Growing Edge - Christianity Today

In my sister’s house where I did so much growing up, we had a kitchen pump that fed off our cistern. The leathers in the old pump were dry and thus could not hold the air they needed to draw water up the long tube to coax the air that moved between them.

Thus we had to prime the pump.

We all kept a small, clean pail of water at hand; we would pour a dipper of water into the pump, to soak the leathers, and from the tumbler we could draw up gallons of water for cooking and, of course, replenish the pail for the next priming.

The word primer is usually pronounced “primmer” but can be pronounced “prymer.” Actually primmers are prymers. Their glory is that they approach a subject from the elementary beginning and tell you “how to” get the issue moving. Further, primers are short; they don’t try to be comprehensive, they just try to be introductory. They are the first tumbler by which the entire cistern is made accessible.

“Preaching That Connects” (Zondervan, 159 pages, $10.99) is a primer on preaching. If you want to do preaching that connects, say its authors Mark Galli and Craig Brian Larson, preach about what people care about.

Until recently I believed only Ian Pitt-Watson really had written such a book. His basic primer is the dipper of water that introduces such works as Bulkia ussin Homiletics. Now there are two such books. Pitt-Watson’s Preaching: A Kind of Folly is an elegant and classic primer. Preaching That Connects is a contemporary and practical work on communication. Pitt-Watson’s primer sets the stage in terms of what is to be said. But Mark Galli and Craig Brian Larson, both contributing editors of LEADERSHIP, come at preaching from the how-to side of the contemporary communicator.

THE CLICKER’S BIBLE

Galli and Larson make a plea for the preacher to step outside the hermeneutical and homiletical framework that preaching professors carefully constructed in Preaching 101. The authors admit that as preachers “we can say nothing really new, but it must seem new. Like a resourceful cook finding different ways to whip up a plate of meat and potatoes, we must proclaim the familiar gospel in unfamiliar ways, week after week (perhaps two to five times a week), month after month, year after year.”

They incite the preacher to move to journalism as a model for keeping things simple, interesting, and therefore life-changing. They believe parishioners steeped in hours of radio, newspapers, television journalism come to church with clickers in their heads; certain communication forms “click” and certain others do not. “Preaching That Connects” is the clicker’s Bible.

The greatest single chapter may be on how to tell a story. One of my students came up to me recently and said, “You are like a lot of preachers who say, `Tell a story,’ but you never say `how.'”

It is a fair criticism. Galli and Larson discuss five forms for going about it.

“It’s easy to slide into the rut of characterizing by adjectives only,” writes Larson. “Though adjectives are useful, especially when time is short, fiction writers use many means to make each person in the story vivid and memorable … Dialogue … Actions … Thoughts … What other characters say … Description of appearance … “

Their book is adorned by their widespread acquaintance with contemporary homiletics (they cite 124 different sources in literature and preaching), but it glistens with practical illustrations of all their principles. For instance, citing William Willimon, they talk about the unapplied story as a way to conclude the sermon:

“`Would you like me to pray for you?’ I asked (a dying woman). `Would you like me to summon for you a priest?’

“With her last ounce of energy, she held out to me in her hand that crucifix, the body of Christ nailed to the cross. She said, `Thank you. But I have a Priest.'”

This kind of tell-all abounds throughout the small volume. In fact, if you are not induced to buy the book to read their argument, buy it to steal their illustrations.

ORAL AND AURAL

Galli and Larson are pragmatists. It’s not that the book doesn’t have a literary smack (they quote Annie Dillard and Ray Bradbury), it’s just that they want the sermon to remain simple, relational, and accessible. They want the sermon to be artsy, but less Rembrandt and more Calvin and Hobbes. They want the sermon to be creative but not hoity-toity. They would rather sermons connect than amaze or stupefy or just ornament or separate the anthem from the benediction.

There is not much in here about the manuscript of the sermon. They’re not against it. They imply that manuscripting is the best place to learn the crafting they advocate. They even advise that being editors helped them see the issue of the written craft. But sermons are oral (pertaining to spoken) and aural (pertaining to head) and they want to start from the aural end (the listener) to influence the most effective style on the oral end (the preacher).

“Preaching That Connects” is about how to preach about what people care about, and if you master it, who knows, people may care about what you preach about.

