Ingredients for Effective Preaching

Rev. Ingersoll helpfully points to several different roles that a holistic preacher will play in preaching. These are as professor, prophet, pastor, and poet.

Professor

From time to time, you might hear someone say to a preacher, “You are really more of a teacher than a preacher.” Yet teaching is a central dimension of preaching. If a preacher does not teach, the congregation will need alternative ways for God’s word to be clarified and for them to know what the right assumptions, attitudes, and actions are.

Rev. Ingersoll calls this dimension of the preacher’s role as the “professor” dimension of preaching. Evangelicals believe that Scripture is clear enough on its own for someone to find Christ and be saved. However, even Peter recognized that some things in Paul’s writings were difficult to understand (2 Pet. 3:16). And, since the books of the Bible were first written to ancient audiences, there is a lot we cannot understand without learning about their world.

This sort of instruction doesn’t have to take place from the platform. But the pulpit is an obvious place for some of it to take place.

Prophet

Nevertheless, preaching will be wholly inadequate if it is only about information. Preaching also must be transformational. It must “cut to the heart” of the congregation (Acts 2:37), not merely fill their heads with knowledge. Preaching should be courageous in revealing sin and calling to salvation.

At the same time, some preaching personalities may want to camp only here. As Rev. Ingersoll warns. All four styles of preaching are needed. A preacher who is always lambasting the congregation will get tiring. There must be some hope and encouragement too.

Pastor

A third role that a preacher should play is that of pastor. The word pastor of course comes from a Latin word for shepherd. The preacher as shepherd cares for the congregation from the platform. Certainly, there are many other venues where members of a congregation can receive care, but preaching is one of them.

Rev. Ingersoll talks about preaching to real people. The preacher is not just talking to God or the wall. He or she is in a real place at a real time. Things are going on in the lives of the people. Things are going on in the world. There are issues of the day.

What are the needs of the congregation? What are the fears and longings of the congregation? What are the threats in the world that they need to be on their guard against?

Poet

Finally, Rev. Ingersoll is frank about the appropriateness of artistry in preaching. It is no sin for a sermon to be enjoyable. It is no crime when a preacher holds the congregation’s attention. Whether we like it or not, preaching is a performance art. It ideally captures the imagination. It inspires positive emotions. It inspires. It motivates.

This dimension in some ways stands at the heart of the fact that not every minister is called to preach. We can improve at the art of preaching, but some may never excel at it. We can pontificate about how the service is for the Lord and not for us, and this is true. But many a person would rather glorify the Lord and enjoy the sermon than suffer for the Lord every Sunday.