Preaching Types/Political Types

Pastors know there are three basic approaches to preaching. First the expository sermon, which means you take a biblical text or story, you reflect on it a bit to see what it says to you. Next you do research and study what other folk, hopefully good theologians, and said about it. You may want to take in a few word studies of how it read in the original languages and how it can be interpreted from those languages. You pray about it asking the God who inspired the original writer of the passage to also inspire you to understand it as well. You also want to study and figure out the context in which the passage was written; to whom and what for. All of this to get at what the main meaning of that text is; what is God trying to tell us in that passage. Next you picture who that teaching might apply to today’s world and be of help to people in living out their faith. Then you write it down and preach it, talk to the folk who are also praying to understand and be inspired by God’s word to and for them. In my humble opinion at least 95% of all preaching should be this type. The emphasis is on what God is trying to say and you are to interpret it as best you can.

Then the “proof texters. These are the preachers that take a word or a sentence from scripture and then build an entire sermon around that word or sentence and often ignore all that is going on in the above method, though they may take parts of it. There are a number of preachers like this who basically make it up as they go and think their doing something. Only by the grace of God does God’s message get through. More likely it is their message that gets preached. Ideas are often taken completely out of context.

Finally there are topical preachers. They think of something they want to talk about. Then they search the scriptures to find words, sentences or passages that support their theme. They may use theological tools in the process of building the sermons but the key is how they start the process. There are times when this type of sermon is appropriate. If a congregation has a particular event or problem they are dealing with, it is appropriate to use appropriate scriptures to deal with the issues the face. I find they are the hardest sermons to prepare and are dangerous in that you may end up preaching your own gospel as “proof texters” are prone to do rather than the gospel message itself. Yet, they are important and skilled preachers can do them but hopefully rarely.

Now that may be all too much information for you as to what how we preachers prepare, but the reason I bring them up is the correlations I see between preaching and political campaigning. I see the same options at hand for politicians.

Unfortunately, today’s politicians use the later two types of preparations and very little of the former, and as their “congregations” we are the poorer for it.

There are legitimate political positions, ideologies, positions, problems and the like that need to be dealt with in political debate or dialogue. There are issues where politicians should make their positions clear and they should be able to explain how they came to those positions. A good statesman should have a political platform that is clear to the voting republic and he or she should be able to defend that position constitutionally, economically, reasonable within the limits of democracy. And it should not cost several fortunes to make one’s position clear. However, I find that type of clarity lacking in today’s political climate.

Political polling is one of the worst things to happen to politics as it encourages politicians to just try to placate and appeal to the most voters by saying words the will please the most. That lacks integrity. If a pastor did that we would say he or she sold his soul to the institutional church, and is an ineffective ambassador of Christ preaching their own gospel.

John F. Kennedy in his book Profiles in Courage is the best example of how a statesman should operate. It is series of political figures of integrity and character who stood for certain beliefs, make the clear to the Republic and then let the voters vote them in or out as they saw fit.

I am also sympathetic with those who would be statesmen. Like preachers they may start out with clear eyes and a clear vision of what they see God calling them to do. But then as the congregation (party) begins to own them they start selling of bits of their integrity in order to be popular, keep their job, or gain fame. But that is not what politicians or preachers are called to do. They should be standard bearers and leaders with high integrity based upon their beliefs. And, if they are not supported, so be it; at least they were faithful and that is what all of us are supposed to be.

Sound a little preachy? Good.