alichokusudiwa kuona, mahubiri yameshindwa licha ya ufundi wake wote. Mhubiri stadi wa kiinduktivu huiamini hadithi yake ifanye kazi ya subira — lakini anahakikisha kwamba, mwishowe, radi inapiga.The inductive form does not forbid points — a preacher may string together a series of inductive stories, each yielding its own discovery — but its genius is the withheld conclusion, the truth that dawns rather than the truth that is dumped. And its danger is the exact mirror of the deductive's. Where the deductive risks a point too baldly stated, the inductive risks a point too dimly landed. The discovery must actually be made; if the hearer goes home uncertain what he was meant to see, the sermon has failed for all its artistry. The skilled inductive preacher trusts his story to do the patient work — but he makes sure that, in the end, the lightning strikes.

3.4 Mahubiri ya Hadithi Tawala — Hadithi Moja Tangu Mwanzo Hadi Mwisho3.4 The Controlling-Story Sermon — One Story Throughout

Muundo wa tatu ndio wenye ujasiri zaidi. Hapa hadithi moja inatawala mahubiri yote, ikipita kama uzi kuanzia sentensi ya kwanza hadi ya mwisho. Kunaweza kuwa na vielelezo vingine njiani, na hakika kutakuwa na majadiliano juu ya kifungu cha Biblia, lakini hadithi moja inaushikilia ujumbe wote pamoja, na mhubiri huendelea kuirudia. Solomon anatoa mfano unaokumbukwa: mahubiri yaliyojengwa kuzunguka gari jekundu aina ya Volkswagen lililotoroka kwa udanganyifu kutoka katika maegesho ya magari ya hospitali. Taswira hiyo moja — gari dogo langoni, likiteleza na kuondoka bila kulipa — inakuwa uzi ambao juu yake mahubiri yote yanatungwa. Lolote analosema mhubiri, huendelea kurudi kwenye picha hiyo, hadi imefanya kazi yake kamili ndani ya msikilizaji.The third form is the boldest. Here a single story dominates the entire sermon, running like a thread from the first sentence to the last. There may be other illustrations along the way, and there will certainly be discussion of the biblical text, but one story holds the whole message together, and the preacher keeps returning to it. Solomon offers a memorable example: a sermon built around a red Volkswagen that cheated its way out of a hospital parking lot. That one image — the little car at the gate, slipping away without paying — becomes the thread on which the entire sermon is strung. Whatever the preacher says, he keeps coming back to that picture, until it has done its full work in the hearer.

Huu ndio muundo wa masimulizi katika upeo wake kamili. Calvin Miller anazungumza juu ya masimulizi kama hadithi ndefu zaidi, zenye kina zaidi — si kisa kifupi kinachodondoshwa chini ya hoja, bali hadithi inayoendelezwa na kupewa nafasi ya kupumua. Charles Bugg anaeleza kuhubiri kwa namna hiyo kuwa hadithi, au mfululizo wa hadithi, zikiwa na maelezo machache ya kufasiri yaliyoongezwa — hadithi inaaminiwa kubeba mzigo huku maelezo kidogo tu yakiwekwa juu yake. Utautambua muundo huu mara moja kuwa ni upanuzi wa kawaida wa sitiari tawala tuliyokutana nayo katika Sehemu ya 2. Huko, taswira moja iliongoza ujumbe; hapa, hadithi moja inaongoza. Na unabeba hatari ileile kwa kiwango cha juu zaidi. Hadithi moja inapotawala mahubiri yote, hadithi hiyo inaweza kukimeza kifungu kimyakimya, hadi kusanyiko linarudi nyumbani likikumbuka Volkswagen jekundu na kulisahau Neno la Mungu lililokusudiwa kubebwa nayo. Kwa hiyo nidhamu ni kuitia nanga hadithi hiyo inayotawala kwa uthabiti kwenye Maandiko inayoyatumikia, ili uzi daima urudi kwenye kifungu na kamwe usiende mbali nacho. Hadithi tawala iliyoachana na nanga yake si kuhubiri tena; ni mchezo mzuri wa kuigiza jukwaani.This is the narrative form in its fullest reach. Calvin Miller speaks of narratives as the longer, more involved stories — not the brief anecdote dropped beneath a point, but a sustained tale given room to breathe. Charles Bugg describes such preaching as a story, or a series of stories, with little interpretive material added — the story is trusted to carry the freight with a minimum of explanation laid on top. You will recognize this form at once as the natural extension of the controlling metaphor we met in Unit 2. There, a single image governed the message; here, a single story does. And it carries the same danger in a heightened degree. When one story rules a whole sermon, that story can quietly swallow the text, until the congregation goes home remembering the red Volkswagen and forgetting the Word of God it was meant to carry. The discipline, then, is to anchor the dominating story firmly to the Scripture it serves, so that the thread always leads back to the text and never away from it. A controlling story that has slipped its anchor is no longer preaching; it is a fine piece of theater.

Angalia jinsi muundo huu unavyoweka imani kubwa katika busara ya mhubiri. Kielelezo kimoja kinachojaza mahubiri yote ni afadhali kiwe kielelezo sahihi, na ni afadhali kiwe cha kweli na kilichostahiliwa — kwa maana kikiwa chembamba, kusanyiko litauhisi wembamba huo kwa dakika thelathini badala ya sekunde thelathini. Hadithi tawala hukuza kila kitu: hadithi kuu inakuwa isiyosahaulika, na hadithi dhaifu au isiyo ya uaminifu inakuwa isiyovumilika. Ndiyo sababu sehemu ya baadaye juu ya vyanzo na maadili ya vielelezo ina umuhimu mkubwa hivi. Mahubiri ya hadithi tawala ndiyo muundo unaomlipa zaidi mhubiri aliyetumia miaka mingi kukusanya kimyakimya hadithi nzuri na za kweli — na unamwadhibu zaidi yule ambaye hakufanya hivyo.Notice how much trust this form places in the preacher's judgment. A single illustration that fills a whole sermon had better be the right illustration, and it had better be true and well-earned — for if it is thin, the congregation will feel the thinness for thirty minutes instead of thirty seconds. The controlling story magnifies everything: a great story becomes unforgettable, and a weak or dishonest one becomes unbearable. This is why the later unit on the sources and ethics of illustration matters so much. The controlling-story sermon is the form that most rewards a preacher who has spent years quietly gathering good and truthful stories — and most punishes the one who has not.

3.5 Kuchagua Muundo3.5 Choosing the Form

Mhubiri anaamuaje kati ya hiyo mitatu? Kwa njia ileile anayoamua kila kitu mimbarini: kwa kuuliza kile ambacho kifungu, ukweli, wasikilizaji, na tukio vinahitaji. Lengo likiwa mafundisho yaliyo wazi — ukweli ambao watu wanahitaji kuambiwa waziwazi na kuuweka katika kumbukumbu — muundo wa kideduktivu unawatumikia vizuri zaidi. Ukweli ukiwa ni ule ambao ungepingwa kama ungetangazwa moja kwa moja, au ule unaopenya ndani zaidi unapogunduliwa kuliko unapotangazwa, muundo wa kiinduktivu ndio njia yenye hekima zaidi; ilikuwa njia ambayo Nathani aliichukua kwa mfalme mwenye hatia. Na ukweli mmoja ulio hai ukiweza kubebwa na hadithi moja iliyo hai, muundo wa hadithi tawala unaweza kufanya kile ambacho hakuna kati ya ile mingine kinachoweza — kuliacha kusanyiko zima likiwa limeshika picha moja isiyosahaulika wanapotembea kuelekea magari yao.How does the preacher decide among the three? The same way he decides everything in the pulpit: by asking what the text, the truth, the audience, and the occasion require. When the aim is clear instruction — a truth the people need stated plainly and fixed in memory — the deductive form serves them best. When the truth is one that would be resisted if it were announced outright, or one that strikes deeper when discovered than when declared, the inductive form is the wiser road; it was the road Nathan took to a guilty king. And when a single vivid truth can be carried by a single vivid story, the controlling-story form can do what neither of the others can — leave a whole congregation holding one unforgettable picture as they walk to their cars.

Wazia uamuzi huo katika vitendo. Unatakiwa kuhubiri juu ya msamaha wa Mungu kutoka katika mfano wa mwana mpotevu. Ikiwa watu wako wana shaka kwamba Mungu angewahi kuwapokea tena, unaweza kuuhubiri kwa kiinduktivu — kusimulia tu hadithi ya kijana na baba anayekimbia, na kuuacha moyo wenye shaka ugundue, katika kumbatio la baba, kwamba mlango uko wazi. Ikiwa watu wako wanaielewa neema vizuri vya kutosha lakini wanaishi kana kwamba bado lazima waistahili kwa kazi, unaweza kuuhubiri kwa kideduktivu — kutaja ukweli kwamba Mungu husamehe bure, kisha kuuthibitisha kutoka katika mfano huo na vifungu vingine vitatu hadi usiwe na ubishi. Kifungu kilekile, Bwana yuleyule; mlango tofauti, uliochaguliwa kwa ajili ya watu walio mbele yako.Picture the decision in practice. You are to preach on the forgiveness of God from the parable of the prodigal son. If your people are doubting that God would ever receive them back, you might preach it inductively — simply retell the story of the boy and the running father, and let the doubting heart discover, in the father's embrace, that the door stands open. If your people understand grace well enough but live as though they must still earn it, you might preach it deductively — state the truth that God forgives freely, then prove it from the parable and three other passages until it is beyond dispute. The same text, the same Lord; a different door, chosen for the people in front of you.

Hii si masanduku magumu yasiyobadilika. Mahubiri yenye hekima yanaweza kuanza kwa kiinduktivu, yakiwavuta watu ndani kabla hawajajua wanakoelekea, kisha yakageuka kuwa ya kideduktivu mara ulinzi wao unaposhuka, yakiutaja ukweli na kuusisitiza. Miundo ni vyombo juu ya meza ya fundi, si vyumba katika gereza. Kisichopaswa kutokea kamwe ni muundo kuwa bwana. Muundo ni mtumishi — mtumishi wa ujumbe, na wa kukutana kwa msikilizaji na Mungu. Uchague kama ungechagua barabara: si kwa ajili yake yenyewe, bali kwa sababu ndiyo inayofika kweli. Katika sehemu inayofuata tunaliacha nyuma swali la muundo na kuingia katika machimbo tajiri kuliko yote anayoyamiliki msimulizi wa hadithi — masimulizi ya Biblia yenyewe — ili kujifunza jinsi ya kuhubiri hadithi zilezile ambazo Mungu Mwenyewe alichagua kuzisimulia.These are not rigid boxes. A wise sermon may open inductively, drawing the people in before they know where they are going, and then turn deductive once their guard is down, naming the truth and pressing it home. The forms are tools on a bench, not cells in a prison. What must never happen is for the form to become the master. The form is a servant — a servant of the message, and of the hearer's meeting with God. Choose it as you would choose a road: not for its own sake, but because it is the one that actually arrives. In the next unit we leave the question of form behind and walk into the richest quarry the storyteller owns — the Bible's own narratives — to learn how to preach the very stories that God Himself chose to tell.

Kuhubiri Masimulizi ya Biblia YenyewePreaching the Bible's Own Narratives

Tumeshathibitisha kwa nini simulizi hufanya kazi, na tumejifunza maumbo linaloweza kuchukua. Sasa tunaingia katika machimbo tajiri kuliko yote ambayo mhubiri atawahi kumiliki — masimulizi ya Biblia yenyewe. Sehemu kubwa ya Maandiko ni simulizi kuliko kitu kingine chochote, na hizi si hadithi walizobuni wanadamu; ni hadithi ambazo Mungu Mwenyewe alichagua kusimulia. Lakini simulizi la Biblia halihubiriwi kwa kulisoma kwa sauti tu. Lazima lichunguzwe kama simulizi na lisimuliwe upya kama simulizi, na kila moja ya hayo lina ufundi wake.We have settled why the story works and learned the forms it may take. Now we walk into the richest quarry the preacher will ever own — the narratives of the Bible itself. More of Scripture is story than is anything else, and these are not stories men invented; they are the stories God chose to tell. But a biblical narrative is not preached merely by reading it aloud. It must be studied as a narrative and retold as a narrative, and there is a craft to both.

4.1 Machimbo Tajiri Kuliko Yote4.1 The Richest Quarry

Fungua Biblia yako mahali popote bila kuchagua, na kuna uwezekano mkubwa zaidi utaangukia simulizi kuliko kitu kingine chochote. Mwanzo ni simulizi; Kutoka ni simulizi; Waamuzi, Samweli, Wafalme na Mambo ya Nyakati ni simulizi; Injili ni simulizi; Matendo ni simulizi. Hata vitabu tunavyovifikiria kuwa vya mafundisho vimejaa masimulizi — Paulo akisimulia kuongoka kwake, mwandishi wa Waebrania akiwapitisha mbele yetu mashujaa wa imani. Mungu angeweza kutupa ufunuo wake kama muhtasari wa kimfumo; badala yake, kwa sehemu kubwa, alitupa kumbukumbu ya yale aliyoyatenda na kuyasema kati ya watu halisi mahali halisi. Kwa hiyo kuhubiri vifungu hivi kama masimulizi si mbinu ya kisasa ya werevu; ni kuvihubiri tu jinsi vilivyotolewa.Open your Bible at random and you are far more likely to land in a story than in anything else. Genesis is story; the Exodus is story; Judges, Samuel, Kings, and Chronicles are story; the Gospels are story; Acts is story. Even the books we think of as doctrine are studded with narrative — Paul recounting his conversion, the writer of Hebrews parading the heroes of faith. God could have given us His revelation as a systematic outline; instead He gave us, in large part, a record of what He did and said among real people in real places. To preach these passages as narrative is therefore not a clever modern technique; it is simply preaching them the way they were given.

Kuna sababu Mungu alitufundisha hasa kwa simulizi badala ya kwa hoja za kimantiki. Alitaka tumjue si kama mkusanyiko wa kauli za kweli bali kama Nafsi inayotenda — anayetembea bustanini, anayeshindana kivukoni, anayelia kaburini. Masimulizi si ganda linalofunika fundisho; mara nyingi sana ndiyo njia ambayo fundisho lilikusudiwa kujulikana, kama tabia ya Mungu inayofunuliwa katika yale anayoyatenda.There is a reason God taught us mostly by story rather than by syllogism. He wanted us to know Him not as a set of propositions but as a Person who acts — who walks in a garden, wrestles at a ford, weeps at a tomb. The narratives are not the husk around the doctrine; very often they are the way the doctrine was meant to be known, as the character of a God revealed in what He does.

Hata hivyo, wahubiri wengi huchukua mojawapo ya hadithi hai za Mungu na kuisaga ikawa mawazo matatu ya kinadharia yasiyo na uhai, wakiikamua damu ileile iliyoifanya kuwa simulizi tangu mwanzo. Biblia inasema Daudi alikimbia kumwelekea Goliathi; mahubiri ya kinadharia yanasema, "Hoja ya kwanza: ujasiri." Biblia inamwonyesha baba wa mwana mpotevu akipandisha mavazi yake na kukimbia barabarani; mahubiri ya kinadharia yanasema, "Hoja ya pili: upendo wa Mungu." Kweli iliyo katika hoja hizo ni halisi, lakini umbo limetupilia mbali nguvu. Kuhubiri simulizi kama simulizi ni kumwacha Daudi akimbie na baba akimbie mbele ya macho yetu — na hapo tu ndipo tuseme kukimbia kwao kunamaanisha nini. Lakini huwezi kusimulia upya kwa uwazi kitu ambacho hujakiona kwanza kwa uwazi. Kwa hiyo kabla ya kusimulia upya, lazima tujifunze kuchunguza.And yet many a preacher takes one of God's living stories and grinds it into three lifeless abstractions, draining away the very blood that made it a story in the first place. The Bible says David ran toward Goliath; the abstract sermon says, "Point one: courage." The Bible shows the prodigal's father lifting his robes and running down the road; the abstract sermon says, "Point two: God's love." The truth in those points is real, but the form has thrown away the power. To preach a narrative as a narrative is to let David run and the father run before our eyes — and only then to say what their running means. But you cannot retell vividly what you have not first seen clearly. So before we retell, we must learn to study.

