Preaching to secular audiences

I am doing a preaching course atm. So will be running loose on a few preaching thoughts over the next few weeks.

Over the past 16 years I have worked with young people both in and out of Church and have noted biblical literacy and familiarity with Church cultural norms diminish among both groups.  This certainly raises challenges for preaching.  The back story to most texts is unknown, core beliefs are not shared, values can clash.  Take preaching the Cross.  Behind this crux of Christian faith are assumptions such as:

1. Belief in a theistic, personal, relational God
2. Understanding God requires something of us in attitude and action
3. Understanding what attitudes and actions are required.
4. A sense of accountability to this despite unbelief
5. Understanding something can be done about it, not just relying on our own efforts
6. That this something is the death of incarnate Son of God on a Roman Cross 2000 years ago
7. ...on we could go...?!

Simply understanding 'content' gives a preacher challenges with contemporary secular audiences.  My own personal response has been to assume the audience has limited biblical literacy.  This translates to avoiding religious terminology, limiting the amount of biblical text I work with when preaching,1 and by preference preaching gospel stories or narratives as contained units.

Haddon Robinson perceptively notes those that are raised in religious cultures will struggle to communicate with secular audiences.[Expository Preaching in a narrative world, 159]  Is it vital that preachers move from religious cloisters and be present in the secular world.  Living with my neighbours, spending time with Parents at school, exercising with the bike club, rock climbing with unchurched young adults or teenagers helps me 'get' life from another point of view.  As I prepare my sermons I wonder how my non-Christian friends might hear this, where they would tune out and why, if there ways of communicating which might serve them in engaging what God could be saying to them.

What about preaching material which people perfectly understand but deeply disagree with because of the clash of worldview?  It is fascinating to read the comments made on Greg Clarke and John Dickson's article, “Gays and Jesus: The Gospel According to Elton John.”  Clarke and Dickson tackle Biblical historicity, the Church's response to homosexuality, Christianity holding its integrity in a pluralistic democracy.  They have a great crack at it but who is really listening?  Bill Hybels proposes that preachers understand the way non-Christians think and genuinely like them.  Preachers can be noted for polarising language, 'us' versus 'the world'! It is great advice for a preacher to remember to love the people they are preaching too.  This certainly shapes attitude and consequently tone, but it also shapes the manner in which material is approached.

Personally this has meant I in my material and presentation seek to treat people with respect and dignity, give people space to disagree with me, work hard at demonstrating it is 'our problem' rather than 'your problem'.  I have not taken as a staple diet the topical or 'felt needs' approach to sermon themes of Hybels or Rick Warren.  This is primarily because I believe this approach teaches people that we go to God to meet our needs.  Faith is this, but more.  When does God come to us and address areas we feel completely comfortable with? For this reason I prefer systematic, 'work through a book of the bible' series.  While the issues raised are often current and real, the agenda and timetable is set by the passage rather than the preacher.  More importantly issues can be raised which both preacher and audience might be completely uncomfortable with but because of their commitment to progression through the text they find themselves wrestling over. Finally this staple diet of reading and preaching through the bible addresses the 'back story' problem for many Christians as gradually the blanks are filled in, books are treated as books, texts as texts within a context of a book within history.

The 'medium' is a challenge.  How many contemporary secular audiences experience anything quite like the average Sunday morning sermon?  If the preacher is charismatic and interesting then it seems they may have a chance. Unfortunately the preacher is often compared against the world's best communicators and media: Politicians, Sound bites, Actors, movies, Oprah, televangelists, pod casts, to name a few.  From a medium point of view the bar has been raised!  Preachers today are required to bring creativity and freshness to the congregation's engagement with the sermon.  In many ways there is little excuse not too.  While modern media seeds congregations with an impatience for dull sermonising, it also resources the preacher with rich media, provocative discussion starters, things to inspire the imagination.  We also have a better understanding of the process of learning, many books have been written on transformative practices.  The preacher is better resourced to best communicate to their audiences.

Finally, I find it important to be reminded that “a shepherd knows their sheep”.  At the end of a show the lights go up, the makeup comes off and the audience is reminded that they were only an audience.  While the preacher may not have the goods to outperform the theatre of modern media they have significant influence as they step from the platform and know people from front row to back by name.  A congregation will forgive a preacher's many sins when they are known and valued.