Integrative Preaching by Kenton C. Anderson

Author:Kenton C. Anderson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Preaching;REL080000;REL074000
ISBN: 9781493411276
Publisher: Baker Publishing Group
Published: 2017-08-24T04:00:00+00:00

How to Struggle with the Problem

We are going to have to take some time with this. I mean literal time—actual minutes in the sermon. I know we want to rush on to make our points. I know we feel the pressure to get on to the meat and potatoes, but we are not ready for these things until we have savored the problem. Whether presented as story, as statistic, or as a settled statement, the problem needs to sit there for a while. We have to carve out time and space to let it do its work.

Just sit there for a moment.

This is not wasted time. The more we sit on the problem, the more deeply we will value the eventual solution. A little pause. A little repetition. Perhaps restating in a different form. Just live there for a while. It will be okay. We’ll get to where we are going. Have patience. We just have to let this thing marinate a little. The instructional parts will taste better if we do.

Several things will help us form the problem for our sermons. First of all, it will help if we know our listeners.

My day job at this point in my career is at a seminary, which means that I do a lot of guest preaching. People often think that this is some kind of an advantage because I get these great introductions. It is as if I have some kind of star power when I come in to preach. It’s nice for my ego, but it doesn’t really help my preaching. The truth is, I had more juice when I preached to the same crowd of people every week. The relational capital gained by living with the people week after week was worth more to my preaching by far than whatever cachet is offered by my current position and my PhD.

When I come into a congregation as a guest, I do not know these people. I don’t know what is on their hearts, and they know that I don’t know. I have to work with broad human generalizations, and while that is not out of place, it pales in comparison to being able to look a friend in the eye and speak the real stuff to them. You have to know your listeners.

Take your problem and try it on for size from the perspective of several of your listeners.2 How would Emily feel about this as a single mother with her unruly kids? What will Kim think about this from her position in the corporate world? Chuck is unemployed. Natasha is on drugs. Samir seems to be holding on all right, but what if he had to contend with this? The better you know your listeners, the more sharply you can shape the problem for their engagement.

Make sure it’s real and not contrived. Listeners are savvy. They can sniff out your manufactured constructs. If you don’t know where to find the problem for your people with your message, then maybe you need to dig a little deeper into the stuff of life.

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