It seems to be becoming a trend.  If you don’t like an author in one area, you ditch the author in every area.  Yikes.  That sounds kinda silly to me.  None of us would like to be treated in this way.

Tim Keller is one who receives this treatment.  I’ve heard people say that because of his perspective on the role of women in the church, they won’t read anything he writes.  Then I have it on good authority that towards the conservative end of the theological spectrum, there are organisations that no longer sell his books.  I don’t know the reasons.  And yet Keller is one of the most articulate and prophetic voices available to us.  I am loving the ‘How to Reach the West Again’ podcast at the moment.

If you are one who thinks in this kind of way, you may find it better to exit this post now!

Over Christmas I read two books on preaching at the same time.  One by a woman; the other by a man.  One very American; the other very British.  One emerging more from the world of the academic-scholar; the other from the world of the practitioner-preacher.  One coming from beyond the evangelical world; the other from within the evangelical world.  One reflecting on six decades on women preachers; the other a personal reflection on five decades in preaching.  One using words like herstory and foremothers; the other sticking to male pronouns and descriptors.  One focusing—primarily, for me, anyway—on a voice to be heard; the other focusing on a wisdom to be shared.

… and both of them claiming to be about transformation, with the word appearing in both titles.

The final chapter gathers responses to this question: ‘From your vantage point, what difference has the presence of so many clergywomen and women homiletical scholars made in how we experience and perceive preaching today?’ (50-51).  Ten affirmations are gathered together.  It is a testimony to which every preacher should draw near to listen.  Things like noting ‘the significance of bringing women’s life experience into the pulpit’ (58); providing ‘a safer space in which women and others oppressed can hear sermons’ (62); recognising how ‘authority in preaching is exercised in a less hierarchial, more invitational way’ (64) …

While I am not convinced that these are now the domain of women preachers alone, I acknowledge that women were early ‘sounders of the alarm’.  Many years ago I invited a panel of women preachers into the classroom.  I asked a similar question of them and the response was along the lines of ‘we are no different from men preachers’.  I think I understand what they were trying to affirm in that context at that time, but I remember being so deflated by the response—and I’m still not convinced they were right!  Years later, I wonder how they’d engage with this survey in that it assumes there is a distinctive contribution to be made by women.

One observation, given my work with Langham Preaching and its heart for preachers beyond the reach of the academy, is the author’s almost exclusive focus on ordination as the mark of progress in the story she tells (see pp 87-93).  I recognise ordination to be an important step in the journey for some women, but not for all of them.  There is a lot of preaching that does happen and needs to happen outside of ordination.  My mind wanders across to countries with a high proportion of women participants in our training (like Indonesia and Pakistan, the two most populous Muslim countries in the world).  Making ordination the measurement of transformation would be unwise.

I’ve been in the homiletics classroom every year since 1990.  My intuitive sense is that women tend to surface, on average, with greater skill and potential than their men counterparts—but then often go on to sink more quickly within the church traditions from which they come.  One of my favourite stories is a recent one.  A shy young woman in India had been damaged by previous public speaking experiences.  She spoke to me a few times about being excused from preaching in class.  There were lots of discussions throughout the module, and I encouraged her to open up with trusted people outside the class as well (like Barby).  However I was feeling stubborn.  This was the moment, safe and affirming, to break through the fears and the hurts.  If not now, it might be never!  On the day I was going to relent (a bit), she came to me saying that she’d give it a try.  That is what she did.  Such courage!  Hers was among the best sermons in the class.  Her little card to me, after the module finished, is precious.  The last time I heard from her she was teaching homiletics in her Bible college.

He meanders his way through different parts of the Bible, as he reflects on a range of issues.  He leaves me gasping a bit, as he tends to rush from one passage to the next, but I suspect he wants to convey that his reflections emerge as he swims in the text of Scripture.  

There are not many footnotes, but the ones mentioned most frequently come from NIDNTT (link here), one of the transformative resources from my time as a seminary student.  It lay open on my desk every week as a young pastor, helping me understand the words of Scripture.

As you’d expect from a personal reflection on 50 years, the wisdom pours out.  The danger of ‘impository preaching’ (70), going with ‘the bees that are buzzing in the bonnet’ (70).  Asking ‘Where is the Bible in your ‘car’?, meaning your preaching ministry, or your church’ (30). Back seat? Boot? Passenger seat?  ‘Indicatives prepare the way for imperatives’ (41).  In preaching from the Old Testament, asking ‘what difference does it make that Jesus has come?’ (173).  It goes on and on.

So there you have it: the Academy of Homiletics and The Proclamation Trust.  I’ve dabbled in both worlds, without being a card-carrying member of either one.  I like to engage the first world for its methodologies and creativity.  It ignites my imagination (for example, The Artistry of Preaching series, about which I’ve blogged here).  I like to engage the second world for its theologies and convictions.  It buttresses my spirit.  

When it comes to the sermon itself, each could learn a bit from the other.  Speaking very generally…  In the former world there can be this tendency to be like a plane that circles the text without coming into land in it.  The text is read and then merely talked about, with the Bible often closed and put to one side for the sermon.  Yikes.  Don’t try that trick in my class :).  In the latter there can be this tendency to taxi up and down the runway for the duration of the sermon, with explaining the text considered to be the entire purpose of the sermon.  While something like Stottian ‘double listening’ (that is, listening to Word and world) is affirmed to be important, the sermon often proceeds without engaging, or being engaged by, the world much at all.

I hope there are others out there who will benefit from drawing from both wells. 

nice chatting

Paul

PS: Coming back to preaching being transformed, Jackman is onto something when he observes that ‘theological training has become increasingly academicised’ (19).  I’ve just spent 12 years living in both the more ‘formal’ academy and the more ‘non-formal’ world of Langham Preaching at the same time.  While they are better together, I have found that there is much that the former can learn from the latter.  The former tends to focus on participating in a course, while the latter shifts the focus to practicing in small groups and passing on the learning to others, which is when the real transformation takes place.