Preach Magazine Issue 5 - Preaching to the unconverted | Page 23

SERIAL

23

When you preach, do you listen as well as speak?
To what degree do your listeners determine what
you say? In what ways, if any, do you give space
for anyone other than you to speak?

T

he sermon has traditionally
been delivered in the form
of a monologue, and in the
past, churchgoers have been
ready and willing to sit quietly
and listen. The societies in which
Christianity flourished operated
within a hierarchical structure in
which there were individuals who had
the authority to speak. The idea of
receiving teaching on the Bible from
someone at the front would have been
perfectly acceptable.

exclusively true for contemporary
Westerners. Jesus, the master
communicator, taught interactively.
Luke 9:11 says that Jesus ‘spoke to
them about the kingdom of God’. The
Greek word for spoke is lalein, which
implies conversation, interaction and
respect for the opinions of others.
The goal of preaching, after all, is not
to impart information but to draw
people deeper into a transformational
relationship with God.

REAL-TIME INTERACTION
Leonard Sweet is a firm believer in
the participatory sermon. He writes,
‘a live-action sermon is filled with
participatory discourse: conversation,
dialogue, interaction, fill-in-theblanks, talk-back, callback – and
sometimes silence. The ball cannot
be passed when someone is always
bouncing it. If you never stop talking,
your congregants won’t be a part of
what you are trying to share.’2

But there has been a shift, both
within culture at large and within
the church. We are no longer so
willing to be spoken at; we want to
be part of a conversation. This is
evidenced in classrooms, where school
children are encouraged to explore,
question and discover information for
themselves. It is seen in the healthcare
system, where we now ‘take control’
of our treatment and make our
own choices. It is seen in politics,
where our leaders must listen to the
people and respond or be summarily
expelled from power. As Richard
Bauckham writes, ‘we seem to have
reached a point in Western cultural
history at which for many people,
authority is indistinguishable from
authoritariani