Making the Pulpit Powerful

What is preaching? Is it performance or what?

By A. WELLINGTON CLARKE, Pastor-Evangelist, West Medford, Mass.

What is preaching? "Preaching is not the performance of an hour." It is not the show­ing of one's wisdom, nor the displaying of human knowledge. It is not the exhibition of rhetoric, nor the demonstration of oratory. It is not the recital of political events, nor the marshaling and repeating of the facts and dates of history. Preach­ing is not the ability to move one's hearers to tears one minute, and to make them laugh at still an­other. It is neither to be jocular nor to be enter­taining in the pulpit.

A preacher may have summoned an array of texts to prove a point in Bible study, but it does not follow that he has preached. There is a dif­ference between giving a Bible study and preach­ing a sermon. According to Dr. Herrick Johnson, preaching is to—

"Stand in Christ's stead and speak in His behalf, sensible of a divine commission, and persuaded that we are His ambassadors, not by infallible sacerdotal se­lection, not by the market law of demand and supply, but by immediate, internal, and effectual call of God; to take the truths of holy Scripture, and unfold, illus­trate, and amplify them for enlightenment and persua­sion, and under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, to have them intensified by profound personal conviction, fused in the fires of one's own soul, poured upon waiting ears and hearts from lips touched with God's altar-fire, and accompanied by every possible adjunct of effective pos­ture and gesture and voice—this is preaching."—The Ideal Ministry, p. 17.

While we are to avoid the theatrical in our work, yet methods out of the ordinary must be employed with the proclamation of the advent message. The message itself must be startling ! It must be presented with power in order to be effective.

"In the cities of today, where there is so much to attract and please, the people can be interested by no ordinary efforts. Ministers of God's appointment will find it necessary to put forth extraordinary efforts in order to arrest the attention of the multitudes. And when they succeed in bringing together a large num­ber of people, they must bear messages of a character so out of the usual order that the people will be aroused and warned. . . . The testing message for this time is to be borne so plainly and decidedly as to startle the hearers, and lead them to desire to study the Scrip­tures."—Gospel Workers, pp. 345, 346.

1. In order that the pulpit shall be more power­ful, it is of first importance for the minister to be heavenly anointed, as he is heavenly appointed. He must be a pleader. He must first plead with God for himself, then with God for men, then with men for God. Of Jacob it is written, "As a prince hast thou power with God and with men." The preacher who has power with God in private will have power with men in public.

2. In order for one to preach with power, the presentation of truth must be positive. This was Christ's method. "Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." Paul's preach­ing was positive. As he reasoned of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come, "Felix trem­bled." This also was Peter's method. As his words burned their way into the hearts of his hear­ers, they asked, "Men and brethren, what shall we do?" To which Peter replied, "Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall re­ceive the gift of the Holy Ghost." The Seventh-day Adventist preacher has no negative gospel to present.

3. To preach with power, the minister must be in earnest. If he is to be in earnest, the Holy Ghost must possess him. "It is the absence of the Spirit that makes the gospel ministry so power­less. Learning, talent, eloquence, every natural or acquired endowment, may be possessed ; but, with­out the presence of the Spirit of God, no heart will be touched, no sinner won to Christ."—Testimo­nies, Vol. VIII, pp. 21, 22,

If the delivery of the truth is without warmth or earnestness, how shall our hearers believe fully what we preach? The preacher must be moved by his own words, which will in effect move others. Dr. Edward A. Park, in his treatise on Power in the Pulpit, has said:

"No man can preach with power, unless he regulates his feelings with the nature of his theme. . . . He must unveil his heart to his hearers if he would bring their hearts into unison with his own. He should smile or weep as his subject constrains him. A word earnestly spoken, gushing out of an honest heart, has a vitality in it which makes it powerful."

4. In order to preach with power, the preacher must aim to produce an immediate and visible re­sult. His object is to move men to decide for God. His sermons and appeals will be directed to this end.

When the gospel is effectively preached, men's attention will be arrested, their hearts will be con­victed, their emotions will be stirred, and the Spirit will lead them in captivity to the will of God, and obedience to the truth.

The preaching of the gospel is committed to erring mortals. But we have their treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God and not of us. (2 Cor. 4:7.) Let us unite our efforts in proclaiming the truth with power, until the island of time be united with the continent of eternity.


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By A. WELLINGTON CLARKE, Pastor-Evangelist, West Medford, Mass.

August 1944

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