Reading: Preaching book chapter 6 & postscript

CHAPTER 6: 200 MILES

“HON’, YOU’RE SO QUIET. IS THERE ANYTHING WRONG?” Trisha searched her husband’s face for an answer, but it was staring blankly at the highway as they zipped past motorists on the long trek home.

“I’m just thinking,” he finally said. “Read me more of those notes from the lecture I missed.”

He had, in fact, missed several, but she knew the notes he meant — a series on preaching tips. She searched through the pages of her notepad.

“The first tip is: ‘Be human,’” she said. “‘Let your peo- ple see why you still need a Savior. Why should they open up to each other if you don’t?’ Also, he said: ‘Share your own struggle with Scripture. Show them how sometimes you can read a whole passage and not get much, but getting anything makes today’s reading a good one.’”

She glanced at Jared to see if he was really listening, but she couldn’t tell. “The second tip is: ‘Be yourself. If you are not a joke-teller, don’t force jokes. If you are an infor- mal guy, be informal. If a storyteller, tell stories. If you are an intellectual analyzer, don’t be afraid to use your gift. Be who you are. If you are working too hard at preaching, you are probably trying to be something you are not.’”

Trisha squinted at the notepad. “I can’t quite read the third tip — but I’d lay odds it’s ‘Be’ something.” Not even a chuckle from Jared. “At any rate, it says here: ‘Tap into people’s memories. The power of an illustration is not in how dramatic it is, but to the degree people see their own stories in it. Memories have a way of piling up on each other. That is where the emotion is. When you tell a funny story that happened at the last church picnic, the people laugh — but they are laughing at the combined funny sto- ries of all the church picnics they’ve attended.’

“And the fourth point is ‘Be surly,’” she continued, pre- tending to read from the paper.

At last, she got a good laugh.

“I’m sorry, Trish,” he said, and gave her hand a squeeze. “I’ve been wrapped up in my thoughts this whole weekend — well, the last several months actually. I’ve been preoccupied with my questions about preaching, and you and the kids have had to bear the brunt of that.” He stole a glance from the road to give her an apologetic smile.

“I thought that if I could just find the answers to my questions, then I could get back to normal and pay atten- tion to you again. But what I think I learned yesterday is that paying attention to you might have been the answer to my question all along.”

Trish ruffled Jared’s hair and leaned in toward him. “That’s really sweet, honey. I have no idea what it means, but it’s sweet.”

He gave her a broad grin. “What I mean is that I’ve been so caught up in the spiritual health of the church that I haven’t given proper attention to the spiritual health of our home. You and I haven’t had devotions together since ... since when?”

“It’s been a long time,” she answered softly.

“That needs to change. I’m not saying that we don’t do all right fending for ourselves in our spiritual walks, but we could be so much stronger if we talked to God and lis- tened to God together, and together as a family, too. If I’m going to lead a whole congregation to walk with God, I feel I need to start with the Palmquists.”

Trisha wasn’t sure what to say. “Are you sure?” she asked. “I’ve always loved when you turn your spiritual attention my way, but I’ve come to understand that I need to share that part of you with the church.”

“I’m positive,” he reassured her. “I’ve been treating the home as a distraction from other ministry, when in fact marriages and families are the basic building blocks of the church. I want to teach others to connect to God in their homes, and that’s impossible if I’m not going to do that myself. It’s time for me to lead by example.”

Trisha gave him a kiss on the cheek and then settled into her seat.

They sat in silence for a while, watching the stretch of road disappear under their tires. After a while, they passed a sign that announced their city as 200 miles away, and Jared smiled. Their car had a clear destination, but the pas- sengers did not. He had no idea if they would start over at a new church, if they would stay, or if they might even plant a church. All he knew was that — wherever it was God was taking them — it was going to be a great adventure.

“Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have.”

POSTSCRIPT

ALTHOUGH THE TITLE OF THIS BOOK WOULD SEEM TO target a readership of preachers, I trust that it will find its way into the hands of many others. This is a book for all Christians. It assumes that every Christian is called to be a preacher: someone who reads the Word of God with a prayerful attitude and tells someone else about it. The only difference between us is how many people we tell.

