Reclaiming Preaching

By Brian Jennings

I recently sat down, opened a magazine, and read the following quotes:
"If you could change people's mind about something, what would it be?"
"Until you know the truth you're trying to convey to an audience, your work isn't
finished."

You could probably find similar statements in a dusty book on preaching, but I found them in a recent issue of Creative Screenwriting. I didn't start reading this magazine to search for sermon tips (at least not at first). I read it because I love video production. It all started with a basketball instructional video filmed by Kyle Idleman and me in Jr. High. Twenty years later, my voice and video editing are a lot less crackly, but I still love the process.

I almost always find one or two articles in Creative Screenwriting that are very applicable to sermon writing, but I found one that really made me squirm.
The title - The Seamless Theme: Five Effective Ways To Avoid Preaching Your Message (Jan. - Feb. '08). Ouch! Well now we know what the writer (ironically named Karl Iglesias) thinks about preaching.

But maybe his assessment is not that far off. The odds of Mr. Iglesias hearing only preachers that are "preachy" are probably not that bad. Perhaps it's time to redefine this craft we call preaching.

What if "preachy" meant "engaging, provocative, inspiring and life-changing?"

What if someone told John Grisham, "Wow, your last book was really preachy," and he took it as a compliment?

Or what if we heard, "And the Oscar for Preachiest Film goes to Juno?"

But that's not our reality, is it? Iglesias writes, "Sometimes novice writers are so passionate about their message that they mistakenly present a one-sided, biased argument that turns their story into a sermon." Perhaps one of the mistakes we sermon-writers make is taking God's story and turning it into a five-point diatribe. I gotta' tell you, these screenwriters that I have been reading about really do inspire me. They take their craft extremely seriously. We could probably learn from them that the how of our communication has a direct connection to the what we seek to communicate.

The truth is that Braveheart would not be very inspiring if Mel Gibson delivered his famous "Freedom" speech in a monotone pattern, while wearing a business suit instead of war paint.

The how matters probably more than we realize. I think sometimes we ignore the how because we've seen those who seem to be all style with no substance. So we overreact to the opposite extreme. Do we have to choose one without the other?

In the article written by Iglesias he encourages writers to do several things that are applicable in sermon writing. The two I'm still chewing on are:
o Turn your theme into a question, not a premise. This allows the audience to emotionally experience the answer to your question through your sermon.
o Present the opposite argument as powerfully as your truth. He states, "Anytime you can convey a theme where both sides seem right, you have drama." Obviously, the truth will win out, but wouldn't it be nice if our hearers were wrestling with the truth for just a while? They surely will be wrestling with real-life situations shortly after the sermon, why not let them practice thinking through tough issues during the sermon? Plus, if there is no tension, what's the point of talking about it? Do people grow by having what they already know reiterated time and time again?

So I've been doing some comparing. Compared to movie or TV writers, we preachers and teachers have some disadvantages:
o Creativity is almost always encouraged in their world (although not always achieved), but it's often discouraged in ours.
o They probably get to wear the writing hat more than we do. For most of us, writing is just one of the many hats we wear. But I've never seen George Lucas (of Star Wars fame) making hospital calls.

However, we also have some huge advantages:
o We know what the truth is. We don't have to create it, just reflect it.
o We know our audience and care about them deeply. This should give us more passion.
o The story we are telling actually matters - both now and in the long run. The same can't be said of Rambo. (This comment was intended to include all four Rambo movies and any Rambo movies yet to come.)
o We never go on strike.

So let's keep working hard at this craft we call preaching, even if it means taking notes from those in different fields. It's worth it, and it deserves our best.