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By James M. Lapp, Senior Ministry Consultant, Franconia Mennonite Conference

Missional preachers face new challenges in the five years following 9-11. It is not merely the ensuing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan that create troubling agenda for pacifist preachers. Nor is it simply a heightened nationalism that follows with its resultant provincialism. Or the economic struggles that follow in the wake of war. All of these make life more difficult but are not unexpected effects of international wars.

Instead, I see two primary challenges for missional preachers: the globalized fear that permeates and seeks to shape every aspect of our nation and our lives; and second, the way the missionary task is being redefined by the 9-11 events. Many of our national leaders adeptly use fear to build support for intervention within the Middle-East. Getting on an airplane offers grim reminders of the ubiquitous nature of fear. The paradox is that we are told the world is safer now while fear is used to promote support for stringent security.

To be sure there is enough to substantiate a policy of fear in our 21st century world. In no way should we minimize the realities of violence that threaten our lives. The recent shootings in schools across the United States grimly remind us that future generations are at serious risk. The stakes are high.

If we wish to heed Jesus’ word, “Be not afraid,” pastors will do well to saturate their hearts and minds with the preponderance of Biblical texts that call us to faith and hope, and toward a “perfect love” that casts out fear. Beginning with Psalm 23 and winding through Scripture, God’s people are invited to an alternative attitude and posture. What greater witness can we give than a counter-cultural lifestyle of deep security in God, and not in “homeland security” or the massive systems of defense that complicate our lives? Let this steady diet pervade our preaching in a multitude of ways.

Within the evangelism task, we are exposed to the realities of alternate faiths, especially Muslim adherents that comprise a significant part of the globe. This opens territory with which many of us lack familiarity. Since Muslims pray to the same God as Christians, and since Muslims are loved by God as much as all other humans, how will we extricate ourselves from the so-called “war on terrorism” that tends to castigate Muslims as our enemies? At the heart of the Christian witness is respect for others, including those that we pray will come to faith in Christ. Respect includes learning to know those we hope might become Christian believers. What might we do to inform ourselves about Islam and the Koran so that respect and understanding will characterize our interactions with Muslim people and our preaching?

In our preaching, might we find regular opportunities to encourage love for enemies and people of other faiths? The historical challenge of the medieval Christian crusades left a lingering bitterness toward followers of Jesus. Do we appreciate the reality that Arab people are also descendents of Abraham through Ishmael? What attitudes do we reflect when we speak and pray about the longstanding conflict between Israel and the Palestinians? Just as some of us are quick to point out how we differ from popular stereotypes of Christians, can we allow for the same variety among Muslims and the various factions represented in Islam? Do people in our congregations know of the positive actions of Muslims embodied in the formation of Muslim Peacemaker Teams trained by our own Christian Peacemaker Teams?

The missionary task became more complicated though the events of 9-11. As God’s people we are called to exceed a mere survival posture in the world, and to keep central the witness Christ commissioned the church to give. For this to happen we need not travel far. How many of us already have Muslims neighbors who feel deeply conflicted and are anxious about how they are viewed?

A first step for many of us might simply be to become acquainted with our neighbors. In doing so, we will likely need to scrutinize our language in ways we never considered before. Perhaps the recent offense caused to Muslims by Pope Benedict can alert us all to the need for care in communicating with those from different religious traditions. It may be deeper than language, though; some of us may need attitude adjustments. Any stance that implies we are right in all ways and others are wrong in every way, making us the judge of the eternal salvation of others, can only distract from our witness to the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Given the iconic position 9-11 has been given in our society, and the impact this icon has on almost every aspect of our current culture, preachers face an enormous challenge.

Thankfully the life and message of Jesus remains good news. But it will only be good news if we can rise above the prevailing fear that pervades our lives, and if we can speak and act with respect toward those we wish would be part of the body of Christ.

Jim Lapp is currently Senior Ministry Consultant for the Franconia Conference, having served for ten years as Conference Pastor. He lives in Harleysville, PA with his wife, Miriam Book, who is a pastor at the Salford Mennonite Church. They have three children and seven grandchildren. Jim’s current assignment is in leadership development and Anabaptist identity issues.

