I admit it. I enjoy watching competitions like American Idol and The Voice. Partly because I love to hear good singing. Partly because the judges teach me about effective communication to contemporary listeners. Even though I focus almost entirely on the hermeneutical side of homiletics, I still try to think about effective communication.
There are many similarities between good singing performances and good preaching (notice I did not add, “performances,” because I do not like to think of preaching in terms of a performance).
So over the years, over and over again, I hear the judges tell a contestant:
“You need to make a connection with the audience and the way that happens is by losing yourself in the lyrics and telling the story so it’s believable. When you feel what you’re singing about, your audience will feel it too and believe your story.” Or something like that.
Do you see how this applies to preaching? A preacher losing himself in his sermon and telling the Story so it’s believable? A preacher feeling what he’s preaching about and conveying such feeling that his listeners find themselves believing it too?
Now, let’s ask ourselves what happens when we preach without doing this. How do you think we connect when we preach without losing ourselves in the message or without conveying the fact that we believe the Story? Not very well.
One of the authors in, Preaching the New Testament, included Jana Childers’ observation found in her book, Performing the Word: “In her view too much contemporary preaching lacks passion and does not sound like the preacher believes what he is preaching” (p. 236 of Preaching the NT).
I can tell you that many young preachers in my classrooms over the years have heard me say something very similar about their sermons. I wonder what the judges would say about my preaching.
Before Sunday, be sure your faith in the message allows your to lose yourself in the sermon and tell the Story in a way that’s believable. Feel what you’re preaching about and convey that emotion to your congregants.
For the sake of God’s reputation in the Church and in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 3:21), preach a good sermon will ya?!
Randal
One of the biggest reasons I’ve seen in my time for a lack of conviction and feeling in preaching is a lack of preparation. When one hasn’t prepared well enough, it is hard to know the subject well enough to be able to preach it with conviction. Of course, it ought to go without saying that we should have absorbed and internalized for ourselves what we are preaching before we stand up behind the pulpit, but that is also an essential part of preparation, IMO. 🙂
Thanks for another great article.
Thanks for chiming in. I thought about creating a list of reasons and you’ve led the way in talking about preparation. That’s probably one reason why student preachers at both masters and doctoral levels struggle with believability–they rarely have time during classes to be thoroughly prepared. However, as you know, Sunday’s come quickly so it’s always a rush to be prepared. I think for me, I struggle more with not having my heart in the particular Text. I’ve said for years that one of the problems of preaching through books of the Bible is: great sermons require great texts and not all pastors and parishioners consider every text a great text. Keep up the good work of faith!