So
when I started teaching preaching, the campus revolution against everyone in
authority was in full swing. Homiletics and preaching classes were made optional,
and I struggled with the students: What’s wrong with this? Why is this not working?
I took a year off and studied preaching out of the frustration that I wasn’t
getting anywhere. It wasn’t working.
I
remembered my own preaching there in Columbia, Tennessee, and the changes I
made in my preaching. So instead of teaching preaching classes like I was taught,
maybe I can help them develop, if not like I do it, a way that they would be
comfortable. So I played with that, took another year off and studied — I just
had a rough transition. A lot of things I said in As One Without Authority
I still hold to. I don’t believe that a lot of people who give me credit for
getting them started thinking a new way — I don’t think many of them are doing
what I thought I was doing. I don’t think many of them have had the agony I
went through. I just don’t want to take credit for everything that’s going on
that supposedly is called “inductive.”
Advertisement
__________________________
Fred
Craddock is retired from the faculty of Candler School of Theology, and continues
to lead training events for pastors.
I
studied! I tell preachers to make the announcement to your people that in the
morning you want to be left alone with God. Don't you call me, don't come by
to see me, don't expect me to be a part of any kind of committee or program.
In the afternoon, I'll do any work of the church. In the evening, I'll attend
meetings. It was important for me to have my mornings devoted to study.
I
would always try to have the sermon prepared by Friday. Beginning Friday and
Saturday I would be with God as I get it in my heart. I was just seventeen years
old when I started my pastoral work. I got down on my knees before the Lord
and said, "Lord, I am going to preach without notes and I am going to depend
upon you to bless my memory, so that when I stand up there to preach I won't
forget or stumble."
I
was terrified when I started doing that. What if I were right in the middle
of the sermon and came to the third point and couldn't remember it, couldn't
recall it? What would I do? It would be embarrassing beyond description. But
I trusted God for it. And to this day I have never forgotten; I have never stumbled.
Once in a great while, I might have a moment of difficulty in recalling that
third or fourth point, but I just keep talking and in a moment or so it will
come back to me.
__________________________