Preach Magazine Issue 1 - Creativity and innovation in preaching | Page 42
42
SERIAL
Preaching Problems:
advice from our panel
THE SCENARIO
I am an Anglican vicar in a
fairly formal rural church,
with a regular congregation
of around 60 adults.
The children go out to a side
room during the sermon for
age-appropriate activities.
Recently we have had a man
with learning disabilities join
us. He comes with his carer
RICHARD LITTLEDALE
and sits at the back. Several
The first principle to underline here
church members have made
is that the man you describe is a
a real effort to welcome him.
child of God. As such he deserves the
I am delighted he has joined
same dignity, respect and welcome
us, and I hope he will stay and as any member of the congregation,
including the preacher! God has
become part of the family.
honoured you by entrusting him to
My issue is this: while he sits
your care, and it is good to read that
quietly for most of the service, others are sharing the responsibility
of making him feel welcome. Welcome,
when I get up to preach, he
begins to make loud grunting of course, is part of the problem. You
want to welcome him as he is, but
noises and growls that
in doing so it causes difficulties in
continue throughout my
welcoming others as they are.
sermon. I find it hard to stay
I would suggest three separate
focussed on what I am saying, measures, before returning to the
and I can see it is distracting
principle stated above. The first
and disruptive for many of my move would be to talk to his carer,
listeners too. Do you have any or preferably to the man and his
carer together. Is there anything
advice about how to handle
in particular during the preaching
this situation?
which causes him to behave this
way? Does he find the preaching
difficult or distressing, for instance,
– or are the noises actually a token
of his enjoyment? Secondly, I would
encourage him and his carer to move
as near to the front of the congregation
as possible. That way, although the
sounds will be more obvious to you,
they will be less so to the congregation.
With your visitor in the front row,
there are no worshippers in the rows
ahead to worry about! Thirdly, I
wonder whether it might be possible to
acknowledge the noises in some way
early on in the sermon. Maybe if you
can demonstrate that you take them in
your stride by saying ‘I’m glad to hear
you are with me, X’, others will do the
same. This needs to be done carefully,
in order to avoid patronising – and
cannot be repeated every week.
In the end, it is quite possible that
none of these measures will work. If
so, the church as a whole have to ask
themselves: is it better to have him
there with the noises than not there
without them? If the answer is ‘yes’
then the principles Paul outlines in
Romans 12 about deferring to ‘the
other’ surely apply. Your persistence,
and his, will yield fruit.
Richard Littledale
Richard Littledale is the minister of Teddington
Baptist Church, and has always had a lively interest
in innovative communication. He has written several
books on preaching as well as two children’s stories.
He is a radio broadcaster and runs a busy blog at
richardlittledale.me.uk.
Each issue, our panel will address a tricky preaching problem. If you have something you would value
their wisdom on, send it to [email protected]. Please indicate whether you would like to be anonymous.
LWPT8173 - Preach Magazine - Issue 1 v3.indd 42
17/10/2014 12:54:07