Twentieth-century circuit rider

Ralph Washington Sockman has been enthusiastically called the "preachers'preacher." To hear him preach was truly a spiritual event.

Douglas Bennett, Ph.D., is chairman of the Department of Religion, Southern Missionary College, Collegedale, Tennessee.

For forty-four years Ralph Washing ton Sockman stood as a towering pulpit beacon in the city of New York, serving as senior pastor of Christ's Church Methodist on Park Avenue, from which he retired in 1961. Al though a gifted writer, a noble humanitarian, and a popular radio personality, he was most eminently successful as a public speaker acknowledged by some "as the best Protestant preacher in the United States." 1 G. Paul Butler, one of the many critics of preaching who spoke enthusiastically of Sockman, called him the "preachers' preacher." "To hear him preach is a spiritual event," said Butler. "Dr. Sockman is one of the great preachers of our day." 2

During more than four decades of ministry to an affluent membership of 5,000, Ralph Sockman found time to publish twenty-three books; write numerous articles for periodicals; maintain a weekly radio program, the National Radio Pulpit; write a syndicated newspaper column; serve as associate professor of practical theology at Union Theological Seminary; maintain membership on the governing boards of seven colleges, universities; and seminaries; conduct an annual lecture series throughout the United States, some years meeting as many as 100 appointments; and in 1941 deliver the Yale Lecture Series. Because of his multifarious influence through radio, lecture tours, teaching, writing, and preaching, he has been dubbed the "twentieth-century circuit rider." 3

Public speaking, however, was Sockman's specialty. At Ohio Wesleyan University, where he participated in the school debate team, he took thirty-six hours of speech classwork, an undesigned preparation for the ministry that later came to him. At Columbia University he was greatly influenced by Henry Coffin, Hugh Black, Johnston Ross, and Harry Emerson Fosdick. Although he prepared for the educational field, he did not rule out the ministry, dividing his classes between Columbia University and Union Theological Seminary. Upon graduation from Columbia University in 1916 he was employed as the associate minister of Christ's Church Methodist in New York City. He became the senior pastor in 1917 and continued in this role until 1961.

Like his distinguished tutor, Harry Emerson Fosdick, Sockman believed that sermons should be both intensely interesting and vitally therapeutic. Ministering as he did during the post-World War I, depression, pre- and post-World War II years, his sermons were designed to meet the stresses and strains that the times imposed. He saw each preaching occasion as an opportunity for group counseling and therapy. It will be helpful to us who aspire to more effective preaching to consider those factors in Sockman's preaching that contributed to his fame as a minister.

Logical organization

From a fertile background of speech training and debating, Sockman's sermons were models of logical structure. "A speech professor's dream in clarity of organization" is the way one observer phrased it. 4 Sockman believed that structure aided the listener not only in following the message but in recalling its content. His usual formula was introduction, thesis statement, body, and conclusion. His introductions varied in length—sometimes involving only three or four sentences, but more frequently embracing one fifth to one third of the sermon. He designed his introductions to capture attention, build rapport with his audience, and reveal his subject.

Dr. Sockman preferred topical sermons; consequently, topical division headings frequently appeared in the body. Typical is his sermon "Televising the Soul," which contained three telescopic headings: 1. The eyes of our hearts need to be enlightened in order to see ourselves. 2. After we have opened the eyes of our hearts to see ourselves, we more easily open our eyes to see our neighbors. 3. As the eyes of our hearts are opened to see ourselves and our neighbors, may they also be enlightened to see our heavenly Father. 5 Often his statement of the new division heading included a recapitulation of the former.

His conclusions usually consisted of a climax to his final division—a quotation, an illustration, or poem that emphasized the central idea of the sermon, and a final restatement of the theme. By thorough preparation Dr. Sockman made listening enjoyable and easy for his audience.

Sermon content

The Sockman sermon was rich in con tent. Superficial mediocrity was not tolerated by this pulpiteer, who believed that a minister must be not only a holy man but an informed man, as well. "You've got to put something in people's heads, rather than just give them a shot in the arm," he declared.6 According to Sockman, strong audiences never gather around weak pulpits. He once contended that "moralists . . . have made the mistake of substituting militancy for intelligence. Preachers have too often been intent on flogging the wills of their parishioners rather than on feeding their minds." 7 From a fertile mind filled from reading and the study of people, he spoke to the needs and concerns of people.

He attached only minimal importance to the emotional in his preaching, deriving his support from the Bible, example, illustration, testimony, and personal experience. The argumentative elements of his sermons were never polemical, but were clothed in the royal robe of kindness.

Style

A refreshing and palatable style characterized the Sockman sermon. If style can be defined as "the manner of ex pressing thought in a language . . . giving such skilled expression as invests the idea with dignity and distinction," 8 Sockman seemed to have mastered this art on the anvil of long hours of preparation. He estimated that a minimum of eighteen hours went into his sermon preparation. Another time he estimated one hour for each minute of the sermon.

He began his specific preparation on Wednesday. While meditating on the subject he would jot down notes as ideas came, until he had four to six pages containing one hundred or more ideas. He next selected main headings and proceeded to arrange the ideas under these headings. On Saturday he wrote the sermon in longhand, completing it around 2:00 A.M. It was his opinion that writing the sermons enabled him to be come more precise, and also facilitated the flow of ideas. Prior to leaving for church the next morning, he read the sermon into a transcriber and critiqued himself.

