Category Archives: Emotion

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How Reading the Wall Street Journal Can Help Your Preaching. Honest.

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The Opinion section seems fair and the writing is superb.
Photo by Allie on Unsplash

Several months ago I decided to go back to getting a newspaper again. I was close to getting a subscription to digital curated news, such as Apple News, but the reviews were not great. I chose the Wall Street Journal thanks to a generous discount for educators. Or, was it students? That’s not important right now.

What is important is how the quality of WSJ’s writers is helping me be a better communicator of God’s Word.

Here are some lines from this weekend’s WSJ from one of my favorite writers, Peggy Noonan’s, Declarations: The GOP Tries to Make Its Case…

“If you weren’t moved by [Jon Ponder’s speech] you don’t do moved.”

Or, the reporting of Sen. Tim Scott’s speech which included the phrase,

“Because of the evolution of the Southern heart.” (explaining how “a black man who started with nothing [ended up in “Congress in an overwhelmingly white district in Charleston and beat the field, including the son of former-Sen. Strom Thurmond.”].

Or…

“[Republicans] hit on the one fear shared equally now by the rich, the poor and the middle: that when you call 911 you’ll go to voicemail.”

Or, my new favorite word I read several days ago: humblebrag.

So, in Psalm 18:23 David commits humblebrag when he claims: “I was blameless before him, and I kept myself from my guilt.” Much different than David’s confession in Psalm 38:18 “I confess my iniquity; I am sorry for my sin.”

There are several times in the earlier Psalms when David voices humblebrag. It’s a great word to describe how David can crow even though there were many times he had to eat crow.

I just wished I had remembered to say it in the sermon. Oh well.

May our Lord receive glory in the church and in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 3:21) because of our attempts to become better wordsmiths.

Randal

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Helping Your Hearers Be Truly Happy: What I’m Learning From Reading Jonathan Edwards’s Earliest Sermons

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One goal of preaching is to create the ultimate happiness.

I confess that I did not expect happiness to be an emphasis in Edwards’s Puritanical preaching. I was wrong.

You might recall that Kimnach’s first recorded sermon of Edwards is, Christian Happiness. His second one is, The Value Of Salvation, based on Matthew 16:26 (“For what is a man profited, if he gain the whole world, and lose his own soul…?”).

In the opening doctrinal section, Edwards teaches that “all worldly good things shall have an end” and describes all who treasure those things “as to make them their happiness [emphasis added]” (p. 313, Kimnach). Edwards mentions how a person “hugs them never so close” (p. 313, and “to hug and make a god of” on p. 320).

The following pages show Edwards piling on all the reasons why it makes no sense to hold the things of the world too tightly. But what caught my eye was when Edwards says,

“it is the goodness of God that he has not appointed these things for our portion [for all eternity]” (p. 318).

Then, in keeping with his text, Edwards states that salvation includes the deliverance from great misery, “because so great happiness is to be enjoyed in the salvation of the soul [emphasis added]” (p. 320). Did you catch the contrast?

Delivered from great misery to experience great happiness.

And this becomes Edwards’s emphasis. Nearing the end of the sermon he writes, “The salvation of the soul is of inestimable worth…because the happiness that will be enjoyed by every saved soul will be inestimable [emphasis added]” (p. 322).

Edwards has made me evaluate my preaching, especially my portrayal of the benefits of salvation. I probably emphasize deliverance from great misery over experiencing great happiness. But what would you expect from a small “f” fundamentalist? (*smile*)

May our Lord receive glory in the church and in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 3:21) as we proclaim all the happinesses associated with walking with Him each day.

Randal

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Getting Excited About the Emotional Component in Preaching

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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