To
go to the pulpit depending totally upon your preparation instead of the Holy
Spirit makes you a double fool, because then you don't open yourself in terms
of praying and saying, "God, even though this is well-designed and well-manicured,
if you don't use it I'm going to flop."
Preaching:
There are many churches today where there doesn't seem to be a lot of power.
To what extent do you see that as a lack of what we've been talking about in
terms of dependence on the Spirit, the role of prayer, the place of passion?
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Smith:
There is a detachment between head and heart so that some will enter the pulpit
— the congregations are well-trained, very educated, that's wonderful — and
they preach from the neck up because that's what people want. They want to hear,
to learn, to take notes, that's it. "Give me information."
Then
there are those who preach to people from the neck down. They want to be set
afire in the heart. They don't necessarily want to be informed. They want to
feel good. They want to shout.
I
think we have to come to the place where we preach to people holistically. We
want to inform them but we want to inspire them as well. To preach to some congregations,
in order to get to them you have to start with the heart. Inspire them. And
others you have to start wit the head; after you earn the right to be heard
because they understand you can be intellectual enough — there's credibility
in what you say — then they'll open themselves up and be inspired. But for other
people, if you start there that's too sophisticated, too educated, too high
for me. They won't hear you but if you can start with the heart, then you can
teach them something. I just think we have to cover the whole canvas. There's
a detachment between the head and heart, the cardiological and the cranium.
There's a detachment between what I consider anthropological and ontological.
I
need to know that there are people who come here who need proclamation in terms
of the gospel to be saved. I want to cater to their salvation but there are
some who have been Christians for a long time and they need to be taught, so
I want to instruct them so that they can mature in the faith and not keep drinking
milk, get ready for the meat. But then I want to inspire in terms of therapy
because there are some who are strong in faith but they've been beat up on.
Bad diagnosis, trouble in the family, joblessness, death, etc. They need to
be encouraged and inspired. I think what we've done is to dichotomize our preaching
to the point where we just shoot for the head or the heart. Instead we need
to seek a wholeness, an engagement the way Jesus did.