The Freedom that Comes from Preaching Growth
Why does preaching growth matter?
What is the purpose of improving skills, honing our craft, and learning new techniques?
Ultimately, improving our sermon craft results in more compelling preaching, which of course benefits our listeners who hear Good News and experience freedom from the sin, shame, legalism, or pain of living in this imperfect world with imperfect humans.
But growth in our preaching craft provides freedom for us, the preacher, too.
The more skilled we become, the freer we become to execute the preaching vision in our head—even if that vision is risky, unfamiliar, or challenging.
We experience freedom to play, create, experiment, and ultimately excel at preaching—for the sake of the gospel.
Just as learning to ride a bike without training wheels frees us from the limits of flat, smooth pavement, so too does growing our preaching skill expand our preaching possibilities.
As we continue to practice, develop more skills, and grow, we may find ourselves in unpaved, wild places—overcoming obstacles and perceived limits until we reach new summits, take in and share new vistas, and access beauty previously unavailable to us and our congregants.
Like a child who ditches training wheels and practices riding for years until they can overcome rocks and logs to climb literal mountains, we too continue to grow in the process, craft, and spirituality of preaching in order to explore new creative territory and reach our listeners in ever-more effective ways.
So how exactly do we develop this kind of freeing proficiency in preaching?
I’ve been pondering this question since reading The Creative Habit: Learn It and Use It for Life by Twyla Tharp, the American dancer and choreographer.
Ms. Tharp writes:
“What is your idea of mastery? Having the experience to know what you want to do, the vision to see how to do it, the courage to work with what you’re given, and the skill to execute that first impulse, all so you can take bigger chances” (2006, p. 59, Kindle edition).
Although her area of creativity is dance, each of these aspects applies to preaching, too.
My take on how each part of Tharp’s list can be applied to preachers is in no way exhaustive. Instead, it’s intended to spark your imagination and discernment to consider specific ways you might be continue to grow as a preacher.
In the end, the only thing that matters is how you define and are called towards preaching growth for the sake of proclaiming the gospel.
To preach ever more compellingly, we want to continually grow our skill with the tools we use to:
interpret Scripture for our particular audience
comprehend and apply the purpose and components of a sermon
be adroit with words so that our hopes for the sermon’s meaning match as closely as possible with the sermon itself.
Let’s take a closer look at how can do this based on Tharp’s definition.
1) “Having the experience to know what you want to do” in Your Sermon
Gaining experience in and of itself doesn’t guarantee growth.
We must apply intentional, reflective practices to discern what about our experience was successful and what needs to shift.
We cast a vision of how we hope a sermon will land with the listeners.
And when a sermon sings or flops, we reflect on why.
We ask what deficits need to be mitigated or what strengths could be built upon, and we find ways to develop those skills.
For example, we may have a vision of an audience that is engaged and primed to receive the message from the first moments of a sermon. To that end, we might decide to tell a joke at the beginning. But telling a joke for the purpose of engaging or warming up the audience may or may not be effective.
How do we know?
Reflection.
We take a few moments after sermon prep sessions and after preaching to ask ourselves:
What worked?
What didn’t?
What might I do differently next time?
What do I need to learn or practice to improve?
This practice helps us identify the knowledge and skills we need to grow and develop. Do we need to become better at joke-telling? Then we might seek out one type of resource. Do we need to find a different kind of sermon opening altogether? Well, then we need a different kind of resource.
A vision guides our preaching decisions. Experience tells us if it works. Reflection helps us sort out why and what to do about it.
Even if we don’t preach very often, we can still practice skills and gain experience by crafting sermons even when we’re not preaching. It doesn’t have to be every week. Any additional, reflective sermon-writing aids growth.
In addition, we can build experience through related activities: journaling, writing from writing prompts, crafting a thoughtful social media post or newsletter article, listening to great preachers and reading their sermons, etc.
We grow when we know what we want our preaching to accomplish, identify the skills or tools we need to bring that vision to fruition, and then evaluate the experience to know whether our attempt worked.
Then we begin again.
2) Having “The vision to see how to do it”
Having choices about the way to communicate our sermon message includes knowing as much as possible about our listeners’ lives and being able to choose between sermon forms.
Knowing our listeners’ joys, challenges, questions, and struggles helps us envision whether a sermon should challenge them further, teach or help them gain new perspectives, or comfort.
