There is a
little couplet that goes like this: I shot an arrow in the air,
It
fell to earth I know not where.
This seems to be
a fairly accurate description of some preaching. I remember, too, at one school
that I attended which had some rather eccentric teachers this question was
asked, ‘Where did the Germans drop most of their bombs?’ The answer was, ‘At
random!’
After I retired
we attended a number of churches before we moved away and quite often I found
the preaching disappointing. It was not that there was any doctrinal error or
incorrect exegesis, but often it is was worthy but uninteresting and did not
seem to connect with the congregation. Reflecting, too on my own preaching and
its inadequacies I think that often I did not take into consideration as I
should have done who it was I was preaching to and try to make sure I had
something important to say to them all.
Learn from
everyone, but copy no-one!
There is a
telling comparison at the beginning of chapter 6 of Wiersbe’s excellent book Preaching and Teaching with Imagination.
The chapter heading is Skeletons in the
Pulpit, Cadavers in the Pew and the contrast is between 2 sermons from
Genesis 9. The 1st is entitled ‘God Talks to Noah’ and has this outline 1.
Creation Presented; 2. Capital Punishment; 3. Covenant Promised; 4. Carnality
Practised; 5. Consequences Prophesied. The 2nd has the title ‘Always
look for the rainbow’ and began like this; ‘Storms are a part of life; God made
it that way, but I’ve learned a secret that’s helped me all these years, and is
still helping me: Always look for the rainbow.’ The difference in approach is
obvious.
1.
Communication
The words that
the Bible uses for ‘preach’ often only capture part of the truth so we need to
consider them all: ‘herald’; ‘evangelise’ or ‘tell good news’; ‘announce’; ‘declare’;
‘testify’. Some words involve the hearers: ‘reason’; ‘persuade’; ‘explain’; ‘prove’;
‘commend’; ‘demonstrate’. Jesus often addressed his hearers like this: ‘I say
to you’. The people in front of him were in his mind and the ones he was
addressing at the time. While this should be how we view preaching, speaking to
actual people in front of us, it is not necessary to say ‘You’ in every case;
often ‘We’ is better, it all depends on what we are saying.
Preaching is
communication; so it involves reception; impression; understanding; conviction;
response. A great deal of speaking involves ‘speech acts’; i.e. not the mere
impartation of information, but speech which does things or intends to bring
about certain responses. Preaching intends to do things: to bring about changes
in people’s lives; to promise, to warn, to lift up, to inspire, to humble, to
provoke, to awake, to stir up – and so on. So preaching intends to bring about
certain responses: to cause people to repent, to trust, to worship, to sorrow
over sin, to rejoice in the Lord, to obey, to serve, to pray – the list is
endless. Preaching is never simply about giving information; we must never
think that that is sufficient.
2.
Attention
This has to be
gained, especially when considering the people we most want to reach. These
include unbelievers; young people, perhaps present under duress; those who are sceptical;
visitors; backsliders; elderly; weary; down-hearted.
Is it true we
have only three minutes (or so) to capture a person’s attention? Sometimes you
can see people visibly switching off. In the past I sometimes began a sermon
like this: ‘We can all see that this is a very difficult passage, but it is
part of the Word of God and therefore we need to look at it, so we must
concentrate very hard and give our utmost attention to what it says!’ Far
better to say something like this: ‘You might think this looks a very difficult
passage but I have discovered several gems of truth here and I can see that God
has something to say to us all from it.’
Having gained
attention we then have to hold it! Often we need to show that what we have to
say is relevant and important. You will find Dr Lloyd-Jones doing this,
especially in the early part of his evangelistic sermons.
We need also to
connect with the congregation. My wife and I were once listening to a sermon
which was correct and yet rather dull and people were sitting expressionlessly.
Then the preacher mentioned he had briefly put on the TV the evening before and
used an illustration from what he had seen and immediately everyone sat up,
people began to smile – they had seen it too; he had suddenly connected with
them in a way he had not previously.
