What On Earth Are We Doing in the Pulpit?
By Rollin Grams, Bible and Mission.
Some years ago, after delivering a ‘sermon’ as a visiting minister, one of the parishioners commented, ‘Well, that was more of a teaching than a sermon.’ ‘Good,’ I thought, but I am not so sure the parishioner was offering a compliment.
Here’s my distinction. ‘Preaching’ is Christian rhetoric, and by this I mean the classical definition of rhetoric as the ‘art of persuasion.’ Teaching, on the other hand, has to do with delivering content and demonstrating method in analyzing a text and its subject matter. At the back of the church building, the parishioners expecting preaching may say, ‘That was a really powerful sermon, pastor.’ At the end of a ‘teaching’ sermon, parishioners may say, ‘Thank you for helping me to see the meaning of that text, pastor.’
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