What is Imaginative Preaching?

Written by Rev. Dr. Heather Henson, Director of Quest

 

I want you to think about the last time you sat in a meeting, or even, dare I say it, a Sunday morning worship service, and thought, “This could have been an email.” I want you to picture what color that day felt like. You heard me. Color. Write it down or say it out loud.

Did you come up with colors like gray, coffee brown, or even burnt smashed pea green? No offense to coffee, which is a beautiful shade of brown. I’m guessing you didn’t think of your favorite color.

Now, I want you to picture in your mind one of those sermons or messages that had you fully engaged. Consider a beautiful book or a perfect song. It might even be something you listened to as a podcast or watched on YouTube. Picture that thing that was transformative for you, that made you hold still and listen more closely, maybe even play it back or reread it several times.

What color was that experience? Where were you? How did it feel for the world to stop and hold still around you?

Isn’t that what we hope will happen when we preach or teach? At least sometimes? We want people to lean in. We want them to draw near. We want to say something that moves. And yes, we know any movement in the lives of hearers comes from the Holy Spirit and not from us. But also, the Lord uses us. When I preach, I don’t want people working hard to follow along or connect. I want to hold space for the work of the Holy Spirit. I want the color of that message to be described as, well, not brown.

Great, imaginative, impactful sermons leave a lasting impression on us. They invite us to enter into the word of the Lord and let it transform us in a way that is hard to describe.

Imaginative sermons are not about “making something up” that no one has heard before. Imaginative preaching is not grabbing a gimmick or chasing the latest trend. It’s not about finding a better outline or adding more razzle-dazzle to our sermons. If we want to craft sermons that draw people in, make them lean forward, and invite them into the presence of the Holy Spirit, then we have to change not only the structure of our sermons but how we prepare them. The problem is not actually the content. The problem is how we approach the actual process of writing a sermon.

Let’s look at it this way. There are all kinds of things that suggest what we eat is not nearly as important as where we eat and with whom we eat. Think about that favorite meal you have at your grandmother’s house, the one made with love. It is partially the best food you’ve ever had because it was with your grandmother. Just like the environment in which we eat a meal impacts how we experience that meal, the way we approach the text and what we do with it impacts the way people experience it.

So, what do we need to change? That’s what this next series is about: five simple things and ways of thinking that impact our sermons. Five steps to move from everyday, run-of-the-mill, plug-and-chug sermons to imaginative and impactful sermons.

But before we get into those five steps, I want to define clearly what imaginative sermons are not.

1. They are not about the structure. You will not find an easy outline where, if you just put in the right funny story or a great movie clip, you will end up with an imaginative sermon. Too often, the temptation is to reduce the sermon crafting process to simply finding the “right” information and outlining it better.
2. Imaginative sermons are not about being novel or profound. They are about authentically engaging Scripture and the process of writing the sermon in a unique way. Doing something unusual for the sake of being unique is not the goal.
3. Finally, imaginative sermons do not forego great exegetical work. That step is very important. The challenge is not about changing the content. It’s about changing the way we approach the text. It’s about looking for where God is and following the Holy Spirit.

 

So the first step toward creative, imaginative preaching is to notice. Notice what you currently do. Over the next few blogs, we’ll walk through five steps for approaching preaching as an imaginative process. But for now, watch your process and write it down.

How do you preach? What steps do you take? What are your routines and habits? Where are you feeling stale? Invite the Lord to help you hold your sermon process and show you what God sees.

I leave you with this beautiful verse that we’ll visit throughout this mini-series.

Psalm 33:6-9 says, “By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, their starry host by the breath of his mouth. He gathers the waters of the sea into jars; he puts the deep into storehouses. Let all the earth fear the Lord; let all the people of the world revere him! For he spoke and it came to be; he commanded, and it stood firm.”