From Classroom to Pulpit: Interviews with Fred Craddock & Walter Brueggemann
Craddock: Yes. In fact, when I wrote that book, that would have been a proper criticism. But the reason I did it: even back in the early 70's, we had congregations that were not all that knowledgeable about the scripture, but they thought they were, so I had to break the illusion or the perception. It certainly is true today that most people — even those that bring their Bibles to church — don't really know what's in it. They know things they've heard about the Bible. There's not much knowledge.
I've heard that criticism. It's a valid criticism. It puts a real burden on you to get in there and share some content and not assume too much knowledge on their part. So the trip can't be quick. You just have to pick a piece of the trip, and say, "This portion of it we'll travel Sunday morning."
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I still have a problem with my tendency to develop a way and think it applies to every text, to every subject, to every audience, and that is not true. I must allow myself to grow, to bend and meet the current situation. There is what is called the rhetorical situation. If a group is gathered for Ash Wednesday or a Good Friday service, the rhetorical situation so profoundly affects what people are hearing, what you are doing. On an average Sunday, July 9, the rhetorical situation is not anything really. So do I read all the factors in each situation, even though it makes me sound vague and uncertain when somebody asks me about preaching — "Sounds like you haven't decided yet, have you Fred?" Well, in one sense, no. Let the variables work. The only invariable I have is the scripture. My approaching it makes the approach variable.
I guess I have a firm center, which is the scripture, and God's word of grace in Christ. But then I have some fluidity in how can I get that heard. These people have heard a lot of sermons, but have they really heard? That's the challenge. I'm already worrying about it, thinking about it for next week.
Preaching: You've seen a lot of changes in preaching. If you wouldn't mind putting on the prophet's hat for a moment, do you have any idea where preaching may be going over the next several decades? What changes do you see coming?
Craddock: I think I can see two things. One is what I call a minimizing of the sermon in a larger and livelier context of worship. The whole context of worship with a range of presentations, visual and verbal and all that, is in a sense of time going to reduce the sermon. The minister in many churches is going to be more like an emcee with various acts of worship introduced, and in the midst of that an almost devotional-sized, homily-sized sermon — a verse of scripture, a few analogies from the news or something in the paper. And those churches will flourish for a time, though I fear for the memory of those churches. Will they have a good memory of the Word?