My pastoral history now spanning just shy of three full decades has been in the context of what I will call the typical Bible Church. Which being interpreted means we don’t get too excited about the Bible.

I joke with our folks about this because it’s important for us to know who we are and how we’re wired. But, I have to admit that this does at times make me question my effectiveness as a communicator.

Think with me about this. If I am preaching God’s Word with faithful exposition—we’re a Bible Church, remember?—what does it mean if my listeners don’t get excited about God?

You could come to my defense and say, “Well, that shows what kind of spiritual mettle they are made of.” I appreciate your support. I, of course, could come to their defense and say, “Well, that shows what kind of preacher I am.”

In her book, Preaching That Matters, Carrell’s chapter on delivery includes a section, Embracing Emotion. In my limited experience, that subject matter leads to citing reasons why emotionalism is dangerous. That discussion may have it’s place, but in Bible churches like mine the more important discussion is what it says about my preaching if preaching the Word doesn’t create an emotional response.

Carrell writes,

“the thirty thousand-plus listeners responding to sermons in this study constantly report low levels of emotional response to preaching, even though they long to be inspired. ‘I was moved emotionally’ is consistently one of the two sermon response survey options that receive significantly lower scores than the others” (p. 135).

That could be as much my problem as theirs.

I had a rare victory last Sunday evening preaching Psalm 15. It begins with a question: “O Lord, who shall sojourn in your tent? While explaining what the question means I asked,

“Have you ever thought about whether God would enjoy a visit with you in His home?”

We almost got excited (*smile*).

Before Sunday, is there anything in your preaching portion to get excited about? I mean, don’t go overboard or anything, but may our Lord receive glory in the church and in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 3:21) as we aim at both an intellectual and emotional worship response.

Randal