A Teaser on Preaching
March 12, 2010
Here's an interesting quotation: "Preachers must not be boring. To a large extent the pastor and boredom are synonymous concepts. Listeners often think that they have heard already what is being said in the pulpit. They have long since known it themselves. The fault certainly does not lie with them alone. Against boredom the only defense is again being biblical. If a sermon is biblical, it will not be boring. Holy scripture is in fact so interesting and has so much that is new and exciting to tell us that listeners cannot even think about dropping off to sleep."
But who said it? Clearly not one of the prosperity preachers or church growth gurus as the whole idea of making preaching interesting by making it more biblical would not help the 'best life now' message of the former nor find much Barna survey approval with the latter. And, to bring it closer to home, it is unlikely to be one of those preachers who is confessional in subscription but always feels the need to start his sermon with a good five to ten minutes of jokes and jollity to make the congregation like him, get their attention, and ensure they are on his side before he approaches the text -- the whole `preacher as stand up entertainer' model which is so popular in the US and beyond. So who is it? A clue: it is on page 80 of his book, Homiletics, and he is by and large deeply frowned upon for many good reasons in conservative Reformed circles. Indeed, if his identity is revealed, we can assume that interesting, biblical sermons might well be banned in some quarters as signs of the slippery slope. In fact, it may well be why some conservative preachers avoid being interesting or biblical. Such sermons are, after all.... well, I leave you to fill in the blank.
But who said it? Clearly not one of the prosperity preachers or church growth gurus as the whole idea of making preaching interesting by making it more biblical would not help the 'best life now' message of the former nor find much Barna survey approval with the latter. And, to bring it closer to home, it is unlikely to be one of those preachers who is confessional in subscription but always feels the need to start his sermon with a good five to ten minutes of jokes and jollity to make the congregation like him, get their attention, and ensure they are on his side before he approaches the text -- the whole `preacher as stand up entertainer' model which is so popular in the US and beyond. So who is it? A clue: it is on page 80 of his book, Homiletics, and he is by and large deeply frowned upon for many good reasons in conservative Reformed circles. Indeed, if his identity is revealed, we can assume that interesting, biblical sermons might well be banned in some quarters as signs of the slippery slope. In fact, it may well be why some conservative preachers avoid being interesting or biblical. Such sermons are, after all.... well, I leave you to fill in the blank.
