{"id":1036,"date":"2024-06-10T11:09:47","date_gmt":"2024-06-10T16:09:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.acu.edu\/sensingt\/?p=1036"},"modified":"2024-06-10T11:11:04","modified_gmt":"2024-06-10T16:11:04","slug":"preaching-to-the-congregation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.acu.edu\/sensingt\/2024\/06\/preaching-to-the-congregation\/","title":{"rendered":"Preaching with People in Mind"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Preaching (Part 5)<\/p>\n<p>Sermons must give witness to the theological claim of the text so that the congregation is transformed into the image of Christ for the sake of the world. Exegesis and hermeneutics explore ways the preacher identifies the theological claim of the text. Before I begin exploring sermon scripting, let\u2019s look briefly at the congregation.<\/p>\n<p>When studying congregations, consider 1) Program: The \u201cwhat\u201d of a congregation\u2019s life; the organizational structures, plans, and activities through which a congregation expresses its mission and ministry both to its own members and those outside the membership. And consider, 2) Process: The \u201chow\u201d of members relating with one another has to do with the underlying flow and dynamics of how a congregation is knit together in its common life and affects its morale and climate. For example, how leadership is exercised and shared, how decisions are made, how communication occurs, how problems are solved, and conflicts are managed. Consider 3) Social Context: Setting \u2013 local and global \u2013 in which the congregation finds itself and to which it responds. Finally, consider 4) Congregational Identity: Persistent set of beliefs, values, patterns, symbols, stories, and styles that makes a congregation distinctly itself.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Know the history of the congregation.<\/li>\n<li>Appreciate the congregation&#8217;s heritage; heritage gives continuity and legitimization.<\/li>\n<li>Give a perception of the ways things are.<\/li>\n<li>How does a congregation use and understand symbols?<\/li>\n<li>How do they practice group rituals?<\/li>\n<li>Understand the group\u2019s demographic picture.<\/li>\n<li>Know the group character.<\/li>\n<li>Identity \u2013 what it was, is, and will be (being and becoming); cannot overlook being when you want to introduce change.<\/li>\n<li>Heritage \u2013 A congregation\u2019s acknowledgment of the inheritance of beliefs and practices about Christian faith and life and the purpose of the church that it has by virtue of being a Christian church and standing with the particular historical stream.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Lenora Tubbs Tisdale lists several contextual factors to keep in mind, including:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Education \u2013 levels and\/or areas of expertise<\/li>\n<li>Social status \u2013 feelings of belonging or shame<\/li>\n<li>Ethnicity \u2013 shared histories, group identification and meaning<\/li>\n<li>Class \u2013 security, authority, and hierarchy<\/li>\n<li>Age \u2013 human development and generational identification<\/li>\n<li>Gender<\/li>\n<li>Marital status<\/li>\n<li>The local theology of the congregation includes:\n<ul>\n<li>View of God, humanity, nature, time, ecclesiology, sin and salvation, and mission<\/li>\n<li>Power \u2013 what can or cannot be said; who has power, who does not; how power is gained,<\/li>\n<li>Globalization \u2013 movement, economics, technology,<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Tisdale goes on to describe how congregational ethnographies should include congregational narratives and stories, rituals of congregational life, the community\u2019s art and architecture, the community\u2019s sages and heroes, folks on the margin of the community, events (celebrations and crises), and more (websites, histories, archives, and demographics).<sup>1<\/sup><\/p>\n<p>Sermons in the present tense address the concerns of individuals, congregations, and the larger community. What are the concerns of the people? Such a pastoral list of concerns might resemble your prayer list.<sup>2<\/sup><\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>When writing a sermon, find the correspondence between the \u201cconcerns of the text and the concerns of the \u201d When you have a pastoral list of people\u2019s concerns, you can compare it to the concerns of the text that emerged from your exegesis.<\/li>\n<li>When you compare your two lists, the spark of sermonic imagination occurs when you notice that, for example, <em>concern #6 <\/em>on your pastoral concern list correlates with <em>concern #2 <\/em>on your text concern On a different Sunday with a different text, then a different pastoral concern will correlate.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>Finally, there are three universal concerns that all people everywhere have: Transcendence (everyone everywhere wants to know that there is something out there bigger than themselves); Community (everyone everywhere longs to love and be loved); Significance (everyone everywhere wants to know that their life counts). Everybody is dealing with issues of identity, belonging, and purpose. There are certain universals of what it means to be human. Questions like, \u201cWhat keeps us awake at night?\u201d \u201cWhat are our aspirations, hopes, and dreams?\u201d \u201cWhat are our fears?\u201d \u201cWhat do we fear we might lose?\u201d \u201cWhat tears up our days?\u201d The list not only includes fear of death, condemnation, guilt, and shame, but also struggles with work, family, health, and finances.<\/p>\n<p>All of this requires patience.<sup>3<\/sup> Pedagogical Patience \u2013 People learn in stages and won\u2019t be able to accept \u201cD\u201d before they have accepted \u201cA\u201d, \u201cB\u201d, and \u201cC\u201d&#8230; Pastoral Patience \u2013 There are dynamics that might set limits on our constant engagement and a willingness to adjust.<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Tisdale, <em>Preaching as Local Theology and Folk Art, <\/em>64\u201377.<\/li>\n<li>Contextual analysis and the use of theological resources is beyond the scope of this guide. See Sensing, <em>Practicing Theology<\/em>, forthcoming.<\/li>\n<li>Mason Lee, ACU BIBM 693 class presentation. See also Mason Lee, <em>Learning to Speak of God: Patience as a Homiletical Virtue<\/em>, Eugene, OR: Pickwick, 2023.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Preaching (Part 5) Sermons must give witness to the theological claim of the text so that the congregation is transformed<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3578,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1225],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1036","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-preaching","comments-off"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Preaching with People in Mind - HomileticalSensings<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.acu.edu\/sensingt\/2024\/06\/preaching-to-the-congregation\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Preaching with People in Mind - 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