Preaching to the Video Generation
Imagining a Sermon by Thomas H. Troeger, Abingdon, $10.95
Reviewed by Grant Lovejoy, preaching instructor, Southwestern Baptist Seminary, Fort Worth, Texas
Rhetoric has served our culture long and well, but vivid images, not logical progression, dominate culture today. Television, movies, home videos, and slick photo magazines represent today’s authority.
The video message, however, is disturbing. Its core tenets:
-The fittest survive.
-Happiness consists of limitless material acquisition.
-Consumption is inherently good.
-Property, wealth, and power are more important than people.
-Progress is an inherent good.
The video generation, with both its values and its preferred means of communicating, poses a stiff challenge to preachers, many of whom are from the print generation.
In Imagining a Sermon, Thomas Troeger, teacher of preaching at Crozer Theological Seminary in Rochester, New York, suggests that if sermons are to reach the video generation, they need to become more imaginative and less rhetorical, for it’s imagination that infuses ideas with the power to transform lives.
But imagination is more than a technique for Troeger. Our imaginative capacity is part of what it means to be human. Imagination is “the God-power of the soul,” as Henry Ward Beecher put it. To exclude imagination is to deny a part of God’s creation and to miss that part of reality that eludes rational analysis.
Troeger has found, however, that some preachers have reservations about using the imagination in preaching. After all, Luther and Calvin denounced imagination as corrupt. In addition, some wonder if imaginative approaches diminish the objectivity of divine revelation.
As to Luther and Calvin, Troeger observes that their own work depended heavily on using the imagination to organize their thoughts and present them compellingly. He affirms that the imagination needs to be highly disciplined by Scripture and the Spirit-disciplined, but not stifled.
Some preachers object to imaginative preaching on other grounds. Calling for more imaginative sermons is easy enough, especially for someone like Troeger, who enjoys art and music and writes poetry and hymns. But many preachers don’t think of themselves as artists.
In response, Troeger often asks such people to look at a painting and describe what is there. Freed from the pressure of finding a sermon, they see new detail, remember stories from Scripture, and gain insight.
“Without the burden of a negative self-image, they begin to discover that, lo and behold, there are creative springs within them,” he says. “People have much greater creative possibilities than they ever realized.”
Imagining a Sermon also helps preachers put their artistic, imaginative skills to work in sermon preparation. Troeger’s premise is that the imagination’s activity is not random and chaotic, but instead has principles of its own. And preachers can cooperate with those principles. They cannot make the winds of imagination blow, but they can trim their sails and tend the helm when the winds do blow.
The key to becoming more imaginative is deceptively simple: be attentive to what is. Troeger argues that artists and poets become imaginative through close attention to details that escape a casual observer. Seeing precedes imaginative speaking: “When we are attentive to what is, we do not gum up our consciousness with preconceptions.”
Before discussing the “music of speech,” Troeger suggests ways to “alert the eye to keener sight” and to “feel the bodily weight of truth,” the first two principles of imaginative theology.
To train the eye, Troeger suggests examining scenes with great care, then describing the scene with such exactness that another could visualize it.
Troeger’s suggestions about feeling “the bodily weight of truth” draw from classical spiritual exercises. He suggests, for instance, taking the actual physical posture mentioned in scriptural texts we preach from: bow, kneel, lie prostrate.
If the passage is about someone blind or deaf, use a blindfold or ear plugs to reproduce the experience. When preachers feel the reality of the text, they can preach it more realistically and thus imaginatively.
Next, preachers should think like television producers, asking themselves what scenes or images would convey the ideas they have in mind. Troeger recommends the use of this “cinemographic technique,” which moves from scene to scene without the sustained development of a logical argument. Depend on the hearers to weave the strands between the scenes. Let the sermon’s creative imagery create impact. Use video logic instead of rhetorical logic.
Drawing parables from life is another principle in imagining a sermon. Troeger marvels at how secular Jesus’ parables are. They come out of common life, not religious life.
“If I’m preaching, and it all sounds religious, then it’s probably not biblical,” he commented in a recent interview.
