How does a congregation support good preaching?
Assume from yesterday that the congregation is aware that it is part of the Body of Christ. Notice how that assumption changes one’s perspective on sermons. The first question is not, “Does the sermon please me, make me feel good, or entertains me?” The question becomes whether you are helping US not ME discern what God is saying to us as a community of faith. There is a recognition that God’s word is a challenging word that at times is comforting but also at times challenging. God has something in mind for this congregation and we need to be helped on how to listen to God.
Would not such a congregation occasionally want to gather with the pastor and talk about where they have been challenged and where they are feeling a hunger that may need to be addressed. Supportive feedback, in my experience, is not something that a lot of preachers receive. The occasions when someone has said to me that a sermon has touched them or caused them to think deeply about their lives have been uplifting for me. Most of the time I have wondered whether people are hearing much of anything. The criticisms that suggest that my sermon has offended someone often comes across as if I had no right to have such beliefs. What a difference it would be to hear someone say, “I don’t agree and would like to explore that further.”
I think it would be a good exercise for a congregation to have a survey a couple of times a year to identify which sermon was most helpful in a person’s faith journey, which provided the most challenge for a church’s understanding of God’s call, and which opened up a fresh perspective on the faith as it relates to our society. Perhaps in that survey the question could be asked to identify the issues that the responder most feels a need to hear addressed from a theological perspective.
I would be thrilled to have a congregation say to me, we think these are troubling issues in our society and we would like you to address them from a faith perspective. We don’t expect to agree with you on everything nor do we expect you to have perfect insight, but we would like you to bring your theological training to bear on helping us gain a fresh set of lenses through which to view our society.
