Preaching 2011

I preach hardly at all these days. In fact, I only preached regularly for about three years in my life (1988-89; 1991-92). Yet, for some reason, I see my basic identity as a preacher--but one who hasn't been called upon very often to do so. So, I read with interest publications that come advising me how to preach. Most recently, Austin Presbyterian Seminary's Communitas journal had an issue devoted to "The Art of Preaching." The two lead articles, by professors of preaching and theology at the seminary, urged me to look at preaching as "dialogic" or as the "art of playing." More to the point, Prof. Jennifer Lord, the homiletician, stressed the importance of caring for our words, seeking out and using powerful metaphors or images, and balancing the "top down" (controlled or focused thinking) with the "bottom up" (passive listening) functions of preaching. Prof. Cynthia Rigby seems more concerned to give only one message to us in our "terrorist-stricken, globally warming, Blackberry-pressing context," and that is to learn how to mimic God in play. She has two young children; perhaps play is on her mind these days.

Yet, as I ruminated on these two lead articles, and the several smaller pieces from various degree-seeking students and ministers, I was struck not by what they said but by what was missing in their articles. In short, I believe that the three basic ingredients of effective and powerful preaching for me were nowhere visible. They all are rooted in what I would call the preacher's discipline or the disciplined life of the preacher. In fact, I would argue that the mastery of the following three disciplines ought to be so complete that it makes hearers think that preaching is, indeed, an effortless activity but one that sings songs of peculiar power to people in 2011.

In short, to be a great preacher today, you need three disciplines: (1) the discipline of regular learning; (2) the discipline of word mastery; and (3) the discipline of memorization of key and powerful metaphors.

I. Learning

No one ever opposes learning, but I have also found that no one speaks for learning and names it as central to the task either of the educator or the minister/preacher. For example, I listened in vain as Dr. Ari Duncan, Secretary of Education and one whom many believe is a gifted educational visionary in our day, for any mention of the word "learning" as important in education. Yet, people who learn are exciting people because they believe that there is a whole big world out there to submit to, grapple with, explain, question, take part in, improve and master. Since learning can potentially happen in almost any encounter or activity of life, care should be taken to develop disciplines of learning, and not simply "wandering" learning, whether these disciplines are of learning a language, mastery of a classic book or books, studying the work of an artist, a period of scientific work, a theory of social interaction, or several aspects of human life. Our preaching flows from a fountain of learning, and unless we devote the best times of our lives to learning (or times that become the best times of our lives), we are in danger of just catching a headline or a simple point from a text and trying to "run with it," with no confidence that we are touching the foundations of the human mind and heart as we speak. So, disciplined and focused learning is the heart of the preacher's work. Don't believe anything different.

II. Studying Words

Words are a preacher's currency. We persuade with words, we convince people to listen to us, to apply what we say to their lives, to reframe their own experiences of living because of the way we have framed narratives or combined our words. We need a huge arsenal of the best words at our immediate disposal. This comes through patient study, through mastery of vocabulary, through systematic study of the differences among words, the shades of meaning between synonyms. Preaching requires the sensitive calibration of the meaning of words, and the eagerness to bring them to bear on the preaching process. Sometimes you will introduce new words--that is OK. People think they know English, though they don't really know about 90% of the language; broaden their horizons with elevated speech, accurate speech, lively words, memorable words. You have to study in order to do this. I have found that the best way to do this (other than reading some of my books!--such as Word Wealth--2010) is to study the Merriam-Webster Dictionary of Synonyms. Simply by picking a word cluster each day or each week, one is stimulated to look for other ways to increase one's active vocabulary, and by doing so you allow for greater accuracy, precision and vividness.

III. Memorization and Metaphor

Prof. Lord speaks about the importance of using metaphor as we speak. I have no argument with that; indeed, I embrace it. But where, pray tell, are these metaphors going to come from? My contention is that we are only stimulated to 'make up' our own when we have patiently memorized hundreds of useful metaphors or similes from our literary tradition. We need to be taught to think in pictures; then we can come up with some on our own.*

[*A faithful and insightful reader comments: "I've mentioned to you before about right and left-brained thinkers/perceivers--and my own initial struggle in the left-brained seminary atmosphere. So, your contention: 'We need to be taught to think in pictures; then we can come up with some on our own...' doesn't ring true with me, because I DO think in pictures. I had to teach myself to take in great bodies of information without relying on mental imagery. Nevertheless, it remains my default mode of thinking, and perhaps a strength I bring to the preaching process." Thank you the Rev. Pamela Nelson-Munson, of Ashland OR]

I did a Google search on the exact phrase: "the preacher's dictionary of metaphors," and, not unexpectedly, I came up empty. Ah. My call? Your call? The closest search result was a Dictionary of Biblical Imagery," but even though I love the Scriptural images, and they abound, that isn't what I want. I want someone who has taken the time to comb authors to find memorable ways of describing things--and then put this together in one big dictionary. Perhaps the author/editor would set the context for the metaphors or apt use of language, and then provide them. By giving people thousands of ways that thoughtful authors have tried to create verbal pictures, we both learn how to do so ourselves and are stimulated to create our own.

Yet this task isn't complete until we have memorized many of them and know them so well that we can recall them and "plug them in" to the variety of circumstances of life. Then, it will be that our words take wing--not simply in the pulpit but in all of our encounters. We will become, like the young Samuel, where not a word of his fell to the ground (I Sam. 2:18).

Conclusion

I am not at all inspired by reading today's preachers on how to become a better preacher. Rather, I sink myself into learning, words, and memorization of metaphors--and I am armed for any occasion... Now, if I only had a chance to preach...

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