By Amy Butler
This week I began teaching a preaching practicum at a local seminary. As a place to start, my students received and turned in the assignment of a short reflection paper on one of my favorite topics, “What is good preaching?” Since I made them reflect on the topic, it’s only fair that I do the work, too. Here are my reflections.
Good preaching is relevant. This does not mean the same thing as “Good preaching keeps up with the latest trends or what everyone seems to find cool.” Contrary to popular belief, a pastor wearing a remote headset does not automatically make people come to church. By “relevant” I mean: speak to the real lives and genuine concerns of your people. Be a real person. Reference the daily parts of life that have kept them occupied this week. Show them how the text informs their lives. There’s nothing worse than going to church on Sunday morning and leaving convinced that there’s nothing you heard, said or did that impacts life as you know it.
Good preaching is conversational. Preaching is not performance. Perhaps one day I will write and deliver a sermon that people would want to hear over and over again, but until then, I need an approach that works every week. An approach that helps me is when I can remember that good preaching is, at its most influential and meaningful core, conversational. That is, if you are up front preaching a sermon, it better have relevance and meaning, dialogue and interplay with the voices of your people. I don’t often ask people for a verbal response during the sermon (I’m not that brave), but I want them to feel that they are part of a conversation, not just witnesses to a performance. Can your people call or e-mail you after Sunday? Do they ask for or suggest books based on the ideas you present? Do you look out over the congregation and see faces eager to engage? That’s conversational preaching.
Good preaching is biblical. From what I’ve seen, familiarity with the Bible is at an all-time low. If a sermon has impact and relevance, it helps people pick up their Bibles and actually read them. There are plenty of self-help books out there — why preach sermons that compete with those? We have an incredible, unique resource in the biblical text, and if we believe the Bible has something to teach us about life in relationship with God and with each other, perhaps we should use it. “Five Hints for a Happy Marriage” sounds like a nice sermon title, but unless you start with the biblical text your people might as well be watching the Oprah Winfrey Show. Good preaching should always include some version of: “Please turn with me in your Bibles to….”
Good preaching leads people to new places. I am of the conviction that everybody should leave church feeling a little bit uncomfortable. Good preaching can help with that. Thinking about life with the backdrop of God’s hopes and expectations should make us all consider where God may be changing us, to which new places God may be inviting us to go. It’s the preacher’s job to hold out God’s invitation over and over again, so the people listening will consider and maybe even summon the courage to follow God’s call somewhere they’ve never been.
Good preaching finds a way for those listening to personally enter the narrative. Good preaching is personal. That is, a great sermon should consistently remind listeners that their lives and the narrative of faith are inextricably intertwined. We preachers are not presenting a discourse on some dusty historical text; we’re telling the story of our lives — the whole human story, of which each of us has a part. If folks cannot see themselves in the narrative, cannot imagine life in relationship with God, then the preacher has some more work to do.
It’s easy to pontificate about what makes a good sermon; it’s much harder to preach one, especially every single Sunday. So I will here end my lecture for today, because I need to go work on my sermon.