Preaching as Practice

I regularly ask for responses of words or phrases during my sermons (one congregation has 15-12, the other 100-120). I ask to congregation to help me make lists (What comes to your mind when you think about Christmas?) or say the key word in the the Biblical text I'm reading (It's usually on the screen.). I do this to get them involved and to help me gauge their level of involvement.

Our church had a really great thing going when we first came ... 4 couples met in homes a couple times to share testimonies and supper. The people we met there we still maintain as friends. But it was a loosely structured event with guided conversation ... at some point everyone was expected to share their relationship with Christ.

All of which is to say ... sometimes a bit of testimony time provides opportunities for folks to note when a message hit home. Or as one pastor said, "this is like mini-sermons from each of you about how God touches your life."

Your right .... it is good to get feed back, but after about 14 years of writing columns, I have a handful of letters (10 percent negative) and e-mails ... specifically mentioning a topic in the columns. ... Other than that it is the usual, "I really enjoyed ...."
I only know how much it is wanted because when I stopped for 2 months the editor received LOTS of phone calls ... and he asked me to come back. Oh yes, and once they took a survey and told us how we ranked with readers.
But then ... do you REALLY compliment every meal your wife makes you or your mother made you?

Hey Joan,

Great points. I think you're absolutely right; I can't really see these ideas working in a congregation of more than 100 or so. And if you have a congregation with small groups already focusing on the texts then perhaps encouraging participation in a sermon is not really necessary or appropriate.

I could really care less about compliments or feedback, per se...but I do want to know that people are doing more than just listening to a sermon, then walking out and forgetting about it. I hope that they are thinking about it, talking with others about it, and asking how it might apply to their own lives.

The authors of the article (they also wrote a book I'm trying to get my hands on) suggested that these steps helped to foster spiritual conversations among the congregation during fellowship hour and at other times in church life. So folks weren't just sitting around talking about the game they saw the other day but they were having real and significant spiritual conversations regarding the things that were bantered around during the sermon.

Depends on the size of the congregation and the history of interaction ... and how much time you leave after asking a question. If you ask a question and answer it yourself, the congregates learn to not answer. If you leave it open ... they begin to answer ... but it might take time.

The larger the congregation, the less time for really getting the interaction you may wish. Consider the extremes. A congregation of 12-20 vs. a congregation of 2,000. With 2,000 a dozen or so might interact and the rest will watch. I guess this is where the small group Bible Studies compliment the Sunday Service.
The old Bible Study Fellowship format basically uses a small group studying and talking about the same subject (verses) covered from the large group presentation where the topics covered are reviewed from a 'pastoral' viewpoint but touching on topics which the small groups covered (and the presenter visited during the small group time ... maybe two or three each week.)
It involves preparation before hand by the congregates, the major presenter and pre-thought application.

Part of the "let's get involved" stuff will not work if it feels artificial and forced. Been there, done that, why are they doing this thing?

End with having the congregation break into small groups for a few minutes to discuss. what it all means personally? ... also might have to get the people out of scholarly rows of looking forward to get them to interact and react with each other and then report back to the group at large.

Is the goal to get more compliments or feedback for yourself or to awaken a spiritual insight in the members?