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Over at the Expository Thoughts blog, Paul Lamey gives a parable about preaching where one preacher, named Pastor Lite, simply gives the people rice cakes. These rice cakes are flavored well and thus provide the people something tasty but not very filling. However, another preacher, named Flames Montgomery, gave the people steaks and the people got full.
This is a powerful parable and should make all of us preachers think about what we are giving the people to eat in our sermons. However in the back of my mind, I just can’t help but think of the preacher on another corner, who I will name Pastor Soul, who is giving the people macaroni and cheese, Collard Greens, maybe some chicken, and closing it with some sweet potato pie. The people go away with both the tasty treat that Pastor Lite attempted to give as well as the solid meal that Flames Montgomery gives.
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Hey Brother,
I hear you. We need style and substance but the problem in my neck of the woods is all style and no substance.
Since you got me thinking about food, we need to have a pastors meeting at G’s Country Kitchen next time your in Huntsville. It’s the best soul food around here.
Blessings,
Paul
I hear you…It can be very problematic to have all style with very little substance…I just want us to be careful not to think that substance with no style is the alternative…In fact I don’t think there is a such thing as good substance and no style…I think a better way to articulate this phenomenon is to say good substance…POOR style…
I would argue that poor style is just as problematic as poor content…Let me add quickly that by style I do not mean that which is usually tied to African American preachers…I have heard preachers of other ethnicities that exhibited “style” in a different way than many African Americans, but it was an engaging style whether conversational or other tone.
Ultimately we agree…both style and substance are important…And I don’t want to force any of the hearers of my sermons to choose between one or the other…
God Bless and Keep on posting provocative stuff on your blog…
Poor style turns off some people but for me it is the substance that is important. When the audience starts to become sleepy, then the style must be improved. It is hard indeed to feed people who are sleeping.