RL Dabney's Seven Requisites For a Sermon
These seven requisites (not excellences, but requisites) are seven minimal requirements R.L. Dabney believed (and his viewers agreed) were essential to every sermon. (as noted in T. David Gordon’s {Why Johnny Can’t Preach})
1. Textual Fidelity
Test: Does the significant point of the sermon arise out of the significant point of the text? Is the thrust of the sermon merely an aside in the text? Is the text merely a pretext for the minister’s own idea?
2. Unity
Test: If ten people are asked after the sermon what the sermon was about, will at least eight of them give the same (or a similar) answer?
3. Evangelical Tone
Test: Do hearers get the impression that the minister is for them (eager to see them richly blessed by a gracious God), or against them (eager to put them in their place, scold them, reprimand them, or punish them)? Is it his desire to see them reconciled to and blessed by a pardoning God? Does the sermon press the hearer to consider the hopelessness of his condition apart from Christ, and the utter competence of Christ to rescue the penitent sinner?
4. Instructiveness
Test: Does the sermon significantly engage the mind, or is the sermon full of commonplace clichés, slogans, and general truths? Is the hearer genuinely likely to rethink his view of God, society, church, or self, or his reasons for holding his current views? Is the mind of the attentive listener engaged or repulsed?
5. Movement
Test: Do the earlier parts of the sermon contribute to the latter parts’ full effect? Does the address have intellectual (and consequently emotional) momentum?
6. Point
Test: Is the effect of the sermon, on those who believe it, similar? If it encouraged one, did it tend to encourage all, and for the same reason? If it troubled one, did it tend to trouble all, and for the same reason? If it made one thankful, did it tend to make all thankful, and for the same reason?
7. Order
Test: Could the hearers compare notes and reproduce the outline of the sermon? If they could not reproduce the outline, could they state how it progressed from one part to another? I don’t insist that Dabney’s way of describing what is essential to a sermon is.