Polishing the Pulpit
Preaching by Fred B. Craddock, Abingdon, $16.95
Preaching: The Art of Connecting God and People by F. Dean Lueking, Word, $12.95
Reviewed by Gregory P. Elder, assistant priest, St. Peter’s Episcopal Church, Del Mar, California
An Anglican bishop is said to have dismissed one of his subordinates by saying, “That man deserves to be preached to death by wild curates.” More than one congregation has imagined itself so condemned.
But as any experienced pastor will affirm, it requires hard work to produce an interesting and challenging sermon. To help practiced and aspiring preachers, Fred B. Craddock and F. Dean Lueking have both written books titled Preaching, offering doctrinal wisdom and practical advice to proclaimers of the Word.
Craddock, presently professor of preaching and New Testament at Candler School of Theology in Atlanta, writes, “Preaching is understood as making present and appropriate to the hearers the revelation of God.” He explained in a phone conversation, “There is a glut of words in today’s world that has made people anxious for real communication. Real communication comes out of silence.” Craddock believes effective preaching demonstrates honest speaking.
The book offers concrete suggestions on content and delivery. According to Craddock, preparation begins in a life of study-not in digging up something to say on Sunday morning. He clearly outlines the intellectual steps to analyze a biblical text.
He also advises preachers to read, at least twenty minutes a day, novels, poetry, and short stories. “The short story is the first cousin of the sermon,” he says. While it may not have an immediate impact on next Sunday’s sermon, such reading has a way of expanding the preacher’s world, benefiting both minister and congregation.
Craddock sees the preacher as an interpreter, who hears and presents the words of the King to the congregation. In the process, Craddock is concerned to honor not only the scriptural text but also the men and women in the pews. “Regardless of who these listeners are,” he insists, “they want to be taken seriously.”
He stresses the need to separate the interpretation of the passage from the preparation to preach on it. One first has to wrestle with the text itself and find what it is saying. Only when the biblical message has been discerned can the second issue be addressed: how to present it. It’s like the difference between mining a gem out of the earth and setting it in appropriate jewelry.
When I admitted I am guilty of confusing these two functions (it is often quicker to choose a simple text to preach), he replied, “A lot of people do that. But this process of interpreting before writing the actual sermon can be liberating.” The two-step process, he said, allows the preacher to decide what needs to be said without getting bogged down immediately in mechanical issues.
Craddock wrote Preaching to fill a need he saw in the seminary world. But as a former pastor, he is aware of parish concerns. The final chapters of the book demonstrate the range of his experience in a detailed discussion of preaching mechanics-selecting the sermon form, using illustrations, building anticipation in listeners, choosing the apt word.
While Craddock’s text is intended for the classroom preparation of ministers, F. Dean Lueking’s book is geared for the pastor well established in preaching. Although some ministers seem to be born with a gift of eloquence, most have to work hard to be fresh and exciting on Sunday morning. Finding good illustrations, new insights, and relevant guidance is hard, particularly for the pastor who preaches frequently.
Lueking’s book, Preaching: The Art of Connecting God and People, offers clear advice on this pastoral demand.
The theme is clear: the local congregation itself provides the basic material for the sermon. In the foreword Lueking says he desires “to help the preacher see the incomparable wealth of meaning found in the congregation itself and in the community beyond,” and “to demonstrate the art of weaving that personal richness into sermons.” He shows how pastors can find sermon ideas, unique perspectives on biblical texts, and illustrations in abundance from their people.
Lueking has been pastor at Grace Lutheran Church in River Forest, Illinois, for over thirty years, and his experience shows throughout the book.
In the “Guidelines” chapter, he discusses simple rules of thumb for selecting personal examples, such as how distant an event should be before it can be mentioned in a sermon, and what constitutes correct handling of delicate subjects like sexuality or medical illness.
“The first cardinal rule is to respect the confidentiality of the person. Don’t trivialize anyone. Be attentive to the person’s own awareness of the situation.” He advises pastors to ask permission to share moments of grace with the rest of the fellowship. This permission is normally granted, and such personal glimpses have a way of showing the gospel to be stunningly alive.
