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PREACHING PANEL

Lutheran, The, Jul 2004 by Sevig, Julie B

Insights from those who teach how to preach

To help take the pulse of preaching, The Lutheran asked two additional homiletics professors-Adele Stiles Resmer, the Lutheran Seminary at Philadelphia, and James Nieman, Wartburg Seminary, Dubuque, Iowa-to respond to three questions about preaching.

The Lutheran: In some pulpits of our church, preaching continues to be irrelevant, disconnected and, yes, even boring. Why?

Resmer: In our culture most hearers aren't conditioned to listen to anything that lasts longer than a series of commercials or the amount of time between commercials. With the explosion of sound, visuals and special effects in the media, many people bring to the hearing of a sermon a higher threshold of what they need to stay interested and engaged.

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Also, many preachers simply don't prepare. Some feel that with all their responsibilities, sermon preparation time is what needs to be cut. Preparing to preach is time consuming, not efficient.

Too many feel that little is needed to bring the gospel to life in a way that connects with and transforms hungry hearers. Reciting the appropriate theological words does not proclamation of the gospel make, much less connecting it with hearers' lives and experiences.

Nieman: Relevance is often treated as a technical challenge best addressed by trendy themes, lively delivery or new media. However, this produces a thin soup of desperate pandering with selective appeal and fleeting value. At its heart, relevance involves speaking to the depth of human existence. It's primarily a matter of content, not form: taking seriously what the church distinctively says theologically.

Are we willing to honestly name our failed ways when alienated from God? Are we willing to faithfully speak our sole hope in Christ's abundant life?

How is preaching in our church changing?

Resmer: The tools for preaching-PowerPoint, photos on large screen, music, small-group engagement in the midst of preaching and so on. As tools these are helpful in different degrees in different settings.

We need to do a better job of preparing to preach the gospel to hearers who are shaped by the world they live in today. But we need to watch that the tools don't become our focus at the expense of the content, which is the gospel of Jesus Christ offered to hearers who are listening for a transforming word.

Nieman: At its best, preaching is less inwardly focused and more outwardly catalytic so all believers can learn to speak faithfully in the world. This means equipping believers especially in three areas.

Which words can invite and enlighten those who know little if anything about the Scripture that grounds our identity? How do we engage our neighbors in light of their ethnicity, class, beliefs or social displacement? What is the language of faithful resistance to the cultural seductions of violence, selfishness and numbness?

Preaching is challenged to meaningful change insofar as it addresses these questions of witness, and at its best can model a profound language we all can use in daily life.

What would improve the preaching we hear Sunday to Sunday?

Resmer: Pastors who are committed to the "life work" of preaching-that is, going through their days watching, listening, engaging everything with the gospel as a key lens with which they encounter and interpret life.

Developing imaginations shaped by worship, Scripture, life in church community and the world that strengthen the ability to make connections between the gospel and everyday life. Hearers who engage with the pastor in the study of the gospel and the realities of their lives and the world. Going through their days knowing they are accompanied by the Risen One.

Nieman: In the letters I receive from those concerned about the preaching they hear, I'm saddened that the writers feel their best or only recourse is to write to me. Preaching is taught in institutions and discussed in writings, but it's finally implemented locally. This is where attention to its improvement must be lodged.

In each congregation, we can reclaim a vision for preaching that embodies and enacts the gospel, accepting no pious-sounding substitutes. Laity can offer preachers their informed insights about what they heard and expect to hear, not tastedriven reactions. Likewise, preachers can hold one another accountable to the highest aims of their calling, not its cleverest tactics.

PREACHING PANEL

Lutheran, The, Jul 2004 by Sevig, Julie B

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