When the Preacher is the Sermon

That was the theme of the Byberg preaching conference I attended this past week: When the Preacher is the Sermon. Craig Satterlee, pastor and professor at the LSTC (Lutheran seminary in Chicago) was the presenter.

As I mentioned in the last post, I preached at worship. Craig evaluated me and it was fine.

But he also gave three lectures and I wanted to share a few insights that I learned.

First of all, OF COURSE the preacher is the sermon. As much as we preachers may try to get ourselves out of the way, people still see our faces and hear our voices in the pulpit. We are the sermon, in a way, no matter how much we try not to be. Our own agendas, experiences and revelations are still there.

Craig used the Corinthians image of treasures in clay jars. Since the preacher is the sermon, how do we (preachers) best use the clay jars of ourselves to shine a light on Jesus? Craig didn't give us any "rules" on preaching (he said absolutes are few) but rather gave some guidelines and talked about some of the tensions.

Here are some questions he asked that I appreciated. If there are lay folks reading this blog, you might think of how you wish your pastor might answer.

* Do you understand yourself as an office-holder or a charismatic leader?
* Are you a proclaimer of the Gospel or a protector of the institutional church?
* What is your attitude toward preaching? What is your attitude toward your hearers?
* What are your assumptions (social, economical, political) and how does this impact your preaching?
* Where are you on the scale of doubter and believer?
* How much priority do you place on preaching and preparation? Do you expect God to show up when preparing for a sermon?

These were all comments made in the first presentation. I'm slowly savoring them still and thinking about my own identity, internal life and habits around preaching. One of my favorite Craig quotes: "Always cultivate ways to place yourself in God's hands. So that the thing people notice most about us is that we love God."

During another session, Craig commented that preachers need to know their hearers in order to preach well. He said visitation is the key to preaching, which was interesting, because I just read that in Eugene Peterson's memoir that I'm working on (The Pastor). Perhaps God is speaking to me?

Craig also talked about the hearers of sermons (okay lay folks, listen up). He said that hearers want to hear who God is and what God is doing. Only then can a preacher tell the hearer what to do. Lay folks, do you agree?

He said preachers need to figure out what questions the hearers are asking. Agree?

Finally, the session closed with a number of very practical suggestions for ministry, pastoral care and children's sermons. I'm going to try to live a few of those out with the folks at Central when I return. Here's one idea that I'd like to see if folks like. Craig suggested doing an adult ed session where the pastor preaches and the lay folks have a chance to offer feedback. Not just on performance but on the gospel, what they learned, what they saw in the text, and so forth. Part of the "teaching" would be training folks on how to listen to a sermon and sharing in pastor-congregation dialogue about it. Hey, the Confirmation kids take sermon notes, why not include adults too?