By Gwen Groff, bethanym@vermontel.net
Pastor at Bethany Mennonite Church, VT

I have never liked descriptions of the differences between women and men, mainly because such generalizations tend to alienate people who don’t find themselves fitting the general description of one gender or the other. So when asked to write an article about the differences between male and female preachers I decided to ask several women pastors in Franconia Conference what they believe is different about their preaching from the preaching of their male colleagues and the men they grew up hearing.

Several women grew up listening primarily to their fathers’ preaching. Sandy Drescher-Lehman’s (Souderton congregation) father was her first mentor and she wanted to grow up to be a pastor like him. However, she believed that wasn’t possible because she was a woman. Like Drescher-Lehman, Dawn Ruth Nelson’s (Methacton congregation) first role model was also her father. A difference they have both observed is that men’s preaching is louder. Nelson noted that some male preachers have a “special preaching cadence” that she has never acquired. Lehman is glad the church has developed in the past 20 years to allow “softly spoken women to have a voice in the pulpit and be valid preachers.”

One difference I have noticed in my own preaching is that I use far more stories from personal experience than most male preachers I’ve heard. This carries its own risks. Until I was in a seminary preaching class I did not learn how this vulnerability might shape the content of men’s and women’s sermons differently. One preaching exercise in particular asked us to take an event from the last 24 hours of our lives and use it as an illustration of a given text. The incident that I used was finding a note from an old friend stuck under the wiper blade of my car. Discovering the note from someone who knew me well made me realize I was lonely in this new community in where I was not known. When my sermon was discussed in class our professor highlighted how well my illustration fit the text. However, he also noted that I could never use it in an actual sermon noting that if a female minister ever admits loneliness to her congregation she will have more unwanted attention from parishioners than she can handle.

Despite the risk of vulnerability Dresher-Lehman and Nelson use personal stories in their preaching. “I think there are certainly some men who tell personal stories in their preaching”, notes Drescher-Lehman, “but overall, women have an easier time doing that because we are more vulnerable and open with our girlfriends and thus know the power of our stories for each other’s healing.” She believes women in the congregation “like hearing the Word preached from something closer to how they experience words and stories and life.”

Nelson clearly articulates her reason for often using personal stories: “I have found three interlocking stories to be the stuff of sermons: God’s story (the scripture), our story (the congregation’s), and my story. When the personal story is left out, I wonder where the preacher, himself or herself, ‘is’ in the story and what impact this story has had on him or her.”

One of my own biases is that if we truly believe in the priesthood of all believers, one of the priestly roles that must be shared is preaching. The sermon ought to be more of a cooperative conversation than a monologue. Ambler Mennonite pastor Sharon Wyse Miller said, “I see my sermons as part of a conversation and am delighted if I receive comments or questions. This happens so seldom, however. If we had Sunday School after worship I’d suggest a sermon discussion class.”

Nelson encourages responses during the sermon, “I raise a lot of questions in my preaching, and sometimes I stop and let them give answers. This always is fascinating but it often then makes me wonder why I need to continue the sermon. They have such good thoughts!”

Most of these women find they use scripture differently than the way it was used in the sermons they heard from men. Miller said, “I pray with scriptures, live into the scriptures, and encourage my listeners to do the same.”

Nelson expressed the difference as “reading scripture for formation rather than information.” She has also found that, “Women notice different stories in scripture and interpret them differently. They see the women in scripture more clearly and with more interest. They are less likely to have a woman-as-temptress reading of the Bible.”

One clear difference is the way women embody the pastoral role. One pastor said she longs for the day when people will notice what she says rather than the difference in her voice when they no longer see her more as a woman than as a preacher. Yet there is a positive side to being seen as a woman.

Each of these women pastors said she was aware of mentoring young girls and other women in the congregation simply by being a woman in the pastoral role. Nelson said, “One time a young woman in our congregation went up in the pulpit after our service was over sort of like she was trying it out. I notice that all ages of women are stepping up into more leadership roles since I came. Not just preaching but also leading various other ministries, starting new ministries, and chairing groups.”

“Showing [young women] that they can at least be open to God’s possible calling was one of my main reasons for coming to Souderton, and one of the things that keeps me here,” said DrescherLehman. “There’s no other way to show them that women’s gifts are as important as men’s and can be used as freely. I don’t think they can just be told, expected to believe it, and be free to hear God.”

