First Person

Personally, I enjoy every opportunity to preach a biblical narrative. This is not only because of the preaching itself, but also because of the study. I always feel stretched when I study a narrative, and blessed when I stick with it.

In his excellent book, Preaching with Variety, Jeffrey Arthurs offers three reasons to be cautious when it comes to preaching narratives (and like me, he is very much in favor of it!)

1. Pastoral Reason. Many may consider narrative sermons as mere entertainment. While they may be wrong, the best convincing tactic is not to force-feed them! There are ways to preach a narrative passage that feels like a traditional sermon (without dissecting the story to death). Think very carefully about the timing of a first 1st-person sermon (Arthurs suggests Christmas and Easter).

2. Exegetical Reason. Particularly in reference to 1st-person sermons, many narratives are written in 3rd-person. We shouldn’t cavalierly jettison the form of the text, but recognize that often a move to 1st-person is a move, rather than a starting point.

3. Epistemological Reason. While narrative is the most used genre in the Bible, it is not the only genre. While our culture may be becoming increasingly a story culture again, humans are not limited to one approach to communication. Narratives and propositions belong together. People need to hear direct communication from the Bible, not just indirect. They need to hear directly stated truths from us too.

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!