More often than not, God’s people in your pews will benefit from having an inkling of where your Lord’s Day journey will take them.
Preaching is like a pilgrimage.[1] The preacher is the tour guide leading the hearers on a transformative journey through God’s Word. There are moments of movement and moments of meditation, but if the preacher is doing his work well, there is always an end goal. This is because a pilgrimage is not an aimless meandering after whatever happens to come to mind, but a purposeful pursuit of God’s truth.
Perhaps another day I will take up the issue of sermons which lack even a basic sense of destination, but that is a bigger issue. For now, my aim is more modest. Assuming you as the preacher know what the destination of your Sunday morning pilgrimage is, and you have willing pilgrims in the pews, there exists between you both an implicit question as you mount the pulpit: Where are we going?
Too often, preachers simply do not say. The sermon gets going (perhaps with an introduction, perhaps not) and the hearers are left to figure out on the fly where they are headed. Suddenly, it is like the pilgrims have been turned into hostages. They know they are going somewhere, but they do not know where. A blindfold is not even necessary.
If the hearers do not know where they are headed in the sermon, they will more easily tune-out and be distracted. Given a regular pattern of “pilgrimages” which have no plain plan or purpose, they may stop coming altogether. After all, who wants to be a habitual hostage? You cannot blame them for walking away.
Plotting the Course
The good news is, given an otherwise clear focus and goal for the sermon, this is an easy problem to fix. It starts with you putting yourself in the pew, even literally. When you have been preparing to preach all week, it is easy to forget the folks on Sunday are hearing what you have to say for the first time. Assuming they do not have your three-point outline in front of them, they are simply trying to track along with you in real time. Recognize that these pilgrims would like to know where they are going.
When you have been preparing to preach all week, it is easy to forget the folks on Sunday are hearing what you have to say for the first time.
With this orientation in mind, you can now consider the content of your introduction itself. Good introductions will do several things. In the ancient wisdom of Cicero, the introduction will “arouse interest, secure favor, and prepare to lead.” It is this latter purpose which I especially have in view here. So, James Earl Massey writes, “The introduction should do what the term suggests—provide an initial clue to the aim and direction of the sermon.” It gives a good lead-in.
Let us stick with the pilgrimage metaphor. In the lead-in, you can avoid taking your hearers hostage by mapping out the course you are about to take them on. They do not need (or want) excessive detail at this point. You are simply giving an overview of the terrain: The main points along your shared journey in the sermon, and a hint toward the view they will get at the end.
My friend Gabe Kasper, lead pastor of University Lutheran Chapel in Ann Arbor, does an outstanding job of this in his sermons. Take, for instance, his recent Maundy Thursday message entitled “The Path of Love." He begins with an engaging and relevant anecdote to his theme in order to inductively draw the hearers in. Then, at about the four-minute mark (Gabe’s church is accustomed to longer messages) he lays out where they are headed: “The meal, the fellowship, the mandate.” He even establishes expectations for the message by saying they “should not expect any fireworks.” What he means by that is it will be some straightforward biblical exposition. This, too, is helpful and welcome to the pilgrims. Are we in for a bumpy ride? Smooth sailing? It is okay to let them know!
Of course, sometimes you are purposefully coy in the introduction. You are taking them on an unexpected journey, a surprising pilgrimage. This is the case especially in more inductive and narrative-based sermon structures. In this instance, to say too much at the outset would be to take an unsatisfying shortcut to discovery; well and good. Even here, however, you can signal to the hearers that you know where you are going and are keeping them in the dark for reasons which will become apparent.
More often than not, God’s people in your pews will benefit from having an inkling of where your Lord’s Day journey will take them. You serve them well, and keep them coming back, by proving to be a reliable tour guide who clearly maps out the way to the destination. Who would have guessed? Being a pilgrim is so much more pleasurable than being a hostage.
Write to Ryan Tinetti at pastortinetti@gmail.com
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[1] David Schmitt developed this image in a lecture at Concordia Seminary entitled “Shaping the Sermon: Preaching as Pilgrimage.” You can view it here: https://scholar.csl.edu/theo/2011/schedule/12/.