We must do our
best to be interesting. Spurgeon, when a SS teacher: ‘If I was ever a little
dull, my scholars began to make wheels of themselves, twisting round on the
forms on which they sat. That was a very plain intimation to me that I must
give them an illustration or an anecdote; and I learned to tell stories partly
by being obliged to tell them.’ We must try our utmost so to speak that no-one
wants to miss what we are saying.
3.
Declaration
Now I want to
think about how we speak. At one school I attended we had an annual festival.
One of the events was Declamation. Contestants had to declaim a speech, usually
from Shakespeare. Everyone had the same words, but this was a test of fitting the
voice to the words. One young man was brilliant and I can still hear in my mind
one of his perorations. Yet I’ve heard people read the Scriptures and flatten
and miss the flow of words of some of the most glorious passages. How you speak
is important. We also had a Lecturette, a brief lecture, perhaps a maximum of 4
minutes on a subject chosen by the contestant. Again there was one fellow who
was absolutely brilliant. On reflection, what made his so much better than any
other was the organization of words, the timing, and his conclusion. He aimed
at making what he had to say memorable – and he did.
I am thankful
that at college we had speech training and in one church there were 3
therapists. This was very helpful. There is a danger of straining the voice, relaxation
is very important. Clarity of articulation – often the problem with the hard of
hearing is that they just hear a noise; the words are not clearly articulated.
My tip for ensuring everyone hears you is to look at the person furthest from
you in the congregation and imagine you are speaking to him/her. In any case always
look at the congregation, but never look too long at any one person or part.
Looking helps to establish a rapport, there is nothing worse than a preacher
who looks at the ceiling at the walls on either side but never looks at the
people he is supposed to be speaking to.
Avoid dropping
the voice at the end of sentences; a common fault. Also learn to whisper so
that everyone can hear.
Pitch, emotion
and manner must arise out of the words being spoken. Remember what you are
saying. Take special care with sensitive subjects; the blood of Christ; hell.
Never shout. If
you see people with hearing aids and using the loop system suddenly wince
you’ll know you’ve been too loud! Never rant.
Always remember
you are speaking to the actual persons who are sitting listening to you. I
would add this is important not just when we are thinking of speech; I’ve heard
men preaching and have been sure they are really aiming at some people who have
made public statements recently and who, of course, aren’t in the congregation
at all (I’ve probably done this myself).
4.
Comprehension
Spurgeon: ‘Jesus
said, Feed my sheep, not feed my giraffes.’ So don’t preach over the heads of
the congregation. According to Hywel Jones Calvin’s preaching was very homely;
he simply took the Greek or Hebrew into the pulpit and preached more or less
extemporaneously in language everyone could understand. People must be able to
understand, and if you have young people they too must especially be able to
understand otherwise they will turn off, and even more so if you have children
present all the time. Many churches now have people from other countries and
with limited English; e.g. Malaysians, Koreans, Japanese etc.; this calls for
simple, basic straightforward English using well-known words. In one church the
brightest young person always asked me what a word he did not understand meant.
I was very surprised that he asked so often. Remember the KISS principle – keep
it simple, stupid.
This raises the
question of accent. I have always been glad that when I was young my mother did
her utmost to prevent me from using slang and also adopting a Dorset (Do’zet)
accent. It is customary to despise what used to be called BBC English these
days, but at least it is understood (if not always appreciated) throughout Britain Potteries .
It is surprising
how many preachers get confused over difficult biblical words and names. Work
out beforehand what seems the most likely way to pronounce them and just stick
to that – who really knows precisely how they were pronounced at least two
millennia ago?
Avoid both long
convoluted sentences and, at the other extreme machine gun-like sentences. You
need balance for ease of comprehension.
5.
