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The Social Solitude Of Preaching

Published Date: January 29, 2015

by: Talbot Davis

Preaching is an intensely solitary activity.

Preaching is a thoroughly social exercise.

Which is it?  Solitary or social?

Yes.

My own process of preparation is wholly wrapped in solitude.  I study, I jot, I brainstorm, I fret, I pray, I get excited, I become depressed, I write . . . all on my own.  At my desk in the office or at my dining room table at my home.  The only input I get during that process is some occasional wordsmithing advice I receive from trusted friends.

And while I work several weeks in advance, I still need to prepare a message almost every week.  And until the last word is written and the printed sermon is in the “hopper” . . . I’m not terribly social around the office. But when it’s done . . . I’m full of high fives, stop-by-your-office-to-shoot-the-breeze, and the casual conversations that make working environments worthwhile. 

So sermonizing is inherently solitary.

But sermon delivery is, by definition, social.  (Unless attendance at Good Shepherd declines to zero, something I don’t have much interest in being part of.)

There is a gathered community.  I see responses — or lack thereof — on people’s faces and in their posture.  Some register the “a-ha! I never knew that before!” look that lets me know I have engaged their mind. Others betray the “that hit close to home” look that lets me know I have engaged their heart.

The preaching event is, as I shared earlier this week, a shared journey towards a common destination.  We in the room do it together, and if we do it well people don’t feel I’m preaching at them but preaching with them.

So: solitary preparation leads to social delivery.

It’s why some of the best preachers you’ve ever heard are inescapably introverted in their personal lives.  And it’s also why a few of the “hail fellow well met” types can’t preach their way out of a paper bag.

And it’s all part of the ambiguity that makes preaching an endlessly fascinating endeavor at Good Shepherd. 

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0 responses to “The Social Solitude Of Preaching”

  1. Beth says:

    Enjoyed your linking of solitary and social it put a different twist on what I might have taken for granted!

  2. Mark Killam says:

    Well said. And I would add, after all these many years, it is an endlessly intriguing and fulfilling enterprise in any locale.

  3. Brian Braunschweiger says:

    And the solitary preparation is fed by the social interactions we have that lead to effective illustrations. And the social delivery gets reinforced not only by the non-verbal signals of the congregation as we preach but also, if we are lucky, bu the verbal reinforcements of “Amen,” “preach it” and “that’s right”

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