4.2 Hatua Tatu Kabla ya Kuhubiri4.2 Three Steps Before You Preach

Solomon anatoa hatua tatu rahisi za kutumia Biblia katika usimulizi wa hadithi, nazo zinaunda kiunzi cha yote yanayofuata. Kwanza, waelewe wasikilizaji. Husimulii hadithi hewani; unaileta kwa watu fulani wenye majeraha, mashaka na matumaini yao, na kile wanachohitaji kutoka kwenye hadithi kitaunda jinsi utakavyoisimulia. Pili, lielewe andiko. Hii ni kazi ya subira ya kujifunza, nasi tutatoa sehemu iliyobaki ya somo hili kwa ajili yake, kwa sababu ufahamu hafifu wa kifungu huzaa mahubiri hafifu. Tatu, litafsiri andiko katika mazingira ya kisasa. Hadithi ilitokea zamani sana na mbali sana, na daraja kutoka ulimwengu ule hadi huu lazima lijengwe kwa makusudi, ili msikilizaji asijifunze tu kuhusu tukio la kale bali alihisi kama wasikilizaji wa kwanza walivyolihisi. Wasikilizaji, andiko, tafsiri — wajue watu wako, kijue kifungu chako, na ubebe kimoja kukipeleka kwa kingine.Solomon gives three simple steps for using the Bible in storytelling, and they form the frame of all that follows. First, understand the audience. You are not retelling the story into the air; you are bringing it to particular people with particular wounds, doubts, and hopes, and what they need from the story will shape how you tell it. Second, understand the text. This is the patient labor of study, and we will give the rest of this unit to it, because a hazy grasp of the passage produces a hazy sermon. Third, translate the text into the modern context. The story happened long ago and far away, and the bridge from that world to this one must be built on purpose, so that the hearer does not merely learn about an ancient event but feels it as the first audience felt it. Audience, text, translation — know your people, know your passage, and carry the one to the other.

4.3 Kuchunguza Simulizi4.3 Studying the Narrative

Unawezaje "kuelewa andiko" la simulizi? Warren Wiersbe anatoa mwongozo wa kujifunza unaogeuza kifungu kisicho na uhai kuwa tukio hai, nao hufanya kazi kwa kuangalia kupitia madirisha matano. Angalia kwanza andiko lenyewe — hadithi hii imesimama wapi katika ujumbe mzima wa kitabu, na imesimama wapi katika sehemu yake ya karibu, kwa sababu hadithi iliyokatwa kutoka mazingira yake itaeleweka vibaya. Angalia kisha watu — historia yao kabla ya wakati huu, uhusiano wao wao kwa wao, kilichowapata baadaye na kwa nini, na kama Maandiko yanawataja mahali pengine popote. Angalia mahali — kwa nini eneo hili lina umuhimu katika simulizi, majina yanamaanisha nini (na mabadiliko yoyote ya majina yanamaanisha nini), na tunajua nini kuhusu eneo hilo kutokana na historia na akiolojia. Angalia matukio — yaorodheshe kwa mpangilio, yaweke katika wakati wake, uliza ni nia gani zilizowasukuma watu, ni matokeo gani yaliyofuata, na tukio lilelile lilionekanaje kupitia macho ya kila mtu aliyesimama ndani yake. Na mwisho, angalia wazungumzaji — nani anazungumza, kwa nani, kwa nini, na jinsi gani; maneno yao yanafunua nini kuwahusu; nini kinafuata kila usemi; na, jambo lenye umuhimu uleule, mahali palipo na ukimya, kile kisichosemwa, na maneno na misemo ipi inarudiwa.How do you "understand the text" of a story? Warren Wiersbe offers a study guide that turns a flat passage into a living scene, and it works by looking through five windows. Look first at the text itself — where this story stands in the whole message of the book, and where it stands in its immediate section, because a story cut from its setting will be misread. Look next at the people — their history before this moment, their relationship to one another, what became of them afterward and why, and whether Scripture mentions them anywhere else. Look at the places — why this location matters in the narrative, what the names mean (and what any name-changes mean), and what we know of the site from history and archaeology. Look at the events — list them in order, fix them in their time, ask what motives drove the people, what consequences followed, and how the same scene looked through the eyes of each person standing in it. And look, finally, at the speakers — who speaks, to whom, why, and how; what their words reveal about them; what follows from each speech; and, just as importantly, where there are silences, what is left unsaid, and which words and phrases are repeated.

Usiusikie huu kama orodha ya kuvumiliwa. Usikie kama milango mitano, na nyuma ya kila mlango kuna mahubiri. "Historia ya baadaye" ya mtu — kilichompata — ni mahubiri. Msemo unaorudiwa ni mahubiri. Ukimya wenye maana ni mahubiri. Mhubiri anayejifunza kuchunguza simulizi kupitia madirisha haya matano hatasimama tena Jumamosi usiku bila la kusema; tatizo lake litakuwa lile la furaha la kupata zaidi ya anavyoweza kuhubiri kwa kikao kimoja. Kujifunza si adui wa mahubiri yenye uhai. Kujifunza ndiko kuni zake. Masimulizi-upya tajiri kuliko yote hutoka kwa wahubiri ambao wameliona tukio kwa uwazi kuliko wote.Do not hear this as a checklist to be endured. Hear it as five doors, and behind every door is a sermon. The "future history" of a person — what became of him — is a sermon. A repeated phrase is a sermon. A telling silence is a sermon. The preacher who learns to study a narrative through these five windows will never again stand on a Saturday night with nothing to say; his problem will be the happy one of having found more than he can preach in a single sitting. Study is not the enemy of the vivid sermon. Study is its fuel. The richest retellings come from the preachers who have seen the scene most clearly.

Acha dirisha moja lionyeshe nguvu yake. Chukua "historia ya baadaye" ya mtu — kilichompata baada ya tukio kufungwa. Kijana mtawala tajiri anaondoka kwa huzuni, na andiko linamwacha aende; lakini ichunguze historia yake ya baadaye na unaweza kuhubiri msiba wa aliyekaribia kuokoka, mtu aliyesimama karibu na ufalme akachagua mali zake badala yake. Au chukua neno linalorudiwa. Katika mfano wa mwana mpotevu, baba anasema mara mbili kwamba mwanawe "alikuwa amekufa, naye amefufuka; alikuwa amepotea, naye ameonekana" — na marudio hayo, yakichunguzwa, yanakuwa uti wa mgongo wa mahubiri juu ya kurudi nyumbani ambako neema hutenda katika alasiri moja tu. Dirisha moja, likifunguliwa kwa subira, na mahubiri tayari yapo.Let one window show its power. Take the "future history" of a person — what became of him after the scene closes. The rich young ruler walks away sorrowful, and the text lets him go; but study his future and you may preach the tragedy of the almost-saved, the man who stood near the kingdom and chose his portfolio instead. Or take a repeated word. In the parable of the prodigal the father says twice that his son "was dead, and is alive again; was lost, and is found" — and that repetition, studied, becomes the spine of a sermon on the homecoming grace works in a single afternoon. One window, patiently opened, and the sermon is already there.

4.4 Kusimulia Upya Bila Kuongeza4.4 Retelling Without Adding

Sasa tunafika kwenye kiini cha jambo, na kwenye mstari ambao kamwe haupaswi kuvukwa. Unaposimulia upya hadithi ya Biblia, unaweza — na unapaswa — kuisimulia kwa uwazi wenye uhai, "kwa kuipamba," kama wahubiri wa zamani walivyosema. Unaweza kuipa dhoruba mlio wake na manyunyu yake; unaweza kuliacha kusanyiko lihisi tumbo la Petro likishtuka maji yalipobeba uzito wake; unaweza kuonyesha joto la jua la adhuhuri kwenye njia ya Emau na uchungu wa mioyo miwili yenye huzuni. Huu ni ubunifu uliotakaswa (sanctified imagination), na si tu unaruhusiwa bali unaamriwa na asili yenyewe ya kazi hii, kwa maana tukio ambalo mhubiri hatalifanya liwe hai ni tukio ambalo msikilizaji hataliingia.Now we come to the heart of the matter, and to a line that must never be crossed. When you retell a Bible story, you may — and should — tell it vividly, "with embellishment," as the old preachers said. You may give the storm its howl and its spray; you may let the congregation feel the lurch of Peter's stomach as the water took his weight; you may render the heat of the noon sun on the road to Emmaus and the ache in two grieving hearts. This is sanctified imagination, and it is not only permitted but commanded by the very nature of the task, for a scene the preacher will not make live is a scene the hearer will not enter.

Lakini huu ndio mstari: ubunifu uliotakaswa unaweza kutia rangi kile ambacho Maandiko yamechora; kamwe hauwezi kulipinga andiko, kubuni matukio yanayobadilisha maana yake, au kutia maneno mapya kinywani mwa Mungu. Unaweza kuwazia sura ya uso wa mwana mpotevu; huwezi kubuni mwana wa pili ambaye hakuwahi kuwepo. Unaweza kuonyesha hofu ya Petro; huwezi kumfanya Yesu aseme kitu ambacho hakuwahi kusema. Biblia yenyewe inaweka mpaka huu kwa chuma: "Msiliongeze neno niwaamurulo" (Kumbukumbu la Torati 4:2); "Usiongeze neno katika maneno yake; asije akakulaumu" (Mithali 30:6); na onyo zito mwishoni kabisa mwa orodha ya vitabu vitakatifu (Ufunuo 22:18). Uhuru ni mpana — lifanye tukio lipumue — lakini kikomo ni kamili: lazima libaki tukio lile ambalo Mungu alilitoa kweli. Nidhamu inayoshikilia mambo haya mawili katika uwiano ni rahisi kuitaja na ngumu kuitekeleza: pima kila undani ulioongezwa kwa kulinganisha na andiko, na ubakize tu kile ambacho andiko lingeweza kukibeba. Paka rangi ndani ya mistari ambayo Mungu ameichora, na picha bado ni yake; paka rangi nje yake, na imekuwa yako.But here is the line: sanctified imagination may color what Scripture has drawn; it may never contradict the text, invent events that change its meaning, or put new words into the mouth of God. You may imagine the look on the prodigal's face; you may not invent a second son who was never there. You may render Peter's fear; you may not have Jesus say something He never said. The Bible itself sets this boundary in iron: "Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you" (Deuteronomy 4:2); "Add thou not unto his words, lest he reprove thee" (Proverbs 30:6); and the solemn warning at the very end of the canon (Revelation 22:18). The freedom is wide — make the scene breathe — but the limit is absolute: it must remain the scene God actually gave. The discipline that keeps the two in balance is simple to state and hard to practice: test every added detail against the text, and keep only what the text could bear. Color inside the lines God has drawn, and the picture is still His; color outside them, and it has become yours.

Njia moja yenye uhai ya kusimulia upya simulizi ni kuingia ndani yake na kuhubiri kwa nafsi ya kwanza — kusimama mimbarini kama Petro, au kama yule mwanamke kisimani, na kuliacha kusanyiko liisikie hadithi kutoka midomoni mwa mmoja aliyeiishi. Ikifanywa vizuri, hii inafuta umbali wa karne nyingi; msikilizaji hamchunguzi tena mtu wa kale bali anamsikiliza. Lakini kanuni ileile ya chuma inaitawala: unaweza kumpa mhusika hisia na milango ya fahamu ambayo andiko linadokeza, lakini huwezi kutia kinywani mwake ungamo ambalo andiko linamnyima, au kumfanya aseme kile ambacho Maandiko hayakumwacha aseme. Mavazi ni ya ubunifu; hati ya maneno (script) lazima ibaki kuwa ya Biblia.One vivid way to retell a narrative is to step inside it and preach in the first person — to stand in the pulpit as Peter, or as the woman at the well, and let the congregation hear the story from the lips of one who lived it. Done well, this collapses the distance of centuries; the hearer is no longer studying an ancient man but listening to him. Yet the same iron rule governs it: you may give the character the feelings and the senses the text implies, but you may not put into his mouth a confession the text denies him, or make him say what Scripture never let him say. The costume is imagination's; the script must remain the Bible's.

4.5 Kusasisha Hadithi — Mfano Uliofanyiwa Kazi4.5 Contemporizing the Story — A Worked Example

Hatua ya mwisho ni kulileta tukio la kale karibu, "kulisasisha" (contemporize) ili msikilizaji alihisi katika ulimwengu wake mwenyewe. Wakati mwingine msemo mmoja wa kisasa unatosha: wapelelezi wakirudi kutoka Kanaani na taarifa yao — "Nina habari njema na habari mbaya"; Petro akishuka kutoka mashuani na kugundua hakuna kitu chini ya miguu yake — "Bwana, visiki viko wapi?" Mguso wa ucheshi unaweza kusaidia hapa, mradi unalileta tukio karibu badala ya kudhihaki kilicho kitakatifu. Kusasisha ni wakati ambapo daraja la hatua ya tatu linabeba uzito kweli, pale hadithi ya miaka elfu mbili inapowatokea, ghafla, watu walioketi kwenye viti vya kukunja Jumapili asubuhi.The last step is to bring the ancient scene near, to "contemporize" it so the hearer feels it in his own world. Sometimes a single modern phrase does it: the spies returning from Canaan with their report — "I've got some good news and some bad news"; Peter stepping out of the boat and discovering there is nothing underfoot — "Lord, where are the stumps?" A touch of humor can serve here, provided it brings the scene near rather than mocking the sacred. Contemporizing is the moment the bridge of step three actually carries weight, when a story two thousand years old happens, suddenly, to people sitting in folding chairs on a Sunday morning.

Fikiria mfano uliofanyiwa kazi — mahubiri ya Dkt. Cook juu ya Mathayo 16:13–18, "Watu hunena Mwana wa Adamu kuwa ni nani?" Yesu anawauliza wanafunzi umati unafikiri Yeye ni nani, nao wanaipitia orodha ya maoni ya watu, na mhubiri haipiti orodha hiyo kwa haraka bali analifanya kila jina kuwa hai. Wengine walisema Yohana Mbatizaji — na huyu hapa Yohana, binamu wa ajabu jangwani, chakula chake cha nzige na asali, mavazi yake ya ngozi za wanyama, mwito wake wa toba wenye ngurumo, hadi ngoma ya msichana mmoja na chuki ya malkia vilipomgharimu kichwa chake juu ya sinia. Wengine walisema Eliya — nabii wa moto, aliyezifunga mbingu kwa miaka mitatu na nusu na kuita moto ushuke juu ya madhabahu iliyolowa maji huku manabii wa Baali wakipiga kelele kwa anga lililonyamaza. Wengine walisema Yeremia — nabii wa machozi, aliyedhihakiwa na kupigwa, aliyehubiri hukumu kwa watu ambao hawangesikia, na akahesabiwa kuwa ameshindwa katika siku zake. Kila picha inamfanya msomaji ahisi kwa nini watu walichukua ulinganisho huo walipomtazama Yesu.Consider a worked example — Dr. Cook's sermon on Matthew 16:13–18, "Whom do men say that I am." Jesus asks the disciples who the crowds think He is, and they run down the popular list, and the preacher does not hurry past the list but brings each name to life. Some said John the Baptist — and here is John, the strange cousin in the wilderness, his diet of locusts and honey, his clothing of animal skins, his thundering call to repentance, until the dance of a girl and the spite of a queen cost him his head on a platter. Some said Elijah — the prophet of fire, who shut the heavens for three and a half years and called down flame on a water-soaked altar while the prophets of Baal screamed at a silent sky. Some said Jeremiah — the weeping prophet, ridiculed and beaten, who preached judgment to a people who would not hear and was counted a failure in his own day. Each portrait makes the reader feel why people reached for that comparison when they looked at Jesus.