In addition, sermon forms are wonderful gifts for preachers.
Being able to choose between them helps us envision different means by which we offer our messages, and keeps our listeners engaged because the way we offer a sermon isn’t predictable.
Plus, they save us time by acting as roughed-out patterns or templates.
See, for example, Dr. Wesley Allen’s book Determining the Form (Elements of Preaching) (2008).
Having a vision about how to offer the message the Spirit implanted in our minds and hearts is part of preaching growth.
3) Having “The courage to work with what you’re given”
It takes courage to become aware of our skills, our emotional capacity, and the listeners we’ve been given—and the limitations therein.
Awareness of our skills means we’re able to choose wisely what we are able to preach and what we aren’t ready for—yet.
For example, one seminarian I taught brought to class for his second sermon (which was the second sermon he’d ever preached) a message he deliberately wrote one day in advance from start to finish, as if there had just been a national disaster and he needed to address it.
He gave himself this challenge, believing that if he could pull this off in class he could probably pull it off for a congregation.
However, this student didn’t yet have the experience, vision, or skills to compose or offer a sermon with depth or finesse with so little preparation time, or the experience to be aware that this was beyond his reach.
Similarly, I’ve never preached a sermon using an overhead screen for visual aids. However, I do have enough experience to know I would need help, a lot of practice, a small and simple initial visual, and feedback about how well it worked (or didn’t).
Growth requires the courage to honestly assess the skills we have and ask for help for the ones we lack.
In addition, on some Sundays or in some seasons of our lives, we have more capacity to take preaching risks or offer courageous messages than others.
If it’s a Sunday when we don’t feel well, or we’re in a season of healing from physical, emotional, or spiritual pain, we need to take that into account.
It takes courage to treat ourselves with as much pastoral care as we extend to our parishioners.
Plus, it takes courage to preach to the listeners God provided who might or might not be our “ideal” congregation.
Whoever they are, our goal is the same: to connect listeners to God, each other, and the world, and offer a vision of beloved community.
This means—inevitably—that we will need courage to preach when some listeners don’t want to connect with others or the vision of beloved community!
Part of preaching growth, then, is the courage to apply our skills wisely—and within our emotional and physical capacity—for the unique listeners who make up our congregations.
4) Having “The skill to execute that first impulse”
I think Ms. Tharp is referring to the idea that one’s initial creative impulse is often the best one.
I’m not sure that necessarily applies to the preaching process.
Discerning a sermon requires deep prayer, abiding in the Word over time, and mulling over ideas, some of which lead to dead ends.
That said, we may get an early inkling in our preparation that God hopes listeners will feel, understand, or do something—but that inkling feels risky and scares us off.
We might be afraid of the reaction it will receive, or it might be something we haven’t tried before—or it may convict us with a truth about ourselves that we prefer not to face.
Regardless, being adept at using all the tools for message discernment, composition, word-smithing, prayer, and self-reflection, as well as gleaning the wisdom of therapists, spiritual directors, and preaching colleagues so that we boldly go wherever our impulses take us, lead to preaching growth.
“All so you can take bigger chances”
Once we gain mastery over some skills, we’re ready to take new risks, push creative boundaries, and lean into the trusted relationships we’ve developed with our listeners so they are willing to hear challenging messages.
Taking chances and learning is what keeps us interested and engaged in the process, craft, and spirituality of preaching, and when we’re engaged it comes across in our tone of voice and body language.
Listeners pick up on our enthusiasm for preaching, and that enthusiasm helps them lean in to catch every word the Spirit has to offer through us.
The willingness to take chances while knowing not all of them will work, is also part of growth.
So where can you begin developing your skills so you enjoy the freedom of growth and taking chances?
Ask preachers you appreciate what they did to develop in these areas and what areas they’re still growing in.
Read books and articles on the skills you hope to build.
Watch sermons and pay attention to the craft of their preaching: What did the preacher do well and how did they do it? What was less effective and why?
What about you? What would you add to this list? What would you strike from it?
What is your idea of growth?
Supporting preachers’ growth in craft, process, and spirituality is what we do.
For support in continually growing in all areas of preaching, check out The Collective+, our online community for preachers who want to thrive in and out of the pulpit.