Preaching has always followed cultural forms. Bond says, "Preaching has always borrowed its style from culture. For instance, during the scholastic period preaching was full of allegory, stories of the saints, and the famous four-fold interpretation, all of which reflected the medieval worldview of the three-tiered universe and the manifold structure of God. Preaching style in the baroque period was as flowery and ornamental as baroque architecture. The Enlightenment brought rational, highly philosophical and doctrinal preaching to the forefront, while the Romantic era saw an emphasis on emotion and nature. Preaching style follows culture." An emphasis on communicating and influencing the audience will necessitate a respect for appropriate cultural forms.

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Relevance. In a culture that is bombarded with information, people are no longer interested in accumulating irrelevant information. They want relevance. Preachers now go to great lengths to be relevant, but there is always some question over whether the preacher's experience and thoughts will be relevant to others. Interaction takes the guesswork out of the equation. The audience has the opportunity to relate the content to their contexts.

Postmodernism. Postmodernists react against the "expert." They are thoroughly skeptical of people who stand in ivory towers and espouse their views. According to the postmodernists, unquestioned, self-appointed experts have only created legalism, division and intolerance. They believe that truth for a community is much better discerned in community. To many postmoderns the preacher sounds very much like the unchallenged expert. While postmoderns need to discern the difference between expertise and spiritual authority, a greater effort to include interaction in preaching will assure our postmodern audiences that we are not placing ourselves six foot above contradiction (as many preachers have done). We want them to understand that they have a part as we discern God's truth together.

Adult learning. Theories of adult learning stress that learners bring a wealth of experience to the learning situation and that this experience needs to be tapped to enrich the learning event. While there are other elements involved, an audience is, in part, a group of adult learners who are processing what is being preached. Opportunities for the listeners to contribute to the learning event will enhance the learning, as long as they do not detract from hearing the voice of God through the preaching. So well-planned and structured interaction can make preaching more effective. Many churches encourage corporate processing of the sermon in small groups after the event, but it may be even more effective during the preaching event.

Talk shows. One of the most popular modern forms for the processing of ideas and the development of perspectives is through talk shows. They may not look much like sermons, but in fact the talk show host is doing almost the same thing as the preacher. After the extensive, entertaining dialogue comes the host's short monologue that interprets and applies the "truth." This is induction at its best. Talk shows involve the audience although the ultimate goal is never in doubt. Perhaps we can learn from and adapt aspects of this form of "preaching."