Pastor, What Was That You Said?

My sunday-night sermon had been a masterpiece of theology, oratory, and homiletics. As my Monday coffee-drinking companion and I sipped our coffee, I waited for him to comment on it. Finally he asked, “Pastor, what were you trying to say last night? I never could figure it out.”

Too often there is an interplanetary space between the pulpit and the pew. The response from the pew is, “Pastor, what was that you said?”

When you preach on Sunday you have a startling variety of persons before you. Some are highly educated, some functionally illiterate. Some are committed Christians; some are irreligious. Some came out of force of habit. Some are there because husbands or wives were determined that the family was going to church.

How do you get through to a crowd like that? Is it any wonder that some sleep through your sermon and others ask, “Pastor, what was that you said?” One of the problems of communicating our Christian message is that we preachers tend to live in our own private world. We are immersed in a semi-religious realm and scarcely realize that many of our laymen live in a quite different world.

Some of us seem to use a strange language spoken only in churches and by preachers. We are sometimes accused either of discussing abstruse ideas that are unrelated to the lives of the people or of becoming so engrossed in the concerns of society that people wonder why they came to church. They miss a clear message from the Bible addressed to their own spiritual needs.

Notice six characteristics of people today that have a bearing on our problem of communication:

1. Our people live in a pleasure-oriented world. Existence is directed toward satisfying personal needs and desires.

2. People are money-plagued, deeply in debt for their gadgets and luxuries. If they hear us preach once a year on stewardship, some immediately get the impression that we are just after their money.

3. They are scientifically minded. To many, at least subconsciously, science has become almighty and can answer all problems.

4. They are sales resistant. As they watch television and listen to radio commercials, they develop a built-in resistance to the salespitch. They are accustomed to a continual stream of attempts to get them to buy toothpaste and detergents, and they have developed a shell of resistance. When we try to challenge them, they can retreat behind that shell.

5. They are thoroughly pragmatic. To them, whatever works is right. The question of right and wrong is not as important as momentary expediency.

6. They are accustomed, through television, to polished performances. When they sit in our churches, seeing something less than perfection, we are immediately put at a disadvantage.

Each of these characteristics is a barrier to our communicating and a challenge to our ingenuity as we attempt to reach people with the Gospel.

Many people in the pews are unhappy. Outwardly, they may appear well adjusted and on top of the world. Inwardly, they know there must be something more to life than they have found.

Our task is to take the preacher in the pulpit, whose heart is in heaven, and the man in the pew, distinctly rooted in this world, and bring the two together. How can we do this?

First and foremost, there must be a dependence upon the Holy Spirit. None of us can by polished oratory, intellectual acumen, or any other abilities, accomplish the task of bridging heaven and earth in one worship service. Only the Holy Spirit can do this, working in the hearts of those in the pew and in the pulpit. Give him a chance within your heart so that when you stand in the pulpit you radiate the truth of your message; this, in part, will communicate what you are trying to say.

Speak with biblical authority—but avoid sounding like a dogmatic know-it-all. Speak with the authority of Scripture, in a message saturated with biblical truth, but not as though you were the Author himself.

Preach to your people, to the people sitting before you, not the politicians in Washington, the hippies in Berkeley, or the crowd home in bed asleep. As you prepare your message, jot down the names of some people who will be present on Sunday. List some of their spiritual needs. Then build your sermon in the light of this list.

Begin where your people are. Do not assume that they know more about spiritual matters than they actually do. Preach to their needs at their current level of development.

Use a simple style and polish it. Speak to the children—and then the adults will be able to understand also.

Deal with a few basic ideas. You cannot tell everything you know in one sermon, and you certainly ought not to try! Deal with a few basic ideas and show how they are relevant to the lives of the people sitting before you.

As you begin a sermon, make a clear point of identification with your audience, or you may never have them with you.

Use enough illustrations to raise the shades and let in a little light. An illustration can help a man see how your message applies in his life.

Make certain the truths you are trying to drive home stand out crystal clear. Every sermon ought to have a discernible skeleton—but put some good solid meat on the bones, too.

When you preach, either translate or hire an interpreter. Many of us would probably be shocked to find out how little of our theological jargon, how few of our religious cliches, our people really understand. Choose your words carefully and define your terms often enough for your hearers to be sure what you mean. If you use the King James Version, watch for archaic English words and antiquated expressions.

If we allow ourselves to soar to nebulous heights in the pulpit or to plumb the obscure depths with unintelligible jargon, then we deserve the rebuke of the question, “Pastor, what was that you said?”—J. TERRY YOUNG, editor, The California Southern Baptist, Fresno.

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