In the final chapter, Troeger takes pains to remind his readers that imagination is a gift of God, created and sustained by him in each one of us. Our imaginative powers depend on our ability to attend to God. “In listening to the sighs of the Spirit, we receive power to do what is good and just and right. And when preachers attend to the sighs of the Spirit, their words take on a quality of heaven’s voice.”
And when that happens, men and women of every generation will hear the eternal gospel.
When Not to Decide Is to Decide
Choices for Churches by Lyle Schaller, Abingdon, $11.95
Reviewed by Heidi A. Husted, associate pastor, Trinity Presbyterian Church, San Carlos, California
To grow or not to grow-that is the choice facing many churches today. And for many, it feels like a choice between becoming a megachurch or, well, that’s about it.
But that’s not about it, according to Lyle Schaller. In Choices for Churches he combats the prevalent notion that there is only one right way (and too many wrong ways) to grow. There are more choices open to congregations than they often realize.
Once again the prolific Schaller (this is his thirty-third book) sifts through the latest sociological studies, as well as an ongoing reading list of some eighty-five periodicals, and marshals his evidence. By training Schaller was formerly a city planner-it shows, as does his heart for pastors and the church.
Schaller begins by contrasting two types of congregations: the congregation as an extended family and the congregation as a complex society, a “community of communities.”
Every facet of each type of congregation needs to be approached differently. For example, while the effective newsletter of the small rural church devotes considerable space to the past (reporting on recent congregational events) and what’s going on with individual members, the effective newsletter of the eleven-hundred-member urban church concentrates on the future (what programs will be offered) and what various organizations and staff are doing.
Is one of these congregational styles wrong and the other right? Not necessarily. But each congregation must recognize that it will be “extremely difficult to prepare an agenda that will be meaningful and satisfying to both.”
A congregation’s first choice, then, is to decide whether to be a family-like community or a more complex community of communities.
Next Schaller encourages congregations to determine their distinctiveness. The 1960s, for instance, saw the emergence of issue-centered churches with a prophetic ministry that challenged the status quo. A growing number of large churches have decided to make an extensive, varied, and attractive program their central organizing theme. They offer three to six worship services every weekend, a teaching ministry with a broad range of choices, and a varied music ministry, among other programs.
Again, there’s no one right answer. Schaller’s point is that churches wanting to grow will try to understand their unique style because their approach to ministry will be far more influential than population trends in determining their numerical growth.
In addition, the congregation seeking a new pastor should seek a minister who will bring the skills and experience to match that church’s approach to ministry.
Schaller then turns to the essential choice for congregations-the unavoidable choice to “grow older and smaller” or “younger and larger.” Only by reaching out to the new generations can a church hope to grow.
Schaller spends most of the book describing the components of a systematic and multi-faceted strategy to reach new generations. For instance, he suggests these options, among others, for churches that want to grow:
-Developing a faster pace for corporate worship, to hold those raised on television’s “sound bites.”
-Spending 3 to 5 percent of the annual budget on publicity, which might include direct mail campaigns.
-Conceptualizing the church as a non-geographical parish in which people are willing to drive fifteen to forty minutes to church.
Churches that want to grow younger and larger may also want to offer not only a superior chancel choir, but also handbell choirs, youth choirs, a brass ensemble, a liturgical dance team, and several children’s choirs.
“Perhaps the most effective single means of increasing the worship attendance,” says Schaller, “is to schedule an additional Sunday morning worship experience” that does not duplicate what already exists, but offers people a choice of hour, style, hymns, and choir.
One of the challenging choices facing churches wanting to grow is the decision about relocating. Although church relocation is not new, the reason for it is. Immediately after World War II, churches relocated to maintain continuity: they wanted to retain members moving out to the suburbs.
Today, many churches relocate to create discontinuity-to redefine their role. They no longer want to be seen as a neighborhood congregation but a regional church. The presenting issue may be visibility or space or parking or location, but the deeper issue is to revitalize a congregation.
Even if readers don’t agree with Schaller’s conclusions in Choices, at least they’re made to think-not just about what choices their church will make, but about the choices their church is already making. By the end of the book one is well aware that “not to decide is to decide.”
By the way, one denomination has recommended that all its pastors read Choices. That seems a good choice!
