This Preaching Thing

I have been involved in this preaching thing since I was thirteen years old which means that I’ve been at it for almost forty years now.

It strikes me as an awe-inspiring and odd thing on which to spend one’s time and to which to dedicate one’s life.

So, the purpose of this new blog is to provide an avenue through which I can reflect on what this preaching thing means—or at least on what it means to me.

I hope you will--whether you are one who preaches sermons, one who listens to sermons, or one who avoids sermons--participate in the conversation.

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Sampling

I don’t listen to a lot of rap or hip-hop music—I know, you’re shocked, deeply shocked, to hear that. I am familiar, though, with the practice of “sampling” in many recordings in those genres. Basically, to sample is to borrow a portion of a previously recorded song in the making of a new record. Classic examples (I’m sure that you preachers who are also hip-hop aficionados will scoff at my use of such obvious illustrations) are the use of Chic’s classic Good Times in the record that is generally regarded as the first hip-hop record, Rapper’s Delight by the Sugar Hill Gang (1979) and M. C. Hammer’s sampling of Rick James’ Super Freak in Can’t Touch This (1990). A debate once raged about whether such sampling was appropriate but it seems to be an accepted practice now. It’s just as well since, musically speaking, there is not much new under the sun; pretty much any blues or rock lick that any guitarist will play tonight has likely been played many times before and been passed do...

An Experiment in Preaching

A friend who in his late fifties took a new pastorate said that he had written the last sermon he ever intended to write, meaning that he planned to use the vast collection of sermons that he had built up over his career and produce nothing new. I have in my paper and electronic files every sermon I have ever written; I even have the outlines, some of which were lifted straight out of the back of my trusty Thompson Chain Reference Bible, from my first halting efforts, which were quite different than my later halting efforts. I have at times “re-preached” some of my “greatest hits”; in so doing I heeded the wise words of my wise father who once told me, “If it was worth preaching once it’s worth preaching twice.” And if it’s worth preaching twice maybe it’s worth preaching thrice or more! Over the last twenty-five years I have written full manuscripts for 99% of the sermons that I’ve preached and 90% of the time I’ve taken that manuscript into the pulpit with me. Last Sunday I began an...

Preaching Toward the Ellipsis

One does not preach for forty years without undergoing some changes in the ways one preaches. At least one shouldn’t. I have recently noticed a change in the way that I end sermons. I put it that way because I don’t think I planned it. For thirty-nine or so of my forty preaching years I ended all of my sermons with a period, an exclamation point, or a question mark. I ended with a period if the sermon closed with a declarative statement. So a Lent sermon ended like this: “On our way to the Cross, let’s remember that it is the Lord Jesus—and not the institution of the church—that we worship, because it is his crucifixion and resurrection that have made all the difference.” I ended with an exclamation point if the sermon closed with a thought that seemed to call for a little extra emphasis. So a Christmas season sermon ended like this: “Jesus, then, took on our life with all its suffering and pain and struggle—and he did that throughout his life, not just at the end. He di...

This Preaching Thing

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