Conference Report March 2004

Speaker: Rev. Dr. Sandy Roger, Principal Faith Mission College

Venue: Stenhouse Gorgie Baptist Church

Morning Session 1130 - 1245

The Preacher as Communicator

The present obsession with spirituality gives the preacher new opportunities but, to communicate effectively, we need to consider the following:

Who is out there?

The people in the pews have a number of characteristics.

• Eclectic - a bit of everything
• Oppressed by time - people panic if preaching asks for time commitment
• Drowning in consumerism - very cautious about active involvement
• Shaped by the media - a tough audience
• Lay liberals - a very high tolerance level for other people's opinions
• Not sure they need salvation
• Saturated with a modern mindset - technically and scientifically orientated
• No common values or vocabulary
• They are us and we are them - this list applies to christians and non-christians alike

Preachers "speak within the tradition to the tradition about the tradition."

Communicators "speak beyond the tradition to those outside the tradition where there is no common language."

We need to be aware that people may not hear what we think they are hearing when we preach.

Communication is a dialogue

The structure of communication

The preacher

• has something to say
• decides how to say it
• sends the communication

The hearer

• receives the communication
• interprets the communication
• responds to and acts upon the communication

The preacher

• gains feedback, either positive or negative, from the hearer

Developing Communication skills

• Help them to decipher where God is to be found
• Preach absolutes but not absolutely - the way we present absolutes is important, showing absolutes to be logical and rational.
• Social justice but not first - putting social justice in context
• Preach Jesus - not Christianity or the Church
• Keep it simple - cannot assume prior knowledge
• Evoke experience
• In any successful play there should be something that makes the audience exclaim "That's me!"

"Preaching is not the performance oa an hour; it is the outflow of a life" - E.M. Bounds

Afternoon Session 1400 - 1530

The Preacher as Persuader

Effective preaching should be preaching for a verdict.

Preaching should be

• Emotive - appeal to the emotions as well as the mind
• Inductive - not telling people the whole of the story up front
• Illustrative - we need to work at "visual preaching"
• Persuasive
• Conjunctive - joining the divine with the human
• Decisive - preaching with expectancy

The sermon form should fit the function

• The Unitary Structure - one main point presented either linear or circular
• The Binary Structure - two points, sometimes useful as contrasting points
• The Trinary Structure - three points

It is good to vary the structure.

There are four stories which converge in preaching:

• The Bible has its own story
• The preacher's story
• The listener's story
• The story of the Church

Preaching for a verdict

• Christ (personal decision)
• Church (corporate decision)
• Creed (intellectual decision)
• Conduct (ethical decision)