Ministry at Its Best
What Really Matters in Ministry: Profiling Pastoral Success in Flourishing Churches by Darius Salter Baker, $12.95
Reviewed by Rick Lobs, rector, St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, Geneva, Illinois
Few pastors have not, at one time or another, questioned their success in ministry. We sometimes wonder if we’re as effective as the pastor up the road. We often feel guilty for what we have not achieved in ministry. And then we spend hours wondering what success is anyway.
For those who ask themselves such questions, Darius Salter has written this book.
Salter, teacher of pastoral theology at Western Evangelical Seminary in Portland, Oregon, had misgivings about writing a book on success. The world had enough of them, he felt. However existing books fell short, he felt, discussing success from only one of two approaches.
The first glorifies success and does not treat the dark side, the dangers of pursuing success. The other downplays the importance of success in ministry and says in effect, “We need only to be faithful.” Salter wanted to neither abandon nor glorify the concept.
Salter begins by sharing the results of his researching one hundred pastors of churches with an average attendance of 1,650 on Sunday morning. He profiles the pastors by education, Jungian personality type, and management and ministry styles. Then he gives us a composite of the successful pastor.
To begin with, the successful pastor stands five feet eleven inches tall and has an annual salary of $53,000!
More importantly, among other traits, he has a non-controversial pulpit. The research showed that these men believe they should address only issues that have a clear or self-evident moral tone to them. Typically, they address marital fidelity but not nuclear weapons or human rights.
Salter asks us to evaluate that approach: Is non-controversial preaching the best way of pastoring from the pulpit?
Such questions, in fact, are what the book is finally about-questions that require answers, and answers that require thought. And the thoughts Salter stirs began to make me squirm. For instance:
-To be successful, how much does the pastor need to buy into a consumer orientation, thinking of the prospective member as a buyer of the church’s services and the pastor as the seller of those services? Squirm!
-Do churches that offer a variety of ministries (such as mothers of preschoolers, victims of rape, eating disorders, and men’s support groups) actually reinforce consumerism? Squirm!
-Is Christ’s church a medical clinic, psychiatric unit, welfare office, and recreational playground all rolled into one? Do multi-faceted functions obscure spiritual care and nurture? Squirm! Squirm!
In short, how do we deal with this era’s demand for self-help, self-understanding, and craving of new experiences, yet remain faithful to Christ?
Finally, Salter sets out to define success, first in terms of the Old Covenant priest and prophets, and then in terms of Christ and the eschatological hope of Christians. But don’t think at this point the book suddenly becomes squirm-free.
For example, Salter wants us to consider ministry rewards that are truly Christian. The Greek word misthos, translated “reward” in the New Testament, appears no less than thirteen times in the Sermon on the Mount. Success as portrayed in the Sermon suggests that rewards received in heaven will be inversely proportionate to the rewards enjoyed on earth.
Jesus’ disciples needed to look for necessities. Consequently, they didn’t need large money bags (Matthew 10:9-10). Salter continues: “Besides basic provisions, the disciples could expect rejection (v. 14), betrayal (v. 17), physical abuse (v. 17), hatred (v. 22), and ultimately martyrdom. (These are not the fringe benefits for which most pastors are clamoring.)”
In such fashion, Salter strikes at the heart of our personal and corporate symbols of success. Salter wants us to test our commitment to the poor, the weak, and the spiritually lost. He also wants us to do reality checks on our relationship with the Father. “Reliance on the supernatural,” he says, “is a main ingredient of successful ministry.”
In the end, we are told the truth we suspected before we read the book:
“To whatever extent Christ-likeness is being formed in their flock, they (the pastors) are being successful.”
In short, I read Salter’s book making all sorts of scratchings in the margin, longing for a chance to discuss it with a group of clergy. That, to me, is a sign of a good book.
Bibliography: Spirituality and the Pastor
Much of the pastor’s daily work is consumed with hammering the nails and driving the screws of ministry-administration, counseling, calling, preaching, and teaching. These “practical tasks” we are called to perform faithfully and with excellence.
