As promised in my last entry I am writing in this essay about specific strategies we can take when listening to a sermon. Just as Jacob wrestled with God through the night to gain a blessing (Genesis 32:24), the worshiper will sometimes feel that he or she is in a wrestling match, too. It can happen because the sermon is poor or it can happen because the worshiper has come to the service with distractions from home or work or is simply tired and needing rest. For multiple reasons it can be hard to listen to a sermon.
When struggling to listen to a sermon it is important to remember that the struggle is a spiritual one between the worshiper and God. The struggle is not between the worshiper and the preacher. For some reason God has brought the worshiper to this service at this time. The preacher has a responsibility to God as well, and the preacher will be required to answer to God for his or her work, but the worshiper’s main concern is not the preacher. The chief issue in worship is to encounter God and to make the effort to discover the purpose of the time ahead.
If we give some thought to the matter we realize that thirty minutes is a short period of time. We can easily waste thirty minutes on a tasteless story in the newspaper or a magazine or waste thirty minutes watching a mindless situation comedy on television. We can spend thirty minutes playing a game of solitaire without complaint. Sometimes, many of us just sit for thirty minutes day dreaming.
Our resistance to the sermon is a hint that something spiritual is happening. For some reason we resist this time in the pew. It bores us or makes us uncomfortable or it even can make us angry. All of these emotions we do not feel when we waste time elsewhere; so, what is happening? Why has God brought us into this difficult struggle?
We may not immediately discover the reason for the resistance in ourselves, but we can pray to have the grace to understand that our resistance is not primarily the preacher’s problem. We pray to accept our responsibility to make something good happen in the half hour ahead of us. We can pray that whatever kind of sermon we hear, good or bad, we will find a way to make an offering of worship to God. That prayer and commitment to take responsibility for the sermon is the first strategy of the listener.
Once we decide to take responsibility as a listener for the sermon then we can employ other strategies, and we will need them from time to time when we hear a bad sermon. Bad sermons are often opaque. We cannot see the purpose or the importance of them. The preacher does not make it clear why we should listen to this particular message, and he or she does not explain what help we should expect to receive in listening. It seems that we are looking at a dark cloud of words that communicate nothing of substance to us. When listening to such a sermon the good listener will not attempt to make sense of the whole sermon. It is likely, because of poor preparation, that even the preacher is not sure what the message is supposed to be. Bad preaching makes one feel lost in the dark.
However, if one listens carefully one will hear a single sentence that makes sense. It will be like a flash of lightening in the dark night. It is brief but for a moment there is power and illumination. It is almost impossible to speak for thirty minutes and not say one productive, meaningful, applicable sentence. The listener will wait and watch for that sentence. When such a sentence flashes it will be worth the entire thirty minutes of sitting. An insight will be gained. A resolution will be made. Something good will have happened. The listener will have won the wrestling match. So, here are the first two strategies for listening to a sermon: first, take responsibility for the sermon’s impact on the listener; second, listen for one helpful sentence.
Here is a third strategy. Although it often happens in bad sermons, that the preacher does not really speak from the Bible, the listener can listen for some passing reference to the Scripture and turn to the reference in his or her Bible. A careful listener will identify questions that arise from reading the text that are not answered or even addressed by the preacher. Those questions can be a guide to the listener in the coming week to do more Bible study, to talk with friends about the questions or if the opportunity arises, to ask the preacher, “What about this?” In that way the sermon becomes useful to the listener and, perhaps, to others as well.
A fourth strategy is to enter into a mental dialogue with the preacher and with God. In some church traditions the people in the pews will speak aloud to the preacher. This back and forth or call and response practice is used in many African American churches (see The Hum by Crawford). When a member of the congregation says, “Amen,” aloud then the preacher is affirmed and encouraged to continue along the same line of thought. Occasionally, the preacher will hear someone in the congregation, praying aloud, “Help him, Lord!” The preacher in that situation will realize that he is floundering; the sermon is not working, and some change is needed in that very moment. I have had the experience of someone saying to me as I preached, “I can’t hear you!” or “Say it again!” Although disconcerting to preachers who have not been accustomed to such dialogue, the practice can be helpful. In a dynamic and vocal way the congregation that enters into this back and forth exchange is taking responsibility, along with the preacher, for the sermon and the worship experience.
For churches in which the congregation does not speak aloud to the preacher, the call and response can be a prayer to God, “Help her, Lord!” It can be an exclamation of silent praise, “That’s the sentence I’ve been waiting to hear!” It can be a prayer in which the congregant admits to the Lord, “I am finding it hard to get anything today; help me.”
Some people in the congregation will write notes in which they enter a dialogue with the preacher. It may not be possible to get a good outline from a bad sermon, but one can raise questions to write in the notes. One can record ideas that arise which may or may not be in reference to the sermon but simply come unsought as one sits and listens. Whatever form it takes the person in the pew is practicing active listening. It doesn’t depend entirely on the preacher. The listener is working to bring meaning to the worship experience.
A fifth strategy for listening to sermons is to manage our distractions. The preacher may create distractions, and the worshiper may bring distractions into the service. A brief prayer before worship helps. Whenever one feels a distraction arise one can say a prayer, too. In fact, God may send the distractions to help us pray. In the middle of the service we think of someone in the congregation who is ill or who is going through a divorce or has lost a job or is struggling with faith. Our minds go to that person and so can our prayers. Those distractions seem to be a movement of the Spirit in our hearts, and we ask the Lord to use the sermon to speak to that person.
Sometimes the distractions arise from our own health. We may be hurting and finding it difficult to sit on a pew or hard chair. If our bones are hurting so badly we can’t sit easily we may choose before the service to sit in the back where we can rise and stand without bothering others. Preachers and worshipers understand this need and if done thoughtfully it does not disturb worship for anyone. Those who notice will hopefully say a prayer for someone who is hurting.
Distractions can come because we have a challenging week ahead and find ourselves thinking of the work before us instead of listening to the sermon. Again, the best strategy is to pray. If we miss the sermon completely because we are distracted, but we spend the thirty minutes in prayer we will have made good use of the sermon time.
Some distractions come from the preacher or other worship leaders. The way someone dresses can distract us. We find ourselves thinking about the clothing instead of the leader’s message or announcement or song or Scripture reading.
Preachers can distract people with their mannerisms. A person’s accent can distract us. If the preacher uses poor grammar it can distract. If a preacher licks his or her lips or paces or bobs the head or twists a ring or clenches or wrings his or her hands it can distract us. If the preacher is low energy or too high in energy it can distract. If the preacher talks too loudly or too softly it can distract us. Speaking too fast or speaking too slowly can distract us. This list doesn’t end.
Distractions will come. Sometimes they are sent by God to help us pray, but sometimes the distractions can be described as the work of the devil. They keep us from active listening and our spiritual responsibility. The strategy is to manage the distractions. They will come, but we can manage them. Sometimes we avoid them. Always, we can pray which will be our best strategy.
The reader can add to my five strategies: taking responsibility for one’s worship experience; listening for one helpful sentence; using the Bible for reflection whether the preacher does or not; joining a mental dialogue with God and with the preacher, if only to say, “Help him, Lord”; and finally, managing distractions in a way that makes them work for good, not bad, in one’s worship experience.
When one begins to develop strategies for listening then it becomes a delightful challenge. It is an intellectual and spiritual exercise to be an active listener. You will grow in your ability and range of listening strategies. You will enrich your worship experience.
One final essay is coming on the listening experience. There are bad sermons that cannot be heard without damage to one’s life in Christ. These sermons are to be avoided. My final entry will give a description and warning. Sometimes, the best response is, “Don’t listen.”
