Putting Spirit into the Sermon
Spirit, Word, and Story: A Philosophy of Preaching by Calvin Miller, Word, $14.99
Reviewed by Grant Lovejoy, instructor in preaching, Southwestern Theological Seminary, Fort Worth, Texas
Every preacher knows the experience: The sparks fall on damp tinder, or perhaps there are no sparks at all. Frequently, we can finger the trouble: hasty preparation, uninspired delivery. But even sermons grounded in Scripture and fervently delivered can fail.
As senior pastor at Westside Church in Omaha, Calvin Miller knows the struggle. But across twenty-four years there, he has found a way to feed a congregation that has grown from ten members to twenty-five hundred, most of whom were added by baptism. He also has crafted two dozen volumes of verse and prose, including the Singer trilogy. In Spirit, Word, and Story: A Philosophy of Preaching, he writes to share the philosophy of preaching that has kept him and his congregation alert, creative, and growing. He organizes it around the three words of the title.
A glance at the table of contents shows that this is no standard book on preaching. The first four chapters- nearly a third of the book-offer a challenging and overdue call to include the Spirit in preaching. Miller contends that only the moving of the Spirit can make a sermon truly biblical. “Sermons fall short of all biblical models when they are only the best of study, preparation, and delivery.” The Spirit also must inject a touch of mystery.
The mystery starts with the preacher’s spirituality. Miller suggests that preachers think of themselves (despite the pagan connotation) as a shaman. “The shaman is one (as viewed by his tribe) through whose life strange forces are at play. His whole bearing is one of intrigue.” Only when God’s presence floods the preacher’s life will God’s power accompany the sermon.
Mystery also requires spontaneity. Miller suggests that churches write their order of worship in pencil and keep an eraser handy. Learning to accept emotion will help, too. Miller wonders if fear of emotion lies behind some churches’ rigid liturgy. “Is it a kind of ‘beating on the pans’ to drive away the wolves of Pentecostalism?” he asks. “Would we rather leave worship starched of heart than risk our reputation to emotional wildfire?”
Part two deals with the Word-both fidelity to God’s written Word on the one hand and care with our words on the other. Miller writes, “The Bible must remain central in the American pulpit.” Only then will the sermon have authority, a capacity to feed, a focus on salvation, and a relevant word for contemporary life.
In three chapters on the Word as art, craft, and reputation, Miller tackles issues such as balancing a sermon’s zeal and artistry. He acknowledges the power of genuine, unadorned urgency, which is the mark of most growing churches. There is little time for art in the thick of battle. Still, since “our words are the rings and staves that bear the ark of God to Sunday’s children,” they deserve to be well chosen. In the best preaching, zeal is reinforced by art.
In part three Miller argues that stories are one component of effective sermons. He does not want to turn the sermon into a single story, as some homileticians suggest. Nor should the sermon be “a clothesline hung with anecdotes,” as Edmund Steimle once called it. Against story-only preachers he insists on the need for precepts and exhortation; conversely, he calls on “oral-exegesis” preachers to connect their precepts to life through well-told, pertinent stories.
Miller values the impact of stories, but hesitates to let them stand alone without application. He differs with Fred Craddock by insisting that the sermon needs a direct appeal and an altar call. To do otherwise, he thinks, is to cower before the secular spirit of dtente of our age. In short, Miller’s approach to the use of stories is fairly traditional-they serve as illustrations of biblical concepts.
How does a preacher learn to tell stories well? When I called Miller to ask, he suggested reading books on storytelling in preaching, such as Eugene Lowry’s The Homiletical Plot. He added, “Read novels and short stories, and attend the theater and movies. Learn to like stories. Get a feel for how stories unfold.”
Though Spirit, Word, and Story announces itself as a “philosophy” of preaching, Miller concludes with two chapters on sermon preparation and delivery. There, as throughout the book, the pages contain sage advice as well as practical suggestions.
