Preacher's Magazine Volume 59 Number 04 Wesley Tracy (Editor) Olivet Nazarene University
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Olivet Nazarene University Digital Commons @ Olivet Preacher's Magazine Church of the Nazarene 6-1-1984 Preacher's Magazine Volume 59 Number 04 Wesley Tracy (Editor) Olivet Nazarene University Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.olivet.edu/cotn_pm Part of the Biblical Studies Commons, Christian Denominations and Sects Commons, International and Intercultural Communication Commons, Liturgy and Worship Commons, Missions and World Christianity Commons, and the Practical Theology Commons Recommended Citation Tracy, Wesley (Editor), "Preacher's Magazine Volume 59 Number 04" (1984). Preacher's Magazine. 586. https://digitalcommons.olivet.edu/cotn_pm/586 This Journal Issue is brought to you for free and open access by the Church of the Nazarene at Digital Commons @ Olivet. It has been accepted for inclusion in Preacher's Magazine by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons @ Olivet. For more information, please contact [email protected]. JUNE, JULY, AUGUST, 1984 WHEN YOU’RE OUT YOU’RE OUT 4 THE DISCIPLINE OF STUDY 12 IS PREACHING IRRELEVANT? 18 MINISTERING TO OLDER ADULTS 31 PREPARING CHURCH MEMBERS 44 OVERCOMING DESPAIR 52 FINNEY ON REPENTANCE 56 Suitable Framing Processionary Caterpillars Processionary caterpillars feed upon pine needles. They move through the trees in a long procession, one leading and the others following— each with his eyes half closed and his head snugly fitted against the rear ex trem ity of his predecessor. Jean-Henri Fabre, the great French naturalist, after pa tiently experimenting w ith a group of the caterpillars, finally enticed them to the rim of a large flowerpot. He succeeded in getting the first one connected up with the last one, thus forming a complete circle, which started moving around in a procession, with neither begin ning nor end. The naturalist expected that after a while they would catch on to the joke, get tired of their useless march, and start off in some new direction. But not so. Through sheer force of habit, the living, creeping circle kept moving around the rim of the pot— around and around, keeping the same relentless pace for seven days and seven nights— and would doubtless have con tinued longer had it not been for sheer exhaustion and ultimate starvation. Incidentally, an ample supply of food was close at hand and plainly visible, but it was outside the range of the circle so they continued along the beaten path. They were following instinct— habit— custom— tradi tion— precedent— past experience— "standard prac tice"— or whatever you may choose to call it, but they were following it blindly. They meant well— but got no place. Of course the natural application to the church is obvious. But ponder why both leaders and followers in the church are so happy w ith this arrangement. EDITORIAL PREACHING POINT Wesley Tracy by Wesley Tracy ighty-five percent of preachers," declared my first homi “Levensky the communist, harangued the ditch diggers." letics professor, Donald Metz, “say the same thing in the Now the phrasing is specific. Note the benefits of the law of Esame way.” Twenty-five years later I asked Metz if he stillspecificity. believed his 85-percent formula. “No,” he shot back, “it’s a lot 1. Increased clarity. higher than that.” 2. The quality of communication is improved. If Metz is right, and I think he is, the matter of preaching 3. The risk of misunderstanding is reduced. style is as neglected as a ragweed in a rose garden. If you 4. The mental images are much sharper. examine your books on preaching, you will discover that the 5. The abstract gives way to the concrete. chapter (or page) on style is buried in the back of the book. All of the foregoing benefits are important. I will enlarge only From the conglomeration of odds and ends that gets stuffed on number five. Conquering abstractness is a formidable in the “style” section you may also begin to wonder if anyone problem, especially when preaching about theological prin really knows what “style” is. Everything from gestures to ger ciples or doctrines. The law of specificity is one way of con unds gets herded into the same corral and branded “style.” quering the abstract with the concrete. Specifics tend to be Some authors flail at the obvious for a few pages and then more concrete; generalities more abstract. declare that style is a personal thing anyway, different for One preacher declared, “The relative value of the transitory each preacher and something that is more or less automatic. deceives many. Thus the temporal is chosen at the expense As long as it is sincere and natural it will take care of itself. of