Preach Magazine Issue 1 - Creativity and innovation in preaching | Page 19

INTERVIEW

can indeed engage the cynic effectively.
Again, the church provides a kind
of ‘captive audience’, and preachers
understandably focus on feeding the
sheep in the fold, rather than attracting
new ones.
A clergy friend of mine tells me of the
enormous difference in the way people
treat him when he wears a collar. They
don’t tend to initiate conversation, they
feel awkward around him, and some
even try to avoid him in light of all the
clergy scandals they’ve heard about.
Of course, a new breed of seeker
churches has a different approach,
with varying degrees of success. In my
country, such churches usually meet in
buildings that don’t look like churches,
emphasise entertainment through
music and drama, and direct some
services with an uncommitted audience
in mind. By doing so, however, they rely
on the same style as pilgrims, activists,
and artists. They tend to present truth
indirectly, rather than directly, which
often is the most powerful way. After
all, the vast majority of the Bible
expresses itself in the form of story and
poetry, not propositions.

JS You are very concerned with faith

making a visible difference. Can a
preacher’s words have power if their
life doesn’t mirror what they teach?

My first instinct is to answer ‘No’,
because I think of Christian leaders
who are involved in scandalous
situations and the negative impact that
follows in their wake. However, I have
often seen God ‘overrule’ a preacher’s
failures by using the words to reach
people despite the speaker’s personal
flaws. I’ve experienced that myself.
I’ve left a hotel room torn up over a
very tense family situation, delivered
what I felt was a flat and perfunctory
sermon, only to find it had a deep effect
on someone in the congregation or
aud