Tomorrow, many of those who read this will attend a church service. As part of that, there will be a sermon.
At least - please do attend a church service tomorrow. It's a really good thing to do each week. And, if you are responsible for leading a church service, please do ensure there is a sermon - it's a really good thing to include each week.
Today, I'm doing a number of things, but one of them is marking. I have before me a number of assignments on preaching from trainee Readers in the Diocese of Rochester.
One that I've just read reported the feedback that the preacher had from members of the congregation. I won't quote the paragraph, as I don't have the student's permission to do so, but the gist of it was as follows:
The feedback was surprisingly divided. Half the comments thought the sermon was really helpful, the other half were critical. The people who thought the sermon was helpful were mainly newer Christians; they commented that they could see how they could put this into practice. The people who were critical were mainly the more established, more mature Christians; they commented on the way I presented the sermon, making suggestions on how the presentation, especially the diction, could have been improved.
There's a charitable reading for that. It may be that the newer Christians haven't heard so many sermons so find it harder to give constructive feedback. The more seasoned hearers have a greater store of experience from which to offer suggestions.
If that is the correct reading, then the more mature Christians took the positive aspects for granted and only thought it worth stating the potential improvements. That still leaves a salutary warning for those of us who are asked (or, who take it on ourselves) to give others feedback in their exercise of a public ministry: Don't take the positives for granted. If the sermon was brilliant in just about every regard, except for that annoying clicking of the tongue after every pause, please tell this to the preacher. Don't just tell them about their mannerism and assume they'll guess that you liked the rest of it!
However, reading that paragraph in context, I'm not sure the charitable reading is the right one. It sounded to me as though the more mature Christians were being critical overall, and their criticisms were being directed at delivery, not content.
Now - don't get me wrong: Delivery matters, because a good sermon cannot be heard if it's poorly delivered. Don't get me wrong on another count - loving critical feedback that is constructive is needed, especially if it is accomplished by much private prayer for God's blessing on this preacher.
But I thought there were two salutary warnings here for us:
1. The focus of the critique was the delivery, not the content. If we listen to a sermon asking the question: "What is God saying to me and my household, and how we can put it into practice this week?" then I guarantee that there will always be something. The sermon would have to be really bad for there to be nothing.
If, instead, we listen to a sermon asking the question: "What do I think of this preacher's style and delivery", I can similarly guarantee that there will always be something to be critical of. All of us have faults in the way we speak.
And yet how said it would be if we missed the voice of God because our attention was not on hearing him, but on critiquing the preacher.
2. The agents of the critique were the mature Christians. The younger Christians were eager to drink up the milk of God's word and grow in their newfound faith. The more established Christians had begun to lose their appetite. Perhaps a slight cynicism was setting in, or a desire for novelty meant that the old message had nothing new to say. They've learnt enough over the years that they're able to compare this sermon to what they already know. The result is a pass or a fail, but not a life-changing encounter with the living God.
And yet our appetite for God's word should grow over time, not diminish. The fact we are not infants in the faith, and have moved onto solid food, should not make us hunger or thirst for Christ any the less.
So how sad when the more mature Christians are the ones who are the more critical, and who are the ones who are less hungry for God's voice today. Here's a salutary warning for those of us who are Christians for some time: It's easy for us to develop a hardness of heart over the years. Watch, lest it happens to you.
So please do go to church tomorrow. But please pray that you would go hungry for God's word - God's written word in the Bible, as God uses that to speak to us of his living word, Jesus Christ. Pray that you'd see past the strengths and weaknesses of the preacher's methods and style, and would see Jesus more clearly because of the sermon. Pray that tomorrow would be a day when you can grow in your faith and in your love of Christ.
And please pray the same for me.
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