Leadership Journal

I grew up in the desert, so I know nothing about boats. I always wondered how sailors could go in any direction other than that of the prevailing wind. Then someone explained "tacking," by which sailors actually sail into the wind

Throughout history, great preachers have done the same thing. Rather than let winds of culture determine the course of their preaching, they utilize that power to move in a kingdom direction

As editor of Leadership's monthly tape series, Preaching Today, I hear dozens of sermons from pulpits all across North America. I speak with professors and practitioners of homiletics on a regular basis. From this vantage point, I see four strong winds blowing on contemporary preachers. At least one has the capacity to cause shipwreck; yet properly harnessed, each can propel preaching to new effectiveness

Last year's Olympic coverage took on a new form. Many tuned in to see athletic competition; what we saw instead were enough sugary personal stories to give us diabetes. David Remnick, a writer for The New Yorker, described it this way: "The network has done away with the existing reality (straight coverage of athletic competition) and provided a new one. What it has come up with is a sentimental, highly elastic narrative style designed to bring a tear to the eye and bullion to the coffers.

Nicholas Schiavone, director of research for nbc Sports, explains the motive: "Everything has to be the two R's-real and relatable.

Many preachers today are striving for those same qualities. A lot of books on preaching published in the past few years have been about narrative form. In one essay, Calvin Miller wrote, "Typical congregations nourished on years of television dramas and popular video releases have been groomed to relate to the narrative sermon.

Receptivity to story telling goes back farther than that, of course. Jesus must have had a pretty good reason for choosing the parable as his primary teaching tool

Methodist pastor Marianne Chalstrom, who studied homiletics with Fred Craddock, reminded me with a grin, "Story is how women communicate at every level. So you men can quit pretending you've invented something new!

Even if narrative is not new, today it is receiving renewed emphasis

Tom Long, professor of preaching at Yale Divinity School, points out that story telling and narration have been favorites in three periods of American history: preceding the First Great Awakening, immediately following the Civil War, and the present. "Story telling and narration become favorite forms of preaching during times in which religious experience is imperiled and dampened." Stories enable the preacher to bypass the rampant cynicism and relativism of the day

While some preachers strive to create images with words, many opt for projection of literal images. While preachers have made use of advances in technology for years, someone has definitely upped the ante. A church planter told me that before his ...