Gwen Groff is pastor of Bethany Mennonite Church in Bridgewater Corners, Vermont. She and her husband, Robert, are parents of two young children.

By Mark Wenger, wengermr@emu.edu
Director of Pastoral Studies and The Preaching Institute for Eastern Mennonite Seminary,Lancaster campus

Union Theological Seminary in Richmond, Virginia has an ornate old chapel building used for chapel services and other events. I distinctly remember when I and my fellow students assembled to hear a distinguished speaker in 1993. I was startled by the presence of a large television set placed just to the side of the ornate, old wooden pulpit. I do not remember the video segment, but I do remember the buzz it created and how out of place it seemed in a chapel built in a different time and for a different generation.

I see at least two large shifts in our culture that affect our preaching. Like a slow-motion earthquake, these changes shake apart old patterns and provide new opportunities and tough challenges. I suppose you can say that these tectonic shifts reverberate from the impact that television and electronic technologies are having on how we communicate with each other.

First, as Neil Postman pointed out back in 1985, our culture has made a major shift away from being word-based in its communications to being more image-based. Of course we still use words, but our words are increasingly surrounded by and often trumped by visual images. The average person today, especially the average young person, is far more likely to watch a movie than to read a book. We now often expect meaningful communication for groups of people to include visual imagery, video footage, and pre-recorded or amplified sound. Group communication that lacks these things can seem old fashioned.

This represents a huge change for Jews and for Christians, especially Protestants and Anabaptists, who have been “people of the Book.” “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God” (John 1:1). The scriptures do include a lot of imagery, but it is all expressed in words. As our culture shifts its emphasis to visual communication media, more and more of us have come to accept PowerPoint displays, movie clips, video clips of interviews, and clips from TV broadcasts as part of our worship services and our preaching.

A second change in our culture is the rhetorical movement from argument and proof for persuasion to greater use of experience and testimony. This is clearly visible in the way commercials have changed. They once tended to focus on the benefits and advantages of the products in the belief that people would choose those that perform the best. Today’s commercials tell stories or attempt to create moods and feelings that we will associate with their products in the belief that people will choose the most appealing products.

This change is also evident in the increased emphasis on narrative, metaphor, and imagination in preaching. We used to think of stories as illustrations of the points we were making, but storytellers like Garrison Keillor attract a following without pulling the meaning out of their stories. The story and its imagery are themselves the meaning and point. Some people once frowned on reading novels because they were not telling a true story, but many of us now read them as helpful reflections of common experience.

Many preachers have come to realize that the majority of the Bible is narrative and that it is full of metaphors and verbal images. Jesus told a lot of fictional stories that we call parables. Some of the Bible’s truth is expressed as propositional statements, but a great deal of its truth is discerned from its stories, from the interactions in the dramas, and from the actions of its key figures. Even God’s character is explained many times in terms of the things he has done.

Thomas Troeger has written a very helpful book on this subject called Ten Strategies for Preaching in a Multimedia Culture. He provides a series of suggestions for how to translate the images and content of the scriptures for a culture that expects to receive its communications through visual images, drama, parables, stories, and questions. For example Troeger invites the preacher to “assume there is more to the biblical story.” The preacher can fill out the village scene of the wedding feast at Cana with details and conversations not recorded in Scripture, but quite plausible and congruent with the biblical record. That takes imagination. Another strategy Troeger encourages is for preachers to “create a parable” in the manner that Jesus did, or to develop the sermon as a movie script.

In the end, I believe that preaching that matters must be done with integrity. The sermon needs to come from the preacher’s heart and experience to be authentic, and it needs to be faithful to the scriptures to be God’s word to the people. Changes that serve these ends should be embraced, but we may need to experiment with them before we can discern which ones help us communicate God’s truth more effectively and which ones merely entertain or distract the audience.

Mark Wenger is Director of Pastoral Studies and the Preaching Institute for Eastern Mennonite Seminary at Lancaster, PA. Mark has a Ph.D in practical theology from Union Seminary. He and his wife Kathy were
formerly co-pastors at Springdale Mennonite Church in Waynesboro, VA.