Proclaimer Blog
And now….. introducing the preacher
How do you, the preacher, want the service-leader to announce that the sermon is coming next? Many of us will have thought that through. Many will have tried to educate our leaders to move beyond describing the sermon like it’s a Sunday lecture (“Brian will now teach/explain that passage to us”), and certainly not to downplay its authority as a declaration of the gospel (“Brian will come and share with us from that passage”).
What is said at that key point in the service says a lot, even unthinkingly, about what we actually believe the sermon is really for. There’s no single ideal phrase, but at the moment I like this: “Brian will be proclaiming Christ to us from the Scriptures”. At least this nails three crucial things:
1. The sermon is a proclamation. It’s not a discussion-by-monologue, and it’s not the reading out of an exegetical essay with some implications tacked on.
2. It’s core ought to be Christ himself. This obviously says something about preaching the OT (i.e. would your sermon be applauded in the synagogue?) But here I mean something in addition, which needs saying carefully. I mean: Christ himself and not just his benefits. Paul did not tell the Corinthians that he resolved to know nothing among them except the cross. He resolved to know only ‘Jesus Christ and him crucified’ (1 Cor 2.2) – the message of a crucified Christ being an especially important corrective in Corinth.
3. It’s from the Scriptures – normally what’s just been read to us. It’s not the passage in front of us a launch-pad into something else, but an exposition of God’s Word.
Proclamation of Christ himself from God’s Word. And if Brian’s not properly geared up for all three parts of that, maybe he’ll rightly be too nervous to get to his feet.