If you are just an average person in an average church, you might feel powerless to start a revolution in preaching. But you are at least a private in the Lord’s army. Develop a strategy of daily reading the manual for Christian living — the Bible. Start with a two-week strategy of reading a verse or a chapter a day. See how it goes. Then tell someone what you are learning. 

If you’re married, involve your spouse. Carve out a time just for the two of you to share what God has been saying to you through His Word and prayer. Try it every day for two weeks, and see how you change as you “play the game” of preaching with each other. 

If you are single, find a friend (or group of friends) who you can bounce ideas off of, sharing what you are discovering about God and the world He has given you. Agree to read the same Bible-reading track. You will natu- rally talk about what you are reading — the things that inspire you and things that confuse you. Use each other’s experiences to grow. Informal Bible studies will happen wherever you and your friends go.

If you have a family, establish family devotions and/or family worship once a week. Memorize verses together. Make your family scheduling time your family praying time. Keep track of prayers answered and prayers yet unanswered. Let the Word and prayer be the things that bring your family together. 

Remember, every aspect of the church service you mimic in your personal life or your family life can make Sunday worship more resonant. The more you’re seeking God in your Bible reading and telling others, the more you’ll connect with the pastor’s efforts to do the same. The better you learn how to sing or play an instrument, the more resonance you’ll find in the hymns and chorus- es. The more you make hospitality and generosity part of your daily walk with God, the more you will understand the church’s role to reach out to the world in love.

If you find that your personal and family devotions are going well, involve others — friends and other families. The excitement of new people will help keep you going. Who knows where God may take you from there? Perhaps, after you’ve made a consistent habit of your gatherings, you will offer to share your experiences in front of the church. Maybe people will see the difference the word and prayer are making in your life and will want to join in. Perhaps each family in your group will start a new group with new people who want to be playing the “preaching game”, and your church might never be the same again.

To my fellow pastors: I hope this book has not disap- pointed you. Most books on preaching are filled with tips and examples that you can immediately apply with a cer- tain measure of success. This book did not that. (Although there are a few good ones listed in the last chapter — I didn’t want to totally disappoint you.)

The truth is, most of us preachers are not going to improve much in our delivery no matter how many tips we get. No matter how hard you work on your preaching skills, only ten percent of you will ever make it into the top ten percent. Most of you (all right, most of us) will never be anything more than a verage.

You may never be a great preacher, but your preach- ing can be great — great in effect. The secret is paying less attention to the crafting and presentation of the ser- mon and more attention to how the sermon can become the culmination of the congregation’s spiritual focus each week. The power of preaching is not in the pastor on his podium; it is in the people and their practices.

What would happen if the sermon came from the same Bible passages the people were reading that week?

Anticipation: All week long the people would be won- dering what the chosen message of the week would be.

Nostalgia: The sermon would trigger the emotion of recognition and connect people to something familiar.

Accountability: Knowing that everyone else in the church will be keeping up with the reading, and knowing that the sermon will assume a knowledge of the text, will give incentive to complete the homework.

Community: After a  week of  conversations and prayers revolving around the same Scriptures, the sermon will gather people physically just as they have been gath- ered mentally and spiritually. These shared experiences will create a deep bond.

Participation: In a way, the whole church will be preparing the message every week, interacting with the text and having their hearts changed. You can use indi- viduals or groups of people in the preparation and per- haps even in the delivery of the message.

Changing the practices of your people will not be not easy. It will not happen overnight. It will not happen just because you tell people to. It will happen when you model the process first in your own life, when you share it with others and inspire them with your personal commitment and influence in their lives.

That is the challenge put forth to you in this book. I hope that the army metaphor doesn’t distract you from that core principle. I chose it partly as an homage to Wesley’s ‘troops’ idea, and partly because a general seemed the clearest example of a leader who had worked through the ranks and drew an audience’s attention from a respect for having once been in their shoes. I also liked it because all soldiers are playing the same game, and all seek to advance as far as their gifts, abilities, and opportunities present themselves.