July 08, 2014
Balancing Act
I’m starting to see a pattern
of imbalance immerge in sermons, mediations, and church announcements. There is
often more filler — jokes, personal stories, anecdotes, and illustrations, than
there is text, or actual focus on the subject at hand. Certainly a message or information
can be enhanced by examples and even Jesus told stories and parables to
illustrate His message. However, we don’t hear Jesus bridging His thoughts by making
personal jokes about His relationship with the disciples or saying, “This is my
mother’s favorite passage of Scripture.” I’m wondering if the time set aside for
worship of the Lord isn’t being undermined by the many extemporaneous comments of
the day.
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1 comment:
Gail;
-----Rhetoric is about persuasion. Jokes, anecdotes, stories, and such are powerful rhetorical tools. Since persuasion builds the ever-loved power structure, it is not surprising to see rhetoric’s tools showing up prominently from the pulpit. The forgotten part of the mix is that rhetoric is only a communication device, so persuasion must also involve some logic. It is the thinking device. So we should expect a good sermon to use a good story or two, and then move on to some concepts. But as people continue fleeing from logic for what it does to their favorite vices, they learn to think with rhetoric, too. It is a shame that preachers will participate in this error for the sake of persuasion at the expense of thinking.
Love you all,
Steve Corey
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