Lueking gives many samples of personal stories he has used with obvious effect-stories gleaned from hospital rooms to wedding receptions. He advises us to listen to the experiences of people, and to share the gained wisdom with the church.
To demonstrate the power of grace in a believer’s heart, he shared the story of a man subjected to torture in a Cuban prison for twenty-two years, who survived the ordeal “with the grace of Christ in his heart toward those who tried to break his spirit by means of torture.” The power of the story was magnified since the man was present in the congregation. Lueking reminds us that every congregation has its own collection of testimonies.
Not only insights and illustrations but the whole direction of the proclamation can be derived from the people who need the Living Word. He sees his own congregation as both the setting and the resource for lively preaching.
The book is honestly positive about congregational life. This is not a textbook but a voice of encouragement for parish leaders.
Many clergy fear running dry. Like the prophet Jeremiah, none of us wants to remain in the dry cistern. But Lueking says Preaching was written to remind us that with people-oriented material, “you don’t burn out or grow stale, because people are not stale. Nor is the lively Word of the gospel.”
Both authors challenge preachers to enhance their pulpit ministry by polishing sermon delivery and including their people’s experience. Such advice can benefit all clergy, from the newest seminarians to the most senior pastors.
Overcoming Mediumitis
The Middle-Sized Church by Lyle E. Schafer, Abingdon, $6.95
Reviewed by Dave Wilkinson, pastor, Trinity Presbyterian Church, Oroville, California
Lyle Schaller defines the middle-sized church as the “middle third of American Protestant congregations, which averages between one hundred and two hundred in worship. Usually it is seen as being too large to share a minister with another congregation but too small to have two ministers. It is too large for the members to be satisfied with the limited-scale program typical of the small church but too small to offer the broad range of programming, especially for youth, that some of the new members expect.” In The Middle-Sized Church, he offers seasoned wisdom for those of us in this in-between territory.
Schafer knows the territory well. In chapter 3, for example, as he identified “six key personalities” in the church that can be the bane or blessing of the pastor’s life, I began recognizing them from my church! I had the uncanny feeling he had been looking over my shoulder as he wrote.
Schaller admits there is no typical middle-sized church. “Each congregation has its own distinctive ethos . . . or culture.” He points out several key factors that might make two churches with the same average attendance very different.
One factor is momentum. “The congregation meeting in a large building two blocks from the heart of the business district once averaged over 650 in worship but is now down to 145. The long-time leaders feel their church is caught in the throes of inevitable decline. The three-year-old mission in Minnesota doubled its worship attendance from 70 to 140, and the leaders are convinced momentum is on their side. Momentum is one reason that the numerically growing congregation tends to be more receptive to innovation, less bound by tradition, more open to maverick leaders, and more attractive to upwardly mobile persons.”
Another factor is age and money. He describes a pastor “born in 1947 who learned the reason the federal government minted coins in a circular shape is so they will roll, who comes to a congregation served by lay leaders who clearly remember the Great Depression and know the reason money is flat on both sides is to make it easier to stack.” Help for both is offered in a chapter on financing.
A central theme is that leaders need to lead if a church is going to grow. This means the pastor takes responsibility for initiating programs, and church boards shoulder tough decisions. “Back in the sixties,” Schaller explains, “it was widely believed that giving the people a voice would be an effective means of altering the status quo. Many years later one veteran of the confrontations of the sixties observed that it is ironic that the greater the emphasis on participatory democracy-with the idea that every group should have a veto-the larger the number of veto groups, and the status quo is the only course of action that cannot be vetoed. … The only people who do not have a veto on today’s decisions are tomorrow’s new members, the very people we are attempting to reach!”
A chapter on “The Awkward-Sized Church” will be of particular interest to leaders of churches averaging between 160 and 240 in worship. Such a church is often comfortable; program needs are being met without giving away the feeling of intimacy the people enjoy. At the same time, it is very uncomfortable for the pastor, who finds it “too large and complex to be served adequately by one minister.”
The Middle-Sized Church is the final volume in a trilogy Schaller wrote on the assumption that the average attendance at Sunday worship is a useful tool for analyzing churches. Besides his prolific writing, he speaks frequently at conferences and churches across the country, so much so, he says, that a daughter planned her wedding to fall on his birthday because she knew he’d be home.
