Bogert asks for help about how to preach to make it stick stating when asking his people about either preaching or things they had watched that week: “I was surprised at how few specifics they were able to recall.”
In a way I think he is partly asking the wrong question. I believe we should ask “How can I preach so that lives are changed?”. Most of us have sermons we will never forget as they took us apart and put us back together, if we have heard good sermons. If we havent, then similarly genuinely life-changing experiences will be etched on our minds- the birth of a child, asking someone to marry us, the death of a loved one, being fired, gaining a new job.
When the heart is engaged we are more likely to recall what happened that day. In fact there is also something far more important going on when we listen to preaching than the transfering of facts from the mind of the preacher into the mind of the listeners.
Transforming Sermons writer said on the comments “I’ve found that a single lesson rarely has dramatic impact on anyone’s life (although at times it certainly does). The cumulative effect of biblical teaching and preaching, however, changes the lives of those who submit themselves to the transforming power of the Word. The focus of preaching and teaching, then, shouldn’t be so much at delivering the one dynamite sermon as much as in faithfully, consistently, holding out the Word of life to the congregation and inviting them to join God in his Kingdom. The Word does the changing, not the preacher.”
Hes right of course, one day I will blog on the importance of concepts, and word associations- mind maps if you like. True preaching MOULDS our thinking so that over time it is more biblical. Thus when asked a question a well taught believer “leaks” Gods truth.
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