Not until we see, hear, touch, and feel the emotions of an idea do they take up residence in our spirits and do their work of transformation. This is the power of movies and tv shows and books and Ted Talks. They help us experience abstract concepts so we feel and therefore understand their meaning. Strong sermons do the same. They assume unfamiliarity so no understanding is taken for granted. And then they bring a concept to life.
“Each weekend, our churches gather, bringing with them a beautiful mixture of varied experiences, insights, struggles, gifts, tensions, and reactions to the world, which we call ‘personality’… Personality is our strategy to survive and thrive in the world. It is the wise preacher who spends her time learning as much as she can about the nature of personality and learning to speak to the beautiful variety present in the pew. After all, there is no way to guide hearers into a new vision for their place in God’s Kingdom and mission without meeting them, not just where they are, but in who they are.”
All parts of the sermon function like a call and response: each initial question answered, each named problem affirmed, each element finding its conclusion in the sermon’s intentionally crafted end. What are you inviting your listener to understand or believe more deeply? Why does it matter? Every word of the sermon lays the path to those answers.
Dr. Edgar “Trey” Clark III, Assistant Professor of Preaching at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California, offers three practical preaching insights we can learn from Howard Thurman. “While the goal is not to imitate Thurman, I’m convinced he embodies wisdom that can be applied in relevant ways in diverse ministry contexts today.”
Enjoy this guest post from Rolf Jacobson, Luther Seminary Professor of Old Testament and the Alvin N. Rogness Chair of Scripture, Theology, and Ministry: “Preachers can learn from comedians—especially from stand-up comics. Because like us, they stand up in front of a gathering of people with nothing other than a microphone for protection.”
“People learn in many different ways. Pure words are very difficult for many people. Pictures and visual cues help connect the dots for a vast majority of the people in our pews. Read on for practical ways to combine visual communication with the Word of Scripture and the words of your sermon, so that, when you are done preaching, your listeners will say, ‘We have seen Jesus.’”
The vast majority of preachers I work with, including me!, would say their favorite part of sermon prep is exegesis. It’s likely the “new” aspect that’s actually at the root of why we enjoy exegesis. Every time we discover something new, our brains push out a little dopamine and we feel that rush of satisfaction. However, when we run out of “new” because we’ve read the same Scripture verses, footnotes and commentaries over and over, well, uh-oh. But we can infuse newness into every stage of sermon prep, and that’s the key to creating work that feels like play.
