Preaching/Worship resources
M. Craig Barnes
July 1, 2001
No preacher really wants to admit this, but every Sunday morning we are just working out our own stuff with God in front of the congregation.
That sounds a lot worse than it really is. It isn't necessarily manipulative, self-indulgent, or exhibitionist. It may be the congregation's only hope for hearing God's response to their own sacred yearnings.
The best sermons are constructed not in the head but in the soul of the preacher. These are the messages that arise out of the depths of our own angst, fears, doubts, and struggles with God. When the congregation listens to a sermon they know immediately if the preacher is being spiritually honest, or if they are about to hear another detached exegetical analysis of the text. Clearly, good preaching cannot avoid biblical exegesis. But there is a difference in talking about the Word and proclaiming it. And the preacher can only proclaim the Word he or she knows, all too personally.
This doesn't mean that the preacher should always be explicit about his or her struggles or personal feelings about the text. That gets awfully old, awfully fast. Rather it means that the preacher's own soul is on the line every time a new sermon is written. If the sermon hasn't already beaten the preacher on the head and shoulders all week long, why should we expect it to offer any transformation to those who listen in on Sunday morning?
This assumes that the preacher's issues and questions about God are the same as those of the congregation.
The fundamental struggle many preachers have is not that they are writing bad sermons, but irrelevant ones. That happens when we unconsciously preach to the congregation we used to have, or want to have. It also happens when the preacher doesn't have enough self-knowledge ...
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