A Difference in a Sermon and a Speech

It is important that preachers pay attention to their context. For instance, if your ministry is in a college town and the parishioners are college-educated people who place a premium on learning, then you know that you are going to have to have a teaching element in the sermon or no one will listen to you. If you are in a context where people value being a church of "Go" then by goodness, you need to be sure to have a call to action in the sermon. 

Context matters, but it is not king. Christ is King. In this sense that means the contextual must be in service of the transcendent. A sermon that is trapped and cannot transcend the context is not a sermon in my book. 

Sermons are those declarations of Good News that speak to the context but then transcend it. So if your community values learning, then the sermon must not be only about teaching. It must include a teaching element and then transcend it so that there is a call to service. The church of "Go" needs to hear the sermon that calls to action but transcends that call to include a call to worship and be still. 

Sermons that are trapped in their context are just that - trapped. There may be a good word shared, but it is not Good News. It may make the community feel good, but if the proclamation does not include and transcend the context then it is a public speech, not a sermon.*

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*This post is specifically directed to all the preachers named Jason Valendy.

Preachers sometimes don't tell the truth on purpose

Preaching is less a public speaking teaching opportunity and more an act of worship. This means that sometimes, preachers don't tell the truth on purpose. That does not mean that preachers lie, only that preaching as an at of worship is trying to communicate a deeper and transcendent reality than the truth can express. Which is why the old preacher joke ("are you telling the truth or are you preaching?") is funny. Preaching does not always share the truth. 

Before we freak out, let me be clear, there is a difference in telling the truth and telling Truth. The story of the "Giving Tree" is not a story about the truth but it is full of Truth. Most children's books I have experienced do not tell the truth on purpose either, but that is to be expected by the reader. I would submit that when we began to see the preaching moment as primarily a "teaching moment" we reduced preaching to teaching the truth and that means many times preacher are not able to express with deep wonder and beauty Truth of the Gospel. Yes, you can make a children's book about how much a mother loves her son and it will be True, but it has not captured the imagination as the story of a tree that loves a boy (which is not the truth but very True).

Many preachers often don't tell the truth on purpose because preachers are not trying to share the truth but they are trying to express Truth - just like Jesus.

The parables of Jesus are not the truth, but they are True. There was not a woman who searched her house for the missing coin or a man who had two sons or a man who sold all they had for treasure in a field or a Good Samaritan or...

If something has to be the truth in order for you to accept any Truth in it, then you are missing a lot of beauty and joy. Don't let the lack of truth keep you from seeing Truth in this world.

Quality Preachers Don't Preach Because They Enjoy It

I am not an award winning preacher, but I am married to one (Find Estee's name on page 99 of this report). I don't teach preaching (although I have recently been riding the coattails of Estee to help work with a college on his preaching). I have never been asked to lead a session on how to preach, however I have pulled preachers together a few times in a event I co-created called "SermonCraft".

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Rev. Charles McClure and Rev. Thomas Q. Robbins. McClure has something to say about the nature of the Church and Robbins has something to say about Evangelism. These are two quality preachers.

Like others, I listen to a number of preachers in my denomination's conference from Rev. Phillip Rhodes at FUMC Hurst to Rev. Katie Meek at FUMC Round Rock to preachers outside my denomination such as Pastor Rob Carmack at Collective Church and the great work of Shane Hipps. I have even tried to highlight other preachers on this very blog through the "Preacher of the Month" posts. 

Recently I was asked by a Sunday school group, "How do you come up with sermons?" It was a fun time talking about sermon crafting and I am thankful for the opportunity. In deeper reflection on the art of preaching, there is at least one Truth that has come to the surface about the quality preachers that I hear:

Quality preachers don't preach because they enjoy it. If you encounter someone who feels called to the ministry because they really like to preach, feel free to share this bit of advice - quality preachers don't go into preaching because they like it but because they have something to say. 

That is not to say that preachers cannot enjoy saying something in front of a congregation, but it is to say that saying something is not the same as having something to say. The best preachers have something to say.