Yet building a strong ministry begins with the laying of a solid foundation-prayer and study of the Word. Throughout history, some pastors have been particularly skillful at pouring such a foundation. Below are listed books by a few of these.
They are compiled by Eugene Peterson, pastor of Christ the King Presbyterian Church in Bel Air, Maryland. Eugene, a prolific writer on pastoral spirituality, is a contributing editor to LEADERSHIP, and he counts among his many books The Contemplative Pastor (Word) and most recently Answering God: The Psalms as Tools for Prayer (Harper & Row).
Characters in Pilgrims Progress by Alexander Whyte, Baker, 1976
The twin pillars of pastoral life are prayer and learning. The two are huge cedar trunks in the life of Whyte, a late 19th- and early 20th-century Scottish preacher. This pastor’s commentary on Bunyan’s classic brims with acute intelligence and warm devotion. This is a pastor directing pastors.
The Reformed Pastor by Richard Baxter, Banner of Truth, 1979
Baxter, a 17th-century Puritan English pastor, paid as much attention to his own life before God as he did to the spiritual conditions of his parishioners. Here he teaches us how to do the same.
Pastoral Theology: Reorientation by Martin Thornton, S.P.C.K., 1958
Thornton, an Anglican priest in England, is the sanest pastoral theologian of this century. He bypasses the fads and drives to the center where prayer shapes pastoral work “new every morning.”
A Theology of Pastoral Care by Eduard Thurneysen, John Knox, 1963
Thurneysen, the pastor, and Karl Barth, the professor, had a long, admiring, and interactive friendship. Thurneysen put Barth’s thinking to the test in his pastoral practice; Barth put Thurneysen’s experience into his dogmatics. They confirmed each other.
The Unsettling of America by Wendell Berry, Sierra, 1986
Berry is a Kentucky farmer who also writes novels, poems, and essays. Every time he writes “farm,” I substitute “parish” or “congregation.” It works every time. I have learned more usable pastoral theology from this farmer than from all my academic professors.
The Rule by Benedict edited by Justin McCann, Newman Press, 1952
Benedict was a pastor to monks, and his wisdom and counsel travel well through the centuries. He understood the nature of the spiritual life that was lived for others and in relation to others. For us who are responsible for shaping a spiritual community in our congregation, Benedict is a wise companion.
Grammar of Assent by John Henry Newman, University of Notre Dame, 1979
No one exercised and practiced intelligence in the 19th-century parish context better than Newman, well-known convert to Christianity. Newman’s mind, some think the keenest of the last century, found its fullest flowering not in an academic but a pastoral setting. Here Newman thinks through his faith prayerfully, showing pastors the way to the sanctification of the mind.
Cure D’Ars by Abbe Francis Trouchu, TAN, 1977
This book is about Jean Vianney, an unpretentious French priest (1786-1859), who fashioned a lifelong pastoral presence in his village. His simplicity and holiness remains a powerful model for honest pastoral work. In the Roman church, he is the patron saint of parish priests.
A Treatise Concerning Religious Affections by Jonathan Edwards, Banner of Truth, 1986
Everything Edwards wrote came out of his experience with his congregation. He was always trying to understand and protect, nurture and develop the juncture of divine revelation and human experience. What gets separated out so often as psychology on the one hand and theology on the other was joined and integrated in Pastor Edwards.
Spiritual Care by Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Fortress, 1985
This is one of the last of Bonhoeffer’s books to be translated and confirms his primary genius as pastor and pastoral theologian.
The Love of Learning and the Desire for God by Jean LeClerc, Fordham, 1985
For a thousand years monks were the primary spiritual guides in Europe. The accumulated experience of that millennium is one of the richest but woefully neglected sources for pastoral work. LeClerc, a Benedictine in Luxembourg, knows this world better than anyone.
The Cure of Souls by P. T. Forsyth, Eerdmans, 1971
This is exuberant writing and zestful spirituality. A Congregationalist, he wrote, taught, and preached in England until his death in 1921. One of the most quotable of spiritual masters, Forsyth anticipated with astonishing prescience the spiritual conditions we face in the 1990s.
Copyright © 1991 by the author or Christianity Today/Leadership Journal. Click here for reprint information on Leadership Journal.
