The Voice & Preaching

Tonight I was watching The Voice, again. Once again, I am super impressed with Usher as a judge and as a coach. His vibe seems so real and supportive of his team members. While watching The Voice, I was also on my Facebook page. A friend, Steve Fleming, recommended an article from the Ministry Today magazine and I read the article while watching/listening to The Voice. (http://ministrytodaymag.com/index.php/ministry-leadership/preaching/20795-how-much-sermon-preparation-time-is-enough)  Another friend, Jan DeVries, was wondering if anybody plans to attend the Homiletics Festival in May.

My thoughts began to combine the two media. Like many/most/all preachers, I know there are times when I think nobody preaches as well as I do. When I am in worship and hear other preachers, my mind cannot help but fill in some spaces, use some different illustrations, and exude more or less energy in the delivery. Many times, I am also collecting points on style and content to consider using myself. Also, I know other preachers do the same when I am the one preaching. It is the blessing and curse of being a preacher with other preachers present.

I wonder if we could improve the preaching, in general, if we had a periodic "preach-off" like the blind auditions, coaching and a battle round? What if instead of seminary preaching classes, with peers tearing apart each other’s sermon content and presentation, the classes were done more like the coaches on The Voice working with their team members? The idea is not to crown the best preacher, but to give improvement “notes” for each and all. (Yeah, “Preaching is not a competition,” say most preachers.) Who are we kidding?

As Teaching Elders and Commissioned Ruling Elders, eighty percent of our exposure to fifty to seventy-five percent of the congregation members and visitors happens in the worship hour. If we cannot proclaim the word with sincerity, devotion, and energy how can we expect the people to express sincerity, devotion and energy in worship? Like a song, a sermon builds to a crescendo and holds the congregation there to the end. This is true for those which are rafter shaking and those which are so tender and sensitive a profound hush is the only possible response.

There are a lot of theories on both the content and delivery of sermons. There is validity in each. Like the singers on The Voice each of us has to find our voice, our style, for sermon construction and delivery. How can we help each other improve in the construction, content and delivery of our sermons? Would working with a personal preaching coach help? Would a preach-off help, challenging preachers to bring their best stuff all the while being humble enough to take the “notes” seriously? Whatever it takes I believe we need a serious effort to improve preaching, across the board.