ArticleBlog | PREACHING THAT CONNECTS Overcoming distance
PREACHING THAT CONNECTS Overcoming distance
Author: Andy PeckPost Date: 13.06.16
hat is effective preaching? The best response to that question I heard came from the late, great preacher and homiletics teacher Fred Craddock. ‘Effective preaching’, he said, ‘overcomes distance’.
I f so, there are different kinds of ‘distance’ a Christian preacher is seeking to overcome, to reduce. This short article focuses on three. There’s the distance between the preacher and the biblical text, the distance between the congregation and the biblical text, and the distance between the preacher and the congregation. Effective preaching involves lessening each of these ‘distances’.
Here I address each in turn, giving more time to the first two. But it’s important to realise that although each contains different grains of insight and good practice, they’re not three silos separate from each other: there is considerable overlap. In my experience the preparation of a sermon involves two fluid phases.
