A Bridge for the Text, Not a Stage for the Preacher
A sermon can be faithful to the text and still never reach the people in the pews. Connection is the work of carrying the meaning of the passage across to the particular men and women in front of you, so that it lands in their minds, their consciences, and their lives. The goal is not that they connect with the preacher. The goal is that they meet God in His Word.
“To the weak became I as weak, that I might gain the weak: I am made all things to all men, that I might by all means save some.”1 CORINTHIANS 9:22 · KJV
The preacher's work of carrying the meaning of the text to the minds, consciences, and lives of the particular people in front of him, adapting his approach to them without changing the message.
Jerry Vines and Jim Shaddix give a whole chapter of Power in the Pulpit to making the connection with the congregation, and they keep the listeners in view long before Sunday. When they teach the preacher to unify his sermon around one theme, the first thing they ask him to consider is the intended audience. Connection begins in the study, not at the pulpit.
John Stott pictured preaching as bridge-building in Between Two Worlds. The preacher stands between the world of the Bible and the world of his hearers, and a bridge must be anchored at both ends. Some preachers are anchored only in the text: everything they say is true, and nothing reaches anyone. Others are anchored only in their hearers' world: everything they say is relevant, and little of it is biblical. The expositor builds from the text to the people, and he never moves the far end of the bridge to make the crossing easier.
Everything in this study is a servant. Knowing your people, plain speech, directness, and eye contact all exist to carry the text to the hearer. None of them can replace the text. A preacher who connects brilliantly with an empty sermon has only connected people to himself.
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For Deeper Study
- Power in the PulpitAmazon Jerry Vines and Jim ShaddixThe Southern Baptist textbook this series follows, with a full chapter on making the connection with the congregation.
- Between Two WorldsAmazon John R. W. StottAnglican. The classic picture of preaching as building a bridge from the biblical text to the contemporary hearer.
- Lectures to My StudentsAmazon Charles H. SpurgeonA Calvinistic Baptist's lectures to young preachers, including a practical one on holding the attention of a congregation.
- Biblical PreachingAmazon Haddon W. RobinsonAn evangelical standard on developing one clear idea from the text and delivering it to real listeners.
- The Reformed PastorAmazon Richard BaxterA Puritan and a paedobaptist, read here for his example of knowing and personally instructing every household in his care.
- Foxe's Book of MartyrsAmazon John FoxeThe classic Protestant record of those who died for the faith, from the early church to the English Reformation.
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Expressing the Thoughts
Because a sermon is heard rather than read, the preacher puts the meaning of the text into plain words, short sentences, and concrete language, and carries it into the pulpit by manuscript, notes, or neither, in whatever way best serves clarity, so that the Word and not the speaker holds the hearers.
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