Finding Your Voice
In High School, I was very active in our drama club. I am sure those who know me personally or have heard me preach before are shocked (by that I mean not shocked at all) by that admission. The experiences I received in drama club benefited me a tremendous amount when it came to preaching. I began to learn how to project my voice, maneuver on stage, interact with an audience, etc. I also gained some experience acting (i.e. pretending to be other people). No matter the performance, I was playing a role. Whether a German cobbler who experienced a vision, the Tin Man in need of a heart, or a guide leading a haphazard crew on a comical trip through the jungle, I was always pretending to be someone else.
This was a skill that, unfortunately, did not serve me well when I started preaching.
Like most preachers, I tried to learn from famous communicators. Don’t get me wrong – one can learn a lot by listening to other preachers. However I, like many, did not just try to learn from these preachers, I tried to imitate them.
Instead of using that as an opportunity for my own spiritual growth, or just to see a different way to look at a passage, craft a transition, or tell a story, I found myself pretending to be them while I preached. In a sense, I was trying to manufacture the same responses and notoriety they had without the crucible of preaching development.
In Simple Preaching Prep, I talk about my favorite definition of preaching coming from a 19th-century preacher named Philipps Brooks. While teaching a seminar at Yale University, Brooks summarized preaching the following way, “Preaching is communicating truth through personality.” Even early on, I wanted to base my messages on a foundation of Scripture; I was communicating truth. But I was not using my God-given personality to do it. Instead of preaching with Mark’s personality, character, flaws, and idioms, I was pretending to be one of any number of popular preachers and hoping to emulate their success.
It was in the midst of my realization about this reality when a friend of mine, Wendy, game me one of the most meaningful compliments I have ever received. While visiting, Wendy heard me preach and then sat down with my wife Kara and I for lunch afterwards. It was then that Wendy said, “I feel like you’re the same person with me as you are on stage.”
If you read different books of the Bible you will find the language, characteristics, and idioms of the Bible authors comes through. Yes, I firmly believe their writings were divinely inspired (see 2 Timothy 3:16-17), yet it was through their God-given personalities God chose to communicate. I want my God-given personality to come through as I preach.
Over time I will write some posts to develop some of my ideas regarding different styles of preaching that I see. Note: none of these styles I will write about are good or bad in and of themselves. Nor do I believe I will be comprehensive in the styles that I cover. However, I want to identify a variety of styles that I see preachers use and elaborate on what I see as the strengths, weaknesses, pitfalls and opportunities for growth that I see in each.
It is my hope, as I work through these styles, to help preachers further develop their God-given personalities so that they might find their own voice to use in preaching.
