“Preaching is an oral/communal act.” That’s a line I repeat on occasion in classes at the seminary and quite frequently in workshops with pastors. I usually preface it by saying, “Now I realize this is not the most profound thing you’ll ever hear about preaching, but here it is: preaching is an oral/communal act.” In other words, preachers preach aloud (thus, the term oral) and they preach to people (thus, communal). I don’t know any preachers who proclaim the gospel without talking, although there is that great line by Francis of Assisi who said to preach the gospel and if necessary, use words, thereby signaling how proclamation is more than what happens on Sundays. But in pulpits, most preachers use words. I also don’t know any preachers who preach if no one shows up. This is the very nature of preaching, aloud and with others.
While it’s not a very profound statement, perhaps the implications are. Here’s what I mean. If preaching is an oral/communal thing, why do so many of us preachers prepare alone and in silence? It used to be a fairly common practice for ministers to tell secretaries to hold their calls while they bolted their doors shut and tried to crank out a sermon. Other than in the case of emergencies, the idea was to avoid distractions. Bibles and other books were cracked open, but silence and isolation reigned supreme.
No doubt, there is value in ministers being still, resisting the urge to check emails or Facebook, disciplining themselves to meditate, pray, and study on their way toward putting a sermon together. In his book, Discovering a Sermon, Robert Dykstra maintains that while boring people on Sundays is a cardinal sin, knowing how to be bored is a virtue, sitting still as they stay at the task. That’s true. But a good number of ministers are approaching the task differently these days.
David Lose, probably best known for starting the website Working Preacher, suggests in his latest book (Preaching at the Crossroads) that preachers should consider reviving a very old practice, actually visiting parishioners at their place of work. Set up a lunch date, he suggests, and meet them at their place of employment, asking questions about what they do and how it’s going. Some of us ministers could get a good education, I’m sure, and all the while developing relationships with parishioners. Oral and communal.
I’m also familiar with any number of ministers who now hang out at coffee shops and bistros while working on their sermons. Sociologists refer to these places as “third places,” coming after home and office. In a coffee shop, and I’m in one as I write, there are minimal interruptions and yet one is surrounded by people talking to each other. Note the oral and communal aspects of that.
Years ago my son’s first job was the early shift at Panera, including Sunday mornings. On the rare Sundays when I wasn’t preaching somewhere, I would drop by around 8:30 or so when he was scheduled for a break. One week he told me to go ahead without him, he would join me in a few minutes. That’s when the thirty-something couple with two toddlers in tow plopped down next to me, the husband and wife having an argument. He kept saying things about how “it” was for the family, for the kids. She kept saying that “it” was only for him. My head was buried in the book I was reading, but my ears were open. Finally, it became clear what “it” was. He wanted to join a country club, said it would be good family time. She didn’t believe that for a minute.
After some intense exchanges, she stormed out with the girls, leaving him there. Her last words: “I’m going to church, and I’m going to pray for your soul.” Whew! I have no idea how he got home. The next time I was in Panera on a Sunday morning, I saw them again, the husband wearing a sweatshirt with the name of a country club on it. I will leave it to you the reader to interpret this incident, but it’s hard to imagine the same dynamic unfolding while a minister reads from a commentary on Romans in the confines of the church. Preacher is an oral and communal event. That’s something to ponder.
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