Do You Have A Preacher s Voice?

Transcription

1 Do You Have A Preacher s Voice? Do you have a preacher s voice? What is a preacher s voice and does it matter? I think so. What exactly is a preacher s voice? Well, before we talk about that, let me start by stating the obvious: If you are truly called of God to lead a ministry in the body of Christ, whether as a pastor, an evangelist, an elder just about any position, God intends to use your voice to impact your world. Paul states in Romans 10:14 about reaching people for Christ: But how can they call on Him they have not believed in? And how can they believe without hearing about Him? And how can they hear without a preacher? So our key contribution to touch the world is primarily through our words delivered through our voice. One evangelist used to quote Psalm 107 verse 2 saying, Let the redeemed of the Lord say so and I m the sayingest sayso that ever said so. Forget about your Webster s dictionary on that one, but most people got the point. Our calling demands we deliver words aimed at the conversion of our hearers. Those words should be prophetic. In other words, as we preach, people should not just hear our ideas but should be able to hear God speaking directly to them when we preach. Minister s are called upon to deliver a fresh word from God each week; sometimes several times. Because of this pressure to perform, it is very easy for us to start to use a preacher s voice to get our point across. A whole bunch of years ago, a young man came to the church I attended for a series of sermons on a particular topic. He was almost as interesting to watch as to listen. John was attending Yale Divinity at the time as a grad student. He had obviously learned the basics of poise, presence, and delivering a sermon, but he also had a curious practice. When he made various points in the sermons, he would pause for an uncomfortable amount of time.

2 For example, He might be finishing his thoughts about Moses and say, Moses, left Egypt believing that his life was.finished. But was his life finished? In reality.he was just getting started. What made this curious, was that during each pause he would move as if he was still speaking, but no words came out of his mouth at the expected time. This method forced the hearer to pay attention. During this first week, this method accomplished the objective. You listened more intently. However, by the fourth week, this method just became annoying. I attended a funeral service a few years back, and the preacher did something similar. He d stamp his foot a couple of times while he paused and we waited for the punchline. However, he did this about 15 times during the sermon. After a while, it became a distraction. Do you have a preachers voice or style? I am always amazed at large gatherings where the minister is asked to pray or give the benediction and suddenly breaks out in King James English. God, thou art mighty and hearest us always etc. However, they never talk like that otherwise. It s a preachers voice designed for a particular performance. Once the performance is over, the voice is gone. Now let me clarify a moment. I love the King James Bible. For the first 17 years of my Christian faith, that was the only translation I used; not because I had to or because other translations were of the devil as some attest, but it worked for me. The KJV is easiest to memorize because it is out of the ordinary pathways of how we think in English. I love the KJV. Today, I never use the KJV privately or publicly. Why? People don t talk that way. My job as I see it is to communicate the gospel clearly and in simplicity. Thee and thou went out 400 years ago.

3 200 years ago, open-air preaching became popular through preachers like John Wesley and George Whitfield. These men came into towns and villages, stood on hills and in loud voices proclaimed the word of God. People came to Christ in droves. What always amazes me in our day and age is how many preachers are still proclaiming the word of God in loud voices as if they are still standing on that hill. The reason these men shouted was so people could hear them. Because of technology, we now have complete control over volume and even the quality of our voice. So why do so many preachers scream and yell from the pulpit? I don t get it. Now in fairness, preaching can be an exhilarating experience. When you sense that God is speaking through you to a congregation, that is the ultimate in cool, so I understand when people get excited. I am not against emotional preaching per see, particularly if it fits the personality of the preacher, but many times, emotions become just part of the performance. I ve met a slew of ministers in my time. The vast majority are introverts, but when they get in the pulpit, their voice changes, the volume goes way up and they prance around the stage like they re hoping to take flight. What ends up happening is that this kind of performance soon becomes the norm. People come to church and expect screaming and yelling to come from their minister. I want to tell you as a fellow minister that screaming and yelling does not mean anointing. It just means you are loud! It doesn t mean God is speaking through you. It often means that you are just trying to get people to respond to you emotionally instead of genuinely hearing God speak. And here is the sad thing: many unchurched people stay away, not because they reject the preaching, but because they reject the weirdness of how we present it. The Bible records in II Kings 19:12 that God speaks most recognizably through a still, small voice. It is difficult to hear that voice amidst such loud noises.

4 In many ways, I think that we as preachers are afraid of quiet. We are afraid of stillness in a service, fearing that people will not encounter God unless we impact their emotions. Many times, preachers fill sermons with scripture and just about everything but the kitchen sink hoping that something will hit the mark. That is not how God moves. One word; one sentence spoken from the mouth of God is sufficient. If you examine Jesus s preaching with a stopwatch, you ll note that Jesus was not a long-winded preacher. The entire sermon on the mount could easily be preached inside of ten minutes. Did Jesus raise his voice? Of course, he did. He used the acoustics of the mount and the acoustics of the lake in one instance to amplify his words. We now have the technology. If God is telling you to raise your voice, by all means, do it. Just make sure it is God instructing you. Most of us preach like we have seen others do, but never ask why we do what we do. By and large, I listen more intently to ministers whose voice never changes. I have a friend of mine who has a real preachers voice that is distinct when he goes into the pulpit, but here s the thing. He always talks like that even out of the pulpit. It is not a performance or a show; it is who he is. That s great. As ministers of God, we are called to be genuine and since. The Holy Spirit is called the Spirit of Truth. That means that he is not going to validate us if we are using gimmicks and the like when sharing his word. Be who you are. Be genuine. One minister apart from my pastor who influenced me along the way was John Wimber, credited with starting the Vineyard movement. I listened to a series he did a few years ago on VHS which tells you how long ago it was. John shook up the church world at the time for several reasons, but one of the reasons was the ease through which he spoke. He showed up at the pulpit with a Hawaiian shirt and a can of coke. Like the college professor he

5 was, John spoke like a normal person without ta, adding a a the end of each sentence a. In those days, nearly every minister only stood behind a pulpit wearing a tie and jacket. It was considered sacrilegious do wear a Hawaiian shirt. Whole denominations condemned him; some for his teaching, but most for his style. They considered him disrespectful. Before John passed away, Vineyard churches throughout the world led at least a million people to Christ. You may not have appreciated his style, but you d be hard-pressed to criticize the results. My point is that each of us is uniquely created by God to be ourselves frankly. If you must shout, please do us all a favor and don t use a microphone. I have had the misfortune of attending some services that hurt my ears so badly I had to leave. What is the purpose of shouting, especially if we already have sound equipment? Paul spoke about the gift of tongues, but his exhortation in I Corinthians 14 also applies here to excessive volume. He said It s the same for you. If you speak to people in words they don t understand, how will they know what you are saying? You might as well be talking into space. The purpose of our words is to communicate God to people. That is an awesome privilege and an incredible responsibility. Is the manner in which we deliver the word of God consistent with the way Jesus would do so if he were speaking in our place? We re not only called upon by God to accurately represent the words of scripture to people, but also communicate the very tone, emotion and character of Jesus as we speak. That is a pretty tall order and underscores how utterly helpless we truly are as preachers of his Word. Without God undertaking for us, our ministries are no different than an inspirational speaker. God has called us to be His instruments to communicate himself to those we serve. Well, we re out of time again. I want to stay on this track next week, delving more into the prophetic nature of our preaching, so I hope you will join me.

6 As always, I end each podcast with a quote especially for you. This one is one of my favorites from Oscar Wilde who said: Be yourself. Everyone else is already taken.