Preach the Word - Chapter 34

Hindrances to Communication II

This article is part of a series of articles on how to preach written by Jess Hall, Jr. and originally published in The Firm Foundation.

Any person who loves and believes the scripture knows that the message is more important than the method. Why, then, has all of this time and energy been spent on the method? The answer is simple – it doesn’t make much difference what the message is if nobody listens. The preacher who refuses to attend to method cannot truthfully claim that he is interested in proclaiming the message or in the hearers who sit at his feet. Thus, the true preacher strives to avoid hindrances to communication. To the four discussed in the last article, we add the following:

1. Distracting Mannerisms: There are almost as many distracting mannerisms as there are speakers, but some are greater plagues than others. For example, 1) Meaningless filler: Sentences begin with “ah,” break in the middle with “uh,” and end with “ahem,” all appropriately interspersed with throat clearings. It may be the result of a habit that needs to be broken. It may be “filler” while the preacher is thinking or trying to find his place in his notes. Whatever the cause, it does not communicate anything positive to the hearers. 2) Poor eye contact: Witnesses at trial are told to look jurors in the eye while testifying. People tend to believe those who look them in the eye and to disbelieve those who don’t. Preachers who look above the hearers’ heads or at the walls cannot communicate effectively. They cannot observe their hearers, which enables the preacher to know when hearers are puzzled and need more explanation, when they are touched and thus are open to persuasion for right action, and when they are not listening and action must be taken to bring their attention back to the sermon. 3) Inappropriate gestures: Poor coordination between words and gestures confuses the hearers. Some preachers want to smile all of the time. While everybody likes a smile, smiles are not appropriate while speaking of judgment to come or eternal punishment.

2. Short-cutting preparation: Sermons must not be technical, fuzzy, or academic. The homiletical ship cannot float in such waters. The preacher must take the time to simplify his language and to select words that appeal to the hearers. Not only should unnecessary points and sentences be eliminated, unnecessary words must go as well. Extra words in a sermon are like extra parts in a machine – they get in the way of its operation.

3. Use of clichés: Is there anyone who cannot fill in the last word of “Keep up with the _” or “at the end of his _”? The use of worn out, hackneyed phrases, which generally results from short-cutting preparation, wears out the hearers. Old, old clichés hinder the proclamation of the old, old story.

4. Insensitivity to hearers: As a preacher, do you ever ask how your hearers think and feel? Preachers often assume that their hearers are just like them. That is probably not a valid assumption for several reasons, chief among them being that the preacher does not fight the ordinary workplace. How can the preacher who does not consider his hearers’ circumstances expect to communicate with them. He is apt to begin a sermon at a prison by saying, “I am glad you all are here.” When he speaks to a group of youth he is more apt to speak of Bach or Beethoven than Garth Brooks. Also, a preacher with an adversarial spirit is insensitive to his hearers. It is well established that an adversarial spirit generates an adversarial response. The preacher’s hearers are not his adversaries, they are his opportunities.

5. Too much repetition: While emphasis can be accomplished by repetition, not everything in the sermon needs to be emphasized. There is no need to emphasize the obvious, clarify the simple, or illustrate the apparent. “Tell them what you are going to tell them, tell them, and then tell them what you told them” is not only a gross over-simplification of sermon organization, if literally applied it is a sermon killer.

While these hindrances to communication are only illustrative and not exhaustive, they should enable the preacher to examine himself both as to these and as to others. Eliminating hindrances to communication will enable the preacher to be a more effective proclaimer of the gospel and a greater servant of the Master.