Kisha kunakuja mgeuko wa kusasisha. Baada ya kusimulia upya makisio ya kale, mahubiri yanalibeba swali lilelile hadi kwenye pembe ya mtaa wa kisasa: Mwislamu anasema Yesu alikuwa nabii, lakini mdogo kuliko Muhammad; Myahudi anasema alikuwa mtu mkuu, mwanzilishi wa dini; mtu wa kidunia asiyejali dini anasema alikuwa mwalimu mkuu kuliko wote wa nyakati zote, kielelezo cha kufuata. Mchezo mmoja maarufu wa kuigiza wa miongo ya karibuni unamuuliza Kristo tena na tena, "Wewe ni nani?" — na kamwe hautoi jibu, kwa sababu akili ya kidunia, ikiachwa peke yake, haiwezi kamwe. Na ni pale tu kila sauti ya kale na ya kisasa imeshindwa ndipo ungamo la Petro linatua kwa uzito wake wote: "Wewe ndiwe Kristo, Mwana wa Mungu aliye hai." Huo ndio usanifu wa mahubiri ya masimulizi: tukio linasimuliwa upya hadi liwe hai, swali linabebwa kuvuka daraja hadi wakati wa sasa, na kweli ya andiko — hapa, utambulisho wa Kristo — inaachwa imesimama peke yake wakati kila kibadala kimeanguka. Kichunguze kifungu hadi ukione; kisimulie upya hadi wao wakione; kisasishe hadi kiwafikie; na kamwe, katika upakaji rangi wako wote, usiongeze hata mstari mmoja ambao Mwandishi hakuuchora. Katika sehemu inayofuata tunapunguza mtazamo wetu kutoka kwa simulizi zima hadi kwa mhusika mmoja ndani yake, na kushughulikia ufundi wa kale wenye nguvu wa kuhubiri kwa wasifu.Then comes the contemporizing turn. Having retold the ancient guesses, the sermon carries the same question to the modern street corner: the Muslim says Jesus was a prophet, but less than Muhammad; the Jew says a great man, a founder of a religion; the secularist says the greatest teacher of all time, an example to follow. A popular play of recent decades asks Christ over and over, "Who are you?" — and never gives an answer, because the secular mind, left to itself, never can. And only when every ancient and modern voice has failed does Peter's confession land with its full weight: "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God." That is the architecture of a narrative sermon: the scene retold until it lives, the question carried across the bridge into the present, and the truth of the text — here, the identity of Christ — left standing alone when every substitute has fallen away. Study the passage until you see it; retell it until they see it; contemporize it until it finds them; and never, in all your coloring, add a single stroke the Author did not draw. In the next unit we narrow our focus from the whole narrative to a single figure within it, and take up the ancient and powerful craft of biographical preaching.

Kuhubiri kwa WasifuBiographical Preaching

Kutoka kwa simulizi zima sasa tunapunguza mtazamo hadi kwenye maisha ya mtu mmoja. Kuhubiri kwa wasifu huchukua mtu mmoja wa Maandiko — Daudi, Yezebeli, Petro, mnyang'anyi msalabani — na kuihubiri kweli ya Mungu kupitia hadithi ya mtu huyo. Ni mojawapo ya maumbo ya kale na yenye nguvu zaidi mimbarini, na Biblia imejaa umbo hili. Lakini kama kila umbo, lina ufundi wake wa kuumudu na hatari yake ya kuiepuka.From the whole narrative we now narrow the lens to a single life. Biographical preaching takes one person of Scripture — a David, a Jezebel, a Peter, a thief on a cross — and preaches the truth of God through the story of that person. It is one of the oldest and most powerful forms in the pulpit, and the Bible is full of it. But like every form, it has its own craft to master and its own danger to avoid.

5.1 Kuhubiri kwa Wasifu ni Nini5.1 What Biographical Preaching Is

Andrew Blackwood, aliyefundisha kizazi kizima kufanya hivi vizuri, anaeleza kuhubiri kwa wasifu kwa urahisi: ni kuhubiri kweli ya Biblia kupitia maisha ya mtu wa Biblia. Kwa kweli somo si mtu mwenyewe; somo ni kweli ya Mungu ambayo maisha yake yanaionyesha. Hatumhubiri Ibrahimu ili tumstaajabie Ibrahimu; tunaihubiri imani ya rafiki wa Mungu ili wasikilizaji wetu wamtumaini Mungu yuleyule. Maisha ni dirisha, na nuru inayopita ndani yake ni kweli.Andrew Blackwood, who taught a generation to do this well, describes biographical preaching simply: it is the preaching of a Bible truth through the life of a Bible person. The subject is not really the man; the subject is the truth of God that his life displays. We do not preach Abraham in order to admire Abraham; we preach the faith of God's friend so that our hearers will trust the same God. The life is the window, and the light that comes through it is the truth.

Hii si mbinu ambayo kanisa liliibuni; ni mbinu ambayo Biblia inaionyesha kwa mfano. Waebrania 11 ni mahubiri marefu ya wasifu — Habili, Henoko, Nuhu, Ibrahimu, Musa, Rahabu, na umati wa wengine, kila maisha yakiinuliwa kuhubiri kweli moja kwamba mwenye haki ataishi kwa imani. Na Paulo anatuambia waziwazi kwa nini maisha haya yaliandikwa: "Basi mambo hayo yaliwapata wao kwa jinsi ya mfano; nayo yaliandikwa ili kutuonya sisi" (1 Wakorintho 10:11). Hadithi za watu wa Maandiko ziliandikwa kwa makusudi, kama mifano na kama maonyo, kwa mafundisho ya kila mtu atakayekuja baadaye. Unapomhubiri mhusika wa Biblia, huazimi mbinu kutoka kwa fasihi; unafanya kile ambacho Roho Mtakatifu Mwenyewe alifanya alipoijaza Biblia kwa maisha ya watu. Katika seminari hii, kozi za Wahusika wa Biblia ni nidhamu hii hasa ikitendwa — kujifunza kwa makini na kuwatangaza watu wa Maandiko, maisha moja baada ya jingine.This is not a method the church invented; it is a method the Bible models. Hebrews 11 is one long biographical sermon — Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Moses, Rahab, and a crowd of others, each life held up to preach the single truth that the just shall live by faith. And Paul tells us plainly why these lives were written down: "Now all these things happened unto them for examples: and they are written for our admonition" (1 Corinthians 10:11). The stories of Scripture's people were recorded on purpose, as examples and as warnings, for the instruction of everyone who would come after. When you preach a Bible character, you are not borrowing a technique from literature; you are doing what the Holy Spirit Himself did when He filled the Bible with lives. At this seminary the Bible Characters courses are this very discipline at work — the careful study and proclamation of Scripture's people, one life at a time.

5.2 Kwa Nini Kuhubiri Wasifu5.2 Why Preach Biography

Kwa nini umbo hili hufanya kazi vizuri hivi? Kwanza, kwa sababu watu huvutiwa na watu. Huenda tukapiga miayo mbele ya hoja ya kinadharia, lakini tunainama mbele kusikiliza hadithi ya binadamu, na kweli iliyovikwa katika maisha inakuwa halisi, ya kibinafsi, na isiyosahaulika, pale ambapo kweli ileile ikitamkwa kavu huteleza na kupotea. Mwambie mtu kwamba kiburi hutangulia anguko naye atatikisa kichwa; mpitishe katika kuinuka na kuangamia kwa mfalme mwenye kiburi naye hatasahau kamwe. Pili, kwa sababu wasifu humpa msikilizaji aina zote mbili za msaada anazohitaji: mifano ya kufuata na maonyo ya kuzingatia. Maisha mengine ni vielelezo — imani ya Ibrahimu, ujasiri wa Danieli, uaminifu wa Ruthu — na mengine ni tahadhari — ulegevu wa Lutu, uasi wa Sauli, tamaa ya Gehazi. Mimbari inahitaji yote mawili, na wasifu hutoa yote mawili. Tatu, kwa sababu maisha ya mtu mmoja yanaweza kuonyesha matendo ya Mungu yaliyonyoshwa kwa muda mrefu. Fundisho linasema kwamba Mungu ni mwaminifu; maisha kama ya Yusufu yanaliwezesha kusanyiko kuutazama uaminifu huo ukitenda kazi kwa miaka ishirini ya shimo, gereza na jumba la kifalme hadi unasimama ukiwa umethibitishwa. Kuna sababu ufunuo wa kina kuliko wote ambao Mungu aliwahi kutoa haukuwa orodha ya sifa bali Nafsi; kweli hukaa ndani yetu kwa kina zaidi tunapoiona ikiishiwa.Why does this form work so well? First, because people are interested in people. We may yawn at an abstract argument, but lean forward at a human story, and a truth embodied in a life becomes concrete, personal, and unforgettable where the same truth stated baldly slides away. Tell a man that pride goes before a fall and he nods; walk him through the rise and ruin of a proud king and he never forgets it. Second, because biography gives the hearer both kinds of help he needs: examples to follow and warnings to heed. Some lives are patterns — the faith of Abraham, the courage of Daniel, the loyalty of Ruth — and some are cautions — the compromise of Lot, the rebellion of Saul, the greed of Gehazi. The pulpit needs both, and biography supplies both. Third, because a single life can show the dealings of God stretched over time. A doctrine states that God is faithful; a life like Joseph's lets the congregation watch that faithfulness work through twenty years of pit, prison, and palace until it stands vindicated. There is a reason the deepest revelation God ever gave was not a list of attributes but a Person; truth lodges in us most deeply when we see it lived.

Kuna zawadi ya nne katika kuhubiri kwa wasifu ambayo hakuna kauli ya kimafundisho inayoweza kuitoa: inaliwezesha kusanyiko kumtazama mtu akibadilika. Fundisho linaweza kumwambia mwenye dhambi kwamba Mungu hubadilisha; maisha yanaonyesha jambo hilo likitokea. Msikilizaji aliye na hakika kwamba amepotea mbali mno anamtazama Yakobo mdanganyifu akiwa Israeli mkuu, anamtazama Petro mwoga akiwa mwamba, anamtazama Sauli mtesaji akiwa Paulo mtume — na anathubutu kuamini kwamba Mungu yuleyule huenda hajamaliza naye pia. Maisha yaliyo ukurasani yanakuwa kioo na ahadi kwa wakati mmoja. Hii ndiyo sababu wale waliokata tamaa hufikiwa mara nyingi sana kwa wasifu wakati hoja haiwezi kuwagusa: hawahitaji kuambiwa kwamba neema hufanya kazi; wanahitaji kuiona ikifanya kazi ndani ya mtu asiyetarajiwa kama wao wenyewe.There is a fourth gift in biographical preaching that no proposition can give: it lets the congregation watch a person change. Doctrine can tell a sinner that God transforms; a life shows it happening. The hearer who is sure he is too far gone watches Jacob the deceiver become Israel the prince, watches Peter the coward become the rock, watches Saul the persecutor become Paul the apostle — and dares to believe that the same God may not be finished with him either. A life on the page becomes a mirror and a promise at once. This is why the despairing are so often reached by biography when argument cannot touch them: they do not need to be told that grace works; they need to see it work in someone as unlikely as themselves.

5.3 Njia Tatu za Kumshughulikia Mhusika wa Biblia5.3 Three Ways to Treat a Bible Character

Mhusika wa Biblia anaweza kushughulikiwa kwa njia tatu, na mhubiri stadi huchagua kati yake kama mahubiri yanavyohitaji. Ya kwanza ni kumtumia mhusika kama kielelezo — kumtaja kwa ufupi chini ya hoja fulani katika mahubiri mengine. Unahubiri juu ya kutumaini, na unasimama kwa sentensi moja au mbili kukumbusha jinsi Ibrahimu alivyoondoka Uru bila kujua aendako. Maisha hayo si mahubiri; ni dirisha la haraka lenye mwanga linalofunguliwa na kufungwa ili kuiingiza kweli. Ya pili ni kumtumia mhusika kama maelezo na kielelezo — kumshughulikia kwa ukamilifu zaidi, ambapo mtu huyo anakuwa sehemu nzima ya ujumbe, akiieleza kweli na pia akiiishi. Hapa unaweza kutoa dakika kumi kwa kukana kwa Petro na kurejeshwa kwake ili kufunua kweli kwamba Kristo huwarejesha wale wanaomwangusha. Ya tatu, na iliyo kamili kuliko zote, ni kumfanya mhusika kuwa mahubiri kamili — ujumbe wote ukijengwa juu ya maisha ya mtu mmoja, yakichunguzwa na kusimuliwa upya tangu mwanzo hadi mwisho, ili mkondo wa maisha ya mtu huyo uwe mkondo wa mahubiri. Hii ndiyo ngumu kuliko zote tatu, na yenye nguvu kuliko zote, kwa sababu inampa mhubiri nafasi ya kuacha maisha yaishi mbele ya kusanyiko kisha kuisukuma kweli yake hadi ifike nyumbani kabisa.A Bible character may be handled in three ways, and the skilled preacher chooses among them as the sermon requires. The first is to use the character as an illustration — a brief reference dropped under a point in some other sermon. You are preaching on trust, and you pause for a sentence or two to recall how Abraham left Ur not knowing where he was going. The life is not the sermon; it is a quick, bright window opened and shut to let the truth in. The second is to use the character as explanation and illustration — a fuller treatment, where the person becomes a whole movement of the message, both explaining the truth and embodying it. Here you might give ten minutes to Peter's denial and restoration to unfold the truth that Christ recovers those who fail Him. The third, and fullest, is to make the character a complete sermon — the entire message built on one life, studied and retold from beginning to end, so that the arc of the person becomes the arc of the sermon. This is the hardest of the three, and the most powerful, for it gives the preacher room to let a life live before the congregation and then to drive its truth all the way home.

Unachaguaje kati ya hizo tatu? Acha kweli na muda viamue. Ikiwa maisha fulani yanathibitisha tu hoja unayoitoa tayari, yaweke mafupi — yatumie kama kielelezo kisha endelea, la sivyo yatavimba kupita kiasi na kuyapindua mahubiri. Ikiwa maisha ni tajiri vya kutosha kubeba sehemu kubwa ya ujumbe na muda unaruhusu, yape matumizi kamili zaidi ya maelezo na kielelezo. Na ikiwa maisha ya mtu mmoja yanaiwakilisha kweli nzima unayokusudia kuhubiri, nawe umeyachunguza hadi vilindini, yape mahubiri yote. Hatari katika kila ngazi ni ileile: kamwe usimwache mhusika akue kuliko kweli aliyoitwa kuitumikia.How do you choose among the three? Let the truth and the time decide. If a life merely confirms a point you are already making, keep it brief — use it as an illustration and move on, or it will swell out of proportion and capsize the sermon. If a life is rich enough to carry a major movement of the message and the hour allows, give it the fuller explanation-and-illustration treatment. And if a single life embodies the whole truth you mean to preach, and you have studied it to the depths, give it the entire sermon. The danger at every level is the same: never let the character grow larger than the truth he was summoned to serve.

5.4 "Payday — Someday" ("Siku ya Malipo — Siku Moja")5.4 "Payday — Someday"

Mfano maarufu kuliko yote wa mahubiri kamili katika mimbari ya Marekani ni "Payday — Someday" ("Siku ya Malipo — Siku Moja") ya R.G. Lee. Lee, aliyekuwa mchungaji kwa muda mrefu wa Kanisa la Kibaptisti la Bellevue huko Memphis, alijenga mahubiri mazima juu ya wahusika wa 1 Wafalme 21 — Mfalme Ahabu mwovu; malkia wake katili, Yezebeli; Nabothi mwaminifu, ambaye hakukubali kuuza shamba la mizabibu la baba zake; na nabii Eliya, anayetokea mwishoni akiwa na hukumu ya Mungu. Lee anaisimulia upya hadithi yote ya kutisha: tamaa ya mfalme aliyenuna, hila ya kikatili ya malkia, barua za kughushi, mashahidi wa uongo, mauaji ya mtu asiye na hatia kwa njia ya mahakama, kisha kukutana katika shamba la mizabibu lililoporwa ambapo Eliya anatangaza maangamizi ambayo dhambi imeyastahili. Wazo moja linapita ndani yake kama mdundo wa ngoma hadi kiitikio chake cha ngurumo — kwamba dhambi hakika italipwa mshahara wake: Payday — Someday (Siku ya Malipo — Siku Moja).The most famous example of the complete-sermon treatment in the American pulpit is R.G. Lee's "Payday — Someday." Lee, the longtime pastor of Bellevue Baptist Church in Memphis, built an entire sermon on the cast of 1 Kings 21 — wicked King Ahab; his ruthless queen, Jezebel; honest Naboth, who would not sell the vineyard of his fathers; and the prophet Elijah, who appears at the end with the verdict of God. Lee retells the whole grim story: the king's sulking covetousness, the queen's cold-blooded plot, the forged letters, the false witnesses, the judicial murder of an innocent man, and then the meeting in the stolen vineyard where Elijah pronounces the doom that sin has earned. The single theme runs through it like a drumbeat to its thundering refrain — that sin will surely be paid its wages: Payday — Someday.

