Good Sermons

The other week I went with a couple of friends to the place to see and be seen. It's a hip church service for young adults. It's overpopulated with MIAC graduates (MN private colleges) and young adults from around the Twin Cities. I've been a couple of times and thought I'd check it out again to see what they're doing. It always attracts a huge crowd and people can be seen sitting on the floor and in the aisles. In other words, they must be doing something right.

They had a guest speaker this week, an author of a book. He also fits in the category of young adult (a 20-30 something) and fit the part. We began worship with three songs (only three songs?) and then turned the floor over to the speaker. He was fairly entertaining which was good because he spoke for an HOUR! I tuned in because I was curious where he was going. He talked about defining moments and discerning God's will for our lives which are both topics I had preached on at internship. However, his sermon was littered with stories that had nothing to do with his topic. As soon as I thought I knew where he was going, he completely changed gears. I tried to follow his line of thought but had no real idea where he had been, how he had gotten the amusing story he was talking about now, or how in the heck he was going to wrap all these stories together. Well, in the end he didn't wrap half of his stories together and I was left wondering what in the world had just happened.

I had no idea what the point was. A lot of times people will associate a certain story with the central point. There was no such luck in that department. Granted, his stories were entertaining. It was just frustrating because I was sitting there thinking, alright, this is funny but you're wasting my time with a story that has nothing to do with the point of the sermon and could have easily been cut out.

But though I didn't get it, I talked to people afterwards and they really connected with what he was saying. They didn't know the point either but they were entertained and had gleaned little pieces of wisdom from the story. One of my friends even said that his talk was that extra push she needed to think more seriously about her potential call to ministry in a church. Whoa!

I have no idea what happened there. Somewhere in that mess of a sermon, people were getting something out of it. And I had to take another look at what I considered to be a good sermon? Is it the stories I use? Is it the organization or lack thereof? Is it the scripture? Is it the humor?

Honestly, I don't have a good answer. Do I think he did a good job as a preacher? Eh. Not really. As a Lutheran preacher, I didn't hear a lot about grace. It was all about what I can do for God and for my neighbor. Nothing about how I'm forgiven. And I think that is essential to qualify something as a good sermon. Tell me what God has done for me, not what I can do for God. But, even though that part was missing, somehow what he said spoke to people and where they were at. He met this group of people where they were in their lives. And I think that's the lesson from all of this that I need to keep in mind as I go to preach. Now will I ever preach for an hour and include stories that have nothing to do with the topic and not have a real point. I certainly hope not.