Appearance | Communication | Illustrations | Preaching | Understanding

USE YOUR DECODER RING BEFORE EVERY SERMON
John McClure tells the preachers among us some “do’s and don’ts.” “Never use illustrations that swallow up sermons. Never use illustrations simply because they are so good they just have to be used. Never exegete illustrations. Avoid sentimental, Reader’s Digest illustrations. Save ‘dress rehearsal’ illustrations until the end of sermons.” McClure, a Louisville Presbyterian seminary professor, comments on how sermons function culturally. They legitimate the culture to which they refer. “Over time, what people hear through sermon illustrations is a culture being generated, validated, legitimatized, and made into a norm.” I never thought of that until I read McClure’s illustrations of this. For example, while church-shopping, we heard a friend describe a preacher’s style as authoritarian, conservative, impersonal. McClure and spouse attended and first wondered why: the preacher was dialogic, theologically and politically liberal, full of sound concerns. But stick around. After a few months the preacher gave the cultural game away. “I found that many of…