Angalia kile ambacho umbo la mahubiri kamili liliwezesha. Lee hakutamka "dhambi ina matokeo" kama hoja ya kwanza kisha akaendelea; alilifanya kusanyiko lisimame shambani mwa mizabibu, lisikie amri za Yezebeli, limtazame Nabothi akifa, na kuhisi ardhi ikitikisika nabii alipotoka gizani. Simulizi lenye uhai na kweli yenye ngurumo havikuwa vitu viwili bali kimoja. Na kuna funzo la pili, nusu mzaha na lenye mafundisho kamili: Lee aliyahubiri mahubiri haya moja zaidi ya mara elfu moja katika huduma yake ndefu — kwa makusanyiko tofauti, bila shaka. Mahubiri ya wasifu yaliyojengwa kweli, yakachunguzwa hadi vilindini na kuundwa kwa uangalifu, hayachakai. Yanaweza kuhubiriwa tena na tena kwa wasikilizaji wapya bila nguvu yake kupungua, kwa sababu maisha yaliyo katikati yake hayaishi na kweli inayobebwa nayo haizeeki kamwe. Hiyo ndiyo thawabu ya kazi ambayo umbo la mahubiri kamili linadai.Notice what the complete-sermon form made possible. Lee did not state "sin has consequences" as point one and move on; he made the congregation stand in the vineyard, hear Jezebel's orders, watch Naboth die, and feel the ground shift when the prophet stepped from the shadows. The vivid narrative and the thundering truth were not two things but one. And there is a second lesson, half a joke and wholly instructive: Lee preached this one sermon well over a thousand times across his long ministry — to different congregations, of course. A biographical sermon that has been truly built, studied to the depths and shaped with care, does not wear out. It can be preached again and again to new hearers with its power undiminished, because the life at its center is inexhaustible and the truth it carries never ages. That is the reward of the labor the complete-sermon form demands.

Kuna jambo moja zaidi ambalo mahubiri haya yanamfundisha mhubiri. Kwa sehemu kubwa ya urefu wake waovu wanaonekana kushinda: shamba la mizabibu linanyakuliwa, mtu asiye na hatia anazikwa, malkia anatabasamu. Mahubiri dhaifu yangeharakisha kututuliza; umbo la wasifu lina subira ya kuuacha udhalimu usimame bila kujibiwa, ili Eliya hatimaye anapojitokeza, faraja na hofu ya haki ya Mungu vitue kwa uzito wake wote. Umbo la maisha linaamua umbo la mahubiri — ukimya mrefu wa mbinguni, kisha hukumu ya ghafla. Mhubiri anayeubana mkondo huo ukawa hoja tatu zilizo sawa hutupilia mbali mvutano uleule unaoifanya kweli isivumilike na isisahaulike. Acha mdundo wa hadithi yenyewe uhubiri.One more thing the sermon teaches the preacher. For most of its length the wicked seem to win: the vineyard is seized, the innocent man is buried, the queen smiles. A lesser sermon would have rushed to reassure us; the biographical form has the patience to let the injustice stand unanswered, so that when Elijah finally steps forward, the relief and the terror of God's justice land with their full weight. The shape of the life dictates the shape of the sermon — the long silence of heaven, and then the sudden verdict. A preacher who flattens that arc into three even points throws away the very tension that makes the truth unbearable and unforgettable. Let the story's own rhythm preach.

5.5 Ufundi na Hatari5.5 The Craft and the Danger

Ili kuhubiri maisha ya mtu vizuri, yachunguze kwa jinsi Sehemu ya 4 ilivyokufundisha kuchunguza simulizi, ila sasa ukishikilia mkazo juu ya mtu mmoja. Fuatilia historia yake ya awali na kwa nini ana umuhimu; chora ramani ya mahusiano yake; uliza kilichompata mwishoni, na kwa nini; tafuta mahali pengine Maandiko yanapomtaja. Sikiliza maneno yake, pima ukimya wake, weka alama mahali na matukio yaliyomuunda. Kutokana na uchunguzi huo wa subira picha iliyo wazi itajitokeza — na ni picha tu unayoweza kuiona wazi ndiyo utakayoweza kuwafanya wengine waione.To preach a life well, study it the way Unit 4 taught you to study a narrative, only now with the focus held on one person. Trace his previous history and why he matters; map his relationships; ask what became of him in the end, and why; search out where else Scripture mentions him. Listen to his words, weigh his silences, mark the places and events that shaped him. Out of that patient study a clear portrait will emerge — and only a portrait you can see clearly will you be able to make others see.

Mahubiri kamili ya wasifu yapangwe vipi? Mara nyingi maisha yenyewe hutoa muhtasari wake. Unaweza kufuata tu mkondo wake — kuinuka, hatua ya mgeuko, anguko au ushindi, mwisho — na kuacha mpangilio wa wakati umbebe msikilizaji, kama hadithi inavyofanya kwa asili. Au unaweza kuyakusanya maisha kuzunguka wazo moja, ukimrudia mtu huyo tena na tena ili kuikuza kweli moja ambayo maisha yake yanaionyesha. Kwa njia yoyote ile, pinga tamaa ya kulazimisha kiunzi bandia cha hoja tatu juu ya maisha yaliyo na umbo lake alilopewa na Mungu. Mtu huyo hakuzaliwa, hakutenda dhambi, hakutubu, wala hakufa kwa vipande vyenye herufi za mwanzo zinazofanana. Yachunguze maisha hadi umbo lake la kweli lijitokeze, hubiri umbo hilo, na umtumaini Yule aliyeandika maisha hayo kuwa tayari ameyaandika mahubiri ndani yake.How shall the complete biographical sermon be structured? Most often the life supplies its own outline. You may simply follow the arc — the rise, the turning point, the fall or the triumph, the end — and let chronology carry the hearer, as a story naturally does. Or you may gather the life around a single theme, returning to the person again and again to develop one truth his career displays. Either way, resist the urge to impose an artificial three-point grid on a life that has its own God-given shape. The man was not born, did not sin, did not repent, and did not die in alliterated installments. Study the life until its true shape appears, preach that shape, and trust the One who wrote the life to have written the sermon into it already.

Lakini jilinde dhidi ya hatari moja inayolinyemelea umbo hili daima: kuhubiri maadili tu (moralizing). Ni rahisi kwa namna ya kuangamiza kuyapunguza mahubiri ya wasifu kuwa somo tupu la tabia — "uwe jasiri kama Danieli," "usilegee kama Lutu" — kana kwamba injili ni mpango wa kujiboresha tu na Biblia ni jumba la maonyesho la mifano mizuri na mibaya. Hayo si mahubiri ya Kikristo; ni maadili yenye lafudhi ya kidini, nayo humwacha msikilizaji akijitahidi zaidi badala ya kumtumaini Kristo. Dawa ni kuacha kila maisha hatimaye yaelekeze mbele zaidi yake yenyewe, kwa Mungu aliyeyaunda na kwa neema ambayo peke yake inaweza kuokoa. Hata mahubiri ya onyo tupu lazima yafanye hivi. "Payday — Someday" mwishowe si wito wa kuwa mwema kuliko Ahabu; ni wito wa kuikimbia ghadhabu ijayo na kupata kimbilio kwa Mwokozi, kwa maana ikiwa dhambi ina siku ya malipo, basi neema ndiyo njia pekee ya kuokoka. Mahubiri ya wasifu ya Dkt. Cook mwenyewe yanashikilia uwiano huu. Mahubiri yake juu ya Feliki yanamchukua liwali wa Kirumi aliyetetemeka alipomsikia Paulo akihojiana juu ya haki na hukumu, akasema, "Enenda zako sasa; nikipata nafasi nitakuita" — na yanasisitiza hatari ya nafasi inayofaa ambayo haiji kamwe. Mahubiri yake juu ya mnyang'anyi msalabani yanamchukua mhalifu aliyekuwa akifa aliyemgeukia Kristo katika saa yake ya mwisho na kuhubiri jinsi neema inavyofika hata saa ya kumi na moja. Mahubiri yake juu ya kijana mtawala tajiri yanamchukua kijana mwema aliyekuja akipiga mbio, akapiga magoti, kisha akaondoka kwa huzuni — na yanaufunua msiba wa aliyekaribia kuokoka. Katika kila moja, maisha yanasimuliwa upya kwa uangalifu, na katika kila moja maisha yanafunguka kuelekea kwa Kristo. Huko ndiko kuhubiri kwa wasifu katika ukweli wake halisi: si kumstaajabia binadamu, bali kukutana, kupitia maisha ya binadamu mmoja, na Mungu aliyeyaumba na neema inayoyakomboa. Katika sehemu inayofuata tunageukia hadithi ambazo Msimulizi Mkuu alisimulia kuhusu watu wengine — mifano ya Yesu.But guard against the one besetting danger of this form: moralizing. It is fatally easy to reduce a biographical sermon to a flat lesson in behavior — "be brave like Daniel," "do not compromise like Lot" — as though the gospel were merely a program of self-improvement and the Bible a gallery of good and bad examples. That is not Christian preaching; it is ethics with a religious accent, and it leaves the hearer trying harder instead of trusting Christ. The cure is to let every life finally point beyond itself, to the God who shaped it and the grace that alone can save. Even a sermon of pure warning must do this. "Payday — Someday" is not finally an exhortation to be nicer than Ahab; it is a summons to flee the wrath to come and find refuge in the Savior, for if sin has a payday, then grace is the only escape. Dr. Cook's own biographical sermons hold this balance. His sermon on Felix takes the trembling Roman governor who heard Paul reason of righteousness and judgment and said, "Go thy way for this time" — and presses the peril of the convenient season that never comes. His sermon on the thief on the cross takes the dying criminal who turned to Christ in his last hour and preaches the reach of grace at the eleventh hour. His sermon on the rich young ruler takes the fine young man who came running, knelt, and walked away sorrowful — and lays bare the tragedy of the almost-saved. In each, a life is retold with care, and in each the life opens onto Christ. That is biographical preaching at its truest: not the admiration of a human being, but a meeting, through one human life, with the God who made it and the grace that redeems it. In the next unit we turn to the stories the Master Storyteller told about other people — the parables of Jesus.

Mifano ya YesuThe Parables of Jesus

Hakuna mtu aliyewahi kusimulia hadithi kama Yesu. Mifano ndiyo kilele cha yote ambayo kozi hii imefundisha — hadithi fupi za kidunia zinazofungua mlango kuelekea ufalme wa mbinguni, ambazo hazijapoteza hata chembe ya nguvu zake katika miaka elfu mbili. Lakini pia ndizo hadithi zinazotumiwa vibaya kuliko zote katika Maandiko, zilizozikwa kwa karne nyingi chini ya tafsiri za kijanja ambazo zilikaba pumzi ya jambo lenyewe zilizosimuliwa kulifundisha. Ili kuzihubiri vizuri, ni lazima tuelewe mfano ni nini, unavyofanya kazi ndani ya msikilizaji, na historia ndefu yenye maonyo ya jinsi kanisa lilivyoisoma.No one ever told stories like Jesus. The parables are the high-water mark of everything this course has taught — short, earthly tales that open onto the kingdom of heaven and that have lost none of their power in two thousand years. But they are also the most misused stories in Scripture, buried for centuries under clever interpretations that smothered the very point they were told to make. To preach them well, we must understand what a parable is, how it works on the hearer, and the long and cautionary history of how the church has read them.

6.1 Msimulizi Mkuu6.1 The Master Storyteller

Kati ya walimu wote waliowahi kuishi, Yule mwenye ujuzi kamili wa moyo wa mwanadamu alichagua kufundisha zaidi kwa hadithi. "Hayo yote Yesu aliwaambia makutano kwa mifano, wala pasipo mfano hakuwaambia neno" (Mathayo 13:34). Angeweza kutoa mihadhara; angeweza kutoa kauli za kimfumo; badala yake alisimulia habari ya mpanzi akitawanya mbegu, mwanamke akifagia nyumba akitafuta shilingi iliyopotea, baba akiitazama njia, mtu aliyepigwa na kuachwa karibu kufa. Mfano ni hadithi ya kidunia iliyowekwa kando ya kweli ya kimbingu — ulinganisho, na hiyo ndiyo maana ya neno lenyewe: kitu "kilichotupwa kando" ya kingine. Tena na tena alianza, "Ufalme wa mbinguni umefanana na..." kisha akachora picha kutoka maisha ya kawaida ya wasikilizaji wake — kilimo, uvuvi, kuoka mkate, kukopa, harusi, deni — na kupitia dirisha hilo la nyumbani nuru ya ufalme ikaingia kwa wingi.Of all the teachers who ever lived, the one with perfect knowledge of the human heart chose to teach mostly in stories. "All these things spake Jesus unto the multitude in parables; and without a parable spake he not unto them" (Matthew 13:34). He could have lectured; He could have handed down systematic propositions; instead He told of a sower scattering seed, a woman sweeping for a lost coin, a father watching a road, a man beaten and left half dead. A parable is an earthly story laid beside a heavenly truth — a comparison, which is what the word itself means: something "thrown alongside." Again and again He began, "The kingdom of heaven is like..." and then He painted a picture from the common life of His hearers — farming, fishing, baking, borrowing, a wedding, a debt — and through that homely window the light of the kingdom came pouring in.

Kwa mhubiri, jambo hili linamaliza swali lililoulizwa kwanza katika Sehemu ya 1. Ikiwa Bwana Mwenyewe, akiwa na kweli yote ya mbinguni ya kutoa, aliifanya hadithi kuwa njia yake kuu, basi hadithi si mapatano mepesi. Ndicho chombo hasa ambacho Bwana alikinyooshea mkono. Kila kitu katika kozi hii kinapata kielelezo chake hapa: mifano ndiyo mahubiri ya masimulizi katika ukamilifu wake.For the preacher, this settles the matter that Unit 1 first raised. If the Lord Himself, with all of heaven's truth to deliver, made the story His chief method, then the story is no lightweight compromise. It is the very tool the Master reached for. Everything in this course finds its model here: the parables are the story sermon in its perfection.

Kuna siri ya ndani zaidi katika jinsi Yesu alivyotumia mifano, na mhubiri anapaswa kuijua. Wanafunzi walipomwuliza kwa nini alisema kwa mifano, alijibu kwamba hadithi hizo hufunua na pia huficha: kwa wanyenyekevu na wenye njaa huufungua ufalme, lakini kwa wenye kiburi na mioyo migumu hubaki kitendawili — "ili wakitazama watazame wasione" (Marko 4:12, ikirudia Isaya 6). Mfano ni aina ya chekecheke. Hadithi ile ile inayoyeyusha moyo laini huufanya mgumu moyo unaopinga, kwa sababu kweli inayobebwa nayo lazima ipokelewe, si kusikiwa tu kwa bahati, na mtu asiyetaka kuinama mbele yake anabaki ameshika hadithi nzuri tu kuhusu mbegu au kondoo. Jambo hili linapaswa kumtia mhubiri kiasi: hadithi si mchezo wa kiinimacho unaolazimisha mtu aamini. Inaiweka kweli mbele ya nia ya mtu, kisha inasubiri.There is a deeper mystery in Jesus' use of parables, and the preacher should know it. When the disciples asked why He spoke in parables, He answered that the stories both reveal and conceal: to the humble and hungry they open the kingdom, but to the proud and hard-hearted they remain a riddle — "that seeing they may see, and not perceive" (Mark 4:12, echoing Isaiah 6). The parable is a kind of sieve. The same story that melts a soft heart hardens a resistant one, because the truth it carries must be received, not merely overheard, and the man who will not bend to it is left holding only a charming tale about seeds or sheep. This should sober the preacher: a story is not a magic trick that compels belief. It lays the truth before the will, and waits.

