Issue 15 Vulnerability in PreachingBlog | Preaching and vulnerability
Preaching and vulnerability
Author: Andy PeckPost Date: 25.06.18
The question of vulnerability in preaching is a tricky one. Go too far and you run the risk of oversharing. No one is helped if the congregational response to your preaching is TMI: Too Much Information.
However, the opposite of sharing too much information is just as problematic. No one is helped if the preacher avoids being honest and real and settles for presenting a glossy version of their life to which no one can measure up. Moreover, it’s one thing to acknowledge in your preaching past vulnerabilities, for example, addressing past addictions, sinfulness or weakness. You can talk about how you have overcome and how God has brought you through. This is an important thing for preachers to be able to model, that there can be a future that is different from the past.
Nonetheless, it’s another thing entirely to acknowledge current addiction, sinfulness or weakness. Yet it is our current vulnerabilities that have perhaps the greatest potential to speak into the life of a congregation, if preachers can but find the courage and the language with which to do so.
How can preachers speak honestly about our ongoing vulnerabilities? Most of our vulnerabilities are part of the human condition. To speak honestly of the present and ongoing challenge of living with mental or physical ill health, crippling grief, the legacy of abuse, or an imploding marriage requires immense courage, but the preacher is not simultaneously dealing with the question of her sinfulness.
