Make the Word Come Alive: Lessons from Laity (Channels of Listening) Review

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Make the Word Come Alive: Lessons from Laity (Channels of Listening) Review'Make the Word Come Alive' is the fourth volume in the Channels of Listening series, a Lilly Endowment funded study to learn how people listen to, understand and respond to sermons in different churches. The study involved a diverse collection of people, congregations and scholars at my seminary and elsewhere. The first three volumes have been published over the last year or so, and include 'Listening to Listeners', 'Hearing The Sermon: Relationship / Content / Feeling', and 'Believing In Preaching: What Listeners Hear In Sermons'.
With this particular volume, the data collected is used to identify shared elements. 'The twelve chapters of this book lift up twelve qualities that many listeners find appealing in sermons.' The purpose is to advise preachers to help them provide more effective sermons.
To be sure, there are far more than twelve elements to a good sermon. However, those listed here are the ones that most consistently were mentioned across the board by interviewees. Also, there is a great diversity of opinion present in the data collected by this study, and there is no one-size-fits-all kind of formula or construct for effective preaching. 'Indeed, within the same chapter, we cite interviewees who say they are turned off by some of the very qualities of preaching others report here as inviting.' As a preacher myself, I can testify to the validity of this observation - when I invited my congregation board to critique my preaching as part of a study, there were elements of my own preaching that some simultaneously strongly liked and strongly disliked.
Included among the items highlighted here are elements of spiritual and intellectual substance, embodiment and ownership, and practical effective speaking tips. These are on some level often common sensical - preachers who live the preaching (practice what they preach) are probably more effective or seen to have more authority; making the sermon clear in simple (as opposed to simplistic) and clear language will be better received than sermons designed to impress the congregation with the theological complexity of the preacher's education. That being said, people do want theological substance and honest answers, and don't want censored sermons that shy away from complex or real world issues.
As I was reading through this book (and I must confess, I had already read the earlier three volumes in the series, as well as a number of other books by authors Ron Allen and Mary Alice Mulligan), I kept seeing themes that were already familiar, but were brought into great clarity. I think that most preachers will find things that they recognise about themselves, both in things that they are doing right as well as elements for improvement.
Authors Allen and Mulligan draw extensively on the feedback of the interviewees for this volume - 263 of them - and use direct quotes from them frequently. Many preachers should be able to see these quotations as possible if not likely from their own congregation members; there were times when I wondered if some of my own congregants were among those being interviewed, the quotes seem so appropriate for certain individuals in my own community.
This book is the kind of book most likely read by preachers and seminarians, but will also be of benefit to those who are listeners of sermons, to enable them to be more aware of their own experiences and responses. This is not the kind of book that is designed to give preachers a system for producing lightning-rod sermons every Sunday - however, congregation members often don't expect this. According to one interviewee:
'I don't expect every sermon every week to be stunning. A lot of times sermons grow on you. You come to understand a person's way of preaching. They can have a power over a period of weeks that is maybe not stunning the first time.'
Allen likens this to a slow drip in a faucet that has negligible effects in the short term, but dramatic effects in the longer term. Perhaps the example of a stream carving a valley in the desert would also be appropriate here - over the course of time, the simple stream can form a Grand Canyon where none was before, but it is not the particular flow of water on any given day that achieves this, but rather the accumulation of effects over time.
I was fortunate to have both Mary Alice Mulligan and Ron Allen as professors in preaching classes at my seminary. This text reminds me of the power of their teaching, and will serve the dedicated reader well.
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