6.2 Hadithi Moja, Hoja Moja6.2 One Story, One Point

Hii ndiyo kanuni ya kwanza, na ndiyo inayovunjwa mara nyingi zaidi: kwa kawaida mfano hutoa hoja moja kuu. Ni ulinganisho, na ulinganisho una jambo moja kuu unalolinganisha. Kwa kawaida mfano si istiari (allegory) ambamo kila undani huficha maana yake ya siri. Jambo hili linaonekana wazi, lakini kwa muda mrefu wa historia ya kanisa lilisahauliwa, na mifano ilichukuliwa kama misimbo tata ya kufumbuliwa. Mfano maarufu ni ule wa Msamaria Mwema. Augustino aliusoma kama istiari kubwa: msafiri aliyejeruhiwa ni Adamu aliyeanguka; Yerusalemu ni mji wa mbinguni aliouacha; wanyang'anyi ni Ibilisi na malaika zake; kuhani na Mlawi ni agano la kale, lisiloweza kuokoa; Msamaria ni Kristo; nyumba ya wageni ni kanisa; mwenye nyumba ya wageni ni mtume Paulo; dinari mbili ni sakramenti mbili. Ni ubunifu wa ajabu, nao karibu wote uko nje kabisa ya hoja — kwa maana Yesu alisimulia hadithi ile kujibu swali moja, "Na jirani yangu ni nani?", na kusisitiza kweli moja: nenda ukawe jirani, hata kwa mtu unayemdharau. Istiari ile ilishughulika mno kufumbua nyumba ya wageni na dinari hata ikazika radi ambayo Yesu hasa aliilenga moyoni mwa yule mwana-sheria.Here is the first rule, and the most often broken: a parable usually makes one central point. It is a comparison, and a comparison has one main thing it compares. The parable is not, as a rule, an allegory in which every detail conceals a separate hidden meaning. This sounds obvious, yet for most of church history it was forgotten, and the parables were treated as elaborate codes to be cracked. The famous example is the Good Samaritan. Augustine read it as a vast allegory: the wounded traveler is Adam, fallen; Jerusalem is the heavenly city he left; the robbers are the devil and his angels; the priest and Levite are the old covenant, unable to save; the Samaritan is Christ; the inn is the church; the innkeeper is the apostle Paul; the two coins are the two sacraments. It is ingenious, and it is almost entirely beside the point — for Jesus told that story to answer one question, "Who is my neighbour?", and to drive home one truth: go and be the neighbor, even to the man you despise. The allegory was so busy decoding the inn and the coins that it buried the thunderclap Jesus actually aimed at the lawyer's heart.

Kwa hiyo kanuni ya kazi kwa mhubiri ni hii: tafuta hoja moja kuu, ulinganisho mmoja ambao mfano ulisimuliwa kuutoa, na uhubiri huo. Usiende kuwinda maana ya siri katika rangi ya punda au idadi ya dinari. Uliza badala yake, "Ni kweli gani moja ambayo Yesu aliisisitiza kwa hadithi hii?" — na kweli hiyo iwe mahubiri yako.So the working rule for the preacher is this: find the one main point, the single comparison the parable was told to make, and preach that. Do not go hunting for a secret significance in the color of the donkey or the number of the coins. Ask instead, "What one truth did Jesus drive home with this story?" — and let that truth be your sermon.

Unaipataje hoja hiyo moja? Angalia kwanza kiunzi chake. Mara nyingi mwandishi wa Injili, au Yesu Mwenyewe, anakuambia waziwazi kwa nini hadithi ilisimuliwa: Luka anasema mfano wa mjane mwenye kusisitiza ulitolewa ili kwamba "imewapasa kumwomba Mungu siku zote, wala wasikate tamaa" (Luka 18:1); mfano wa Farisayo na mtoza ushuru ulinenwa kwa watu fulani "waliojikinai ya kuwa wao ni wenye haki" (Luka 18:9). Mazingira, swali lililoizaa hadithi, na maneno yanayoifuata ndiyo viongozi wako wa hakika zaidi kuelekea msukumo wake mmoja. Maandiko yanapokukabidhi hoja, ipokee kwa shukrani, wala usiende kutafuta nyingine ya kijanja zaidi ya kwako mwenyewe.How do you find the one point? Look first at the frame. Often the Gospel writer, or Jesus Himself, tells you plainly why the story was told: Luke says the parable of the persistent widow was given so that men "ought always to pray, and not to faint" (Luke 18:1); the parable of the Pharisee and the publican was spoken to certain ones "which trusted in themselves that they were righteous" (Luke 18:9). The setting, the question that prompted the story, and the comment that follows it are your surest guides to its single thrust. When the text hands you the point, take it gratefully, and do not go looking for a cleverer one of your own.

6.3 Mwiba Mkiani6.3 The Sting in the Tail

Mifano ndiyo mahubiri safi kabisa ya kiinduktivu katika Biblia (kumbuka Sehemu ya 3). Haitangazi hoja yao mlangoni; humvuta msikilizaji ndani, humfanya achague upande, kisha hufyatua mtego. Hadithi za Yesu zimejaa mgeuko wa ghafla — mwiba mkiani — unaomkamata msikilizaji hasa pale anapojivuna. Mtu aliyeuliza "Na jirani yangu ni nani?" bila shaka alitarajia shujaa awe kuhani; shujaa anageuka kuwa Msamaria, watu wale wale aliowadharau. Umati wa watu wa heshima uliokuwa ukisikiliza habari ya Farisayo na mtoza ushuru ulijua ni yupi Mungu alimpendelea — na mfano unamrudisha nyumbani mtoza ushuru akiwa amehesabiwa haki na yule mwenye kiburi mikono mitupu. Mafarisayo waliokuwa wakinung'unika kwamba Yesu huwakaribisha wenye dhambi (Luka 15:2) walialikwa kufurahia hadithi ya mvulana aliyepotea na kurudi nyumbani — kisha kaka mkubwa akapanda jukwaani, mwenye uchungu na mwenye kujiona mwenye haki, akikataa kuingia karamuni, na kila mnung'unikaji katika umati akawa anajitazama kwenye kioo.The parables are the purest inductive preaching in the Bible (remember Unit 3). They do not announce their point at the front door; they draw the hearer in, get him to take sides, and then spring a trap. Jesus' stories are full of a sudden reversal — a sting in the tail — that catches the listener exactly where he is proud. The man who asked "Who is my neighbour?" surely expected the hero to be a priest; the hero turns out to be a Samaritan, the very people he despised. The respectable crowd listening to the Pharisee and the publican knew which man God favored — and the parable sends the tax collector home justified and the proud man empty. The Pharisees grumbling that Jesus received sinners (Luke 15:2) were invited to enjoy a story about a lost boy come home — and then the elder brother stepped onto the stage, sour and self-righteous, refusing to go in to the feast, and every grumbler in the audience was looking into a mirror.

Huu ndio "Wewe ndiwe mtu huyo" wa Nathani uliogeuzwa kuwa sanaa. Na unamwambia mhubiri jinsi mfano unavyopaswa kushughulikiwa mimbarini: ni lazima uhifadhi mshangao. Ukitangaza mwisho kabla ya kusimulia hadithi — "Huu ni mfano kuhusu jinsi tunavyopaswa kuwapenda hata adui zetu" — umeutegua mtego kabla haujafunga. Iache hadithi ifanye kazi yake. Mwache msikilizaji asafiri nayo, akiwahukumu wahusika, akiwa na uhakika wa nafsi yake — kisha mwiba ugonge. Mfano ulioelezwa mapema ni mfano ulioteguliwa, na mfano ulioteguliwa haumwokoi mtu yeyote.This is Nathan's "Thou art the man" made into an art form. And it tells the preacher how a parable must be handled in the pulpit: you must preserve the surprise. If you announce the ending before you tell the story — "Here is a parable about how we should love even our enemies" — you have disarmed the trap before it can close. Let the story do its work. Let the hearer ride along, judging the characters, sure of himself — and then let the sting land. A parable explained in advance is a parable defused, and a defused parable saves no one.

Migeuko hii iko kila mahali ukishaanza kutazama. Vibarua walioajiriwa saa ya kumi na moja wanalipwa sawa na wale waliostahimili jua kali la siku nzima, na manung'uniko ya wafanyakazi wa mapema ndiyo manung'uniko yetu dhidi ya neema inayoonekana kuwa si ya haki. Tajiri anayebomoa ghala zake ili ajenge kubwa zaidi, akijipongeza kwa maisha ya raha yajayo, anasikia usiku, "Mpumbavu wewe, usiku huu wanataka roho yako." Mgeni wa harusini anayegombea kiti bora anaaibishwa mbele ya meza nzima. Katika kila tukio msikilizaji kwanza anaalikwa kukubaliana na silika iliyo potofu — kuona wivu, kujilimbikizia mali, kunyakua heshima — kisha hadithi inageuka na kuifunua silika hiyo kuwa ya mauti. Mfano haumshawishi msikilizaji kwa hoja atoke katika dhambi yake; unamwacha ajitazame akiwa ndani yake, naye aogope na kurudi nyuma.The reversals are everywhere once you look. The laborers hired at the eleventh hour are paid as much as those who bore the heat of the whole day, and the early workers' grumbling is our grumbling at a grace that seems unfair. The rich man who pulls down his barns to build bigger ones, congratulating himself on a comfortable future, hears in the night, "Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee." The wedding guest who scrambles for the best seat is shamed before the whole table. In every case the hearer is first invited to agree with the wrong instinct — to envy, to hoard, to grasp at honor — and then the story turns and exposes that instinct as deadly. The parable does not argue the hearer out of his sin; it lets him watch himself in it and recoil.

6.4 Historia Yenye Onyo6.4 A Cautionary History

Inafaa kujua jinsi kanisa lilivyofikia kanuni ya hoja moja, kwa sababu historia hiyo inatulinda dhidi ya makosa mawili kwa wakati mmoja. Kwa karne kumi na nane za kwanza, istiari ilitawala: mababa wa kanisa na kanisa la zama za kati walichimba kila mfano wakitafuta mawiano yaliyofichika, na nyumba ya wageni ya Msamaria ikawa kanisa, mafuta na divai yake sakramenti, na kadhalika katika kila undani. Kisha, karibu na mwisho wa karne ya kumi na tisa, mwanazuoni Mjerumani Adolf Jülicher aliyapinga kwa nguvu yote hayo, akisisitiza kwamba mfano hutoa hoja moja ya ulinganisho na si istiari hata kidogo. Marekebisho hayo yalihitajika na kwa kiasi kikubwa yalikuwa sahihi, nayo yaliiokoa mifano mikononi mwa wafumbuzi wa misimbo. Katika karne ya ishirini C.H. Dodd na Joachim Jeremias waliendeleza kazi hiyo, wakiirudisha mifano katika udongo wake wa asili — huduma ya Yesu, kuingia kwa nguvu kwa ufalme wa Mungu, hali ya dharura iliyowakabili wale walioisikia kwanza — ili tuisome si kama hadithi za maadili zisizo na wakati bali kama maneno yaliyonenwa katika saa halisi na ya dharura. Hivi karibuni zaidi, wanazuoni wamerudisha ufahamu kwamba mfano si kielelezo tu cha kweli fulani bali ni tukio linalompata msikilizaji: unamtendea jambo, unamvuta ndani, na kumbadilisha. Patrick Willson anazungumza juu ya kuhubiri kufuata "mwelekeo wa mruko" (trajectory) wa mfano — kuulenga ili uwatendee waumini wa leo kile ulichowatendea wa kwanza, ukifyatua mtego ule ule katika chumba kipya.It is worth knowing how the church arrived at the one-point rule, because the story guards us from two errors at once. For the first eighteen centuries, allegory reigned: the fathers and the medieval church mined every parable for hidden correspondences, and the Samaritan's inn became the church, his oil and wine the sacraments, and so on through every detail. Then, near the end of the nineteenth century, the German scholar Adolf Jülicher reacted hard against all of it, insisting that a parable makes a single point of comparison and is not an allegory at all. The corrective was needed and largely right, and it rescued the parables from the code-breakers. In the twentieth century C.H. Dodd and Joachim Jeremias carried the work further, setting the parables back into their original soil — the ministry of Jesus, the in-breaking of the kingdom of God, the crisis facing those who first heard them — so that we read them not as timeless moral fables but as words spoken into a real and urgent moment. More recently still, scholars have recovered the sense that a parable is not merely an illustration of a truth but an event that happens to the hearer: it does something to him, draws him in, and changes him. Patrick Willson speaks of preaching along the parable's "trajectory" — aiming it so that it does to the modern congregation what it did to the first, springing the same trap in a new room.

Lakini hapa neno la kusawazisha linahitajika, kwa maana Jülicher anaweza kusukumwa mbali mno. Yesu Mwenyewe hakushikilia hoja moja peke yake kila mara: aliufafanua Mfano wa Mpanzi undani kwa undani (mbegu, njia, penye mwamba, miiba, udongo mzuri), na akafanya vivyo hivyo kwa Ngano na Magugu. Basi baadhi ya mifano kweli ina vipengele vilivyofafanuliwa, tulivyopewa kwa mamlaka ya Bwana Mwenyewe. Kwa hiyo kanuni hii ni kinga ya hekima, si sheria ya chuma. Pinga hamu ya zamani ya kugeuza kila undani kuwa msimbo — lakini usikane maana ambazo Yesu Mwenyewe alizitoa. Tafuta msukumo mkuu; heshimu tafsiri alizozitoa; na viache vipengele vingine vipambe hadithi tu.Yet here a balancing word is needed, for Jülicher may be pressed too far. Jesus Himself did not always hold to a single point: He interpreted the Parable of the Sower detail by detail (the seed, the path, the rocky ground, the thorns, the good soil), and He did the same with the Wheat and the Tares. Some parables, then, do carry interpreted elements, given to us by the Lord's own authority. So the rule is a wise guard, not an iron law. Resist the old itch to turn every detail into a cipher — but do not deny the meanings Jesus Himself assigned. Seek the central thrust; honor the interpretations He gave; and let the rest of the details simply furnish the story.

Onyo moja la mwisho unapojiandaa kuihubiri. Kwa sababu mifano inajulikana sana, wasikilizaji wako wanadhani tayari wanaijua, na mazoea yameufanya butu ule ukali uliokata zamani. Sehemu ya kazi yako ni kuifanya hadithi ya zamani iwe ngeni tena — kurudisha mshtuko ambao wasikilizaji wa kwanza waliuhisi, wakati "Msamaria mmoja" hakuwa shujaa wa shule ya Jumapili bali mzushi aliyechukiwa, na mtoza ushuru hakuwa mtu wa kuonewa huruma bali msaliti aliyetajirika kwa taabu ya majirani zake. Ondoa mng'ao wa vioo vya rangi kanisani, irudishe hadithi katika kashfa yake ya asili, na waache waumini wako wahisi kwa mara ya kwanza ilivyogharimu kuisikia. Mfano uliookolewa kutoka kwenye mazoea ya kupita kiasi unaweza kujeruhi na kuponya kwa ukali ule ule wa siku ulipotolewa mara ya kwanza.One last caution as you prepare to preach them. Because the parables are so familiar, your hearers think they already know them, and familiarity has dulled the very edge that once cut. Part of your task is to make the old story strange again — to recover the shock the first audience felt, when "a certain Samaritan" was not a Sunday-school hero but a hated heretic, and a tax collector was not a sympathetic figure but a traitor grown rich on his neighbors' misery. Strip away the stained-glass glow, set the story back in its original scandal, and let your congregation feel for the first time what it cost to hear it. A parable rescued from over-familiarity can wound and heal as sharply as the day it was first told.

6.5 Kuhubiri Mifano6.5 Preaching the Parables

Kusanya yote haya kuwa vitendo. Kwanza, usimulie mfano kama hadithi; usiusage kuwa kauli dhahania na kuwapa watu unga badala ya tunda. Pili, hifadhi mshangao — zuia mwiba ili bado uweze kuchoma. Tatu, tafuta na uhubiri hoja moja kuu, ulinganisho alioufanya Yesu, ukipinga kishawishi cha kufanya istiari pale ambapo Yeye hakufanya, huku ukiheshimu pale alipofanya. Nne, ulenge mwelekeo wa mruko kwa watu walio mbele yako, ili mfano uwakamate wasikilizaji wako katika kiburi chao kama ulivyomkamata mwana-sheria, Farisayo, na kaka mkubwa — si kitu cha makumbusho cha kustaajabiwa, bali neno hai linalowakuta vitini mwao. Na tano, uushike mahali pake: mfano unatumikia kweli ya ufalme ambayo Bwana aliusimulia kuifikisha, na mhubiri anayeufunga kwenye kweli hiyo hatazishusha kamwe hadithi hizi takatifu kuwa burudani tu. Zishughulikie hivi, nawe utaona mifano ikifanya katika kusanyiko lako kile ambacho imefanya kwa miaka elfu mbili — ikipenya ngome za ulinzi, ikifyatua mtego, na kumwacha msikilizaji uso kwa uso na ufalme wa Mungu. Katika sehemu inayofuata tunatoka kwenye hadithi kubwa ambazo ndizo mahubiri kwenda kwenye hadithi ndogo inayoishi ndani ya mahubiri — ufundi na maadili ya kielelezo.Draw it all together into practice. First, tell the parable as a story; do not grind it into an abstract proposition and serve the powder instead of the fruit. Second, preserve the surprise — withhold the sting so that it can still strike. Third, find and preach the one central point, the comparison Jesus made, resisting the temptation to allegorize what He did not while honoring what He did. Fourth, aim the trajectory at the people in front of you, so that the parable catches your hearers in their pride exactly as it caught the lawyer, the Pharisee, and the elder brother — not a museum piece to be admired, but a living word that finds them in their seats. And fifth, keep it anchored: the parable serves the kingdom truth the Lord told it to convey, and the preacher who keeps it tied to that truth will never reduce these holy stories to mere entertainment. Handle them this way, and you will find the parables doing in your congregation what they have done for two thousand years — slipping past the defenses, springing the trap, and leaving the hearer face to face with the kingdom of God. In the next unit we move from the great stories that are the sermon to the smaller story that lives inside the sermon — the craft and the ethics of the illustration.

