Hello, ducklings,
I just got a gander (see what I did there? Ducklings? Gander? I think I’ve exhausted my fowl jokes for the day) at this fascinating article about the obsolescence of preaching that says what lots of us have been talking about for years but puts some stats behind it.
I was going to post the article on my PeaceBang blog, which is geared for lay readership but I thought I’d bring it here for a clergy discussion first. How do you feel about this? I personally love preaching with all my heart and soul and consider preparing a sermon to be my chief spiritual discipline in ministry (in that it keeps me on a steady, committed schedule of prayer, study, reflection and ‘sending forth’ in the form of written word and Sunday’s delivery) but if God isn’t committed to sermons, I don’t want to worship an irrelevant idol. I frame the issue this way in memory of the time I heard Bishop William Willimon speak at the Festival of Homiletics some years ago in Nashville. He was talking about the painful work of closing many of the Methodist churches in his conference and he said, “God is not invested in real estate.” His words were prescient, as it was only four or five years later that seemingly everyone in religious life started talking about the problem of defining “church” in terms of brick-and-mortar buildings. My own denomination just started an initiative around congregations beyond buildings.
So what about preaching beyond sermons? I think of the great American Unitarian William Ellery Channing’s quote, “May your life preach more loudly than your lips.” And I think, “Yes, but let’s get real, Willie: giving good sermon is still at the top of the list for what congregations are looking for in a minister!”
I am totally invested in good preaching. I can’t believe how little of it is out there, and I try to listen to sermons and attend church in a wide variety of settings. I am not at all ready to give up on this ancient art form, which I equate more with weaving, musical composition, storytelling and dance than I do with the Greek tradition of rhetoric and oration. If I had to invest my life savings to promote the relevance of preaching, I would very likely do so. I think preaching matters.
But I am also aware that the human brain has changed and that attention spans are much shorter than they were in the past. This is not my favorite evolutionary development and one that I try to counter in my own brain by doing as much “long listening” and “long reading” as I do to sound bites and short posts. I do not want to lose my own ability to concentrate to a prepared speech or sermon, but I do expect it to be well-written and delivered, lively, relevant, inspiring and theologically grounded. I do not want a lecture or book review. I do not want a series of quotes strung together. I expect the speaker’s life and encounters with humanity and creation to shine through the message. And yes, I may Tweet or check my Facebook status or read an e-mail while I listen. I may take notes. I may take a photograph and post it on Instagram (shout out to the Rev. Laura Everett, Executive Director of the Massachusetts Council of Churches who did the very same while hearing me preach at King’s Chapel last year, and I treasure the photo). My modern brain is attuned to multi-tasking but that doesn’t mean I neither seek out nor respect a good sermon.
I believe we can be missional and disipleship-centered AND preach good and meaningful sermons. However, I am aware of the growing tension and divide between the sermon-centric church-goer and the missional church-goer. The former (in my tradition, and perhaps yours), seeks a good intellectual and spiritual take-away. The latter seeks an inspirational message and wants to be sent away — out into the world to live their faith. To my mind, a good minister provides all of these things, although –realistically — probably not in every sermon and not on every Sunday.
My own preaching has changed from more research and brainy to more story-based and connectional. Having noticed this trend, I am hoping to convene a college of preachers to study our homiletic style, to spend time in prayer about it, to hear and offer feedback on each other’s sermons and to set ourselves some goals and commitments. Our congregations here in New England tend to be quite traditional and most of us serve communities that place a high value on good preaching. It is for us to navigate the current moment well, and to bring this cherished art form into the contemporary era wisely and effectively.
Thank you, God, for preaching. It has changed my life deeply in both the hearing and receiving of it and the preparing and delivering of it. Week in and week out, I have known the Holy Spirit just as intimately through preparing the sermon as in any other moment of pastoral ministry.
In my element the way a duck in a pond is in hers.
