Pastor's Pastor

Pastor's Pastor: The persuasive preacher, conclusion

Pastor's Pastor: The persuasive preacher, conclusion

Floyd Bresee is the Secretary of the General Conference Ministerial Association.

Johnny comes skidding into Bible classeyes bright, hair askew, wet with sweat from his most recent confrontation with life. Teacher has carefully prepared a story about Jesus. Wisely, she has provided the latest visual aids to help her tell the story well.

Eventually, the story told and class concluded, she watches wistfully as Johnny dashes out. Did she really make any impact toward helping him love Jesus?

Well, what does research say was the most effective thing in changing Johnny's attitude toward Jesus? Was it the story? No. Was it the aids? No, not even the visual aids. Then what was the most effective factor in changing his attitude? It was Johnny's attitude toward the teacher while she told the story!

Every time we stand up to preach we, like that teacher, hope to persuade our listeners to love and follow Jesus. We can do it by logical argument or by emotional appeal. But, like it or not, we do it mostly by the attitude of our listeners toward us as we speak. If your listeners don't like you, it is almost impossible for you to lead them to love Christ.

Here are some ways we can help our audiences like us so we can help them love Jesus:

Be caring. The attitude of the listener toward a generally respected speaker is largely dependent upon what that hearer believes the attitude of the speaker to be toward him"Love me, and I'll love you." This is doubly so if the listener perceives himself to be of a lower status than the speaker.

Let your congregation know you care about them by saying very little about other churches you've served. Mentioning other churches is like talking about your first wife to your second.

Be helpful. Every animal loves the one who feeds it. Give your people a whole some diet of spiritual food and they'll love you.

Be genuine. Nothing is more devastating than to look down at your wife, your child, or a friend as you preach and suddenly realize that they know you have not been living in private what you are preaching in public.

Be trustworthy. If you got the idea for your sermon from a book, be honest. If you quote a fact, be accurate. If you tell a story, don't exaggerate. Be sure your sermon illustrations don't betray confidences.

Be busy. Most people work at least five or six days out of the week. If they see the preacher only one day a w.eek, they tend to think that that's the only day he works. They may react like the lady who said her pastor had in trouble. He was invisible during the week and incomprehensible on the weekend. The fact is that invisible preachers who seldom get out among their people are more likely to become incomprehensible.

Be hopeful. Be hopeful of what your listeners can become through Christ. If you lose faith in people, you'll fail in the ministry.

Be hopeful about the future. Christ died. Christ lives. Christ is coming back. How can the Christian preacher be negative when there is so much hope in Christ?

Be hopeful for your preaching. Young preachers expect too much of their preaching. We enter the ministry expecting miracles. And rightly so. But the miracle of the slow-growing oak is just as great as the miracle of the overnight dandelion. Be patient with people who grow slowly. Oaks grow stronger than dandelions.

Preaching to a congregation is like throwing buckets of water over a room full of bottles. Some are wide-mouthed jars and some tiny-mouthed pop bottles. Don't be discouraged if most of the water ends up on the floor. Be encouraged that large amounts go into a few. Be hopeful that at least a little goes into each.

Be Christ's. Say, like Paul, "For I determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified" (1 Cor. 2:2). Staying close to Christ keeps you close to your congregation:

The parish priest

Of Austerity

Climbed up in a high church steeple

To be nearer God,

So that he might hand

His Word down to His people . . .

 

And in sermon script

He daily wrote

What he thought was sent from heaven,

And he dropped this down

On his people's heads

Two times one day in seven.

 

In his age God said,

"Come down and die!"

And he cried out from the steeple,

"Where art Thou, Lord?"

And the Lord replied,

"Down here among My people."*

* Brewer Mattocks, "The Preacher's Mistake."

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Floyd Bresee is the Secretary of the General Conference Ministerial Association.

July 1989

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