Spirit, Word, and Story is good enough to draw us back to it for future reference. Its aphorisms zing truth home. Its images give us fresh angles on our task. Because Miller steers a middle course in his approach to preaching, we may quibble with him here and there, but we will find him an irenic spirit, intensely eager to see preaching fulfill its lofty promise.
A Code of Conduct for Clergy
Pastoral Ethics by Gaylord Noyce, Abingdon, $12.95
Reviewed by Jeffery Williams, religion editor, Merced Sun-Star, Merced, California
A 15-year-old tells her pastor that she and her boyfriend have slept together. “But, Pastor,” she pleads, “you can’t tell my parents.”
Later, again in confidence, she tells the pastor she is pregnant and is considering an abortion. Again, she doesn’t want her parents to know.
What should the pastor do? Agree to her request? Violate her trust and speak with the parents? Demand that the girl confess to her family if counseling is to continue? Refer her to another counselor?
Gaylord Noyce, in his book Pastoral Ethics, tackles a number of such sticky issues and makes a case for professional ethics among the clergy. Noyce, professor of pastoral theology at Yale University Divinity School, believes pastors, like physicians and attorneys, should work by an agreed set of professional ethical standards.
What are the most difficult ethical issues for pastors? In a telephone interview, Noyce said: “The biggest issue facing clergy is at what point to violate confidentiality. Sometimes it’s ethical to breach that confidence, in the case of child molestation for example. But most often pastors misjudge the right time when they should break confidentiality.”
Noyce writes, “Few strengths for ministry are more important than the ability to keep confidences. Parishioners deeply need to trust this ability in clergy if they are constructively to probe with pastoral help their moral and spiritual doubts, to confess their sins, and to grow. Confidentiality is enormously important, and wrenching ethical dilemmas arise when it seems morally imperative to break it.”
In the case on the pregnant teenager, Noyce feels the pastor is obliged first to help the girl disclose her problem to her parents, either on her own or in the supportive company of the pastor. If the girl refuses, Noyce argues that a breach in confidence is ethically justified, even though in doing so he might sacrifice the opportunity to counsel other teens. Admittedly, it’s a tough decision.
In the chapter on pastoral counseling, Noyce covers such topics as cross-gender counseling, referrals, pastoral care, sexual contact, and getting personally involved in the situation.
For example, when a patient with terminal cancer asks that nothing be said to the family, what should be done? Noyce suggests the only way to forward spiritual maturity is by encouraging an atmosphere of candor and integrity. If the patient refuses, Noyce believes the pastor should respect the patient’s wishes. If asked about the patient’s condition, the pastor should defer to the physician.
Another situation: a pastor is often asked to write references for parishioners and other clergy. How honest should the pastor be? Noyce relates the story of church members who discovered that their newly hired pastor did not pay his bills, had trouble keeping appointments, and was inept in some areas of ministry. Because members of the church committee had checked his clergy references before hiring him, they felt betrayed. So they called the references and asked if they had known about this man’s problems. The gist of the responses was “Yes, but we didn’t want to hurt his future.” While respecting the need of individuals for a fresh start, Noyce believes that references, especially in regard to other clergy, should reflect loyalty to the larger church. Candor is ethical (even if we’re discrete in how we phrase our criticisms). Focusing only on the good qualities is not.
Other issues treated include preaching and the personal life of the minister, both of which must reflect professional ethics, writes Noyce. The pastor has the responsibility to practice what he preaches both in public and private.
In writing the book, however, he was trying to do more than address specific ethical situations. “I spoke recently with a chaplain who was an alumnus of our school,” said Noyce in the interview. “He said he was resigning from the ministry. It bothered him that he had no specialty. He was just a jack-of-all-trades minister.
“I’ve heard that perspective throughout my thirty years of teaching. It concerns me because, properly viewed, the ministry is a specialty. I wrote this book to help pastors clarify an identity for themselves and to develop a framework for professional ethics.”
