The nature of man is to be part of a group rather than just an individual. As such, human nature is to communicate. Tomes have been written on proclaiming Christ through our sermons, but less on proclaiming Christ through our person. This article describes how to prepare the preacher to preach most powerfully.
By Mark D. Harris, MD, MPH, MBA, MDiv, ThM, PhD, DBA
Any man who has stood behind a pulpit in front of a group of God’s people has felt the yearning to be a perfect preacher. In our weaker moments, that yearning may be caused by the preacher’s desire for the listeners’ acclaim. In our stronger moments, that yearning may be caused by the preacher’s passion for his Lord, and a desperation to lead others to share that passion. But God does not honor His followers when they do not honor Him, so to be a powerful preacher, one must be a powerful Christian.
The thoughts of other preachers over the centuries can be useful in our spiritual preparation to preach today. My thanks to Colin S. Smith for compiling many of these quotations for the Basics Conference in May 2003.
Philips Brooks (Lectures in Preaching, p 5), said “Preaching is the bringing of truth through personality”
Theme 1 – Preparing your sermon is hard. Preparing yourself is harder.
The preacher’s first, and the most important task is to prepare himself, not his sermon. (David Martin Lloyd Jones, Preaching and Preachers, p. 166).
James Stalker believed that the effect of a sermon depends first of all, on what is said, and next, on how it is said, but, hardly less, on who says it.
“We are so constituted that what we hear depends very much for its effect on how we are disposed towards him who speaks. The regular hearers of a minister gradually form in their minds, almost unawares, an image of what he is, into which they put everything which they themselves remember about him and everything which they have heard of his record; and, when he rises on Sunday in the pulpit, it is not the man visible there at the moment that they listen to, but the image, which stands behind him and determines the precise weight and effect of every sentence which he utters.” (James Stalker, The Preacher and his Methods, Yale Lectures 1891)
“The real preparation of the preacher’s personality for its transmissive work comes by the opening of his life on both sides, towards the truth of God and towards the needs of man.
To apprehend in all their intensity the wants and woes of men, to see the problems and dangers of this life, then to know all through us that nothing but Christ and his redemption can thoroughly satisfy these wants, that is what makes a man a preacher.
Alas for him who is only open on the manward side, who only knows how miserable and wicked man is, but has no power of God to bring to him. He lays a kind but helpless hand upon the wound. He tries to relieve it with his sympathy and his philosophy… There is no God behind him. He is no preacher. The preacher’s instinct is that which feels instantly how Christ and human need belong together.” (Phillips Brooks, Lectures in Preaching p. 27)
Theme 2 – Seven Qualities That Shape Effective Preachers
1. Earnestness – (Includes urgency, liveliness, intensity, seriousness)
…for three years I did not cease night or day to admonish everyone with tears (Acts 20:31)
For many, of whom I have often told you and now tell you even with tears, walk as enemies of the cross of Christ (Phil 3:18).
Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God (2 Cor 5:20).
my little children, for whom I am again in the anguish of childbirth until Christ is formed in you! (Gal 4:19)
“Hell is before me, and thousands of souls shut up there in everlasting agonies. Jesus Christ stands forth to save men from rushing into this bottomless abyss; he sends me to proclaim His ability and His love. I want no fourth idea,” (Richard Cecil, cited in Murphy, Pastoral Theology, p. 190-191).
Christ is now to be offered, and accepted or rejected; how critical the moment! The heart is now to be reached and made soft by divine grace, or it will grow harder; how tender we should be! (Murphy, Pastoral Theology, p. 202)
It must be the expression of thoughts and feelings that are alive within Him, not dropping out helplessly, like water from a leak, but streaming forth with the freshness and energy of a fountain. (Blaikie, For the Work of Ministry p. 65)
If there is only one person in the room who believes what you’re saying, let it be you!” (Yancey Arrington, Preaching that Moves People, p 95.)
2. Tenderness.
We were gentle among you, like a nursing mother taking care of her own children, (1 Thess 2:7).
“We should feel for them in our inmost souls, and let that feeling influence every tone and every word we utter.” (Murphy, Pastoral Theology, p. 195)
“I was never fit to say a word to a sinner except when I had a broken heart myself, when I was subdued and melted into tenderness, and felt as though I had just received pardon to my own soul, and when my heart was full of tenderness and pity.” (Payson, cited in Murphy p. 198)
3. Sympathy
We do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin, (Hebrews 4:15)
“We should strive to get into sympathy with the feelings, the wants, the trials, the temptations, the aspirations, the doubts, the fears, the hopes, the joys by which they are affected” (Murphy, Pastoral Theology, p. 198)
“The most persuasive preacher, other things being equal, is the preacher who has the most correct apprehension of the circumstances of his hearers, and the largest consideration for them. It is when true sympathy is in operation that you are most free to denounce sin and condemn error…(Blaikie, For the Work of The Ministry, p.71)
“But while cultivating sympathy with men, we must never forget the necessity of a predominant sympathy or fellow feeling with God,” (Blaikie, For the Work of The Ministry, p. 72).