I met Schaller at one of these conferences and found him pleasantly surprised at how his work has been received by leaders across the theological spectrum. Checking his calendar a while back, he discovered he’d worked with people from forty-two denominations over a five-year span.
Schaller always asks those he interviews the question: “What is the question I should ask you?” Figuring that turnabout is fair play, I asked him the same question He laughed and replied, “You should ask what I would do differently if I did the book over.” Then, without giving me the opportunity to ask, he answered: “I would have included three or four more case studies, one of which would be an independent, nondenominational church.”
Personally, I found the book satisfying; he needn’t change a thing.
Beyond Youth Bashes
Spiritual Growth in Youth Ministry by J. David Stone, Group, $12.95
Reviewed by Dick Norton, executive director, San Antonio (Texas) Youth for Christ
David Stone noticed a problem: “Burned out youth workers were coming to my youth ministries workshops asking for a new supply of gimmicks for their youth programs. They had completely lost hope that real spiritual growth was possible.” Wanting to help these weary, defeated ones find new life in their youth groups-and in themselves-he wrote Spiritual Growth in Youth Ministry.
Stone, a Methodist youth pastor who is now executive director of Alternative View Network of Shreveport, Louisiana, saw his own past mirrored in these youth leaders. He had had a productive ministry in terms of numbers, but the result was only superficial spirituality in his youth. He did all the right things-“attended their ball games, went to their schools, hosted socials, designed fabulous retreats, and ‘hung-out’ with them.” But all this was at the expense of a shallow personal spiritual life and shallow teens.
“The turning point for me,” writes Stone, “came when a good friend personalized the focus of my ministry by asking, ‘How is your walk with the Lord, David?’ I felt confronted . . . I felt guilty. I had ‘found myself’ much like the Prodigal Son acknowledged his real self. My friend’s question cu through all of my pride and ego as I honestly answered, ‘I don’t know.’ ”
From that day, Stone began a spiritual pilgrimage that resulted not only in his own growth but in that of his youth group as well. The result of this journey is a thoughtful, practical book.
The book’s core is that relationships are crucial to spiritual growth in youth groups. Stone writes: “Spiritual growth in youth ministry begins with you. . . You can’t give away something you don’t have . . . work first on your relationship with God-only then will your programs provide authentic ministry for young people.”
The recurring words in Stone’s book are relationships, ritual, routine, and discipline. In them you have the author’s message. Spirituality is not achieved in a moment of time. It is built over a lifetime by practice, routine, and personal discipline. Young people do not become spiritual by attending exciting youth meetings but by observing-and imitating-the day-by-day lifestyle of a godly leader.
Since the leader’s spiritual growth is of paramount importance, it occupies the first section of the book. “Spiritual Disciplines for Youth Workers” offers a smorgasbord of personal disciplines. Of prime importance in Stone’s life is “The Listening Post,” a technique of reflection and contemplation learned from noted missionary E. Stanley Jones. “Have you ever thought that most of the time when we try to get in touch with God, we do all the talking?” asked Jones. “I just sit at my listening post for thirty minutes each day and listen for God to direct me.”
Stone’s first attempt at establishing a listening post (a pillow in the comer of the room on which he would kneel) was not very successful. “During the entire thirty minutes, I was in sheer agony. My knees were being cut by those little razor edges (on the corduroy pillow), my back hurt, my arms felt as if they were about to drop off. I only sensed that God was present for perhaps ten seconds.”
But practice, routine, and discipline paid off, and the thirty-minute period became a satisfying experience with God.
An equally important discipline is journaling-a daily recording of spiritual insights. Five different methods of joumaling are offered.
Three programs of varying lengths integrate the listening post, journaling, letters of love, fasting, unselfish acts, witness, and physical exercise. Routine soon begets habit; habit begets lifestyle; and lifestyle, true spirituality.
Having come to terms with God, a renewed youth minister is then prepared to lead youth into spiritual renewal. Stone gives guidelines for helping teens develop their own spirituality through Bible study, worship, prayer and meditation, and retreats. All the tools come together in “A Program for Relational Spiritual Growth,” a method that allows your love for the Lord to rub off on your kids. It is a disciplined, structured approach; the author is a true Method-ist.
