I’ve stretched out the lessons I noted from watching a low budget film to three posts.  We’ve considered the importance of speech, the challenge of natural speech in unnatural circumstances (like preaching), the need for less important lines, and the importance of historical/cultural details in the telling of an historic story.  Two more lessons for us, one potentially overwhelming and one hopefully very encouraging!

5. The je ne sais quoi of engaging the audience. What makes the listener or viewer sit forward? What makes them sit back and ponder their blog? What makes a story riveting? What makes it pass you by without leaving much of a mark?  A good film captures your attention, engages your mind and heart, and makes a mark.  A poor film doesn’t.  It sits on the screen and generally remains at arms length.  Yet the difference between the two is often hard to define.  It’s the same with preaching.  It’s something about timing, and energy, and word choices, and details, and movement, and effective transitions.  It’s something about creating identification with what is presented, about the people being believable, about the story stirring the heart.  It’s as if you can get most details right, but one or two out of sync and the listener feels disengaged.  It’s hard to pin down, but on the positive side, it surely keeps us from resting on our laurels.  Surely it urges us to continue pursuing helpful feedback and to strengthen our preaching so that listeners might engage more fully.  Surely it urges us to pray more fervently and recognize that as preachers we cannot generate something in others that it may be God’s business to generate.

But that is discouraging.  Not being able to pin down a complete recipe for preaching.  Surely we’re all doomed?  None of us can get every element right all the time.  One final lesson:

6. There is good news – listeners know and engage anyway. I watched the film gladly, not negatively.  I knew the background story.  I knew why the film was low budget and I knew how little background the actors had.  So while I was not riveting as I might be by some higher budget films, I did choose to engage with the film, follow the plot, get the point, and I did appreciate it.  We need to remember that listeners are not film critics (even though some may give the impression of never being satisfied by anything served up on Sunday morning!)  Most listeners want their preacher to do well.  I have often taught preaching classes where students had to preach in English, even though it isn’t their first language.  I always try (probably unsuccessfully) to convince them that actually they have an advantage over mother-tongue English speakers: namely, the listeners respect the effort it takes and will listen more carefully and will want them to succeed even more!  If, like me, you are not a perfect preacher, thank God that most listeners know that and choose to engage with our sermons anyway!