Preach Magazine Issue 3 - Preaching and the Holy Spirit | Page 39

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For preaching to be effective, it needs to connect with the listeners. There will
always be people who wilfully disengage, whether through resistance to God,
fatigue, a noisy inner monologue or any number of other reasons outside the
preacher’s control. If we have someone in the third row taking a power nap and
a couple of people at the back playing Candy Crush, it isn’t necessarily our fault.

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ut there are things we can do to
make what we say more or less
likely to connect; it makes sense
for us to do everything within
our power to maximise the impact
of our sermon. When the Israelites
returned from their Babylonian
exile, their priests and prophets
reintroduced them to the Law. We are
told that Ezra and the other teachers
stood high up on a wooden platform
where they were clearly visible to the
crowd and ‘they read from the Book
of the Law of God, making it clear
and giving the meaning so that the
people understood what was being
read’ (Nehemiah 8:8, NIV). As a result
the people listened attentively from
daybreak until noon, responding first
with weeping and then with great joy,
‘because they now understood the
words that had been made known to
them’ (8:12). This level of connection
is transformational, and it is what we
should all aspire to.
KNOW THE AUDIENCE
For some of us, our preaching will
take place in a familiar context:
the same pulpit, week in, week out.
But there are many who preach
infrequently, or on an itinerant
basis, in a new setting each time.
As Zach Eswine reminds us, ‘every
congregation has its own culture,
its own storyline with God and its

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own providences and people… every
time we preach we cross cultures’
(preachingbarefoot.com, March 13,
2013).
We are much more likely to connect
with our hearers if we bear in mind
the spread of age and gender, if we are
aware of the socio-economic context,
if we have found out the general
levels of biblical literacy and spiritual
maturity. In 1 Corinthians, Paul talks
about how he endeavoured to adjust
what he said to fit who he said it to:
‘Though I am free and belong to no
one, I have made myself a slave to
everyone, to win as many as possible…
I have become all things to all people
so that by all possible means I might
save some. I do all this for the sake
of the gospel…’ (1 Corinthians 9:19,
22–23).

DISARM WITH HUMOUR
As Mary Poppins famously sang, ‘A
spoonful of sugar helps the medicine
go down!’ I don’t mean to equate
biblical exposition with cough syrup,
but laughter is a great way to lower
the guard. If you can tickle your
congregation’s funny bone, they will
be more receptive to your serious
points. Jesus was a master at painting
hilarious scenarios to illustrate
important teaching – the blind leading
the blind, the person with a plank in
their eye pointing out a splinter in
their friend’s, the camel and the eye of
the needle are a few classic examples.

SHOW SOME ENTHUSIASM
All of us have our own style, and I am
not suggesting you pump your arms
up and down like a threatened chimp
if it isn’t what you’d naturally want to
do with your limbs. But if you sound
unconvinced and uninterested in what
you are saying, how can you expect
a better reception from anyone else?
We might express our passion in very
different ways, but it is not shown by
speaking in a dreary monotone, by
a listless gaze at the back wall, or by
slumped shoulders and a stony glare.

17/04/2015 15:43:00