by Bishop Bill Gohl
When I was at Zion, Middletown to preach for their Stewardship Weekend, a young man whom I later found out was not a member, though attending with his girlfriend and family, came up to me and said, "You got me thinking today. We get a lot more from this church than we give. We need to step it up." (Pastor Kathy Vitalis Hoffman and Pastor Beth Clementson are now recruiting him to chair the Stewardship Committee...just kidding).
When I was with our students at FreeRide, I was stunned by how many of our young people came up to me to thank me for my preaching and then explained what I had said that intersected with their faith and life. My sense of the church’s future is far more secure in the leadership and faithfulness of our students.
When I was at All Saints, Baltimore, a woman came "toe-to-toe" with me after worship and told me that a few things that I said "infuriated" her. We talked a little, but she walked away muttering that "the only good thing about the new bishop’s preaching is that it was loud enough to hear!"
I love to preach with the people of God – and I do appreciate the dialogue that comes from the preaching event (the word "sermon" means "to dialogue," though often the dialog seems very one-sided). I enjoy when people use words like "challenged," "appreciated," "made me think," "pushed me," – even "infuriated." It reminds me that what we do as preachers, and what we say from the pulpit, matters.
What "challenges" me, however, is when someone simply shakes my hand and says, "Nice sermon." It’s so benign, so deflating. I know it is offered with well-meaning intent, but there’s something about having one’s study and proverbial "blood, sweat and tears" reduced to being "nice" that sometimes sets me off!
On the other hand, a few weeks ago at Zion, I sort of "conked out" in my preaching. I was "on" at the first service, fairly reasonable at the second service – and running on fumes by the third service (which, of course, was the largest crowd and where I was presented the gift of the best apple butter I ever ate). I wasn’t feeling the anointing, nor the same Spirit flowing as I did at the earlier services. There were plenty of "nice sermon" comments on the way out (did I mention there were seven other pastors in attendance, too?); sometimes "nice" is as kind a thing as one can say in the face of poor pickings. Still, it was that last service where the young man confessed his need to "step it up."
That’s when I am reminded that the sermon is not a speech or an oratory, it is God’s Word for God’s people. It is heard and experienced by different people in different ways. "Paul planted, Apollos watered, but God gives the increase" kinds of kairos moments. And I am grateful again for the privilege of this call – and the joyful burden of preaching.
I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry. - II Timothy 4:1-5 (ESV)