Hadithi Ndani ya MahubiriStory Inside the Sermon

Hadi sasa hadithi imekuwa ndiyo mahubiri. Katika sehemu hii tunaitafakari hadithi ndogo inayoishi ndani ya mahubiri — kielelezo. Hii ndiyo njia inayotumika zaidi kuliko zote ya kutumia hadithi katika kuhubiri: kila wiki, katika mimbari ambazo hazingethubutu kamwe kuhubiri mahubiri kamili ya masimulizi, mhubiri husimama kidogo kusimulia kisa kinachoangaza hoja yake. Kielelezo kina ufundi wake wa kutafuta na kuhifadhi, aina zake mbalimbali, na — zaidi ya yote — maadili yake, kwa maana hakuna mahali ambapo mhubiri hujaribiwa zaidi kukosa uaminifu kuliko katika hadithi anazosimulia.Until now the story has been the sermon. In this unit we consider the smaller story that lives inside a sermon — the illustration. It is by far the most common use of story in preaching: every week, in pulpits that would never attempt a full story sermon, a preacher pauses to tell a tale that throws light on his point. The illustration has its own craft of finding and filing, its own range of types, and — above all — its own ethics, for nowhere is a preacher more tempted to dishonesty than in the stories he tells.

7.1 Madirisha Ukutani7.1 Windows in the Wall

Neno la zamani ndilo fasili bora. Kuelezea kwa kielelezo ni kutupa nuru juu ya jambo, na Spurgeon alitupa picha ambayo haijawahi kuzidiwa: vielelezo ni madirisha katika ukuta wa mahubiri. Hoja ndiyo muundo — mawe na mbao za ufafanuzi na uthibitisho — lakini jengo lenye ukuta mtupu ni mahali penye giza pa kuketi. Dirisha huingiza nuru, ili kweli iliyokwisha kusimama pale ionekane ghafla. Hivi ndivyo kielelezo kinavyofanya: kinalifanya jambo dhahania kuwa halisi, kinampumzisha msikilizaji aliyekuwa akifuata hoja ngumu, kinaikaza hoja kumbukumbuni, na kinaigusa nia kwa kumwacha mtu ahisi kile ambacho alikuwa amekielewa tu.The old word is the best definition. To illustrate is to throw light upon something, and Spurgeon gave us the picture that has never been bettered: illustrations are windows in the wall of the sermon. The argument is the structure — the stone and timber of exposition and proof — but a building of solid wall is a dark place to sit. The window lets in the light, so that the truth already standing there can suddenly be seen. This is what the illustration does: it makes the abstract concrete, it rests the hearer who has been following hard reasoning, it fixes the point in the memory, and it moves the will by letting a man feel what he has only understood.

Angalia jinsi hili linavyotofautiana na mahubiri ya masimulizi ya sehemu nne zilizopita. Kule hadithi ilikuwa ndiyo ujumbe; ilibeba uzito wote. Hapa hadithi ni mtumishi ndani ya muundo mkubwa zaidi, mara nyingi zaidi mahubiri ya kideduktivu ya Sehemu ya 3: hoja inatajwa, kisha kielelezo kinaletwa ili kuifanya iwe hai na ya kuaminika. Dirisha si nyumba, na kielelezo si mahubiri. Kipo ili kutumikia hoja — na mara kinaposahau jambo hilo, kinakuwa tatizo badala ya msaada.Notice how this differs from the story sermon of the last four units. There the story was the message; it carried the whole weight. Here the story is a servant inside a larger structure, most often the deductive sermon of Unit 3: the point is stated, and then the illustration is brought in to make it vivid and believable. The window is not the house, and the illustration is not the sermon. It exists to serve the point — and the moment it forgets that, it becomes a problem rather than a help.

Mahubiri yasiyo na dirisha hata moja ni kushindwa kwa aina yake. Umewahi kusikia mahubiri kama hayo — sahihi, yaliyopangwa vizuri, yenye mafundisho safi, na karibu haiwezekani kukaa macho chini yake, kwa sababu akili inaweza kubeba hoja isiyopumzishwa kwa kiasi fulani tu kabla haijakatika kamba yake na kuelea mbali. Kielelezo si kuwaridhia wasikilizaji dhaifu; ni rehema iliyojengwa ndani ya jinsi Mungu alivyoiumba akili. Hata msikilizaji hodari zaidi anahitaji kipindi cha pumziko ambacho hadithi hutoa, kipindi ambacho macho yanarudi kuona sawasawa na moyo unaifikia akili. Na kile kinachopumzishwa pia kinashawishiwa: mtu anaweza kuikubali hoja yako na bado asiguswe, lakini mwonyeshe kweli ikiishi ndani ya hadithi na nia yake inaguswa pale ambapo akili peke yake isingeweza kufika. Dirisha haliudhoofishi ukuta; linaifanya nyumba ifae kuishi ndani yake.A sermon with no windows at all is its own kind of failure. You have heard such sermons — accurate, well-organized, doctrinally sound, and almost impossible to stay awake under, because the mind can hold only so much unrelieved argument before it slips its mooring and drifts. The illustration is not a concession to weak listeners; it is a mercy built into the way God made the mind. Even the strongest hearer needs the moment of rest a story gives, the moment when the eyes refocus and the heart catches up to the head. And what is rested is also persuaded: a man may grant your argument and still not move, but show him the truth living in a story and his will is engaged where his reason alone could not reach it. The window does not weaken the wall; it makes the house fit to live in.

7.2 Kutafuta na Kuhifadhi7.2 Finding and Filing

Vielelezo vinatoka wapi? Kila mahali — kwa mhubiri anayeishi macho yake yakiwa wazi. Vimo katika Maandiko, katika historia, katika maisha ya wanaume na wanawake mashuhuri, katika maumbile na sayansi, katika habari za siku, katika fasihi, na katika shughuli za kawaida za siku zake mwenyewe. Mhubiri anayelalamika kwamba hawezi kamwe kupata kielelezo kizuri kwa kawaida ni mhubiri anayetembea duniani akiwa amelala. Mtu mwenye macho yaliyo wazi huona mahubiri katika shomoro, mfano katika msongamano wa magari, fundisho likiwa limechorwa katika jinsi maji yanavyotafuta usawa wake. Vielelezo viko kila upande wako; ufundi ni kuvitambua.Where do illustrations come from? Everywhere — for the preacher who lives with his eyes open. They are in the Scriptures, in history, in the lives of great men and women, in nature and the sciences, in the day's news, in literature, and in the ordinary traffic of his own days. The preacher who complains that he can never find a good illustration is usually a preacher who walks through the world asleep. The man whose eyes are open sees a sermon in a sparrow, a parable in a traffic jam, a doctrine pictured in the way water finds its level. The illustrations are all around you; the art is to notice them.

Lakini kinachotambuliwa na kutokamatwa hupotea kabla ya Jumamosi. Kwa hiyo mhubiri mwenye nidhamu huwa na mfumo — faili la kadi, daftari, folda kwenye kishkwambi chake — ambamo kila kielelezo kizuri huingia mara anapokikuta, kikiwa kimeandikwa hoja yake na chanzo chake. Kwa miaka mingi faili hilo linakuwa hazina, na ni hazina hiyo hasa ambayo mahubiri ya hadithi-tawala ya Sehemu ya 3 huichota. Kumbuka tulisema kwamba mtindo wa hadithi-tawala humzawadia zaidi mhubiri aliyetumia miaka mingi akikusanya kimya kimya hadithi nzuri na za kweli. Huku ndiko ukusanyaji huo unakofanyika. Anza faili lako leo; baada ya miaka ishirini utahubiri kutoka katika utajiri wake, wala hutasimama tena mikono mitupu mbele ya kifungu.But what is noticed and not captured is lost by Saturday. The disciplined preacher therefore keeps a system — a file of cards, a notebook, a folder on his tablet — into which every good illustration goes the moment he meets it, marked with its point and its source. Over the years that file becomes a treasury, and it is precisely the treasury that the controlling-story sermon of Unit 3 draws upon. Recall that we said the controlling-story form most rewards the preacher who has spent years quietly gathering good and truthful stories. This is where that gathering happens. Begin your file today; in twenty years you will preach out of its riches, and you will never again stand empty-handed before a text.

7.3 Aina Kumi7.3 The Ten Types

Vielelezo huja kwa aina nyingi, na inasaidia kuijua familia yake. Tunaweza kutaja kumi. Uzoefu binafsi, unaotoka katika maisha ya mhubiri mwenyewe; cha kibiblia, Maandiko yakiangaza Maandiko mengine; cha kihistoria, tukio kutoka kumbukumbu za wanadamu; cha wasifu, kipindi kutoka katika maisha ya mtu mmoja (ufundi wa Sehemu ya 5 kwa udogo); cha maumbile na sayansi, kweli iliyochorwa katika mpangilio wa uumbaji; cha tukio la sasa, kinachotoka katika habari za siku; cha fasihi au nukuu, mstari kutoka shairi, wimbo wa kiroho, au mtu mwenye hekima; cha kudhania, kile "tuseme mtu fulani..." kinachobuni kisa ili kupima kweli; cha mlinganisho au taswira, "ufalme umefanana na..." kwa udogo; na cha ucheshi, mguso wa kicheko unaofungua uso uliofungwa. Kila kimoja kina nguvu yake na mtego wake. Hadithi ya uzoefu binafsi ndiyo ya karibu zaidi na yenye nguvu kuliko zote — hakuna kinachowafikia waumini kama "ngoja nikuambie kilichonipata" — lakini ina hatari kali zaidi ya kujionyesha, ya kumfanya mhubiri kuwa shujaa wa kila kisa hadi mahubiri yanakuwa juu yake na si juu ya Bwana wake. Vivyo hivyo ucheshi unaweza kufungua moyo kwa sentensi moja, lakini lazima utumikie kweli na kamwe usidhihaki kilicho kitakatifu, kamwe usimjeruhi mtu aliyepo, na kamwe usivimbe hadi watu wanakuja kwa ajili ya mchekeshaji na kurudi nyumbani bila neno kutoka kwa Mungu. Tumia zote kumi; zijue vizuri tahadhari za kila moja.Illustrations come in many kinds, and it helps to know the family. We may name ten. The personal experience, drawn from the preacher's own life; the biblical, one Scripture lighting up another; the historical, an event from the human record; the biographical, a moment from a single life (the craft of Unit 5 in miniature); the natural and scientific, a truth pictured in the created order; the current event, taken from the day's news; the literary or quoted, a line from a poem, a hymn, or a wise man; the hypothetical, the "suppose a man..." that invents a case to test a truth; the analogy or figure, "the kingdom is like..." in small; and the humorous, the touch of laughter that opens a closed face. Each has its strength and its snare. The personal-experience story is the most intimate and powerful of all — nothing reaches a congregation like "let me tell you what happened to me" — but it carries the sharpest danger of self-display, of making the preacher the hero of every tale until the sermon is about him and not his Lord. Humor, likewise, can open a heart in a single sentence, but it must serve the truth and never mock the sacred, never wound a person present, and never swell until the people came for a comedian and went home without a word from God. Use all ten; master the cautions of each.

Neno juu ya aina tatu zaidi kati ya hizo kumi, kwa maana kila moja ina mtego unaostahili kutajwa. Kielelezo cha tukio la sasa ni hai kwa sababu ni kipya, lakini kinaharibika upesi; kile ambacho kila mtu anakizungumza mwezi huu kitakuwa fumbo baada ya miaka mitano, kwa hiyo kitumie kisha kiache, wala usijenge mahubiri ya kudumu juu ya kichwa cha habari kinachopita. Kielelezo cha fasihi au nukuu huongeza uzito na uzuri, lakini humjaribu mtu aonyeshe elimu yake; shairi linalonukuliwa ili kutumikia kweli ni zawadi, shairi linalonukuliwa ili kumwonyesha mhubiri ni ubatili, na waumini daima wanaweza kutambua tofauti. Kielelezo cha kudhania — kile "tuseme mtu fulani..." cha uaminifu — ni chombo kizuri cha kupima kanuni, lakini lazima sikuzote kivae "tuseme" chake waziwazi, kwa maana mara msikilizaji anapodhani kwamba kisa kilichobuniwa kilitokea kweli, umevuka kutoka kielelezo kuingia udanganyifu.A word on three more of the ten, for each has a trap worth naming. The current-event illustration is vivid because it is fresh, but it spoils fast; what everyone is talking about this month will be a puzzle in five years, so use it and let it go, and do not build a permanent sermon on a passing headline. The literary or quoted illustration lends weight and beauty, but it tempts a man to show his learning; a poem quoted to serve the truth is a gift, a poem quoted to display the preacher is a vanity, and the congregation can always tell the difference. The hypothetical — the honest "suppose a man..." — is a fine tool for testing a principle, but it must always wear its "suppose" openly, for the instant a hearer thinks an invented case really happened, you have crossed from illustration into deception.

7.4 Maadili ya Hadithi ya Kuazima7.4 The Ethics of the Borrowed Story

Sasa tunafika kiini cha sehemu hii, mahali ambapo wahubiri huanguka mara nyingi zaidi. Hatari kubwa kuliko zote katika kutumia vielelezo si kuvisimulia vibaya; ni kuvisimulia bila uaminifu. Kishawishi ni cha kudumu na cha hila: unasoma hadithi inayogusa moyo ya jambo lililompata mtu mwingine, na unapoisimulia mimbarini ina nguvu zaidi sana katika nafsi ya kwanza — "Nilikuwa nikiendesha gari kurudi nyumbani usiku mmoja..." — kiasi kwamba koti la kuazima linavaliwa karibu bila uamuzi wowote. Robert Hastings alimtaja mhubiri huyu kwa usahihi kabisa: "mhubiri wa kamba ya kuanikia nguo," anayeanika nguo za watu wengine kana kwamba ni zake. Ni aina ya uongo, ni wizi wa maandishi mimbarini, na mtu atakayeiba hadithi ili kuugusa umati amekwisha kuanza kubadilishana uadilifu wake kwa matokeo.Now to the heart of this unit, and to the place where preachers most often fall. The single greatest danger in using illustrations is not telling them badly; it is telling them dishonestly. The temptation is constant and subtle: you read a moving story of something that happened to another man, and when you tell it from the pulpit it is so much more powerful in the first person — "I was driving home one night..." — that the borrowed coat slips on almost without a decision. Robert Hastings named this preacher exactly: the "clothesline preacher," who hangs out other men's washing as if it were his own. It is a form of lying, and it is pulpit plagiarism, and a man who will steal a story to move a crowd has already begun to trade his integrity for effect.

Dawa ni rahisi, na inagharimu kiburi kidogo tu: taja vyanzo vyako kwa uaminifu. Hupotezi karibu kitu chochote kwa kusema "Nilisoma habari ya mtu mmoja aliye..." au "rafiki aliwahi kuniambia..." — nawe unabaki na kila kitu chenye maana, uaminifu wako mwenyewe na imani ya watu wako kwako. Utendaji wa Dkt. Cook mwenyewe ndio kielelezo. Vielelezo viwili ambavyo amevibeba kwa miaka mingi vimeandikwa hapa kikamilifu, kila kimoja kikisimuliwa chini ya jina linalokihusu — cha kwanza zawadi kutoka kwa rafiki, cha pili kilichopokezwa kupitia mnyororo mrefu wa wahubiri — ili uone kwamba hadithi ya kuazima haipotezi hata chembe ya nguvu zake pale kuazima kunapokubaliwa kwa sauti.The remedy is simple, and costs only a little pride: credit your sources honestly. You lose almost nothing by saying "I read of a man who..." or "a friend once told me..." — and you keep everything that matters, your own truthfulness and the trust of your people. Dr. Cook's own practice is the model. Two illustrations he has carried for years are set down here in full, each told under the name it wears — the first a gift from a friend, the second handed down through a long chain of preachers — so you may see that a borrowed story loses none of its power when the borrowing is owned aloud.

