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Is It Any Wonder People Are Bored With Our Sermons?

2. Open Letter

An open letter is addressed to one person or group but meant to be “overheard” by everyone. Open letters sometimes appear as op-ed pieces in a newspaper, addressed to a prominent leader or celebrity. Martin Luther King Jr. also used this form in his “Letter to American Christians,” an open letter fictitiously attributed to the apostle Paul. The open letter is a good way to address controversial topics without embarrassment to the hearer because the communication is ostensibly directed at a third party.

3. Monologue

A monologue casts the preacher in the role of a character from Scripture, literature or history. The preacher remains in character for the entire sermon, which is a speech delivered by that character to the audience. The preacher might choose to appear in costume as well. The advantage of a monologue is that it instantly creates a dramatic setting and hooks the reader. Monologue can be difficult because it calls for the preacher to maintain the character and recite the entire message. A speech by David based on Psalm 51, a “Skype call” from the apostle Peter or a training session for leaders from John Wesley could be subjects for monologue sermons.

 4. Dialogue

A dialogue is similar to a monologue except that there are two speakers. In a dialogue, the audience of the message is the other person involved in the dialogue. The congregation “listening in” to the conversation. A dialogic sermon can be done dramatically, with each speaker in character, or naturally, with the speakers as themselves. A dialogue can be a good way to explore a controversial or hard-to-understand subject because each speaker can present a different point of view and question the other speaker.

5. Tag Team

A tag-team sermon is similar to a dialogue in that there are two (or more) speakers but different in that the speakers address the audience rather than one another. In a tag-team sermon, the speakers simply take turns presenting elements of the message. People with different areas of expertise can make an effective tag team: for example, a biblical scholar and a pastoral counselor, or a local pastor and a missionary, or a man and a woman. This is more of a preaching technique than a sermon form. Even so, it requires a bit more creativity and imagination than a simple textual or topical message.

6. Narrative

A narrative sermon is a story told with running commentary by the preacher that adds insight, interpretive information and application. The simplest method is to retell a Bible story while adding details, supplying thoughts or dialogue for the characters, describing the setting in more detail, and commenting on the principles, discoveries or truths that emerge from the story. As people read less and depend more on audio and video for information, imaginative storytelling is likely to become a more popular form of preaching.

7. Biographical Sermon

A biographical sermon tells the story of a person’s life, usually a biblical character or prominent historical person. It is similar to a narrative sermon but includes a broader story—not just one episode but an entire life.

8. Dramatic Reading

Here the preacher reads a piece of literature, adding dramatic emphasis through voice, movement and gestures. The reading could be a biblical text, a sermon written by another preacher, a poem, a story or another literary form. The preacher might briefly introduce the reading and may give a brief closing comment, but the real work is done by the text itself.

I recently heard Steve Emery deliver a dramatic-reading sermon on the subject of prayer. The sermon was a story written by Ethel Barrett, a Christian storyteller who was popular in the 1950s and ’60s. After a one- or two-minute introduction, Steve read the story verbatim, creating voices for the various characters, adding dramatic pauses and using his deep bass voice to bring the story to life. It was highly effective.

9. Recitation

In a recitation, the preacher quotes a piece of literature verbatim. It could be a passage of Scripture, a poem or even another sermon. In this case, it is obvious that the preacher is reciting another person’s work, so it may be done with or without a specific introduction. The preacher need not be “in character” as the originator of the work, but the value of the recitation lies in adding dramatic emphasis through the use of voice, movement and gestures.

My father, Norman G. Wilson, occasionally recites the Sermon on the Mount as a sermon. The only introduction given is the introduction in the text itself, read by another person, “Now when Jesus saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him, and he began to teach them.” Then Dad begins reciting the text, speaking as if the words were his own. People listen closely to a recitation, possibly to see if the preacher will do it perfectly! It is a remarkably effective way to get people deeper into a text.

10. Creative Essay

An essay is nonfiction writing that relies heavily on the author’s experience or point of view. As such, nearly every sermon is an essay. A creative essay, however, takes the personal and literary nature of the form more seriously. While most textual and topical sermons are developed using conventional rhetoric, a creative essay may rely on personal narrative, creative imagery, literary quotations or other methods. A creative essay might be used to critique a popularly held idea, to offer a manifesto, or to make observations on the current state of church or society. A creative essay would most likely be read verbatim.

Textual and topical sermons will likely remain the staple of American preaching for some time. Yet the recent rise of narrative preaching demonstrates that audiences are now as suspicious of facile propositions as they once were of imaginative allegories. Perhaps it’s time for creative preaching to make a comeback.