I just saw a post that told us that Dr. Howard Hendricks has passed away.
I have never had a significant conversation with Dr. Hendricks, but he changed my life. At Dallas Seminary – back in the old days, anyway – one of your first year classes was his “Inductive Bible Study Methods” class. After that class, you proceeded, over your four year course of studies, to do an inductive study of every book of the Bible.
Dr. Hendricks emphasized a four-step process. Observation. Interpretation. Application. Correlation.
I had been a preacher’s kid with a lot of knowledge of the Bible that I had absorbed through sitting in pews in sanctuaries and folding chairs in Sunday School classrooms. But I had never really learned to study the Bible for myself. Dr. Hendricks changed that.
He hammered us on observation. Look at what the text actually says before you start figuring out the meaning of the text. He demanded that we get a modern language Bible (I was still trapped by old King Jimmy at the time!) that had paragraph divisions. Language is not conveyed in verses and chapters, he said, but in clauses, sentences and paragraphs. We were not allowed to use study Bibles (I still don’t) or any kind of commentaries. We had to simply observe the text first.
I will never forget his line (he was the king of the Bible-study one-liners):
It is amazing how much light the Bible shines on commentaries.
It all changed for me the day Dr. Hendricks gave us an assignment. “Make 25 observations about Acts 1:8.” An observation is just that – an observation about the text. It cannot be an interpretation, an explanation of the meaning, or an application. Just an observation about the text.
25 observations? Are you kidding me. There are barely that many WORDS in the verse. I struggled and strained and engaged in some “creative observation” (there is another name for it, having to do with bovine waste matter, but I’m a preacher, so I have to have a euphemism) and I came up with exactly 25 observations.
I came into class a little frustrated at how hard that assignment had been, but ready to turn the paper in. He did not collect the papers. He looked at us and said, “Go home and make 25 more observations. AARRGGHHH! I’d had enough trouble with the first 25. How was I to make 25 more?
So I went home and stared at the verse for a while. All I can tell you is that at some point it clicked. As I stared at the page, it suddenly began to open up for me. Clauses. Sentences. Word meanings. I ended up with somewhere around 85 observations. And my Bible study life was never the same again.
He also emphasized correlation – getting the big picture of any book before you try to deal with any particular passage. If you just wander from passage to passage without an understanding of overall argument and structure of the book, you will, as he used to say, “have your ball lost in the weeds.”
He had us study the book of Habakkuk and try to discern the overall structure. Again, it was like a 3-D stereograph to me. At first, it was a jumbled conglomeration of verses. Then, as I stared at it, the pattern slowly formed.
He also emphasized that the purpose of Bible study was not theological knowledge – an important lesson at a seminary that prized systematic theology. Another one of his famous lines:
Observation plus interpretation without application is abortion.
The purpose of preaching was not to just give a theological discourse or an exegetical presentation, but to teach God’s people how to live in obedience to God. That was a good reminder to me.
He was also a great proponent of creativity in presentation. A couple of other one-liners from Dr. Hendricks.
It is a sin to bore people with the Word of God.
The Bible is exciting. It takes a preacher to make it boring.
He was passionate about ministry mentoring. When he went to preach at a church, he would call the pastor aside and say to him, “Show me your men.” It’s not about what a great pulpiteer you are, or how great an administrator. It’s not about buildings and budgets. It is about building your life into the life of other men who will carry on after you are gone.
Dr. Hendricks practiced what he preached. He always had a small group of men with whom he would meet on a regular basis (6 AM breakfast meetings) and disciple them throughout their years at Dallas. I was, unfortunately, not one of those men, but it was a focus of Dr. Hendricks’ ministry.
Howard Hendricks is dead, but his ministry will not die. He built into the lives of pastors and church leaders who will carry on even though he is gone. I am not sure I ever had a conversation with him. I probably exchanged a word or two, I just don’t remember. But today, in Sioux City, Iowa, I will teach a Bible study in the book of Nehemiah, using the principles I learned from Dr. Hendricks. Thousands of men can say that their lives were changed by his life and ministry.
A lot of people have affected my ministry and blessed my life. Three men have shaped me dramatically. Of course, the first is Lew Miller, my dad and my pastor all the years I was growing up. The second is Henry Blackaby. The third is Dr. Howard Hendricks, who taught me to study the Bible inductively.
Thank you, Lord, for a faithful servant.
I wasn’t a student at DTS but was privileged to hear Dr. Hendricks at a Christmas conference sponsored by Campus Crusade for Christ back in my days as a student at the Univ. of Texas. The conference was held in Dallas and I’ll never forget the impact of hearing him share about Bible study methods as you point out, but also principles about discipleship. He certainly did emphasize mentoring and small groups. I purchased some cassette tapes he had available on that occasion about discipleship and think I wore them all out listening to them. Sorry to hear that he’s gone, but he did indeed leave his mark on the Kingdom.
Yep. Amen.
I’m also reminded of the story he told of an elementary school teacher who changed his life. Evidently he was a pretty rebellious student and had earned a reputation among the teachers as a difficult kid with which to deal. Dr. Hendricks spoke of a teacher (seems like it was a fifth grade teacher) who called him aside on the first day of school and told him, “Howard, I’ve heard all the stories about you, but I want you to know that I don’t believe a single one of them.” Her positive approach and encouragement reversed a negative direction in his life and put him on a path of loving to learn.