–Calvin Miller, professor communications and ministry studies

Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary

Fort Worth, Texas

HIGH-OCTANE WORSHIP

Kennon Callahan asks how we view Sunday.

A couple of years ago, while driving across the Oakland Bay Bridge to San Francisco, I heard a commercial on my car radio promote a classical music festival. The announcer invited me to an experience of power, joy, and significance.

Wow! I thought. That would make a great call to worship on Sunday morning. After all, aren’t those the words that should be used to describe what happens when we worship the risen Christ every week?

THE FIRST OR THE LAST?

After reading “Dynamic Worship: Mission, Grace, Praise, and Power” (Harper Collins, 156 pages, $16), I have discovered at least one other person who would answer a resounding “yes!”

For its author, Kennon Callahan, worship is the means by which God satisfies a universal search for individuality, community, meaning, and hope. In worship we are reminded of our gifts, strengths, and capacities given to us by God. In worship we find a sense of roots, place, and belonging.

“Worship gives hope to our life,” writes Callahan. “We are no longer held prisoner by memory or sadness or sin. … We become the Easter people.”

The Easter metaphor is key to the author, who has taught at Candler School of Theology since 1970. Too many congregations, Callahan believes, remain at the foot of the cross to the neglect of the empty tomb. To the degree that this is true, worship fails to meet or fully serve the needs of our people. Whereas both themes are central to our theology, one looks back while the other looks forward.

Curiously, churches that focus on the Cross tend to view Sunday as the last day of the week. They tend to reflect on what has already happened. If worship is to be a source of power, joy, and significance to our people, Callahan argues, Sunday must be viewed as the first day of a new week of opportunities. He writes, “Most people go to a service of worship not to look back, but to look forward. What keeps most of us lying awake at night is not what has been but what might be.”

I struggled a little with Callahan’s analysis of congregations that live in the shadow of the Cross. One wonders if he is calling for worship leaders to jettison Lent and Good Friday. Freedom, power, hope, and confidence may make worship winsome, but worship weighted away from confession, forgiveness, and repentance will not be biblical.

And must Sunday never be the last day of the week? Much of the grace and power that accompanies worship requires a backward glance. The pastoral prayer, for instance, attempts to help our people make sense of what they have just lived through, or at least acknowledge it. Only then can they welcome the words of our “Easter” gospel. My conclusion is that Sunday must be both an end and a beginning to our weeks.

MUSICAL PREFERENCE DEFUSER

Dynamic Worship is a welcome addition to the Callahan anthology that includes Twelve Keys to an Effective Church and Effective Church Leadership. Callahan has become one of the most respected names in church consulting because he knows the local church.

In “Dynamic Worship”, for example, Callahan builds a strong case for a well-compensated minister of music. He describes the landmines of musical preference that have dismembered many a church body, wisely concluding that preference is not so much the key issue as are balance and purpose.

Callahan also tips his hat to worship approaches that take the tastes of the unchurched seriously. Ironically, he argues for traditional choirs while admitting the days of the churched culture are long gone.

“Dynamic Worship” will jump start those whose creativity has stalled in the weekly task of leading worship. Read it to regain worship with power, joy, and significance.

–Greg Asimakoupoulos

Naperville Evangelical Covenant Church

Naperville, Illinois

BOOKS TO BUILD YOUR LIBRARY

Two recent releases.

“Targeting Transitions: Marketing to Consumers during Life Changes”

by Paula Mergenhagen

(American Demographics, $39.95)

Pastors have always been present with their church family at life transitions such as birth, marriage, and death. This book adds several more to be aware of, including career changes and caregiving of aging parents.

A Guide to Retreat for All God’s Shepherds

by Rueben P. Job (Abingdon, $14.95)

Here, finally, is a book for pastors who want to feed their soul by going on a spiritual retreat. It includes readings from such notables as Richard Baxter and Henri Nouwen, and even provides a schedule to follow.

DREAM TEAM

Willow Creek’s kit for training your church’s players.

Imagine a church taught by those with the gift of teaching. A church led by those with the gift of leadership. A church administered by those with the gift of administration.

Dream on.