Dkt. Cook huhubiri hadithi hiyo mahali ambapo Bwana anazungumza juu ya kupanda na kuvuna — Yohana 4, kando ya kisima, ambapo Yesu anayainua macho ya wanafunzi kuyaona mashamba yaliyokwisha kuwa meupe tayari kuvunwa na kuwaambia kwamba mmoja hupanda na mwingine huvuna, kwamba amewatuma wavune wasichokitaabikia. Bw. Jenner alipanda maisha yake yote wala hakupewa kuvuna chochote alichoweza kukiona; lakini mavuno yalikuwa halisi muda wote huo, yakikusanywa ndani ya makanisa na misheni na kambi za jeshi upande wa pili wa dunia. Hii hapa ahadi iliyofichwa moyoni mwa kielelezo, na sababu kinastahili kuwa sehemu ya mahubiri na si cha kitabu cha hadithi tu: shahidi mwaminifu anayetaabika bila kuona matunda hajashindwa, kwa maana Mungu anayeshika hesabu analeta mavuno ambayo shahidi huyo huenda asiyajue mpaka mbinguni. Isimulie chini ya jina la Bw. Jenner, nayo itahubiri.Dr. Cook preaches that story where the Lord speaks of sowing and reaping — John 4, beside the well, where Jesus lifts the disciples' eyes to fields already white for harvest and tells them that one sows and another reaps, that He sends them to reap that for which they have not laboured. Mr. Jenner sowed for a lifetime and was given to reap nothing he could see; yet the harvest was real all the while, gathered into churches and missions and army camps on the far side of the earth. Here is the promise hidden in the heart of the illustration, and the reason it belongs to a sermon and not merely to a storybook: the faithful witness who labours and sees no fruit has not failed, for the God who keeps the account is bringing in a harvest he may not learn of until heaven. Tell it under Mr. Jenner's name, and it will preach.

Kuna wajibu mwingine miwili unaohusika hapa. Wa kwanza ni ukweli: hadithi ya kweli lazima ibaki ya kweli. Unaweza kuisimulia kwa uhai, lakini huwezi kuiboresha hadi iwe uongo — na kama hadithi ni ya kudhania, lazima useme "tuseme," na kama ni hekaya ya mapokeo, usiipitishe kana kwamba ni ukweli. Hii ndiyo kanuni ile ile ya Sehemu ya 4 ("usiongeze") ikihamishwa kutoka kifungu cha Maandiko kwenda kielelezo: ukweli katika picha, kama ulivyo katika kifungu. Wa pili ni ruhusa na faragha: unapotoa vielelezo kutoka maisha ya watu halisi — mshiriki wa kusanyiko lako, familia yako mwenyewe — pata ruhusa yao, linda heshima yao, badilisha kile kinachopaswa kubadilishwa, na kamwe usiitumie mimbari kumfichua au kumwaibisha mtu asiyeweza kujibu. Hadithi inatumikia kweli; kamwe isiruhusiwe kuwajeruhi watu ambao kweli inakusudia kuwaokoa.Two further duties belong here. The first is truthfulness: a true story must stay true. You may tell it vividly, but you may not improve it into a lie — and if a story is hypothetical, you must say "suppose," and if it is a legend, you must not pass it off as fact. This is the very rule of Unit 4 ("thou shalt not add") carried from the text into the illustration: truth in the picture, as in the passage. The second is permission and privacy: when you illustrate from the lives of real people — a member of your congregation, your own family — get their permission, guard their dignity, change what should be changed, and never use the pulpit to expose or embarrass a soul who cannot answer back. The story serves the truth; it must never be allowed to wound the people the truth is meant to save.

Kuna sababu jambo hili ni muhimu kuliko adabu njema tu. Tunahubiri injili ambayo nguvu yake yote ni kwamba ni ya kweli, na mtu anayesema uongo katika mambo madogo ya mimbarini huwafundisha watu wake, bila neno, kwamba kweli inaweza kujadiliwa pale inapomfaa msemaji. Hadithi ya kuazima inayosimuliwa kama yako ni mfano mdogo wa kukosa uaminifu unaohubiriwa sambamba na mahubiri, nayo huvunja ndani ya roho ya msikilizaji kile ambacho kifungu kilikuwa kikijenga. Hatari hii imeongezeka tu katika zama ambazo mahubiri mazima yanaweza kupakuliwa na kuhubiriwa kama ya mtu mwenyewe kwa kubofya mara chache. Kanuni ile ile inayahusu yote: usichokitayarisha mwenyewe, usikidai. Simama juu ya masomo yako mwenyewe, simulia hadithi za kuazima chini ya majina ya wenyewe, na uache uadilifu wako uhubiri kwa sauti kubwa kama maneno yako.There is a reason this matters more than mere good manners. We preach a gospel whose whole power is that it is true, and a man who lies in the small things of the pulpit teaches his people, without a word, that truth is negotiable when it serves the speaker. The borrowed story told as your own is a little parable of dishonesty preached alongside the sermon, and it undoes in the hearer's spirit what the text was building. The danger has only grown in an age when whole sermons can be downloaded and preached as one's own with a few clicks. The same rule covers them all: what you did not produce, you do not claim. Stand on your own study, tell borrowed stories under their owners' names, and let your integrity preach as loudly as your words.

7.5 Kiasi7.5 Restraint

Basi mahubiri yanapaswa kuwa na madirisha mangapi? Hakuna idadi maalum, lakini hisia yenye manufaa ni hii: ya kutosha kuangaza kila chumba kikuu, wala si zaidi. Kila hoja kuu inaweza kustahili dirisha lake; mageuko madogo kwa kawaida yanaweza kusimama katika nuru ya kawaida ya mengine. Jihadhari na pande mbili za kupita kiasi — mahubiri yasiyo na madirisha ambayo hakuna anayeweza kuona ndani yake, na mahubiri ya kioo kitupu yasiyoweza kubeba uzito wake mwenyewe. Na weka vielelezo vyako mahali ambapo nuru inahitajika zaidi: kwenye hoja ngumu zaidi na dhahania zaidi, pale msikilizaji anapojikaza kufuata; wakati wa matumizi, pale kweli inapopaswa kuhama kutoka kichwani hadi mikononi; na mwishoni, pale picha moja ya mwisho inapoweza kuwarudisha watu nyumbani wakiubeba ujumbe wote katika picha moja.How many windows, then, should a sermon have? There is no fixed number, but a useful instinct is this: enough to light every main room, and no more. Each major point may well deserve its window; the minor turns can usually stand in the plain light of the others. Beware the two extremes — the windowless sermon that no one can see into, and the all-glass sermon that cannot bear its own weight. And place your illustrations where the light is most needed: at the hardest, most abstract point, where the hearer is straining to follow; at the moment of application, where the truth must move from the head to the hands; and at the close, where one last picture can send the people home carrying the whole message in a single image.

Kanuni moja ya mwisho inazishika nyingine zote mahali pake. Kielelezo ni dirisha, si jengo — na ukuta uliojaa madirisha tu hautasimama. Mhubiri anayependa hadithi lazima ajilinde asiziache zisonge nje ufafanuzi ule ule ambao zipo kuutumikia, hadi mahubiri yanakuwa mfululizo wa visa vya kupendeza na mistari michache iliyotawanyika katikati. Nuru ni nzuri, lakini nyumba ni zaidi ya nuru; watu walikuja kusikia Neno la Mungu, si kuburudishwa tu na mhubiri wake. Hiki hapa kipimo kinachofichua kielelezo kilichotumiwa vibaya: ikiwa wasikilizaji wako wanarudi nyumbani wakiikumbuka hadithi lakini hawawezi kukumbuka hoja iliyokusudiwa kubebwa nayo, basi dirisha limegeuka kuwa mandhari. Hadithi ilivuta macho yote kwake yenyewe na haikuacha nuru yoyote iangaze kweli. Weka kila kielelezo mahali pake, mtumishi wa hoja na wa Neno — kikitumiwa kwa uaminifu, chanzo chake kikitajwa kwa haki, kikisimuliwa kwa ukweli, na kikiwekwa ndani ya mipaka. Fanya hivyo, na hadithi ndogo ndani ya mahubiri itafanya kazi yake ya unyenyekevu na ya kung'aa kwa muda wote utakaohubiri. Katika sehemu ya mwisho tunaikusanya kozi nzima kuwa ufundi wa kusimulia hadithi vizuri, na kuitumia katika warsha ya kufunga.One last principle holds all the rest in place. An illustration is a window, not the building — and a wall that is all windows will not stand. The preacher who loves stories must guard against letting them crowd out the very exposition they exist to serve, until the sermon is a charming string of anecdotes with a few verses scattered between. Light is good, but a house is more than light; the people came to hear the Word of God, not merely to be entertained by its preacher. Here is the test that exposes a misused illustration: if your hearers go home remembering the story but unable to recall the point it was meant to carry, then the window has become the view. The story drew all eyes to itself and let no light onto the truth. Keep every illustration in its place, a servant of the point and of the Word — used honestly, credited fairly, told truthfully, and held within bounds. Do that, and the small story inside the sermon will do its humble, shining work for as long as you preach. In the final unit we gather up the whole course into the craft of telling the story well, and put it to work in a closing workshop.

Kuisimulia Simulizi Vizuri — na WarshaTelling the Story Well — and a Workshop

Tumejifunza kwa nini simulizi hufanya kazi, maumbo matatu inayoweza kuchukua, jinsi ya kuchimba masimulizi ya Biblia yenyewe, ufundi wa kuhubiri maisha ya wahusika wa Biblia, ustadi wa ajabu wa mifano, na matumizi ya uaminifu ya kielelezo. Limebaki jambo moja — kusimulia kwenyewe. Simulizi kubwa iliyosimuliwa vibaya ni msiba mimbarini; simulizi ile ile ikisimuliwa vizuri inaweza kugeuza maisha ya mtu. Sehemu hii ya mwisho inashughulikia ufundi wa kuandika na kusimulia, inakusanya kozi nzima katika kanuni chache zinazotawala, na inakutuma nje kupitia warsha ya kufunga.We have learned why the story works, the three forms it may take, how to mine the Bible's own narratives, the craft of biographical preaching, the genius of the parables, and the honest use of the illustration. One thing remains — the telling itself. A great story badly told is a tragedy in the pulpit; the same story well told can turn a life around. This final unit takes up the craft of writing and telling, gathers the whole course into a handful of governing principles, and sends you out through a closing workshop.

8.1 Kuiandika Simulizi8.1 Writing the Story

Kabla simulizi haijasimuliwa, inaundwa, na kuiunda ni kazi halisi. Waandishi kama Raymond Clubb na wengine waliochunguza ufundi huu wanatuelekeza kwenye kanuni chache zinazodumu. Ya kwanza ni undani unaosema: simulizi haifanywi hai kwa kurundika maelezo, bali kwa kuchagua mambo machache halisi yanayogusa hisia, yanayofanya tukio liruke na kuwa hai — harufu ya samaki, vumbi barabarani, kutetemeka kwa sauti. Mafuriko ya maelezo huizamisha simulizi; undani mmoja mkamilifu huiwasha. Ya pili ni uchumi wa maneno: adui mkubwa kabisa wa simulizi yoyote ni msongamano, na kazi kuu ya mwandishi ni kukata — kila neno lisilotumikia lazima liondoke, kwa maana kile unachokiacha ni muhimu kama kile unachokibakiza. Ya tatu ni mvutano: simulizi huishi kwa mgogoro na hamu ya kujua kitakachotokea, kwa hiyo anza karibu na tukio lenyewe badala ya mbali kabla yake, jenga hatua kwa hatua kuelekea mgeuko, na kamwe usiufichue mwisho mapema. Ya nne ni mtazamo: amua msikilizaji atatazama kwa macho ya nani — ya msimulizi aliye nje ya tukio, au, kwa nafsi ya kwanza, macho ya mtu aliyesimama ndani ya tukio. Na ya tano inakusanya zilizobaki — athari moja: simulizi iliyoundwa vizuri inalenga taswira moja kuu, na kila neno ndani yake linapaswa kuelekea taswira hiyo moja, ili jumla yake iache alama moja isiyosahaulika.Before a story is told, it is shaped, and shaping it is real work. Writers like Raymond Clubb and others who have studied the craft point us to a few enduring principles. The first is the telling detail: a story is not made vivid by piling on description but by choosing the few concrete, sensory details that make the scene leap to life — the smell of the fish, the dust on the road, the tremor in a voice. A flood of detail drowns a story; one perfect detail lights it. The second is economy: the deadliest enemy of any story is clutter, and the writer's chief labor is cutting — every word that does not serve must go, for what you leave out is as important as what you keep. The third is tension: a story lives on conflict and suspense, so begin near the action rather than far before it, build steadily toward the turn, and never give away the ending in advance. The fourth is point of view: decide whose eyes the hearer will look through — the detached narrator's, or, in the first person, the eyes of one who stood in the scene. And the fifth gathers up the rest — the single effect: a well-made story aims at one dominant impression, and every word in it should bend toward that one impression, so that the whole leaves a single, unforgettable mark.

Sehemu mbili za simulizi zina uzito kuliko nyingine zote, na zote mbili zinastahili juhudi ya pekee: sentensi ya kwanza na ya mwisho. Mwanzo lazima ukamate usikivu kabla akili ya msikilizaji haijaanza kutangatanga — si kwa kujisafisha koo ("Nataka kuwasimulia hadithi ndogo kuhusu..."), bali kwa kumtumbukiza msikilizaji moja kwa moja ndani ya tukio, katikati ya jambo linalotendeka. Mwisho lazima utue athari ile moja kisha ukomee hapo. Kosa la kawaida zaidi la wasimulizi wanaoanza ni kutojua simulizi inapokwisha, kwa hiyo wanaieleza, na kuieleza tena, na kuiondolea uhai kwa maneno mengi. Mchomo ukishapiga, picha ikishakamilika, nyamaza na uiamini simulizi uliyoisimulia. Hadithi inayoisha pigo moja kuchelewa hupoteza katika sekunde zake za mwisho kila kitu ambacho dakika zilizotangulia zilikuwa zimekipata.Two places in a story carry more weight than all the rest, and both deserve special labor: the first sentence and the last. The opening must seize attention before the hearer's mind can wander — not with throat-clearing ("I want to tell you a little story about...") but by dropping the hearer straight into the scene, in the middle of something happening. The close must land the single effect and then stop. The commonest fault of beginning storytellers is not knowing when the story is over, so they explain it, and re-explain it, and talk the life out of it. When the sting has struck, when the picture is complete, fall silent and trust the story you have told. A tale that ends one beat too late loses in its final seconds everything the preceding minutes had won.

