By Jere L. Phillips
Transgenerational
preaching is not a warmed-over rehash of needs-centered preaching. Only on the
firm base of biblical exposition does the preacher have the authority to preach
to any generation. Far from advocating life-situation preaching, transgenerational
preaching begins with sound exposition of the biblical passage and then uses
cross-cultural skills in application, illustration and delivery to reach across
the generation gaps.
Expository homiliticians see such inquiry as an aid in faithfully communicating
biblical truth. Haddon Robinson wrote that in order to understand their people
as well as the message, preachers need to “exegete both the Scripture and the
congregation.”2 In other words, the preacher who would
be serious about communicating the true word of God must investigate the makeup
of his audience as thoroughly as he examines the Scripture that he preaches.
Stephen Olford suggested the preacher think through a series of questions about
his audience and the uniqueness of the occasion and the specific needs of the
people. “Who are they? Why are they present? What dominant concerns do they
have at this time? What potential barriers are there to understanding and responding
to the message?”3
Does
giving attention to the audience mean risking compromising the message?
Some preachers sense the tension between being true to the Word and intentionally
communicating that word to different hearers. Conn observed that many evangelicals
confronted by the idea of “presenting the unchanging Word in a changing world”
fear that “contextualization inevitably meant syncretism, … an erroneous conclusion.”4
Not
only does audience sensitivity not compromise biblical integrity, but rather
it enhances the accurate communication of the intended message. As Olford noted,
the preacher does not ask questions about the audience “to compromise the message,
but rather to make sure that the truth is presented as clearly and as passionately
as possible to these people on this occasion.”5
Can
understanding the culture of one’s audience really help biblical preaching?
If
the preacher ignores the cultural filters through which the hearers receive
his message, he is likely to discover that what they heard is not what he said.
Only by understanding the culture of his people can the preacher encode the
meaning of his message in such a way that they will decode it properly. Merrill
Abbey noted that the hearer “lives within and is conditioned by a wider cultural
system.”6 My observation is that such cultural systems
are largely predicated on the generational issues of one’s own age group.
