SCM Study Guide

Peter Stevenson

• Publisher: SCM Press
• Year: 2017
• Print ISBN: 9780334043744
• eBook ISBN: 9780334056140
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Christian Ministry

A step by step guide to learning about preaching and more importantly how to craft and deliver a sermon. It offers a student friendly, jargon-free introduction that requires no prior knowledge of the subject.

Part 1: Preaching Matters

1. Why Bother with Preaching?

For a video introduction to Chapter 1 visit studyguidepreaching.hymnsam.co.uk

Have I drawn the short straw?

When the warm glow of being invited to write a book dies down, reality begins to bite. For who is going to want a book about preaching?

After all, there are plenty of voices arguing that preaching has had its day. At a time when there is growing interest in pioneer ministry and fresh expressions of church, surely preaching is part of that discredited Christendom mindset that the Church needs to leave behind?

Why write a Studyguide to Preaching when people are asking: ‘Why bother with preaching at all?’

Preaching under fire?

Always on the lookout for something to illustrate talks and lectures, it was the ‘heavy postcards’ in the display case in the museum gift shop at Tenby that caught my eye. Not heavyweight, expensive cards printed on high quality paper, but ‘heavy postcards’ in the form of ceramic figures crafted by a local artist.

Several of the brightly coloured figures had religious overtones, such as the singer in the church choir whose halo was perched at a rather drunken angle. However, it was the heavy postcard of the preacher leaning over the front of the pulpit that caught my eye. Gripping the edge of the pulpit with his left hand, the red-headed preacher points menacingly down with his right index finger towards the congregation cowering below.

This ceramic image of a preacher grabs the attention and conveys energy and passion. Perhaps it could be generously interpreted as a picture of ‘preaching on fire’, or maybe of someone who has a ‘passion for the truth’.

Now, when I asked some colleagues about the titles they might choose if they were putting this heavy postcard of a preacher up for sale, their blunt suggestions painted a less than attractive view of preaching:

• Six feet above contradiction …
• Ranter …
• Anger …
• Yesterday’s preacher …
• Sinners in the hands of an angry God …

My friends’ suggestions chimed in with the sombre title the artist had given this creation, for on the disturbing label underneath the figure in the display cabinet was: ‘Damnation’. Such a provocative title sends a chill down the spine, painfully reminding us that for many people beyond the bounds of the Church, words such as ‘preachers’ and ‘preaching’ conjure up negative and toxic feelings.

In an age suspicious of all forms of authority, it is not surprising that many people today view preaching as an outdated, authoritarian attempt to impose unwelcome ideas on people. Indeed, such criticisms are nothing new, for as far back as 1857 we find the novelist Anthony Trollope poking fun at preachers.

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There is, perhaps, no greater hardship at present inflicted on mankind in civilised and free countries, than the necessity of listening to sermons. No one but a preaching clergyman has, in these realms, the power of compelling an audience to sit silent and be tormented.1

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Caught in friendly fire?

Similar concerns about the relevance of preaching also emerge from within the Church. At one end of the spectrum, concerns are voiced about boring monologues; as Thomas Long observes: ‘for many people the words boredom and sermon are a proper pair, like horse and carriage’.2

A much weightier criticism is that, far from equipping God’s people for works of service, sermons delivered by religious professionals disable the laity, reducing their ability to read the Bible and take responsibility for their own faith development. From this angle, as one critic puts it: ‘preaching as it is practised in modern churches is extra-biblical, a poor form of communication, and creates dependency’.3

PAUSE FOR THOUGHT

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Take time to reflect on the criticisms of preaching you are aware of, and then give some thought to ways preachers might best respond to those criticisms. It may be helpful to ask other people for their ideas and opinions.

• What do you believe to be the most serious criticisms of preaching today?
• In what ways can preachers best respond to those criticisms?

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Space here forbids a step-by-step response to all of the important questions being raised about preaching. The aim is not to enter the fray on the side of the angels but to offer some biblical and theological perspectives on the theme that might help to position this discussion in a larger context.

In thinking theologically about preaching, it is relevant to ask, first, whether preaching is primarily about Christian education or encountering God.

Poor educational practice?

Some criticisms of preaching are reminiscent of educational debates about teacher-centred versus learner-centred approaches to learning. In terms of preaching, the argument might be that for optimum learning to take place within the congregation, a preacher needs to be less the ‘sage on the stage’ pouring out information, and more of a ‘guide by the side’ enabling people to learn for themselves.

Such comments oversimplify complex debates about the learning process, for how helpful is it to draw such a stark contrast between the transmission of knowledge and the transformation of the learner? Even the most limited exposure to classroom reality suggests that even if an ideal learning environment is created, there is no guarantee students will automatically want to learn for themselves. Often teachers need to supply essential knowledge about a topic first, before students are able to learn effectively. At other times students will need space to learn for themselves and at their own pace.

Clearly many preachers could benefit from thinking a bit more about how people learn, and how congregations experience sermons. However, the criticism that monologue preaching is a poor way of educating a mixed-ability congregation builds on the often unacknowledged assumption that preaching is primarily to be understood through the lens of education.

But is preaching primarily an educational event?

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Sermons are not first of all to educate us or tell us how to behave. That may be part of the matter. First of all, however, they are to enable us to see the glory of God in the face of Jesus as did those disciples on the mount of transfiguration.4

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Education or encounter?

From the outset, this Studyguide takes a different tack. It assumes that pre...

Table of contents

• SCM STUDYGUIDE TO PREACHING
• SCM Studyguides
• Title page
• Copyright information
• Contents
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• Part 1: Preaching Matters
• 1. Why Bother with Preaching?
• Part 2: Preparing to Preach
• 2. A Journey into Three Worlds
• 3. Looking for Trouble
• 4. Preaching in Context
• Part 3: Designing Sermons
• 5. A Recipe for Preaching
• 6. Creating a Sequence
• 7. Telling a Story
• 8. Painting a Picture
• Part 4: Preaching and Performance
• 9. First Steps on the Preaching Journey
• 10. Performing the Sermon
• Part 5: The Preaching Life
• 11. The Fully-Alive Preacher
• Appendix 1: Extract from Service Broadcast on BBC Radio Wales on Sunday 6 July 2014
• Appendix 2: Guidelines for Lectio Divina
• Appendix 3: Funeral Sermon 1 and Funeral Sermon 2
• Appendix 4: Sermon Preached at an Ordination Service in August 2009
• Appendix 5: Identifying the ‘Slides’ that form one of the ‘Moves’ in the Sermon on Isaiah 6
• Appendix 6: Using the Plot in Nehemiah 4 in a Sermon
• Appendix 7: Finding the Plot in Ruth 2
• Appendix 8: Dismantling a Sermon?
• Appendix 9: Questions for Sermon Listeners
• Bibliography