Mark Galli, in the article below, takes on the preacher as entertainer mentality so prevalent in so many churches. I have to look no further than St. Andrew’s to see the rootedness of this wishfulness. I was talking to one of our members, one of our long time leaders, recently and she was commenting about how she missed the preaching style of a former staff member. ”What did you like?” I asked. ”He made me laugh and his illustrations were so memorable.” She then proceeded to name a few of the more memorable illustrations. When I asked what point the illustrations were illustrating she had no answer. What became memorable, then, was not Jesus – or His Gospel – rather, the preacher. When I pressed her a bit she candidly commented, “I’d rather have a humorous presentation and remember that I liked going to church that day even if I can’t remember what the preacher spoke about.” Tragic.
Here’s a clip from Galli’s article. Make sure you read it all – especially if you are a preacher:
My friend says he’s slowly become aware that the medium has become the message—the sermon has inadvertently become a showcase of the pastor’s life and faith—and this by a pastor who my friend describes as humble and desperate to win people to Christ . . . Phillips Brooks once described preaching as “Truth through personality.” Indeed. But with the flowering of the personal illustration, preaching often morphs into “the truth of my personality” . . . It was just a generation ago that the personal illustration was suspect. Homiletics professors frowned on the preacher bringing himself or his family into the sermon. It was unseemly, not serious exposition. But the 1960s introduced the therapeutic age. Today, the personal illustration is de rigueur. If you don’t use personal illustrations, people wonder whether you are authentic.
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Amen! I watched the sermon I gave up at Trinity a couple of months ago and was amazed at how hilarious it was — and how few of the illustrations actually drove the point home. It is so easy as a preacher to rely on the “tricks” you pick up — may God have mercy on this preacher… and all preachers of His word!!
I never thought about this before, but you and the author of this article are right. Thanks for the insight and for keeping church all about Jesus.
An important message with anyone charged with the task of preaching. Although, it does beg the question of what we are to be doing in preaching. I offer for consideration the following link to a post by David Fitch:
http://www.reclaimingthemission.com/if-i-just-preach-a-good-sermon-they-will-come-three-dying-myths-of-christendom-about-preaching/
I love our church and it’s leadership. No statements are intended as criticism. Having said that, no sermon illustration is as powerful as the Spirit and all of them are worthless if not a tool in His hands. What is God’s time honored tool for reaching his people? If the word of God doesn’t grab you, if thus saith the Lord does not fix your attention then …. Exposite the word, that is what the pulpit is for. We all want our pastors to be people but when that robe is on or they are up there it’s time to speak as the messenger of the Most High God not as Bob your neighbor. Perhaps when a church is too large to know the pastor (and that he is human) we have exchanged holy time for meet and greet time.
I’ll end by asking who has heard about Calvin beeing run out of town? When he returned he started back at the very chapter and verse he left off at. That’s not a commitment to boredom but rather a guard against letting personality shape the preaching rather than vice versa.
Well said, John.
I like what John said, you’re job is to exposit. You, through your knowledge and experience, present the ideas and reasoning of the Living Word. Were that we all of the understanding that our lives were given to exposit God’s Word and Grace.
I do remember your personal stories. And in contemplation I gotta say, I think about God’s grace every time I think of one of your stories. You relate your experience and encourage me to read the bible and pray and contemplate God’s truth too… and I actually do that too, imperfectly but I do read and pray and contemplate the truth of the words and in your experiences as well as my own.
The example that comes to mind is your cousin and the collie.
A learned God-fearing man told your cousin to sit in contemplation of God’s truth. I’m sure you cousin was exposed to God’s truth by default of the family and the experience in church, a God-fearing family, church, etc… He was encouraged not to show his face again until God speaks, that takes a heck of a lot of courage and trust from your Uncle, how did he know that the little boy would do what he said? How could he be sure God would speak?
The whole crowd was humbled and disarmed by a simple answer that brought on laughter and an inability to fight anymore. Who can stand up to God’s truth?
“Forgive them father, for they know not what they do.”
Years later you tell the story of how you and a whole crowd ran to be onlookers to another person’s punishment and you were a witness to Grace instead. You tell the story to illustrate how prayer works, but I hear much much more.
In just that story alone I see the illustration of Christ’s death on the cross and what it means for us. I felt the condemnation of adults and authorities who are living by the laws and are flawed and incapable of keeping others or themselves in line just by trying hard, I see crowds of witnesses lined up to see justice done… almost willing a good show for their own entertainment (we’re very excited by someone else’s humbling experience aren’t we, somehow we don’t feel so bad anymore about our own experiences when we hear someone else is gonna get it. Human’s are a sinful lot and we look for ways to feel better about our own sinful nature.)
I saw someone forced by circumstance and authority to submit, and in contemplation of God, I saw the miracle of God showing up and of Gods love shared.
Your cousin received an answer so profound that it disarmed not only earthly authorities, but a whole crowd of witnesses who were there to watch his performance in the suffering.
We all have a casual relationship with the Truth don’t we? Different casualties for each of us, but none of us are without sin that causes casualty are we? After all your cousin’s experience with “casual truth” didn’t stop you from blaming spilled red soda on an innocent kid… but it reminds you how blessed you are to have the same heavenly father who loves you through others surpassing your best attempt to live in perfect truth and love yourself.
Christ stepped in and took the death blow, showing us a life beyond our human demise. He provided the miracle, the answer that disarmed the law and a crowd of people who were there to see justice done.
I may have gotten it completely wrong, but it’s what I saw in the experience.
I saw the truth of Corinthians 13: 8-13
I saw the truth of Matthew 5
I saw the truth of Matthew 6 (especially Matt 6: 5-6)
Couple of stories, lots of learning about myself and my inability to live without Christ through your honest relation of sin at the head of the table.
Ah…all music to my ears. I went to a church here in town where the pastor drove his Harley through the church service to make a point. I don’t remember what that moralistic, therapuetic 3 step method was(probably because I tried it and failed miserably), but I do remember how dark toenail the Harley was.
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