Incarnating the Gospel in the City
Yesterday I got a call from my friend Chris. He said: “Listen man, I’m going to be in your area do you wanna grab some lunch over the little french bistro off of 136?” Every so often we get together to support what each other is doing, bounce ideas off of each other and, ventilate what we are currently wrestling with.
Well, yesterday’s topic ended up being “preaching”. For a while I have been trying to figure out the complicated art of preaching. I’ve read books, listened to great communicators and have plagiarized a hand full of them (If you’re reading don’t act like you don’t know what I’m talking about). All of it because I want to be effective in what I have been called to do week in week out. Preaching is highly dependent on language and culture and because language and culture are alive — constantly changing, preaching is constantly changing. Trust me it’s a huge challenge to keep yourself up at the top of your game.
The biggest challenges for me (which I’ve shared with Chris that afternoon) have been the following.
1 – Tension between effectiveness and pragmatism. We live in a extremely pragmatic culture that has equaled good with what’s working. Or better, what’s gathering people. I’ve heard it say “sheep go to where there’s food” and that’s fine but, we also have to realize that sheep are stupid animals as well. Just because thousands are going to hear pastor X each week that doesn’t mean that pastor X is being effective in bringing Gospel-change to their lives. I have to tell myself many times: “Don’t go for what’s gathering instead, go for what’s changing”.
2- Tension between who I am and who I like to hear. We all have preachers we love to listen and wish we could sound like. I have two favorite preachers. One is Caio Fabio from Brazil and the other is Tim Keller. I remember that when Caio was around in the the mid-’90’s every other guy in seminary wanted to be like him. They even emulated his tone of voice and his “carioca” accent. Now a days what we have are a bunch of young guys wanting to sound like Keller. They structure their sermon like he does, use the same punch lines and even use the same NY Times illustrations while preaching in the mountains of North Carolina. I know I will always be influenced by who I study and listen but at some point, there ought to be a line that ought not to be crossed. The line that keeps me from being myself. Pulpits are not actor stages.
3- Tension between what I like to communicate and what needs to be communicated. I remember when I pastored my first church in the late 90’s. We had planted the church the inner-city of Recife and one day I invited one of my seminary buddies (the smartest guy in the class) to preach to my congregation. Let’s say he preached a very good sermon, for his ordination exam. In the slums of Recife the dude quoted whole paragraphs of Kierkegaard and Louis Berkhof. He liked those guys but frankly, the people in my church didn’t need them because they could care less about them. I often catch myself communicating things I’m in to at the moment not what people need.
4- Tension between the way I was taught to communicate and the way I need to communicate. I went to two reformed seminaries and at both places I learned the exact same to prepare and deliver a sermon. In one hand that’s good because it helps you to establish key parameters for building a sermon structure but one the other hand, it confines you to a box. Like I said, culture and language changes so structure needs to change. Innovation is the key to keep the word fresh. Think of Jesus and Paul for instance. They were so effective because they communicated not in the way they were trained to communicate but in a way that their audience would “get” the message of the Gospel.
These are the four that hit close to home for me. I’m sure there are others for you… feel free to comment.
Tuesday, December 1st, 2009 at 11:30 AM in Culture, Pastor Felipe.
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