4. Peace
For thus said the Lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel, “In returning and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and in trust shall be your strength. ” (Isa 30: 15)
There is a remarkable passage from the writing of Charlotte Bronte in her book, Jane Eyre. The character Jane often reflects Bronte’s own experience, and at one point she describes going to church and hearing a gifted young preacher.
“The heart was thrilled, and the mind was astonished by the power of the preacher; (but) neither was softened.
Throughout there was a strange bitterness, an absence of consolatory gentleness…
When he had done, instead of feeling better, calmer, more enlightened by his discourse, I experienced an inexpressible sadness.
For it seemed to me… that the eloquence to which I had been listening had sprung from a heart where lay turbid depths of disappointment, where moved troubling impulses of insatiate yearnings and disquieting aspirations.
I was sure the preacher, pure-minded, conscientious, zealous as he was, had not yet found that peace of God that passeth all understanding, – he had no more found it, I thought, than I.. ”
(Quoted in W. G. Blaikie, For the Work of the Ministry, 1873 edition).
Peace comes from a quiet confidence that God will accomplish His purpose through His Word.
- Joy
And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!” (Romans 10:15).
Therefore, my brothers, whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, stand firm thus in the Lord, my beloved. (Phil 4: 1)
For what is our hope or joy or crown of boasting before our Lord Jesus at his coming? Is it not you? For you are our glory and joy (l Thess 2:19-20).
“It is essential to the preacher’s success that he should thoroughly enjoy his work. I mean in the actual doing of it, and not only in its idea. No man to whom the details of his task are repulsive can do his task well constantly, however full he may be of its spirit. He may make one bold dash at it, but he cannot work on it year after year, day after day.”
“The more thoroughly you enjoy it, the better you will do it.” (Phillips Brooks, Lectures on Preaching p. 54).
- Love
If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal, (1 Cor 13: 1)
Speaking the truth in love (Eph 4: 15)
“The power of truth, as far as its ministers are concerned, depends on its being spoken in love; unless the heart of the preacher is pledged to those to whom he speaks, he cannot expect but to labor in vain.” (James Denney, The Expositors Bible, I Thessalonians, p. 102)
“To love to preach is one thing, to love those to whom we preach is quite another.” (Lloyd Jones, citing Richard Cecil, Preaching and Preachers, p. 92).
“Many a preacher misses the mark because though he knows books, he does not know men.” (James Stalker, cited in Yancey Arrington, Preaching that Moves People, p 95).
“The preacher is one who has to win souls, and there is no way of winning without love. The preacher is the representative of the great Father, whose great power for winning men back to Himself is love: ‘I drew them with…bands of love,” (Hosea 1 1:4). (Blaikie, For the Work of the Ministry, p.69)
“I have never felt that I could get hold of an audience unless I had previously filled my heart with thoughts of their internal condition, and felt compassion and a yearning for their welfare working in my soul.” (D.L. Moody, cited in Blaikie, For the Work of the Ministry, p. 69).
- Humility
Serving the Lord with all humility and with tears, (Acts 20: 19)
For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake, (2 Cor 4:5)
“No man can bear witness to Christ and to himself at the same time. No man can give the impression that he himself is clever and that Christ is mighty to save.” (James Denney, cited in Stott, I Believe in Preaching p. 325)
“The most pernicious and debasing evil of all is a converting of our sacred office into a medium for setting forth our own excellence — prostituting the glories of the cross for the indulgence of our own pride — drawing a veil over the glories of our adorable Master and committing a robbery against Him, even in the professed business to exalt Him,” (Charles Bridges, Christian Ministry p. 330)
“The chief effect of every sermon should be to unveil Christ, and the chief art of the preacher to conceal himself.” (John Watson, cited in Stott, I Believe in Preaching, p.325)
Theme 3 – Preaching Personality
Yancey Arrington, in his book Preaching that Moves People, describes four preaching personalities, and all preachers fit into one or more of these categories. Preachers can identify their personalities as part of finding their natural preaching voice.
- The professor – listeners always feel that they have learned something new.
- The author – listeners always feel that they identify with and even inhabit the stories in the sermon
- The life coach – listeners always hear an application they can use.
- The prophet – listeners hear and feel the disconnect between what is and what should be.
Knowing and expressing one’s personality and even body position makes preachers come across as consistent with themselves and with others.
Conclusion
Those who preach and teach the gospel of Jesus Christ have the highest calling, regardless of how they earn their living. While techniques can help us preach and teach better, only a holy life controlled by the Spirit can help us effectively communicate the power of God. Day by day, preachers must prepare ourselves to bring forth the word of God. The effect of our preaching will be an overflow of our own spiritual life.
Resources
- D M. Lloyd Jones, Preaching and Preachers.
- Phillips Brooks, The Joy of Preaching.
- W G Blaikie, For the Work of the Ministry
- Charles Bridges, The Christian Ministry
- Thomas Murphy, Pastoral Theology.
- Andrew Bonar, Memoir and Remains of Robert Murray McCheyne
- Yancey Arrington, Preaching that Moves People
