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Preachers expect a lot. One can view a television commercial that encourages us to buy a hamburger or to change our brand of detergent. That we can deal with, but preachers want us to change our lives. They call on us to make profound decisions that effect the destiny of our souls. Even on a more practical level we have all heard preachers ask us to…
...voluntarily give up a large portion of our income on a monthly basis
...sell our homes, give up our jobs, and settle permanently in near poverty overseas
...to risk our hard-won relationships by trying to get our friends to accept our view of religion
...to give up large amounts of our rare free time in order to serve on under-supported committees and teams
It is a lot to ask.
Problems are Powerful
It is not surprising that listeners are skeptical. Preachers often believe that people are under some obligation to listen and respond to whatever they have to say. Perhaps if listeners appreciated that what the preacher says is what God says they might be a little more responsive, but that is a stretch listeners are not always ready to make.
Many preachers are satisfied to conclude their sermons with an explanation of the text. Having arrived at the end of the second quadrant they sit down content with the idea that they have met their obligation. “I have made my my point,” they tell themselves. Perhaps they have. These preachers, however, would be better advised to accept more responsibility in the process of preaching. Just because the point has been explained does not mean that the listeners have accepted it. Usually, a deeper engagement is required. Imagine the listeners sitting back with arms crossed and a cynical look on their faces. “Yeah, but…” they say.
As long as we are preaching the Bible we can feel certain that listeners will struggle to accept what we are saying. The Bible is definitively cross-cultural. It speaks to us and against us. As preachers we are trying to encourage listeners to change not only what they think but who they are and how they will live. We preach to humans and humans are sinful. We have problems with what we hear in God’s word because we are human and because we are human. Bryan Chapell describes this need as “The Fallen Condition Focus.” “Since God designed the Bible to complete us, its contents necessarily indicate that in some sense we are incomplete. Our lack of wholeness is a consequence of the fallen condition in which we live (Chapell 41).” Chapell contends that every text has an “FCF” and that the task of the preacher is to apply the message of the text to the listener’s life and will so that the FCF is effectively addressed. There is always a problem Anything less than a full engagement with that problem makes preaching incomplete.
Engaging the Problem as the Sermon’s Third Move
Having “made the point,” the preacher must move to “engage the problem.” Often overlooked, this is the third major move of the sermon. The third move is the attempt to deal on a cognitive level with the listener’s assumptions and presumptions. It is the attempt to help the listener come to a meeting of the minds with God in his word. Having understood the truth of the passage, the preacher now helps the listener to assent to the message given through the preaching of God’s Word.
Trying to engage the listener’s problem requires the preacher to be aggressive in hisor her approach. The preacher is picking at things that the listener might rather leave unexamined. This is not necessarily comfortable or welcome. The success of this venture will depend largely upon the tone the preacher takes. Generally, people are looking for preachers who will confidently speak to things that the listener cares about. The line can, however, be fine. Garrison Keillor describes one listener’s sense of his pastor’s preaching.
When Bernie stood up, he was reborn, and he yelled, “Thank you, Jesus!” over and over, tears pouring down his cheeks – “Now there was what I call preaching!” says John’s Uncle Val, Bernie’s brother, a deacon and Pastor Ingqvist’s faithful critic. He says of the pastor’s sermons, “He mumbles. He murmers. It’s a lot of on-the-one-hand-this, on-the-other-hand-that. He never comes straight out. He never puts the hay down where the goats can get it. It’s a lot of talk, and many a Sunday I’ve walked away with no idea what he said. Can’t remember even where he started from. You never had that problem with the old preachers. There was never a moment’s doubt. It was Repent or Be Damned. We need that. This guy, he tries to please everybody. Just once I wish he’d raise his voice and pound on the pulpit. That way I’d know he wasn’t talking in his sleep (Keillor 320).
While many listeners can appreciate Uncle Val’s frustration with the uncertain tone of contemporary preaching, most would be uncomfortable with the pulpit-pounding (over)confidence of “the old preachers” he describes. We don’t want wishy-washy preachers who don’t know what they think, but a little humility would not be a bad thing either. It is, perhaps, one of those postmodern ironies that preachers who can acknowledge that obeying sermons doesn’t come easy will speak with even greater authority.
Ultimately, preaching is a challenge to all of us. Listeners need preachers to engage their problem, but they will be much more open to this engagement if it is clear that the preacher understands that not only is this the listener’s problem but that it is the preacher’s problem too.
Improving our Problem Engagement
There are several things preachers can do to improve their problem engagement. The first is to make sure that the point is well established. It is extremely difficult to identify the problem when the point is not clearly established. The problem grows out of the point statement. Once the theme is clearly articulated the problem becomes evident.
The simplest way for the preacher to identify the problem, then, is to look to his or her own heart and life. The preacher needs to appreciate that he or she is the first listener to what God is saying through his Word with the advantage of a significant head start. The first place to look for the problem is to dig deep into our own objections to see where we are having a problem with acceptance and obedience. Adopting this kind of “me too” tone in the sermon will go a long ways toward winning the attention and response of the listener. The “fellow struggler” stance is the one that will win with listeners. The preacher’s confidence, then, has the ring of authenticity having grown out of deep challenge. The preacher needs to be aggressive about digging deep. That aggression will be welcome if the listener perceives the preacher as safe. The lister will feel secure if she or he trusts the preacher as one who has shared her or his experience.
It will be a big help if the preacher will cease using his or her “preacher’s voice” and begin to speak with the voice of the listener. The listener needs to recognize the message as coming from their own heart. For at least part of the time, the sermon must be recognized, not just as the voice of external authority, but as the voice of the listener her or himself.
Ultimately, the listener needs to recognize the problem as their own. This means that the preacher cannot go cheap. The third move of the sermon requires as much investment as anything else in the sermon. If the problem does not resonate as real and as significant for the listener in his or her life, it will mean little and accomplish less. Preachers that do not know their listeners or who have not bothered with congregational exegesis will struggle to describe problems that will have the ring of authenticity for their listeners.
For this to happen, the preacher needs to give it time, thinking in terms of duration, making sure to allow enough minutes so that the problem sinks in. One cannot go cheap on this. The problem must surprise the listener by getting under their skin and going deep.
“Yeah, OK”
In the end, of course, the preacher wants to do more than leave the listener wallowing in their problems. The “yeah, but…” of the sermon, needs to give way to the “yeah, OK – I know what you are saying and while I have struggled with the truth, I’m now ready to say yes to God. I am now ready to believe.” The purpose of raising the problem is not to create problems but to resolve them before God, by His Spirit, through His Word.
Chapell, Bryan. Christ-Centered Preaching: Redeeming the Expository Sermon. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 1994.
Keillor, Garrison. Lake Wobegon Days. New York: Viking Penquin, 1985.