the eternal.” Jesus said the same thing in specific, concrete Thus style is sent to the end of the line of preaching priorities. language: “What shall it profit a man, if he gain the whole To me style is the skillful use of language that makes the world, and lose his own soul.” spoken message clear, simple, direct, personal, vital, and ef One speaker touted the emptiness of life by saying, “Mortal fective. The Earl of Chesterfield in 1749 called style the “dress existence is victimized by the fecund human imagination for thought.” In 1980 Haddon W. Robinson called it the same which invents ruses to escape the reality that human life is thing. Maybe they are right. The preacher’s style task, then, is meaningless.” Shakespeare, a master of specificity and con to search for the right words— the right wardrobe for the lofty creteness, expressed the same theme: themes of the Bible. Robinson declares that this search Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player “scrapes the fungus off thought.”1 That struts and frets his hour upon the stage Elizabeth Achtemeier reminds us that to neglect the mas And then is heard no more: it is a tale tery of language Told by an idiot, full o f sound and fury, is to be like a carpenter who . sets out to fashion a piece Signifying nothing.3 of fine furniture, using nothing but an ax. We may hack Here are some abstract generalities that I’ve heard in recent away at a congregation with tools totally inappropriate to sermons that could be improved by the law of specificity: their purpose— dull words, misleading sentences, repeti “Enter the realm of redemption.” (Is this the Green Stamp tious paragraphs, ineffective illustrations. Or we may take store?) up the fine tool of language, honed and polished to a cut “Keep the faith, walk in the light, and reap the harvest.” ting edge, and then trust that God will use it to fashion his (What could all that mean to a visitor?) people— his work of art in Christ (Eph. 2:10).2 “Live by heaven's standards, not earth’s standards.” (Well, Such a challenge sets many style-related concerns to wav what are they? Do you want me to stop swearing, help the ing their hands for recognition like the schoolboy who finally hungry, or go on a diet?) knows an answer. Clarity, simplicity, appropriateness, vivid “I want to go all the way with Jesus." (You what?) ness all wave “I know! I know!” Anaphoric cadence, asso “In Eden, that first couple had ample sources of satis nance, personification, chiasmus, metaphor, simile, syn faction." (Well, what satisfactions did they have?) ecdoche, and the like put eager palms in the air. Even the “Job was faced with overwhelming difficulties." (I heard he forgotten waif, the “periodic sentence,” says, “I can help." had sores and a nagging wife.) Ignoring all these, for now, let me call on just one stylistic “We indulged in an act of generosity.” (So what did you device that has been snubbed in a lot of sermons I’ve heard do— put a dollar in the offering? Or put the Preacher's Maga lately. Let the law of specificity speak. The law goes some zine in your will?”) thing like this: If you replace general words, phrases, and Such generalities are sometimes all right as topic sen images with specific words, phrases, and images you en tences. But meanings must be spelled out. hance communication. Perhaps the Bible is our best coach on the law of concrete Consider this example from The Golden Book on Writing by specificity. In Psalm 104 David could have said trees, but he David Lambuth: cited cedars and firs. He could have said animals, but he said “The man talked to the workers." wild asses and grazing cattle. He specifies the stork, not just This sentence is acceptable so far as grammar and syntax birds. Human life is concretized, being described as grass and are concerned. It is weak because of its general phrasing. It a flower soon to wither. The Bible does not leave God an needs the fungus scraped off. Here is Lambuth's rewrite: “oblong blur” in the mind of man. He is called, specifically and 1 concretely, a father, a husband, a bridegroom, a shepherd, a dities, hazy abstractions, and fuzzy generalities full of “sound farmer, a fire, a king, and a redeemer of slaves.4 and fury, signifying nothing." Some preachers believe it is “unspiritual" to search for the It seems that failing to labor to find the right words is rather “right words.” Their style seems to be to get themselves so "unspiritual" after all. And if you want to get started applying emotionally wrought up about the subject that they can't hold the law of specificity right away, try it out on the preceding back the words. Mistaking this for “unction” they passionately sentence. blurt out their feelings as loud and fast as they can.