July | 2008 | Biblical Preaching

One more post in this series. Again, I affirm first-person preaching as a powerful tool in the preacher’s repertoire, but I don’t affirm poor first-person preaching! Hence this list of dangers to be aware of when venturing into this realm of preaching.

Danger 6 – Excessive humor or frivolity. First-person preaching provides many more opportunities than regular preaching for humorous and even frivolous comments. Sometimes humor is helpful. Sometimes humor can help to cover a potentially distracting moment. Sometimes it can provide relief from tension. Sometimes it helps, but only if it is sometimes. I don’t see any court jesters in the Bible, so there’s no need to preach like one. First-person preaching inherently carries the risk of being seen as more entertainment than preaching. Don’t exacerbate that through excessive humor or frivolity.

Danger 7 – Inadequate or strained relevance. This form has inherent strengths in terms of being engaging and disarming. It also has the inherent weakness of struggling to be relevant. If the audience are invited to listen “back then,” applications can only be timelessly conceptual, i.e. vague. If the character has traveled through time then they have to portray a convincing understanding of contemporary culture and issues if they are to make any attempt at relevance. While it is certainly possible to preach the entire sermon in character, it is also possible to step out of character for specific and concrete application. Whenever you preach in first-person, pay careful attention to the need for relevant application.

Danger 8 – Not being appropriate to your audience. This covers a lot of what has been stated already. But I would go further. Analyze the congregation to decide how much first-person preaching they will truly value. Some congregations love it and beg for more. Others can gain a lot from it once in a while. Some are so rigid they cannot hear the message because the form is a potentially offensive distraction. As always in good preaching, we have to know not only the text, but also the listeners.

Please preach first-person when it is the best strategy available, but please always do it with as much excellence as you can muster!

In part 1 we saw three potential dangers in first-person preaching. Today I share some more. I share them not to warn you away from first-person preaching, but to encourage excellent first-person preaching!

Danger 4 – Distractingly amateurish dramatics. Even people who enjoy the amateur dramatic scene do not appreciate amateurish dramatics. Unless it’s someone you love, you probably wouldn’t want to spend the time cringing at a poor dramatic production. How much less poor dramatic preaching? This means that if costume is used, it should reflect the same quality as the sermon (leave the curtains and towels to children’s nativity plays, then maybe eliminate them there too!) It means striving for real consistency in content (Would the character know that? Is the speaker’s personal culture shaping content too much?)

Danger 5 – Losing sight of natural delivery. This may seem strange, since first-person by definition is about preaching as someone other than yourself. But this one actually follows from the previous danger. The goal in delivery is to be both effective and natural. (Isn’t it true that the best actors seem to be natural?) The natural element here is often lost due to dramatic excess. Sometimes the problem is “too much.” For instance, thirty minutes of excessive shouting and gesturing simply because the biblical character is seen as somewhat feisty is probably too much! Even feisty, strong-willed people don’t shout and gesture incessantly! While larger audiences require larger gestures, the goal is to communicate naturally!

Tomorrow I’ll finish the list, although feel free to add more!