A Worthy Challenge
Do you want to teach your people the Bible in a way that makes sense and engages your people, ultimately compelling them to follow Jesus? Then you need to preach persuasively, just like Paul (2 Cor. 5:11). At the same time, we are not simply pursuing public speaking tricks to make the audience think highly of us or deceive ourselves into thinking we can persuade people into the kingdom in our own strength. Again, to take such a stance is to be in lockstep with Paul (1 Cor. 2:1–5). All we are really trying to do is to honor a beautiful text by working at speaking in a comparably beautiful way. That is, at the heart of it, what persuasion is. Persuasion is important, and persuasion is challenging. But it is a challenge worth pursuing. Here are seven tips (among an ocean of them) to help you preach persuasively.
1. Aim for clarity over cleverness.
As I hinted at above, there are three things anyone can do when speaking out loud in public: teach, please, and move. All are important in preaching. We must teach people what God’s Word says and what it means. This requires good exegesis — a clear extraction of the content and intent of the biblical text. We must do so in a pleasing way. This does not mean telling people what they want to hear (something Paul opposes in 2 Timothy 4:1–8). Rather, we should strive to be pleasing by speaking in the language of those who listen, helping make sense of the text in ways they can understand, and much else besides. We also should strive to move them toward discipleship by placing their faith in or continuing in their faith in Jesus. Of course, it is only God who can convert and compel, but God uses means, and one of them is preaching. To achieve the goals of teaching, pleasing, and moving, we must be clear. Surprisingly, if we aim at clarity and not cleverness, it will be far more compelling.
2. Get interested to stay interesting.
Too often preachers hold the text at arm’s length, observing it like a passive paleontologist looking at an animal skeleton they have seen a million times. To grow in persuasion, get interested. One easy way is to ask lots of questions of the text. If it is a story, ask yourself, Where does the story go that I was not expecting? If it is a speech, ask yourself, Where does the argument take a path I did not see coming? If a song, ask yourself, Why are these images/illustrations/metaphors being used? Be like a paleontologist who loves their job and comes upon a new species every week. No two texts are the same. If you get interested, you will be far more interesting in the pulpit. Your interest will naturally spill out in your preaching.
3. Pull them into the box.
It will be hard to persuade people if they are not drawn into the world of the text. Imagine the text’s world like a diorama — one of those middle school presentations some of us loved and others loathed. If you never had the pleasure of this class project, one has to take a box and create a scene inside of it and then tell the class what you did, narrating the scene. When done well, people who hear the presentation get “pulled into the box,” like some kind of Narnian act of near magic. A Scriptural text invites us to live in a different world for a brief time and consider the actions of those who received the text first before applying it to ourselves. Lean into that opportunity.
4. Talk with them often.
There is a world of difference between being spoken at and spoken with. Persuasion happens when you begin speaking with people. At the Chicago Course on Preaching, a residential program in expositional preaching I have the privilege of directing, we often tell students, “Lower your gaze three degrees.” In other words, don’t preach over our heads, but look us in the eye and speak with us. I do not mean that preaching is a conversation (though having ordinary conversations about the Bible is a crucial way to grow in preaching), but it should feel like you are having a conversation with us. Ask us questions, get us thinking, help us understand the text and our potential reactions to it. No one is waiting around until the last few minutes to hear how this text relates to us, and we should not have to. Talk with them early and often.
5. Take objections seriously.
The Bible is full of objectionable material. I simply mean that it says things to which all kinds of people legitimately object, believer and unbeliever alike. For example, Jesus claims to be the only way to God (John 14:6). Some might object, asking if this could really be true because it seems overly narrow and exclusionary. Others might object because having access to God sounds too good to be true. Take these objections seriously. You must name the potential objections and then demonstrate why and how the text is true and why we should believe it. A simple way to find potential objections is to read the text with a few very different people in church and ask them what sounds strange/confusing/too good to be true. Then, depending on the helpfulness of the answers, use those responses as objections people might have as you preach the text.
6. Work hard at analogies.
The Bible contains many profound, challenging, confronting, and outright bizarre truths. It also often uses analogies (this is like that) to communicate these truths. For example, God’s care for His people in the wilderness is compared to a father carrying a child (Deut. 1:29–31). A very different example is found in Jeremiah 2:24, wherein Judah’s rampant idolatry is compared to a wild donkey in heat running around looking for lovers. It is not a comfortable image, but it is arresting! Analogies make the complex or abstract clear. We can grow in this skill by paying attention to them in the Bible, literature, and speech. Work hard on creating analogies, just like a baseball pitcher learning how to throw a new pitch. See, we do this kind of thing all the time.
7. Live an observant life.
I’ve saved potentially the broadest and the most helpful tip for last. God has placed us in an extraordinary world, full of sights, sounds, tastes, feelings, and language that is fruitful material for the preacher, if we would only pay attention. If we want to be persuasive, we must live an observant life. Sometimes the smallest phrases can be a gift to the preacher. Just think of Burger King’s slogan, “Have it your way.” It has been their slogan since 1974. Why? Because it is effective. The would-be persuasive preacher would do well to reflect on this slogan for a minute. Think about how much it explains about the motivations, hopes, and aspirations of humans. Consider how the slogan is a shining example of a culture’s tendency toward narcissistic consumerism. The fruitfulness for preaching is endless if we take up the radically interesting challenge of remaining observant in life. So, stay observant, my friends.
— Jeremy Meeks (Ph.D., University of Aberdeen) is the director and lead instructor of the Chicago Course on Preaching. He is also the resident pastor for ministry apprenticeships at Christ Church Chicago. He previously served as the director of Spanish-language initiatives for the Charles Simeon Trust.