Although Stone wrote the book for burned-out youth ministers, he says, “My hunch is they are not burned out; they have lost God. They feel the God who first called them is not present with them now.” Who of us has never experienced that feeling?
We who have seen too many kids come and go through snazzy youth programs without any evidence of permanent, life-changing growth are ready for Stone’s book. It doesn’t just tell us our teenagers need to be led into spiritual maturity, it gives workable methods to achieve that goal.
NEW AND NOTEWORTHY
Adrenalin and Stress by Archibald D. Hart, Word, $10.95
Hart deals with what he calls “the hidden link” between stress and adrenalin. We can, he suggests, become addicted to our own adrenalin as we would some other substance. And since we produce the substance ourselves, we may not even be aware of our dependence on it. Hart suggests several techniques for monitoring not only felt stress but also hidden stress. He recommends a heat-sensitive dot placed on your hand to detect the level of adrenalin arousal from skin temperature.
Christians may be under more stress than most in our society. It takes effort to live right and do good in our world. In addition, even the “good stress” we feel when faced with an exciting challenge or a special occasion can be as physiologically damaging as “bad stress.” Both result in temporary overproduction of adrenalin, which can cause harm if not controlled.
Hart describes several ways to relax, such as concentrated meditation and prayer, and discusses ways to reduce stress, such as learning to forgive and accept forgiveness. Busy people would benefit from unbusying themselves long enough to peruse this book.
The Elements of Preaching by Warren Wiersbe and David Wiersbe, Tyndale, $2.95
The Wiersbes have written a concise and basic book on preaching. I read it in less than half an hour and yet came away feeling I had benefited from it. Subtitled “The Art of Biblical Preaching-Clearly and Simply Presented,” the book is just that. The authors provide twenty-six principles and fourteen prohibitions for preaching, none of which has more than two pages of explanation.
The book, while an excellent text for beginning students of preaching if balanced by other, more exhaustive works, is also a fine refresher for those of us who have been preaching for a while.
Close the Back Door by Alan F. Harre, Concordia, $5.95
This book deals with questions nearly every church faces: How to keep members active? And how to deal with those who are inactive? Harre analyzes the results of several studies on inactive church members and notes the reasons people drop out. One chapter provides thirteen suggestions for retaining the members we already have, from improved worship to responsible social action.
At the same time, he provides excellent suggestions on how to approach those who have already slipped through the cracks. Active members may have to overcome negative attitudes about inactives. When ministering to the dropouts, we must listen to what they consider legitimate concerns and reasons for leaving.
Harre concludes with questions to ask when preparing to minister to inactives and offers a plan for training lay people to visit the inactives.
Good News for the Chemically Dependent by Jeffrey VanVonderen, Nelson, $6.95
Writing out of his own experience with alcoholism, VanVonderen sets forth a “grace-full” approach for ministering to alcoholics, addicts, and their families.
He begins with the dynamics of dependency. He suggests that ultimately chemical dependency results from a person feeling basic human needs are not being met, needs like being loved and accepted, valuable and important. Here the church and family can begin to help break the cycle of chemical dependency.
An excellent section on the value of stressing grace rather than law when ministering to the alcoholic or addict balances with his specific guidelines that are tough but loving. Perhaps most crucial of all is the “importance of families and churches being the kinds of places where people know that they do not have to pretend.”
Renewing Our Ministry by David L. McKenna, Word, $11.95
David McKenna, an ordained minister and president of Asbury Theological Seminary, has written this “good news book” for pastors who are suffering from stress-or would like to avoid it. Taking a “megatrends” approach, McKenna analyzes the pressures our society places on clergy and comments on ways to return the spark to ministry. The good news, he writes, is that “God, in Christ, has precommitted all of the resources we need for the renewal of our ministry.”
A partial list of McKenna’s chapter titles indicates the book’s direction; reliving our call, remembering our commitment, respecting our differences, regaining our balance, remembering our servanthood, recognizing our limits, and redeeming our future.
-Reviewed by Julie Adkins, pastor, St. Mark Presbyterian Church, San Angelo, Texas
Copyright © 1986 by the author or Christianity Today/Leadership Journal. Click here for reprint information on Leadership Journal.