Adaptation
The first sermon
I ever preached was in a little Methodist chapel in the village
of Rosenannon in Cornwall
I remember a
visiting preacher in our church. It was summer time and not far away there was
a Christian camp with I think about 100 boys in it – and they all came into our
congregation. So the preacher scrapped what he had intended to preach and
preached a simple gospel message from the exodus of Israel
Jay Adams has
some helpful things to say about adaptation. ‘Adaptation is not accommodation…
The accommodator changes God’s message to conform to the listener… The speaker
who takes the time to adapt his message doesn’t change the message at all; he
changes his own ways and in every circumstance adopts the best possible method
of conveying that message to others. He changes himself, not the message; he, himself, becomes flexible and
mouldable in order to meet each situation
and/or group of persons to whom he is speaking.’ Truth
Apparent, p.32,33. Good men have preached their churches almost into
extinction because of an unwillingness to adapt – I can think especially of
two.
There is no
doubt this can be very difficult and it gets more difficult as you get older,
in spite of experience, because you get settled in your ways. It is important
to learn to be flexible, if necessary to drop out or off a point or two if you
are going to be too long. Better to hold people for 20 minutes than bore them
for 40.
6.
Connection – and realisation
We have to
connect with people; we have to do so, as far as we can, in the right way, but
to do so we have to realise the different sorts of people who are before us. All
the different sorts of temperaments are likely to be represented; the larger
the congregation, the more diverse it is likely to be. We cannot assume that
certain types of people are not present in any reasonably sized congregation.
Most
congregations have people who are psychologically fragile, if not more
seriously affected. There are nearly always depressives and people prone to
illnesses of one sort or another. There are nearly always people needing
encouragement and help. There will be people who have sexual struggles of one
sort or another; more women than you realise have suffered sexual abuse and you
only find this out after years of pastoring. There will be those who have been
divorced and many others
There is sometimes
a great difference between the way we would speak to some of these personally
and the way in which we do speak when preaching. We make assumptions that certain
types of people are not present when they may be. We must preach as pastors, as
shepherds. It is true that Jesus was very straight with the scribes and
Pharisees but we do not usually have their equivalent in our congregations. Those
most likely to be touched by Pharisaism may be our own members.
As you prepare,
think of those who will be present; think of their needs, their problems, their
weaknesses, their aspirations etc. and do your best to say something to the
hearts, not just the minds – aim beyond the mind – of your hearers.
7.
Illustration
Illustrations
shed light on truth, perhaps especially truth that is difficult to grasp.
Windows are valuable, but not greenhouses. Many of us struggle greatly with
this. Why?
a)
We tend to read ‘utilitarian
prose’; commentaries, newspapers, textbooks, biographies.
b)
We tend not to read poetry,
literary works of the past: but we do read the Bible.
c)
It requires effort to come up
with suitable illustrations.
Where can we get
suitable illustrations? Suitable; that is, ones that actually illustrate; ones
that people understand; ones that connect in some way with those present.
a)
Bible; retell rather than quote
– but only use well-known events.
b)
Everyday happenings; ordinary
things. Jay Adams (p.58.) ‘Look at things you never noticed before (in your
study) – cracks in plaster, holes in rugs, scratches in the desk; they all
contain messages if you will only read them carefully… Now, each day, write
down… at least one illustration from your study…’ And you can do that anywhere.
The whole chapter is well worth reading.
c)
Use imagery; the Puritans were
very good at this. Cf. ‘The Assyrian came down like a wolf on the fold…’
d)
Use your imagination and appeal
to their imagination.
e)
Beware of; using too many
personal illustrations; referring too much to your own interests (football!);
talking about things you don’t understand. – e.g. medical matters.
8.
Application
Preaching is
application; the application of the truth of God in the Bible to the 21st
century hearer.
So the first question
is: What was the application that the writer intended? Jay Adams has another
book entitled ‘Preaching with Purpose’ in which he makes this very point: What
purpose did the writer intend in this passage?
And the second
question is: how does that apply to the people of today, and in particular the
people you will be addressing?
It is a mistake
to leave all the application to the end – for several reasons. People learn to
switch off as the end approaches. Many points of application are likely to be
missed. It makes the whole sermon relevant to the congregation. Scottish lady:
‘It was a good sermon except for the trash of duties at the end.’
Application
needs to be made to different sorts of hearers, and not just believers and
unbelievers.
9.
Conclusion
When you’ve
finished what you have to say, stop!
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