Sermonizing, Preaching, Speaking, Talking, Persuading, Screeching – Culture Shifts – Part Three

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Today’s Blog Post

Sermonizing, Preaching, Speaking, Talking, Persuading, Screeching – Culture Shifts – Part Three

I fall asleep in church – just like the Seniors do. Now I know I am old too. Never wanted to do that – but it happened.

But it has been happening since I was young. To stay engaged and listen closely to what is being said by a speaker is a finely tuned talent that is something of exercising… the more you do the better you get. It is conditioning pure and simple.

What David Grant said so plainly, Jesus never preached long sermons. Paul did but Jesus didn’t. Paul’s sermon one time was so long that a young man fell asleep and fell out of a second story window… and died as a result of the fall. There was prayer and he was raised from the dead.

In that it was a Doctor that wrote the story I was never sure that it was added for detail about the true wonder that a man was revived, or that any one actually survived Paul’s long sermons.

Paul likely HAD TO Preach longer than the normal in that he might not be back for a while… or maybe never. We need to see that there was no email, no Cell Phone, and no snail mail. The mail services were even slower than a snail.

Sermonizing has greatly changed over the years.

There was a point that the Minister was the best educated in the community. There was also a point in time when the collecting or assembling of people into one place – the church square, the church service, and the milling around outside the church when leaving – provided the community connection – once a week.

With the nightly news on TV you do not need to do that any longer. With the addition to almost every community of Coffee Shops there is little need to meet people on Sunday when you have talked each day of the week. Sunday is a day to do something different and have a rest from your friends.

I entered church when I was born. I stayed in it until I could escape at around 17 or 18. I came back again when I needed to get married. Then finally back again when I saw the value of the message that the church was offering for my Life.

I was so impressed with the interaction between people in that small church in Oakville, that I continued to attend… Sunday Morning, Sunday Evening and Wednesday Evening. I listened to the preacher Preach three times a week.

There was a bit of sacrifice to get there that often. I was getting something out of the services I thought so I kept coming and going.

The part that was the very best was the meeting of new people when church was over. The talking part was super. The mid-week programs that one could involve the self in were very helpful.

The preaching wasn’t that good. The mannerisms of the preacher were painful. And the man did repeat himself quite a few times.

In spite of the preacher I got something out of it all. If nothing else I read more Bible as he talked on and on. I do multitasking well and reading while he was talking was easy.

That was in 1968… a long time ago.

I became a preacher by 1974. I studied hard and long to achieve the status. I loved telling stories and involving people in the message. I loved the possibilities of doing something with what I talked about. The deep explaining of the Greek, Hebrew and Latin and whatever was done to impress the congregation that I was smarter than they were – wasn’t my thing.

I soon learned that with the church I was getting involved with I only needed to make sure that the Preaching was well developed to engage the folk.

Then my competition came along to disturb me just a little bit.

Up to that point in whatever community I lived in – I was one of the best Preachers out of all the churches in town. The other ministers all were dry, could care less, were bored stiff, and were so short in time that they COULDN’T STIR anyone. They now sooner started than they stopped.

One minister told me that his coming to the church was based on the fact that he was NOT TO GO BEYOND 12 minutes. It was in his kind of contract… or work ethic.

My competition was Jimmy Swaggart. Nope – he wasn’t on TV yet. He was on 33 1/3 Long Play Records – over and over again. For those that do not know this Jimmy – he is a TV Evangelist of Fame or No Fame now.

Some one in our congregation had purchased the records and then passed them on to me after they nearly wore them out. This guy was a great story teller and a passionate preacher with a southern drawl.

Another minister in our area borrowed the records from me. The next time he preached and I was in his service, he could even put on Swaggart’s drawl. No kidding – he was peaking perfect Canadian English Accent as he led the song service and gave the announcements – but when he went into his preaching – he switched accents and even mannerisms.

I gulped and was embarrassed that I had loaned the LPs to this guy! He was a sponge. But people loved it.

It was a little like dressing up like Elvis Presley and doing an imitation at the front of the church each Sunday.

The changing culture around the preachers were having a deep affect on them. Guys that had been to Bible College openly confessed that they preached like a certain Professor from College – because they loved his “style”.

Others like myself that had no Professor influencing me – and had listened to too many preachers over the years – couldn’t decide on who I should like to be.

I could have been H.H. Barber, our home pastor in Regina when I was a boy, who kicked his foot in the air and flipped his head forward when he got excited – until his “Brill Creamed” hair fell across his forehead. We knew that that point that you better listen as H.H. Barber was closer to God than any one in church – at that moment!

I could have been like G. R. Upton, the guy that followed Barber at our church… soft and sensible in his preaching, stirring you to the point that you just might cry with what he was telling you.

Then with J.H. Law following him – the fiery evangelist type that got excited – whew – what should I be?

When I made the decision that I would take on the Pastoral Role and lead and care for people… it was a long while before I could become me in Preaching. What deeply affected me was the way people stayed awake or fell asleep when I was talking.

Noise kept people awake. Movement helped too. Coming off the platform to walk among the folks nearly caused heart attacks to happen – but no one slept again.

After all these years I have realized some important things. Without style, noise, action and some good stories mixed into the presentation you better keep it short.

My Anglican, Presbyterian and United Church Minister friends had to keep it short… because they wore too many robes to move around. The Catholic in them kept them away from the people and behind a podium.

But then there was more cultural shifts. TV started putting on better preachers than the local guy you listened to. People started telling preachers that they sound just like the TV Evangelist… or that the Preachers sermon was the same as the TV Guy two weeks ago.. same word… same text… same idea. Hmmm?

More was required of the minister in the community. He didn’t have time to spend hours upon hours in study. He was connecting better with the community. He was golfing and curling and playing baseball and doing whatever it took to get out there.

The older congregants nearly blew their tops when the Preacher was doing other things with his time!

I entered the Ministry just after the former pastor had been starved out of the church by the old congregants – because he was doing kind of a Blog in the local Newspaper. No kidding.. doing just what I do – they crucified him buy not giving their money to the church until the church couldn’t pay him anymore. One man had started it and everyone one followed his orders.

Now you add all that our society and community offers today… and my how it has changed. Long Sermons do not work. Sometimes short ones won’t either.

Things like Facebook and all the other Social Networking opportunities meet the need that people have. In fact that they are so depleted by Sunday they are ready for a rest from Social Networking. Why would I go to church to talk to someone that I talk to On-Line – on the computer every day – or even six times a day! At church you get to ‘giggle in person’ and give them the personal ‘LOL’ about the email jokes they have forwarded to you that week – or just before the service.

Now sermon illustrations are coming from emails that were forwarded a thousand times before we got it.

My how times have changed!

Preaching changed too – way before the culture did. It was long and done the way it was for hundreds of years – because Culture dictated an opportunity. Now with the changes again.. I predict that it will change even further.

In fact if you haven’t noticed Church is changing as well.. the need for it… the reason for it… the call for it… and it is sometimes becoming a little bit like the Ford Edsel… big, clumsy, out of date, expensive to run and something to laugh at.

Needles to say we may not be ready for what is about to happen. God is – but we are not!

Hang on – the culture shift is affecting us all.
~ Murray Lincoln ~
http://www.murraylincoln.com/

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Addendum by Murray…
Sermonizing is a huge miracle in the church – where a preacher prepares something he thinks he should say – and the Holy Spirit works in spite of it – and even possibly because of it!