So you want to be a preacher?

From Kyle Covett at Mayfly comes this luscious George Eliot quote:

Given, a man with moderate intellect, a moral standard not higher than the average, some rhetorical affluence and great glibness of speech, what is the career in which, without aid of birth or money, he may most easily attain power and reputation…?

…in which a smattering of science and learning will pass for profound instruction, where platitudes will be accepted as wisdom, bigoted narrowness as holy zeal, unctuous egoism as God-given piety? Let such a man become an evangelical preacher; he will then find it possible to reconcile small ability with great ambition, superficial knowledge with the prestige of erudition, a middling morale with a high reputation of sanctity.

Pleasant to the clerical flesh… is the arrival of Sunday! … He has an immense advantage over all other public speakers. The platform orator is subject to the criticism of hisses and groans. Counsel for the plaintiff expects the retort of counsel for the defendant. The honorable gentleman on one side of the House is liable to have his facts and figures shown up by his honorable friend on the opposite side…. the preacher is completely master of the situation: no one may hiss, no one may depart. Like the writer of imaginary conversations, he may put what imbecilities he pleases into the mouths of his antagonists, and swell with triumph when he has refuted them. He may riot in gratuitous assertions, confident that no man will contradict him; he may exercise perfect free-will in logic, and invent illustrative experience; he may give an evangelical edition of history with the inconvenient facts omitted;-all this he may do with impunity, certain that those of his hearers who are not sympathizing are not listening.

Comments

[Peter Kirk]

Bloggers who don't allow comments can do all of this without the inconvenience of any real pastoral responsibilities - but again he or she can be "certain that those of his [or her] hearers who are not sympathizing are not listening."

[Looney]

A few of us radical upstarts in a sub-congregation of our multi-cultural church tried to change this. We wanted to have some critiques, discussions and analyses of the various sermons. Since our congregation has perhaps a dozen ph.d's and several seminary degrees, this seemed more than feasible. Things didn't go quite as planned however, given that highly educated people still won't provide any feedback even when pushed. If you work hard to annoy them, you might get a sound bite back.

Our top level Eldership, however, had a different plan. They stepped in to "upgrade" us which meant doing away with all evaluations. Either you have credentials or you don't. Nothing else matters!

[Rich Rhodes]

Our church has Second Look just after the service. Those who want to respond, question, and/or discuss the sermon have a chance to engage the preacher. It goes for about 45 mins. to an hour and then some of the group go out to lunch. On communion Sundays when we have an Agape Feast (i.e., lunch provided for by the church) the preacher's table is for discussion of the sermon.

This works fairly well most of the time. It was invented about 10 years ago by the then pastor who saw the need to be accountable to the congregation. (The denomination is congregationally governed.) After he left, the next pastor liked the idea and kept it going. However, with the new pastor it seems to be dying -- not because the new pastor or the board don't like it, but because, as we have discovered, not every sermon has draw, so it takes a core group of people who will always show up (a de facto small group) and our core group dissolved for other reasons. The key loss was the person who was the convener (not the pastor), in effect the small group leader.

(Our church, too, is stocked to the gills with folks with advanced degrees and grad students in a range of fields, including in theology. So preachers here can't get away with much.)

[JohnFH]

I know my sermons get discussed, but in my absence, around the dinner table, or in the parking lot. I suppose there's symmetry in that.