Yeah, I remember those stories. He told us about praying for his father’s salvation for decades before his dad finally came to Christ.
The man had some stories.
Sounds to me from reading your post you were at the 6 a.m. breakfast meetings and enjoyed every morsel presented. Sorry to hear you lost one of your mentors and the community as a whole lost one of it’s leaders.
No, I never got involved in those 6 AM meetings. My relationship with Dr. Hendricks was simply prof-student (and it was a large first-year class.) I doubt he ever knew my name, though of course with my stunning good looks he probably knew my face.
For me, it was simply his teaching on the importance of inductive Bible Study that changed my life.
I wish I had been one of “Howie’s boys” but I was not.
I meant to share the punch-line of the previous story about Dr. Hendrick’s fifth grade teacher and got distracted and failed to do so. He humorously paraphrased Mark’s words about Legion, the demon-possessed man who Jesus miraculously healed, and said that after he responded positively to the challenge from this teacher and her expression of confidence in him, Howard’s former teachers would pass by the door and stare in the window, amazed to see him seated, clothed, and in his right mind.
I have some of Dr. Hendricks books in my library. He writes in a manner worthy reading and thinking about. Daivd, you observations concerning the text reminds me of the questioning comment of John Robinson, the pastor of the Pilgrims, who asked or said, “Who knows what new light is getting ready to break forth from God’s word?” Just think of what will happen to the intellectual world and other realms, when the educational establishments begin to awaken to the the fact that they have a book inspired by Omniscience, one which offers a well of knowledge and wisdom that has no known depths. The Book makes the Marianas Trench look like a local mud puddle, a mere scratch on the surface with depth accordingly. Our great problem is the perspective from which to view such wondrous kaleidoscope of profundity; it almost mesmerizes with sickness the beholder of this glorious provision of comprehension.
“”"Just think of what will happen to the intellectual world and other realms, when the educational establishments begin to awaken to the the fact that they have a book inspired by Omniscience”"”
Water rarely flows uphill.
The hope for academia faded many, many years ago when Harvard and other schools established to produce missionaries instead decided to trade on intellect alone.
Does this have some point concerning Dr. Hendricks?
Dave, that was and is beautiful. I can now see why you are the man
you have become. If anyone wants to talk Bible with you they better be prepared to talk Bible. I’m glad you have had dear people in your life like the ones you have mentioned. It’s great to sing for the unsung heros
in your life.
I’m on my phone so I’m going to keep this comment brief. Amen and amen. I took that same course by video a long time ago. What a blessing Dr. Hendricks was and is even still as his legacy lives on.
Dave, I pray blessings on you and Dr. Hendricks’ family during this time. I’m sure you are blessed by his passing to his reward but I know it is difficult to see such a person go.
Pastor, this is one of the best commentaries I’ve seen on this blog site. At a time when the church is so assimilated into Babylon and few fear God or really understand His majesty any more, it is like a drink of cool water. A fresh reminder that every generation has its faithful remnant who nurture a love for the Word of God and live a life devoted to discipleship. Dallas Theological Seminary produced some great pastors because they taught how great was our God!! My prayer is that someone will be able to point to each one of us as being someone who impacted their life because they loved Jesus and took his great commission seriously! Thanks for sharing!
I wish the writer of this article would have provided us a list of his observances–just to give us a more complete understanding on “observation” of the text. Maybe someone else will?
Somewhere, in my files, I still have that.
Dave:
Great article.
I was accepted to DTS, but God had other plans, so I went to law school.
One of my best friends was at DTS from 1983 to 1987 or so. He loved Dr. Hendricks. I have heard some of the quotes in ths post from my friend, so I know where he got them.
Thanks for this post.
Dave (or anyone who might know), is the quote “It is amazing how much light the Bible shines on commentaries” original with Howard Hendricks? I’ve used that a number of times with “someone said” because I didn’t know where it originated. I know this is kind of off-topic, but I would be glad to give credit where credit is due.
Robert, Dr. Hendricks was the first and only source of that quote that I know. But I’m not sure.
Until another claims originality, I credit Hendricks.
Thanks, Dave.
I didn’t know Howard Hendricks, but one great find from him for me in the 1990s was “>No Substitute for Christian Parents. Not sure when it was written, but I reprinted it in the Baptist Waymark August 1996.
I intended to give a link to Hendrick’s No Substitute for Christian Parents, but something went haywire. I’m trying again, because I think some of you will enjoy reading it.
I remember the Acts 1:8 assignment
Thank you for sharing these memories for all to read here. Blessings.
The Family Life Today radio program played an excerpt from Bro. Howard Hendricks, and talked some about his life. This statement was made: He always marked for good the lives of those whose paths he crossed. That is pretty high praise and a good example for us to follow.
I’m reading Living by the Book by Dr Howard Hendricks. Can someone recommend a Bible with large print, wide margins, no notes, no subheadings, cross references, paper quality and binding, and a concordance in the back in NKJV or ESV? Thanks!
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