But that’s the premise of the revised Network (Zondervan, $154.99), a training kit designed to help your people discover who God has made them to be and to mobilize them in Christian service. The kit contains workbooks for both the leader and student, a guide for starting the program, a video of drama vignettes, and a video giving an overview of the program. Also available are overheads and (for more money) the entire program on audio cassette.

Network is not the brainchild of a denominational bureaucrat with too much time on his or her hands. Its authors are Bill Hybels, Don Cousins, and Bruce Bugbee–all of whom earned their stripes at Willow Creek Community Church in South Barrington, Illinois. They know real-life ministry.

I’ve used the original version of Network and found it to be quite flexible. The new version is designed for groups large or small and can be adapted to four sessions, eight sessions, or one three-day retreat.

I like Network because churches with different theological traditions can use it, even though some will differ in the number of spiritual gifts and how they function today. Rather than focus on these differences, however, Network redirects us to principles, purposes, and values on which we can all agree.

Network lessons are thoroughly mapped out in the leader’s manual. And the videos are practical: One drama vignette portrays a small group handling a job crisis of a group member. Your people will be able to identify which video character has which gift: leadership, mercy, wisdom, hospitality, or helps. In addition, the overheads are visually well-done.

Network is an effective tool to unleash your laity to do what they were meant to do.

–Barb Martin, director of discipleship

Glen Ellyn (Illinois) Covenant Church

OH, WHAT A BEAUTIFUL MORNING!

Leith Anderson and Lyle Schaller forecast sunshine for churches willing to change.

Midway through this tape series, the thought hit me: These guys really do believe the best is yet to come!

In The Best Is Yet to Come (for Churches Ready to Change), Leith Anderson and Lyle Schaller team up to envision a rosy future for the North American church. Of course, say Leith and Lyle, there is a price: the local church must relearn what it means to be a church (translated: get mission-minded).

Of more qualified church forecasters, there are none: Schaller is the dean of church consultants and author of numerous books on virtually every aspect of congregational life. Anderson pastors a large suburban church in the Minneapolis area and is author of Dying for Change and A Church for the 21st Century.

Leith and Lyle converse about “How to Read a Culture in Upheaval” and “Needs of a New Generation of Leaders.” Other topics include contemporary preaching, new directions in stewardship and finance, and how to manage change.

But The Best is Yet to Come (4 tapes, Abingdon, $24.95) is not for pastors’ ears only. The tapes are divided into ten- to twenty-minute sections so that specific points can be addressed in staff or board meetings. The effect is like having Leith and Lyle guide your board. (There’s nothing like deferring to experts.)

Two points in the series stand out. The first is the importance of team ministry. Today’s volunteer is ready to be trained for meaningful ministry as a peer with the pastor; the volunteer needs to feel like a team player. One trend in staffing churches is the “bi-vocational team,” which consists of three to five lay people who function as a team.

“The world we live in today,” says Schaller, “is a world divided in the church by: Do you trust lay people or not?” Those who trust and train the laity will be amply rewarded.

The second point should be committed to memory: The most effective change is incremental, not catastrophic.

“We have six children,” says Schaller. “I’ve said to my wife many times, one of the smartest things she ever did was to bring them home one at a time. … Therefore my advice has always been to pastors and lay leaders and congregations: one at a time.”

The Leith-and-Lyle duo gives several principles: Choose those changes that are least disruptive, especially in worship. Add; do not take away. Develop new small groups; do not force people to change their affinities in existing ones.

Leith and Lyle do not mislead the listener–change is not easy. For a congregation willing to take risks and reach out, however, the good old days can still be ahead.

–John Throop, vicar

St. Francis Episcopal Church

Chillicothe, Illinois

REVIEWED:

Preaching That Connects

by Mark Galli and Craig Brian Larson

Dynamic Worship

by Kennon Callahan

Network

by Bruce Bugbee, Don Cousins, Bill Hybels

The Best Is Yet to Come

by Lyle Schaller and Leith Anderson

Plus books on life changes and spiritual retreats”If you [don’t] buy the book to read their argument, buy it to steal their illustrations.”” … describes the landmines of musical preference that have dismembered many a church body.”

“The effect is like having Leith and Lyle guide your board to consider deeper issues of church life.”

” … the lessons are thoroughly mapped out … the videos are practical.”

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