Preach Magazine Issue 1 - Creativity and innovation in preaching | Page 13

FEATURE

application? How much illustration
do I need, and what kind? What kind
of ‘pulpit manner’ should I adopt?
These seem to be areas of freedom,
because Scripture does not answer
these questions directly. A creativity
in communication that aims to
serve the God-given core content is
a thoroughly useful quality in the
preacher.

Edward Dowland
Owen: Liberal
Catholic Church
of Wales Priest

However, as always with Christian
freedom, it is a freedom to be
exercised in service of others. My
creativity is to be directed to the end
of communicating this message as
powerfully and engagingly as I can
to this group of people, for their
up-building in the Lord.
Again, though, this general point
comes, I think, with a qualification.
I am persuaded by the venerable
argument that the sermon as a
proclamatory monologue to be
received in faith is a trans-cultural
form that we ought not to abandon.
This does not mean that having
a question time after the sermon
is wrong, or that breaking it into
two sections is wrong. However,
the nature of the gospel is that it is
not the sharing of a thought, but
is a declaration of a work achieved
by God entirely on our behalf and
entirely for us, and we are to hear and
receive in faith (Romans 10:17). The
sermon as a mode of communication
is a divinely appointed means of
grace. In its very form it expresses
the truth that salvation is received
by faith as righteousness is revealed
to us.

Tim Ward
Tim Ward is the Associate
Director of the Proclamation
Trust’s Cornhill Training
Course. He was previously
an Anglican vicar, and is
the author of Words of Life:
Scripture as the living and
active word of God (IVP 2009).

LWPT8173 - Preach Magazine - Issue 1 v3.indd 13

SOMETIMES POINTS CAN
ONLY BE MADE BY UNUSUAL
ILLUSTRATIONS. HOWEVER,
WHEN WE TRY TO BE CREATIVE
OR INNOVATIVE IT IS VERY
IMPORTANT THAT THE
ILLUSTRATION DOES NOT TAKE
AWAY FROM THE CENTRAL
TRUTH OF THE MESSAGE

O

ne of the definitions of
preaching is ‘the art of
delivering a sermon’.
Preaching is fundamentally
about communication. The art of
communication is engaging those
who are listening and hopefully
evoking some kind of response
within them. In order to capture
the attention of the listener in a
multimedia age the art of delivering
and communication inevitably
needs to change. Essentially, for
communication to take place, the
listener needs to be aware of the
message that is intended to be
communicated. To be creative is to
use originality of thought, while to be
innovative is to introduce something
new and to make changes for the
first time.

13

If preaching can validly be described
as an art, or indeed an art form,
then there is great scope for
communication in a variety of ways.
Art is not a static thing restricted to
one form but rather something which
is varied and can take place using
various media. I would argue that it is
the same for preaching. If preaching
is purely lecture-based and basically
an opportunity to ‘text prove’ for half
an hour, then it is likely not to engage
the attention of the listeners. So the
challenge is to develop tools in order
to gain and maintain attention.
It is vital at the beginning of
preaching a sermon to strike a
connection; this is more easily done
where there is creativity involved. It
is at this point that an illustration
is most appropriate. However it is
also important for an illustration to
be contextual: examples of this are
news items that affect the local area,
illustrating how faith, politics and the
media interact. At this point it is good
to be visual and to have a distinctive
example. The use of YouTube clips
is a good example of how it is
appropriate to be innovative and to
give a distinctive feel to preaching.
This is also an effective way in which
to ground the preaching in the lifeexperience of those who are listening.
An example or illustration is useful
to show that the timeless truth of
scripture is also contextual, thereby
rooting it firmly in the life experience
of the listener. Surely this is the
whole point of preaching: to convey
a message and to see that message
absorbed with its consequences lived
out?
Within the Scriptures there are
many examples of both creativity
and innovatio