8.2 Kuisimulia Simulizi8.2 Telling the Story

Simulizi iliyoandikwa vizuri lazima bado isimuliwe vizuri, na kusimulia ni sanaa tofauti na kuandika. Kanuni ya kwanza ndiyo ngumu zaidi kwa wengi: simulizi mimbarini husimuliwa, haisomwi. Simulizi inayosomwa kutoka kwenye muswada ni nusu mfu — macho yanashuka kwenye ukurasa, uchangamfu wa papo hapo unatoweka, na msikilizaji anahisi kwamba anasomewa badala ya kuzungumzwa naye. Ijue simulizi yako kikamilifu kiasi kwamba huhitaji maandishi yoyote, na hapo utakuwa huru kuwatazama watu wako machoni unapoisimulia. Ya pili ni mwendo: simulizi inayosimuliwa hupumua, ikiharakisha mambo madogo, ikipunguza mwendo kwenye mgeuko, na — jambo linalosahaulika kuliko yote — ikithubutu kunyamaza katika wakati mkuu, kwa maana kimya kilichowekwa mahali pake kinaweza kupiga kwa nguvu kuliko neno lolote. Ya tatu ni kwamba chombo kizima cha msimulizi ni yeye mwenyewe — sauti yake ikipanda na kushuka, uso wake, mikono yake, mwinamo wa mwili wake — vyote vikitumika, kamwe si kwa kujionyesha, bali kulibeba tukio. Ya nne ndiyo siri ya kusimulia kote kulikojaa uhai: liona tukio unapolisimulia. Kama wewe mwenyewe unamtazama mwana mpotevu akijikokota barabarani unaponena, wasikilizaji wako nao watamtazama; usipoona chochote, wao hawataona chochote. Na ya tano ni mstari ambao kamwe usivukwe — ihisi bila kuiigiza. Hisia za kweli huwagusa watu; maigizo huwafukuza, kwa sababu mara tu kusanyiko linapohisi kuna uigizaji, uchawi wa simulizi unavunjika na uaminifu pamoja nao. Isimulie kutoka moyoni, na moyo, wala si maigizo, ufanye kazi.A story that has been well written must still be well told, and telling is a different art from writing. The first rule is the hardest for many: a story in the pulpit is told, not read. A story read from a manuscript is half dead — the eyes drop to the page, the spontaneity drains away, and the hearer feels he is being recited to rather than spoken with. Know your story so thoroughly that you need no notes, and then you are free to look your people in the eye while you tell it. The second is pacing: a told story breathes, hurrying through what is minor, slowing at the turning point, and — most neglected of all — daring to fall silent at the great moment, for a well-placed pause can strike harder than any word. The third is that the teller's whole instrument is himself — his voice rising and falling, his face, his hands, the lean of his body — all enlisted, never to show off, but to carry the scene. The fourth is the secret of all vivid telling: see it as you tell it. If you yourself are watching the prodigal stumble up the road as you speak, your hearers will watch him too; if you see nothing, they will see nothing. And the fifth is the line that must never be crossed — feel it without performing it. Genuine feeling moves people; theatrics repel them, because the instant a congregation senses an act, the spell breaks and the trust with it. Tell it from the heart, and let the heart, not the performance, do the work.

Unafikaje mahali pa kusimulia simulizi bila maandishi? Kwa mazoezi ya kurudiarudia, ambayo si aibu bali ni nidhamu ya kawaida ya msimulizi. Isimulie kwa sauti katika chumba kitupu, kwa usukani wa gari lako, kwa mtu yeyote atakayesikiliza, mpaka umbo lake liishi ndani yako na maneno yaje yenyewe. Usiikariri neno kwa neno kama hotuba ya kughani — simulizi iliyokaririwa ni ngumu kama iliyosomwa, na mara unaposahau kifungu kimoja cha maneno umepotea. Badala yake kariri mfuatano wa picha, matukio kwa mpangilio wake, na uyaache maneno yazaliwe upya kila mara unapoisimulia. Simulizi inayojulikana kwa njia hii inaweza kusimuliwa kwa mtoto wakati wa kulala au kwa kusanyiko siku ya Jumapili kwa urahisi ule ule, kwa sababu haiko tena kwenye ukurasa; iko ndani yako.How do you reach the point of telling a story without notes? By rehearsal, which is no shame but the storyteller's ordinary discipline. Tell it aloud to the empty room, to the steering wheel of your car, to anyone who will listen, until the shape of it lives in you and the words come of themselves. Do not memorize it word for word as a speech to be recited — a memorized story is as stiff as a read one, and the moment you forget a phrase you are lost. Memorize instead the sequence of pictures, the scenes in their order, and let the words be born fresh each time you tell it. A story known this way can be told to a child at bedtime or to a congregation on Sunday with equal ease, because it is no longer on a page; it is in you.

8.3 Alama za Msimulizi Mzuri8.3 The Marks of a Good Storyteller

Walimu kadhaa wa kuhubiri, miongoni mwao Martin Thielen na Robert Hastings, wameandika orodha za alama zinazomtofautisha msimulizi mwenye ufanisi, na mwanafunzi makini atataka kuzisoma mwenyewe. Alama wanazozieleza zinakusanyika kuzunguka silika chache rahisi zinazostahili kurudiwa kwa maneno yetu wenyewe. Msimulizi mzuri huifanya fupi na kuifanya isonge mbele, akiiamini simulizi badala ya kuijaza maneno yasiyo ya lazima. Hushughulika na mambo halisi na mahususi, si ya jumla na yasiyo wazi, kwa sababu nafsi huona picha, si dhana tupu. Husimulia kwa uchangamfu na usadikisho, kama mtu anayeamini anachokisema na anayejali kwamba umsikie. Hulenga kupita sikio hadi moyoni, mahali maamuzi hufanyika kwa kweli. Na katika yote hayo hujiweka kando, ili msikilizaji akumbuke kweli na Bwana, si werevu wa mtu aliye mimbarini. Hakuna lolote kati ya haya lililo hila ya kuigizwa; ni umbo la asili la upendo unaonena kweli kupitia simulizi.Several teachers of preaching, among them Martin Thielen and Robert Hastings, have set down lists of the marks that distinguish the effective storyteller, and the serious student will want to read them for himself. The marks they describe gather around a few simple instincts that bear repeating in our own words. The good storyteller keeps it short and keeps it moving, trusting the story rather than padding it. He deals in the concrete and the specific, not the vague and the general, because the soul sees pictures, not abstractions. He tells with warmth and conviction, as a man who believes what he is saying and cares that you hear it. He aims past the ear at the heart, where decisions are actually made. And through it all he keeps himself out of the way, so that the hearer remembers the truth and the Lord, not the cleverness of the man in the pulpit. None of this is a trick to be performed; it is the natural shape of love speaking truth through a story.

Jipe moyo ikiwa hujioni kuwa msimulizi wa kuzaliwa. Wachache huzaliwa na kipawa hicho, lakini wahubiri wengi wazuri walifanywa, hawakuzaliwa hivyo — walijifunza kuona, walijifunza kukata, walijifunza kupunguza mwendo kwenye mgeuko, walijifunza kwa kusimulia simulizi mia moja vibaya kabla hawajasimulia moja vizuri. Alama zilizoelezwa hapo juu si tabia ya kuzaliwa ambayo ama unayo ama huna; ni mazoea ambayo mhubiri yeyote mwenye bidii anaweza kuyakuza kwa miaka. Tazama jinsi watu unaopenda zaidi kuwasikiliza wanavyofanya. Angalia kinachofanya simulizi ifike na kinachoifanya ianguke bure. Endelea kusimulia, endelea kukosea, endelea kujifunza. Mimbari haikuwekwa kwa wenye vipawa vya asili peke yao; iko wazi kwa waaminifu watakaofanya kazi, na Bwana aliyetoa mifano hufurahi kumfundisha mtu aliye tayari jinsi ya kuisimulia.Take heart if you do not think of yourself as a natural storyteller. A few are born with the gift, but most good preachers were made, not born — they learned to see, learned to cut, learned to slow down at the turn, learned by telling a hundred stories badly before they told one well. The marks described above are not a personality you either have or lack; they are habits any earnest preacher can cultivate over years. Watch how the people you most love to listen to do it. Notice what makes a story land and what makes it fall flat. Keep telling, keep failing, keep learning. The pulpit is not reserved for the naturally gifted; it is open to the faithful who will do the work, and the Lord who gave the parables delights to teach a willing man to tell them.

8.4 Kozi Nzima Katika Mkono Mmoja8.4 The Whole Course in One Hand

Sasa kusanya sehemu hizi nane kuwa kanuni unazoweza kuzibeba katika mkono mmoja. Kwanza, simulizi ni chombo kinachostahili kubeba Neno la Mungu, si maafikiano, kwa maana Bwana Mwenyewe aliifanya kuwa njia yake kuu (Sehemu ya 1). Pili, mhubirie mtu mzima, ukiitosheleza akili na kuukamata moyo (Sehemu ya 2). Tatu, chagua umbo ambalo ujumbe unalihitaji — la kideduktivu, la kiinduktivu, au simulizi inayotawala — ukiacha umbo litumikie kweli na kamwe si kinyume chake (Sehemu ya 3). Nne hadi sita, masimulizi ya Biblia yenyewe, maisha ya watu wake, na mifano ya Yesu ndiyo malighafi yako tajiri zaidi; yachunguze kwa kina, yasimulie upya kwa uhai, na kamwe usiongeze juu ya kifungu wala kukipinga (Sehemu ya 4-6). Saba, simulizi ndogo ndani ya mahubiri ni dirisha, la kutumiwa kwa uaminifu, kutajiwa chanzo chake kwa haki, na kuwekewa mipaka (Sehemu ya 7). Na nane, isimulie vizuri na isimulie kwa kweli (sehemu hii). Juu ya yote haya inasimama kanuni moja ambayo imeitawala kozi tangu ukurasa wa kwanza: simulizi daima ni mtumishi — wa kweli, na wa kukutana kwa msikilizaji na Mungu. Mara inapogeuka kuwa lengo lenyewe, onyesho la vipawa vya mhubiri, imeusaliti wito wake. Iweke iwe mtumishi, nayo itafanya katika huduma yako kile ilichofanya katika huduma ya Bwana aliyesimulia simulizi kuu kuliko zote zilizowahi kusikika.Gather the eight units now into principles you can carry in one hand. First, the story is a worthy vessel for the Word of God, not a compromise, for the Lord Himself made it His chief method (Unit 1). Second, preach to the whole person, satisfying the mind and seizing the heart (Unit 2). Third, choose the form the message requires — deductive, inductive, or controlling story — letting the form serve the truth and never the reverse (Unit 3). Fourth through sixth, the Bible's own narratives, the lives of its people, and the parables of Jesus are your richest material; study them deeply, retell them vividly, and never add to or contradict the text (Units 4-6). Seventh, the small story inside the sermon is a window, to be used honestly, credited fairly, and held within bounds (Unit 7). And eighth, tell it well and tell it true (this unit). Over all of these stands the one principle that has governed the course from the first page: the story is always a servant — of the truth, and of the hearer's meeting with God. The moment it becomes an end in itself, a display of the preacher's gifts, it has betrayed its calling. Keep it a servant, and it will do in your ministry what it did in the ministry of the Lord who told the greatest stories ever heard.

8.5 Mfano wa Kazi wa Kufunga na Warsha Yako8.5 A Worked Capstone and Your Workshop

Liona jambo lote katika mahubiri mamoja. Ujumbe wa Dkt. Cook "Upande wa Nyuma wa Mungu" umejengwa juu ya Kutoka 33, ambapo Musa anathubutu kuomba, "Unionyeshe utukufu wako," naye BWANA anajibu kwamba hakuna binadamu atakayeuona uso wake akaishi — lakini anamweka Musa katika ufa wa mwamba, anamfunika kwa mkono wake, na kumwacha aone "nyuma yake" utukufu unapopita. Hapa kuna uchunguzi wenye nidhamu wa simulizi (Sehemu ya 4), na kutoka humo inainuka picha moja inayotawala (Sehemu ya 3): upande wa nyuma wa Mungu — kwa maana kile tunachopewa kuona cha Mungu katika maisha haya si uso wake bali alama anazoacha baada ya kupita, njia ya utukufu anayoiacha mahali ambapo amekwisha kupita. Kisha kweli hiyo inaletwa katika wakati wa sasa (Sehemu ya 4) na kusogezwa karibu kwa picha ya kisasa iliyo hai, mto mkubwa unaopita katika bonde la Alberta, ili kusanyiko lililo mbali na Sinai lihisi mshangao huo wao wenyewe. Na mahubiri yote yanatua kwenye kweli moja isiyosahaulika: hatuwezi kuuona uso wa Mungu sasa, lakini daima tunaweza kuona mahali alipopita — na kuona mahali Mungu alipopita kunatosha kumwamini kwa ajili ya njia iliyo mbele. Uchunguzi, umbo, picha inayotawala, kuileta kweli katika wakati wa sasa, kusimulia upya kwa uaminifu, kweli moja iliyo wazi — kozi nzima, ikisimama katika mahubiri mamoja.See it all in one sermon. Dr. Cook's message "The Backside of God" is built on Exodus 33, where Moses dares to ask, "Shew me thy glory," and the LORD answers that no man can see His face and live — yet places Moses in the cleft of the rock, covers him with His hand, and lets him see His "back parts" as the glory passes by. Here is the disciplined study of a narrative (Unit 4), and out of it rises a single controlling image (Unit 3): the backside of God — for what we are given to see of God in this life is not His face but His afterward, the trail of glory He leaves where He has already passed. The truth is then contemporized (Unit 4) and carried near with a vivid modern picture, the great river running through the Alberta valley, so that a congregation far from Sinai feels the wonder for themselves. And the whole sermon lands one unforgettable truth: we cannot see the face of God now, but we can always see where He has been — and to have seen where God has passed is enough to trust Him with the road ahead. Study, form, controlling image, contemporizing, faithful retelling, one clear truth — the whole course, standing in a single sermon.

Sasa kazi inakabidhiwa kwako. Warsha yako si aya ya kusoma bali ni mahubiri ya kujenga. Chukua simulizi ya Kibiblia inayokukamata. Ichunguze kupitia madirisha matano ya Sehemu ya 4 mpaka ulione tukio waziwazi. Chagua umbo linalohitajika — je, utaitaja hoja kisha uieleze kwa kielelezo, utaizuia hoja na kuwaacha waigundue wenyewe, au utaacha simulizi moja itawale yote? Tafuta picha inayotawala au fuata msuko wa hadithi; iandike simulizi kwa ufundi wa undani, uchumi wa maneno, mvutano, mtazamo, na athari moja; kisha weka chini maandishi yako na uisimulie kwa sauti, tena na tena, mpaka uweze kuiona na kuihisi bila ukurasa. Wale wanaoandaa kazi ya maandishi kwa ajili ya Shahada ya Uzamili ya Teolojia (Th.M.) au Shahada ya Uzamili ya Huduma ya Kiungu (M.Div.) wanapaswa kuandika mahubiri kamili ya simulizi yaliyokamilika. Na yakishajengwa, yahubiri — kwa uaminifu, kwa kushika kweli, na vizuri. Ulikuja kujifunza jinsi ya kuhubiri kwa simulizi; sasa nenda ukafanye hivyo, ili kupitia kweli unayoisimulia, wanaume na wanawake wakutane na Mungu aliye hai. Huu ndio mwisho wa kozi, na mwanzo wa usimulizi wako.Now the work passes to you. Your workshop is not a paragraph to read but a sermon to build. Take a biblical narrative that grips you. Study it through the five windows of Unit 4 until you see the scene clearly. Choose the form it needs — will you state the point and illustrate it, withhold the point and let them discover it, or let one story govern the whole? Find the controlling image or follow the arc; write the story with the craft of detail, economy, tension, point of view, and single effect; and then put down your notes and tell it aloud, again and again, until you can see it and feel it without the page. Those preparing written work for the Th.M. or M.Div. should set the finished narrative sermon down in full. And when it is built, preach it — honestly, faithfully, and well. You came to learn how to preach with a story; go now and do it, so that through the truth you tell, men and women may meet the living God. This is the end of the course, and the beginning of your storytelling.

Na limebaki neno moja, lililo muhimu kuliko yote katika kozi hii. Ufundi wote wa sehemu hizi nane — maumbo, uchunguzi, mawazo ya ubunifu, usimulizi — hauna thamani yoyote bila Roho wa Mungu, ambaye peke yake anaweza kuichukua simulizi kutoka midomoni mwako na kuisukuma ndani ya moyo ambao wewe kamwe usingeweza kuufikia. Msimulizi mkuu kabisa anaweza kuwatoa wasikilizaji machozi na bado asimsogeze hata nafsi moja kwa Kristo ikiwa anahubiri kwa nguvu zake mwenyewe. Kwa hiyo jifunze ufundi kwa bidii yote, kisha piga magoti umwombe Yule aliyesimulia mifano apulizie usimulizi wako. Jiandae kana kwamba kila kitu kinategemea kazi yako; hubiri kana kwamba kila kitu kinategemea kazi yake. Fanya yote mawili, na simulizi zako hazitapendezwa na kukumbukwa tu — zitakuwa, mikononi mwake, njia yenyewe ambayo kwayo mtu aliyepotea anarudi nyumbani kwa Mungu. Nenda, ukaisimulie vizuri.And one word remains, the most important in the course. All the craft of these eight units — the forms, the study, the imagination, the telling — is worth nothing without the Spirit of God, who alone can take a story off your lips and drive it into a heart you could never reach. The greatest storyteller may move an audience to tears and never move a soul to Christ if he preaches in his own strength. So learn the craft with all diligence, and then kneel and ask the One who told the parables to breathe upon your telling. Prepare as if everything depended on your work; preach as if everything depended on His. Do both, and your stories will not merely be admired and remembered — they will become, in His hands, the very road by which a lost man walks home to God. Go, and tell it well.