By: Shawn Cox
Submitted: 2010-07-02 00:57:27 | Word Count: 486
Meaningful preaching is impossible where there is no community, and it is one of the tasks of the preachers to shape the community united by the feeling of togetherness. James E. Massey devoted Chapter Three of his book The Burdensome Joy of Preaching to describing the ways of achieving togetherness in the community. According to him, it requires first of all establishing a proper communication, appealing to the hearers, and the use of the Holy Scripture.
Massey starts with the definition of what he means by “community”. With reference to Samuel D. Proctor he claims that “genuine community” is “something deep, durable, and genuine… marked by an eager openness”, and the key to building such community is treating “persons as equals to ourselves”. This position is absolutely in accordance with Kant’s categorical imperative that requires to treat persons as an end and not as a means to an end, and, more important, with the covenant of Jesus Christ to love our neighbours as ourselves.
The next statement is based on this premise to treat others as equals. Massey underlines the importance of being understood by the community, for which a preacher should speak about things that are understandable to his hearers. As an evidence for this position, Massey provides the example of James Herman Robinson, whose experience gives us the invaluable lesson: “if he would begin with the people where they were, they would rightly follow” .
Next, Massey argues that togetherness is often encouraged by the means of appeal and underlines the importance of choosing the right words for the sermons . Indeed, trying to convey some message, we may resort to using too many of academic argumentation, which may distract the hearers as they would not understand some of the specific jargon and would feel disregarded through the overuse of scholarly terms.
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It follows from this that it would be appropriate to use the text of Scripture . First, it is something incomparably more understandable and familiar to the audience, which allows establishing a proper communication. Secondly, proclamation of the Gospel is the major task of the preachers, and it is impossible to put the truth into words better than God did it. Therefore, the benefit of the use of Scripture for writing the sermons cannot be overestimated.
Thus, to build a community penetrated by the evangelic spirit and to achieve togetherness in this community, it is needed to establish a proper communication between the preacher and the hearers. For this, one needs to treat others as equals, to avoid overuse of academic jargon, to use effectively the means of appeal, and to refer to the Holy Scripture. Though Scripture was mentioned last, it seems to be the most important component of the successful preaching. Indeed, treating others as equals is directly prescribed by our Lord, and the rest of the author’s arguments are the extension of the original premise.
