(Say the Jesus Creed morning and evening during Lent.)
Here is a letter from a reader from a post a week or so ago; the letter is used with permission. Read it to the end because he is asking a question that many are asking today: What is preaching? What good is it? He needs some advice and I'm confident many of you have things that can help him. Pray for him too. I have.
Scot (Dr. McKnight),
I'm a 30-something minister in transition and I was really struck by your post "Pastors thinking pastorally for pastors" on February 4. This letter started as a response – and then I decided it was getting too long and self-indulgent, so I didn't post. I tried to pare back my questions/comments, but was pretty overcome by emotion, and had to stop and spend a lot of time in prayer. Because I had so much stuff churning around in me, I finally started my own blog to siphon off some of the excess so I could focus. I'm still churning though – there's so much I feel I need to know (and be, and do), such a …yearning…but I don't know what to do with it all.
I suppose the biggest change in my perspective has been the shift from "minister" to "pastor." That's a semantic difference in a way - but it ties into a couple things for me. I'm from a Baptist background where "pastor" meant (only and always) "preacher" and was used interchangeably. Plus, I saw what I consider to be abuses of power and pastoral authority so pervasive that I didn't want to claim any pastoral authority. And, my experience as a summer missionary, where I preached 3-4x a week for 10 weeks, left me with some distaste for preaching. I found myself constantly looking up passages of Scripture, not for devotional reasons or to let God speak, but to have something to say. It felt, at the time, like I was going through the motions - not waiting on God to speak to me, but scrambling for something to say that *sounded* like it was from God.
I suppose this is a cry for help. As a result of the above (and other things), I went to seminary "knowing" I wasn't called to preach, whatever else I was meant to do. I was a "minister" not a "preacher" or "pastor." While I was in seminary, I wasn't interested in preaching. My preaching professor was one of the holiest and most graceful persons I've met – he carries an aura of sanctity with him – and he was extremely gracious to me when I was in his class, despite my being the only one there asking questions about why we preach, what we intend to accomplish, why our preaching is so different from Jesus' or Paul's, and why so many of our texts for preaching were so terrible. (Not all of them were – Kathleen Norris and Barbara Brown Taylor and Fred Craddock were good.) But while I got to ask my questions without penalty, I didn't get them answered. You were just supposed to know what preaching is for and why it's important – it didn't matter if preaching left your listeners cold or asleep, just be faithful.
What is preaching? Who is it for? How do we learn to do it? How do we judge if we're doing it well?
I assume you learn by doing and that's my goal. But if there's any advice you can share, any books that you can recommend as absolutely foundational stuff? None of the three books you mentioned in the post are available to me right now, but our public library's pretty good. I don't know entirely what I'm asking. Just – for help, I guess. I wish pastors had pastors. I wish spiritual directors didn't have to be paid to help a fellow Christian discern God's voice. (The worker deserves their wages – but I can't afford 'em right now, and my spiritual director's only able to schedule about 1-2 meetings a year with me, and is generally a month or more getting back to me to schedule an appointment. Seems like spiritual direction ought to be a primary function of pastors.)
I'm impressed with the readership of your blog and would have welcomed their advice too. Anybody's .... Just breathe a word of prayer, and keep up your blog, and I'll be grateful. Do say that word of prayer, though.
Blessings to you and yours,
Name
Add to Del.icio.us
Add to Technorati
Add to Digg
Add to Newsvine
Add to Facebook
Add to StumbleUpon
Subscribe
I am late getting to this post. However, I was inspired and encouraged by the quality of so many of the comments. Thanks to everyone.
Wow: John writes (#11) “One meaningful redemptive conversation casually and informally engaged does more to provoke Christian formation in the conversational partners than 10, 000 expositions of the text.” Others seem to similarly depreciate the value of public preaching in favor of say, dialogue or interpersonal relationship or small groups.
I’m not sure that an “either/or” approach is helpful here. I think we can all agree that preaching is not the only gift of value in the body . . . but neither should its impact be minimized. “The eye cannot say to the hand, ‘I don't need you!’ And the head cannot say to the feet, ‘I don't need you!’... But in fact God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be.” (1 Corinthians 12:21, 18)
I would never diminish the value of “redemptive conversations” — and yet, for me, many times the “exposition of the text” has been transformative and life-changing. It strikes me that in Luke 24 Jesus on the road to Emmaus engaged in both a “redemptive conversation” and an “exposition of the text” — “beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.”
The combination was galvanizing: “Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?”
For me, many times someone has “opened my mind so I could understand the Scriptures” (Luke 24:45) . . . sometimes in a sermon, sometimes while reading a commentary (okay, I know I’m wierd), sometimes while engaged in spiritual reading, sometime while studying/listening to/praying the scriptures together in a small group, sometimes during a movie when my imagination is sparked and the Spirit “brings to my remembrance” a word of Jesus, sometimes in a “redemptive conversation.”
Hearing from a brother or sister — in any context, public or private — who has allowed “the message about Christ, in all its richness, to permeate their lives” (Colossians 3:16) is priceless. Through such gifts God has begun to reshape my distorted thinking, melt my calcified heart, soften my rebel spirit, solidify my apathetic will.
I love the approach expressed by Winn Collier (#20): “For me, preaching is a sacramental, communal encounter. When it happens as I hope for it to (which of course is hit and miss), I have encountered the living Christ in the text of Scripture and then share that encounter with my community, hoping they will also experience the redemption and mercy and presence of Jesus as well.”
To our inquiring friend whose letter prompted this intriguing thread: perhaps instead of recommending a book on preaching, I might recommend actually listening to preachers who have been shaped by God’s Word. I have found that practice to have informed my own preaching, but more importantly, to have spoken God’s heart into my heart.
The counsel of Paul in Colossians 3:16 is addressed to the entire body — if everyone in a community were to live this out, just imagine the spirit and atmosphere of that place! — but it speaks powerfully to us individually as well, and perhaps supplies a beautiful prescription for those of us involved in the process of preaching:
“Let the message about Christ, in all its richness,
penetrate and permeate your lives.
[And then] teach and counsel each other with all the wisdom he gives
through psalms, hymns and songs from the Spirit,
singing to God with gratitude in your hearts.”
Great questions, great comments.
My understanding has been that modern day preaching is prophecy or teaching (and sometimes both), but that modern Protestant churches have elephantitis in those gifts.
What does that mean for preaching today? I would agree with many here that preaching should not be a one-person show but one gift exercised among many; preaching should be from your own heart discoveries in Jesus; preaching should be bounded by Scripture and speaking into your particular community; and preaching should be sharing Jesus.
No worries.
My top 3 books on preaching:
The Supremacy of God in Preaching - John Piper
Between Two Worlds - John Stott
The Sacred Anointing - Tony Sargent
and of course . . . the bible
this is late - but have you considered chaplaincy?
I agree with #11 that pastoral care goes a long way should be emphasized over and above preaching.
Ronald Sisk in his book The Competent Pastor says flat out, people do not come to your church because you preach well - they come because of strong pastoral care abilities.
I am glad you are struggling with preaching issues - more need to do so - too many get arrogant and preach with little to no fear of God in their hearts - preaching the Word of God should be done with fear and trembling (in my opinion) after all it is the Word of God - it should not be handled lightly.
Post a Comment
By submitting these comments, I agree to the beliefnet.com terms of service, rules of conduct and privacy policy (the "agreements"). I understand and agree that any content I post is licensed to beliefnet.com and may be used by beliefnet.com in accordance with the agreements.