Preaching: Throwing a Hand Grenade.... by Jonny Baker

This chapter has been staring me in the face since I printed it a couple weeks ago. In taking a break for a moment from "Preaching Re-Imagined" I decided to pickup Jonny's essay. A few points to summarize that speak for themselves:

a) people are sick of three point sermons.... people aren't listening. People don't want to be preached at.

b) when it comes to preaching there is no right way... you don't always have to be right

c) Mike Riddell "The purpose of the sermon is to unleash the power of scripture in a way that leads to personal and coporate encounter with God."

d) It's very easy for people to come to worship to consume God. As leaders we get trapped in a provider-client relationship with the congregation. They sit and passivelt consume what is taught of provided for them

e) plenty of research shows that a talking head (preacher) is actually a very ineffective means of communication. People retain only a very small percentage of information communicated this way....

f) learn to think outside the box

g) use storytelling

h) one of the greek words for preaching is actually our equivalent of dialogue

i) preach for response but don't control it

j) don't have sermons every week. Preaching is not sacrosanct. It's one way of communicating. Do something different for a change.

k) introduce slam preaching.


well I love the idea of k) slam preaching. Poetry is a realm of literature I adore. The idea of a sermon being in poetic form and lasting only 3minutes is wonderful... Get to the point, straight there, tell it how it is, end off. Hmmmm slam preaching.... it rings sweetly in my ears. Especially since it seems preaching is a marathon now, 30 min, 60 min, 120 min.... gosh who passes out first the congregation or the pastor? :) Keep It Short (and) Simple.... a new acronym for k.i.s.s.