Noyce claims ministers are professionals, just like lawyers and doctors. Charting the steps, Noyce shows that the lawyer, doctor, and minister alike must complete educational requirements, promise to work within a set of ethical standards, answer to an ethical authority, serve at an institution, strive to reach particular goals, and serve an ultimate value. For the minister, these steps include obtaining a divinity degree, making ordination vows, and working under a denominational church court or judicatory. The institution he serves is the church, and the goals he aims for are recruiting members, building a congregation, and, the ultimate goal, nourishing faith.
With this framework established, Noyce discusses principles pastors should consider as they encounter various situations that require ethical behavior.
Pastoral Ethics helps clear up the vagueness and clarifies the decisions pastors must make week after week.
A Vision for Renewal
Bringing Your Church Back to Life: Beyond Survival Mentality by Daniel Buttry, Judson, $8.95
Reviewed by Mark Galli, associate editor, LEADERSHIP
In 1976 Dorchester Temple Baptist Church celebrated its ninetieth anniversary, mainly because many members didn’t think it would be in existence for its hundredth.
No wonder. The American Baptist congregation sat in the racially mixed south end of Boston. Worship attendance was down to seventy. The neighborhood and church were decaying.
But a one hundredth anniversary did come, in November 1986. By then, 120 people, representing twelve ethnic groups, attended worship each week, and about 90 percent of them lived within walking distance of the church. Moreover, the church evidenced a sense of optimism, of hope, of renewed vision for its mission. “It was sweet to celebrate together God’s gift of new life,” summed up Daniel Buttry, the church’s pastor from 1968 to 1976.
Buttry now works for the American Baptist Church’s National Ministry in the area of peace. But he remains committed to local-church renewal, especially in churches in declining neighborhoods-thus Bringing Your Church Back to Life: Beyond Survival Mentality.
Drawing on his experience at Dorchester, Buttry not only describes the symptoms of decaying churches; he also suggests how churches can begin the journey toward renewal.
Buttry shows how many declining churches harbor a deep-seated sense that God can never change their downward spiral. Their goal is merely to keep the doors open. They won’t consider creative, alternative means of ministry for fear that if attempts fail, the corporation will go bankrupt. More problematic are the survivalists’ images of the church. Some see it as a club, where members meet mostly for their own benefit, or a massage parlor, where people come to feel good. More destructive are images like the Alamo, where the church is seen as a citadel suitable to fending off others of different colors or nationalities; or a nursing home, where the church becomes a haven for a few elderly people until they pass away and the church dies with them.
Yet, argues Buttry, “survival mentality is at its root a disease of vision deficiency.” Church members have a stunted vision of God and the church, and without vision, not only do the people perish, but so will the church.
However, “though the disease of survival mentality is terminal,” writes Buttry, “the Lord of the church, Jesus Christ, is a healer and even a raiser of the dead.”
Renewal is, in some sense, a mystery, not unlike a Gestalt switch, in which a person sees either a picture of a vase or the silhouette of two faces. “Survival-mentality churches see only the vase-the glorious past and the present problems. Renewal of vision is a switch of spiritual insight and perception that sees also the two faces-the possibilities for the future.”
Although renewed vision begins with a switch, Buttry also likens it to a journey, which “has a destination that is clear to the traveler, but the way to the goal may be unknown and full of uncertainties.” In particular, he calls survivalist churches to begin three journeys.
First, there is the upward journey toward the worship of God. When the people acknowledge the presence of God and see that Christ is the present Head of the church, then Christ “is free to move in our lives.”
Second, there is the inward journey of nurture toward one another in the church. The survivalist images of the church must be replaced with the predominate biblical image: the reconciled body of Christ. That means the church must aim not only to include people of diverse backgrounds, races, and cultures, but strive to work together in unity.
Third, there is the outward journey toward the world. Instead of focusing on mere survival, or priding itself in its support of foreign missions, “every local church must recognize that it is a missionary church.” That means the church will need to engage in holistic mission: “evangelism, meeting human need, and speaking prophetically.”
