Sounds like a great title for a book, eh?Ben Arment posted a quote from a great book the other day and basically said great communicators have to not only communicate their message well but its how they say it that matters also. I so agree.
Then this interesting quote [by Tim Keller] was posted by a reader in the comments:
"The purpose of preaching is not just to make it clear, but to make it real. Of course it has to be clear if it’s going to be real. If it’s not clear: no worship. But it can’t stop there. I think our expository messages are probably too cognitive. [Jonathan] Edwards was incredibly rational, but he was also unbelievably vivid. I don’t think this is going to be easy. I see the narrative preaching approach: You tell people stories and that works kind of superficially on people’s emotions. And you have a kind of expository message approach that I think tends to be more of a Bible commentary and works more on the head. The heart is not just the emotions, but it’s certainly not just the intellect. The heart is the core commitments of the life. What captures the imagination? Therefore the preaching has to be gripping. That doesn’t just mean raising your voice. If you tell stores that just tweak the emotions, it’s like putting dynamite on the face of the rock and it blows up and shears off the face and doesn’t really change the life. On the other hand if you sort of bore down into it with the truth all the way through, that doesn’t change the heart. But if you bore down with the truth and put dynamite in there. If you are able to preach Christ vividly, and if you’re able to preach the truth practically, and out of a changed heart and life yourself. That isn’t the easiest thing to maintain by any means. But then when there’s an explosion, it really changes lives."
Well said.
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Labels: Communicating, Leadership, Youth Pastors
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