Paul Scott Wilson once wrote in The Four Pages of the Sermon, “Every age must find its own way to revitalize the preaching task.”
I first read these words when as Wilson’s student. I was feeling completely inadequate and overwhelmed. I was new to my role as a preacher. I was new to my role as a pastor. I was still trying to figure out some semblance of work-life balance and how to simply keep my job at the church. So when I initially came across those words, my honest thought was:
“How on earth am I supposed to revitalize the task of preaching when I’m still struggling to just write a coherent sermon each week? Go bother someone else with your ivory tower issues. Don’t you put that on me!”
I have grown to love preaching over the years. I do not believe myself to be especially good at preaching, but I do believe preaching to be an especially good thing. I am not an expert but an enthusiast. Yet the more I geek out on sermon structure and delivery techniques, the more Wilson’s words echo in my mind.
What I propose today is not a fully fleshed-out response to his charge. But it is my first attempt at incarnating my response to what I believe our preaching task has become in this age: rebuilding trust.
I am a mainline Millennial who loves and respects institutions. I am an anomaly. My peers (and even their parents) have a healthy skepticism of these denominational edifices that have been created — and for good reason! Scandal. Coverups. Toxicity. Lack of transparency. Well-meaning institutions reflect a lot of light in this world, but they can also cast a deep shadow. To ignore this is tantamount to a breach in trust.
To take all this one step further, we have been settling into a pandemic — and our lethargy has caused us to draw some strange lines in the sand. Many people are no longer are placing their trust in medical science for their own physical care, yet some of us still assume folks naturally place their trust in our pedigreed theology for their spiritual nurture. When you combine demos (people) and pan (all) in a slightly different way you get pandemonium, and I think that’s what we’ve created with all these assumptions we’ve kept assuming during this pandemic. It has inflamed the issues that were already smoldering.
On top of all that, we are living through the “Great Resignation” in which people are leaving their jobs in record numbers. This has affected all areas of the working world, the church included. Early on in the pandemic studies reported that 51% of mainline pastors are contemplating quitting, and Barna claimed that 29% of pastors are giving serious thought to leaving the church altogether. These were not empty threats; they lead to actual absences!. So in the midst of a great need, we also find ourselves in a record number of vacancies. How do we expect trust to be rebuilt during an abdication?
So not only have we been losing trust over the generations due to institutional skepticism and justified questioning, but we have also had these issues enflamed by the ongoing pandemic and enlarged by the sheer number of vacancies in our churches.
We can no longer assume trust is inherent in our institutions.
We can no longer assume trust is built into our pulpits.
We can no longer assume trust is present at all.
In this framework, the preaching task must be rebuilding trust. Not that this hasn’t come up in the past, but I believe this trust issue staring us directly in the eye today. This is not to say that there aren’t other things out there in the world for us to tackle as well. There are plenty! But how do we think we can go about our role in helping to mobilize the people of God without first rebuilding trust?
The trendier response for all this is probably to simply say that preachers need to be “more authentic” in their preaching. But I’m still not exactly sure what that means. And I also am not convinced it goes far enough.
In a recent essay, comedian Daniel Abrahams gets to heart of my hesitancy when it comes to the charge for authenticity. If authenticity is taking a step towards being honest and vulnerable then perhaps that is a good starting line, but not a good ending place. Abrahams writes, “For real comedians in real contexts, authenticity is not enough … [the] challenge for the comedian to overcome is proving herself trustworthy.”
For Abrahams, trust takes us to a deeper level than authenticity. Authenticity is one-sided in the sense that it is referring only to what you put out into the world, while trust is a two-way street that involves how what you put out there is received by others. And Abrahams also argues that trust needs to be present in both the comedian and in the act of comedy for humor to succeed. So, similarity, I would argue that trust needs to be present in both the preacher and in the sermon itself for us to begin the process of rebuilding trust.
One more quote to illustrate the perspective I’m coming from. Preaching professor John Rottman reminds us that people come into our churches tired, bloodied, and bandaged many Sundays. They are not looking for additional to-do list items to become a better Christian. They are looking for another glimpse of God’s grace to help keep them going. We need to give them that, because “doing anything less is pastoral malpractice.” I do not think this means shying away from difficult topics or hard charges, but I do believe you can still deliver a prophetic word without bludgeoning your congregation in the process. People need to trust that we care for them. People need to trust that we are with them and for them. People need to know you and what you bring to them each week is real.
I’m not yet sure how this will play out for you, reader, but focusing on rebuilding trust has revitalized the task of preaching for me. What do you think? Am I way off? I love discussing things like this, but I don’t like being lectured from the haters. If you want a conversation, leave a comment below or email me at bcoulter@fpcfw.org. Grace and peace … and preach it!
