COLUMN
COLUMNIST
KATE BOTTLEY
Funny you
should say that
Ahead of Preach and London School of Theology’s
‘Sermon of the Year’ competition, a piece of research
came out about what the average congregation
wants from the preaching slot at church.
L
ots of media outlets picked up
on the story, and Preach asked
if I’d be happy to have a look at
the research and speak to some
of the popular press about what I
thought of it.
The research took me by surprise,
to be honest. It was a poll of
around 1,400 churchgoers who
overwhelmingly expressed a
preference for longer and meatier
sermons. It seemed to suggest
congregations want around
20 minutes of preaching, and
encouraged preachers to not skimp
on the theology and tread carefully
with jokes and anecdotes. This is
not good news for me. I’ll confess I
sometimes pay more attention to
the humour of my anecdote than
the strength of my exegesis and I
never preach over ten minutes, ever.
Admittedly this often has more to do
with having to rush off to another
service than compassion for the
attention span of my parishioners,
but even so. I was always led to
believe that the best of sermons
follow that familiar saying: ‘Stand
up, speak up, shut up’. I’m left
wondering who the 1,400 people
were that Christian Research spoke
to. My experience has been that
actually humour and brevity are not
only tolerated by the congregation
but actively welcomed. I guess
it depends on the congregation
though. I wonder is it a north/south
thing? A male/female split?
I’ve been thinking about the results
of the research ever since the Daily
Telegraph quoted me as saying ‘jokes
in sermons can be the equivalent
of dad-dancing’, something that
was repeated on Radio 4 rather a
lot, much to my embarrassment. I
suspect that what this might all be
about is authenticity. I like humour
in a sermon. What I don’t like is
the agony of someone trying to
be funny when they are not. I like
storytelling and anecdotes, but not
if the storyteller can’t tell stories. I
suspect what’s behind this research
is not the headline of ‘preach long
and preach heavy’, which seems
so countercultural, but something
about authenticity. Perhaps the
headline should have been ‘Preach
how you like, but keep it real’.
The research, of course, was also
focused on churchgoers. Without
being rude, delightful though they
are, they are already in the gang,
aren’t they? Discipleship is vital
to a healthy church but I’d rather
preach to those who don’t know
and aren’t ‘in the gang’ than preach
to the choir. I wonder if the results
of the research would have been
different if you’d asked a wedding
family or a funeral congregation
or the guests at a christening what
MY EXPERIENCE HAS BEEN
THAT ACTUALLY HUMOUR
AND BREVITY ARE NOT
ONLY TOLERATED BY THE
CONGREGATION BUT
ACTIVELY WELCOMED.
they wanted from the ‘talky bit’?
I’m not sure the gorgeous wedding
I was privileged to be part of last
Saturday would have ended with
quite such lovely smiles if I’d done a
40-minute sermon on the nuances
of the translation from Greek of
1 Corinthians 13, but then again
perhaps I’m wrong and I sold the
bride and groom short with my
ten minutes and LEGO illustration.
I think any preaching should try
to be authentic, never take for
granted the significance of what we
are doing when we preach, and of
course play to our strengths.
Kate Bottley
Kate Bottley is an Anglican priest, wife and
mother, who stars in Channel 4’s Gogglebox. She
gained a national profile when a YouTube video of
her leading a flash mob at the end of a wedding
ceremony went viral in 2013, and has since done
a wonderful job of dismantling stereotypes about
Church of England clergy.
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