PEOPLE IN PRINT
July 1, 1990
Speaking to Fewer than Seventy-five Preaching with the Small Congregation by Laurence A. Wagley, Abingdon, $10.95 Reviewed by Grant Lovejoy, instructor, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, Fort Worth, Texas Intuitively we know the sermon should take the size of the congregation into consideration. After all, researchers have confirmed that the small church is not just a miniature large church. Until recently, though, no one had suggested how preaching could build on the unique strengths of the small church. Now Laurence Wagley has written Preaching with the Small Congregation to do just that. He tells how pastors of congregations with average attendance under seventy-five can develop a style customized for the small church. Wagley, professor of preaching and worship at Saint Paul School of Theology in Kansas City, started this research to encourage and assist his students who were pastors of small congregations-like the one in which he had grown up. "We live in a culture that values bigness," he writes. "If it is not big, loud, and expensive, it must be failing. … It is not surprising that members and ministers of small-membership churches are demoralized and consider their practice somehow deficient." Wagley encourages the small church to work from its strengths: intimacy, emphasis on preaching and worship, flexibility, and capacity to involve people. His thesis is that a participatory approach to preaching best uses these small-church assets. Members may participate in the sermon in many ways. The preacher may speak briefly and then step into the midst of the congregation, saying, "You have heard what I have said about this issue. What do you have to say?" Or, following the preacher's remarks, the congregation may ...
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