The Preacher Under Pressure: Crunch-time For The Christian Communicator
By David L. Larsen
Add to all of
this, as we look over our shoulders we are assured that after the current wave
of the mega-church is coming the house church again, refitted and reionized
for competitive advantage. Are we not all feeling somewhat buffeted and beat
upon? Is there any reasonable basis for thinking recovery is possible? What
ought the preacher to do?
When Chicken Little
screams "The sky is falling!" or when William Butler Yeats glumly tells us that
"The center will not hold," the servant of Christ must not panic or disintegrate.
Christ is the guardian of his church (Matthew 16:18). At this juncture we would
be advised to sink the shafts of our spirits deeply into the narrative of how
King Hezekiah was besieged by the Assyrians. The adversary scoffed and threatened
but Hezekiah went to the Lord and "spread it out before the Lord" (2 Kings 18-19).
The Lord preserved and delivered his people. Similar scenarios in the life of
our Lord and in the ministry of the Apostle Paul would be likewise profitable.
Revisiting the early church's address to the clash of Christian and GrecoRoman
cultures or how the church faced the Enlightenment onslaught in the eighteenth
century become exceedingly instructive.
Advertisement
We need to beware
of the sweeping generalization. Post-modernism is in the air beyond a doubt
(especially in the bastions of the academy), although in Europe it is already
the post-post-modernism. But what per centage of our hearers are post-modern?
Most are still quite traditional, some are still enlightenment rationalists,
some are old-fashioned romantics, others are new age. Stanley Fish, ardent post-modernist,
has recently published a new book on John Milton "so that people will really
know what Milton meant." Oh, so. Is there meaning in a text? Richard Rorty,
another pomo stalwart, has recently stated that he wants to live his life by
the last table of the Ten Commandments and the Golden Rule of Jesus. It is not
easy to live real life on the post-modern premise.
We have not left
linear thinking — 99% of the fiction published in our country is still linear.
In fact, narrative itself is linear. A divinely revealed premise in deduction
thinking does achieve "moral certainty." Science itself uses both induction
and deduction. There is a danger of oversimplification. Technology like Powerpoint
can be useful but can be overused. Advocates in business, education and the
military are all pulling back some — advising users not to use the technology
coming down the stretch in a presentation. The triangulation in the communicational
situation tends to overintellectualize the faith and greatly reduce the warmer
aspects of interpersonal discourse. There are plus and minus here. Use it wisely
and selectively.