He then turns his attention to the vision bearer, usually the pastor, “the pivotal inspirational figure” whose work is love, preaching and teaching, modeling, and interpreting the movement of the Spirit in the church.
“The journey out of survival mentality is fraught with trials and difficulties,” Buttry warns, namely “old wineskin” barriers of tradition, structures, and buildings, and “old attitude” barriers of pride, racism, and divisiveness. So, he suggests how to overcome them.
This concise, well-written book will appeal to both suburban and inner-city pastors who seek renewal in their churches. It does not give a list of how-to’s to bring new life to their churches as much as it renews vision. And that’s more than enough.
LEADERSHIP BIBLIOGRAPHY
LEADERSHIP asked a number of pastors, seminary professors, and church consultants to recommend the books that best help American churches “exegete” contemporary culture. Taken from their lists, these are just a few of the books that can give churches insight into the people to whom they’ll minister in the coming decade.
The People’s Religion: American Faith in the 90’s by George Gallup, Jr., and Jim Castelli, Macmillan, 1989
A comprehensive survey of the present American religious landscape. What do Americans want most from their churches? How many Americans have had a religious experience? What percentage believes in God? What percentage prays? Gallup and Castelli answer these and other such questions.
The Clustering of America by Michael J. Weiss, Harper & Row, 1989
Michael Weiss classifies America not by region or class, but by Zip Codes. Based on an intriguing marketing system, he describes forty neighborhood types-their values, lifestyles, and eccentricities. Whether your church is in a “Furs and Station Wagons” neighborhood or “Norma Rae-ville” or “Smalltown Downtown,” it’s portrayed here with wit and insight.
100 Predictions for Baby-Boomers: The Next 50 Years by Cheryl Russell, Plenum, 1987
Cheryl Russell, editor-in-chief of Demographer Magazine, marshals her vast knowledge about the generation born between 1946 and 1964. Making predictions about such areas as the family, work, the home, beliefs, and retirement, she offers insight into the future of the group that now constitutes one-third of the American population.
The Postponed Generation: Why American Youth Are Growing Up Later by Susan Littwin, William Morrow, 1986
This book probes the minds and hearts of the late baby-boomers and early post-baby-boomers, young adults who in 1986 were between 20 and 35 years old. Susan Littwin sketches a generation “hovering reluctantly in the passageway to maturity in a world for which they were unprepared.” The book describes the world they face and their varied responses to it.
Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in an Age of Show Business by Neil Postman, Viking, 1985
With pointed wit, Neil Postman argues that we’ve moved from an age of exposition to an age of entertainment; we’re less inclined to respond to reasoned public discussion than to visually entertaining material. He not only shows how the media, especially TV, influences our lives, he also suggests ways we, in turn, can use these influences for higher ends.
Foolishness to the Greeks: The Gospel and Western Culture by Lesslie Newbigin, Eerdmans, 1984
Lesslie Newbigin, missionary to India for forty years, turns the tables and treats the First World as a mission field. Looking at modern Western culture as if from the outside, he explores the question: What would it mean to confront this culture with the gospel? He challenges the world-view that dominates Western men and women, and offers prescriptions for Christian responses.
The Gospel and the American Dream by Bruce Shelley, Multnomah, 1989
Bruce Shelley, professor of church history at Denver Seminary, has a narrower focus than Newbigin: American culture. He analyzes both public and personal issues that challenge the church today, and suggests directions ministry can take.
It’s a Different World: The Challenge for Today’s Pastor by Lyle Schaller, Abingdon, 1987
Drawing on economic, social, political, historical, and cultural analyses, Lyle Schaller describes contemporary American society and the church. He provides penetrating questions the local church and pastor must ask themselves as they seek to minister in today’s world.
-Compiled by Mark Gall associate editor, LEADERSHIP
Copyright © 1990 by the author or Christianity Today/Leadership Journal. Click here for reprint information on Leadership Journal.