Each sentence and paragraph exhibited the skill of a master craftsman. His sentences were varied in length and type; they were comparatively free from technical jargon, confusing pronouns or antecedents, and words that had more than one connotation. Avoiding stilted cliches and monotony, Sockman's sermons breathed with freshness, thought, and vitality. Vibrant figures of speech added force and vigor to his thought. Antithesis frequently energized his sermons, as may be seen from one he preached during the Scopes trial in Day ton, Tennessee: "Christianity cannot be tried by the jury method, but by the laboratory method. . . . The truth of the Bible is not proved by courts but by lives. . . . Man is convinced of his divine creation not by arguments . . . , but by the evidence of things not seen which are  within his own life when he follows the footsteps of his Lord." 9 Dr. Sockman believed that a speaker must turn the audience's ears into eyes.

With the masterful strokes of an artist, he turned the abstract into concrete reality. He could describe a cold and list less church member by saying, "Some persons are like houses with their doors open in the wintertime. They hold no warming convictions." 10 On another occasion he said, "We are designed to be spans in the bridge of purposes stretching across the generations." ll

Delivery

A fourth factor that contributed toward lifting Sockman's preaching above mediocrity was his delivery. Al though in his study he laboriously worked out the exactness of his wording in manuscript form, in the pulpit he spoke extemporaneously. His voice was conversational, possessing a wide pitch and range. His movements were meaningful but not excessive, and his gestures were spontaneous. He left the distinct impression of being completely relaxed, which in turn relaxed his audience.

In seeking to identify those factors in Ralph Sockman's preaching that led in 1961 to his being acclaimed one of the ten most prominent ministers in the United States, 12 certain components emerge from the labyrinth of his talents.

First was organization. His sermons had a goal and moved unmolested to their target, providing interest and clarity along the way. Second, his content was arresting and lucid, contributing to the support of his main thesis. Third, his masterful use of style and word imagery produced a vividness of force that transformed the abstract into the concrete. His style was elevated with dignity and free from ambiguity. Finally, he possessed a warm and free delivery that gave him the unusual ability to "awaken in people a new appreciation of the whole realm of religious thinking and acting." 13

In an age when preaching generally has fallen on "hard times," it is challenging to consider such a pulpit giant and analyze how he successfully captured the ears, head, and hearts of thou sands who waited as "hungry sheep to be fed." As we do so, we seem to hear a vibrating echo, "Go, and do thou likewise."

Notes:

1 Ralph W. Sockman, "Preacher on Park Avenue," Time, Oct. 6, 1961, p. 56.

2 G. Paul Butler, Best Sermons (New York: The Macmillan Co., 1952), p. 1.

3 "Twentieth Century Circuit Rider," American Public Address, ed. by Loren D. Reid (Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1961), p. 93.

4 Ibid., p. 73.

5 Ibid., p. 89.

6 Sockman, loc. cit.

7 Richard L. Speer, "The Influence of Dr. Sockman's Speech Training on His Preaching" (Master's thesis, Bowling Green State University, 1965).

8 John F. Genung, Practical Elements of Rhetoric (Boston: The Athenaeum Press, Ginn, 1886), p. 13.

9 "Twentieth Century Circuit Rider," p. 87.

10 A. C. Baird, Representative American Speeches, 1946, 1947 (New York: H. W. Wilson Company), p. 91.

11 Ralph W. Sockman, Date With Destiny (New York: Abingdon, 1944), p. 73.

12 Look, Nov. 21, 1961.

13 Ibid.


Ministry reserves the right to approve, disapprove, and delete comments at our discretion and will not be able to respond to inquiries about these comments. Please ensure that your words are respectful, courteous, and relevant.

comments powered by Disqus
Douglas Bennett, Ph.D., is chairman of the Department of Religion, Southern Missionary College, Collegedale, Tennessee.

January 1980

Download PDF
Ministry Cover

More Articles In This Issue

The Christ Alone

A great need in Christianity today, says V. Norskov Olsen, is for the church to return to the Reformation's controlling principle that all theology and religious experience must revolve about Christ alone.

Is the Aramaic of Daniel early or late?

Aramaic documents from Qumran have dramatically altered views regarding the date of Daniel's composition.

Short-term Pastorates

Are they stepping stones to success or roadblocks to church growth?

Do you need less prayer than Jesus did?

The more occupied Jesus was with the good news He came to preach, the more He needed to pray.

A surprise or a secret

A closer look at the illustrations Jesus used to describe His return reveals that many will be surprised by its unexpectedness.

To Smoke or not to Smoke

The decision is yours——but these psychological principles will make success possible if you really want to quit.

The Rocks Cry "Creation"!

The transitional forms required by the evolutionary theory cannot be found in the fossil record. Could it be they never existed?

Shepherdess: Of Parsonages and Palaces

It was fine for the hymn writer to be satisfied with "a tent or a cottage," but most pastors' wives long for a place of their own.

The Last Years of Samaria

Archeology chronicles the decline of an ancient people and sheds additional light on the historical records of Scripture.

View All Issue Contents

Digital delivery

If you're a print subscriber, we'll complement your print copy of Ministry with an electronic version.

Sign up

Recent issues

See All
Advertisement - SermonView - WideSkyscraper (160x600)