Instead of evaluating Pagitt's ideas in my posts, I think I'll simply quote him and allow the interaction to take place in the comments. All are welcome to weigh in...
"...nearly every preacher would rightly cringe at the notion that preaching is just giving a speech or a lecture. Yet most preaching is done is such a way that it's hard to understand it as anything other than a speech that happens to have religious content. The 'speacher' stands in front of the 'audience.' The speacher is the only one with the microphone and therefore the only one with the power to speak on the subject at hand. The content of hte speech has been decided on with little, if any, input from those who are hearing the speech, and the conclusions are drawn by the speacher and no one else." Preaching Re-Imagined, pg. 48
Responses?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
This is why I always try to make it interactive- and usually with their bodies. So I put a card in the bulletin I want them to fill out and bring to the altar. I play a song-- and I want them to process and jot down what God is saying. (Etc, etc). I try to help make it a 3-way conversation between myself, God, and the congregation.
ReplyDeleteI think that Pagitt has pointed out something legitimate, but I disagree with the alternative he proposes...
ReplyDeleteThe way that Christy is thinking is helpful and the kinds of things that we need to think about.
A few thoughts:
- The pastor/preacher needs to live with and know his/her people. If the pastor is living with them, there will be less problem connecting.
- It is helpful to talk over sermon texts and topics with people in the church beforehand to get their perspectives, questions etc...
- I feel that some of the most effective sermons will involve the whole body in the preaching, but not as all being in the same role. Asking people to repeat phrases, asking real (but short answer) questions about what the Bible is saying, etc. is helpful in engaging people....
- On preaching as a speech with religious content. I believe in preaching as monologue (by the way, Rob Bell is all monologue but very engaging). However, this is not 3 principles stuff. Preaching is not helpful information, it is proclaimation. Something has happened. Something is happening. God is moving, drawing, saving... Preaching is the proclamation of the lordship of Jesus over all of creation and the call - the demand - for a response.
If preaching differs from other speeches only in the religious nature of the content, perhaps Pagitt is correct--although there are countless other arenas in which it is only the speaker who gets the floor. But he is ignoring the Holy Spirit's role entirely--in the calling and the preparation of both pastor and listening audience, individually and collectively. The "foolishness" of preaching may be no more evident in out time than in Paul's own, yet it is still God's choice to use it.
ReplyDeleteWhat's the alternative--pooled thoughts of people who haven't heard from any spirit other than their own, haven't prayerfully reflected on the word before them, and haven't had time to think through the challenges it presents to their own contexts? Sorry, Doug, but I do believe in the Holy Spirit.
Something I’ve been doing over the past few years is something I think that touches on what Dan is talking about. I’ve been sending a weekly email that highlights what I’m going to preach about. I send the message text plus a supporting passage that will get read during the service. I also like to let them know what the homiletical idea is, and always ask a probing question that I end up using in the sermon somewhere, usually in the end as a practical application/challenge to do something with what was just preached.This email goes out to about 30+ peaople who have the technology).
ReplyDeleteI don’t like to think of a sermon as a speech, although I do kind of understand where Pagitt and others may be coming from. But to me the sermon is paramount to the entire service, and I cannot think of any alternatives that would suffice. Romans 10:14-15 is a constant reminder for those of us who preach each and every week… "How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!""
Thanks, Dan, for inviting me to comment on this blog.
ReplyDeleteSermons that hit me the hardest are those in which the "speacher" is personally invested in what he or she is saying. That includes Dan's "live with and know his/her people" and more; it's the kind of love that is spelled g-i-v-e. A preacher gives of himself.
An example. Steve Musser, a very good preacher and good friend of mine bases his sermons on Bible stories, which is pretty much all of the Bible, but always laced with themes like "when I had prostate cancer," "when I left a high-paying job for teaching at Messiah College," "when I left Messiah College as a business professor to be a pastor," "when we discovered that my daughter was barren," or (most recently) "when my daughter's plans to adopt a child came through." He even had one sermon where his personal illustration was "when I was a rock musician" (seriously). It was about how even unlikely folks like him could come to Jesus.
A sermon benefits from careful study in private of Hebrew and Greek, but it does not benefit from the distancing and snobbery that a three-point alliterative outline offers that parses subtle differences between Greek words. No one remembers the latter. Everyone remembers stories.
Even the great St. Paul couldn't keep the boy Eutychus awake (Acts 20:9-12). Let's make Jesus our model for good preaching: Tell stories. Jesus kept His hearers engaged.
Reading David's post above, I wonder whether all sermons need to be preaching. Church architecture is a good clue, as Pagitt suggests: do preaching from an elevated platform; do other sermons from among the hearers.
Thanks to everyone who is participating in the conversation. Another post on authority and power coming soon.
ReplyDeleteLet's admit that there is an element of the 'speach' in a sermon. Lousy sermons are often just speaches with religious contents.
Sermons that come alive are ones that are objectively and sometimes subjectively compelling. Preaching is not merely the conveyance of information (that would be a speach) but the proclaimation of the truth of the gospel. The consequences or ignoring or rececting it.
The truth of the Gospel and the Scripture having gripped the preacher personally is very important in my opinion. When it has, personal ties with come out much more easily (as Gene Chase admires about the pastor he mentioned).
I also think that part of being in and speaking to a community is to embrace how others learn best and not just how you like to communicate. Because some people are best communicated to in different ways, we should preach with some variety. I don't think that every sermon needs to have a story from the preacher's life, but it sure can be helpful sometimes.