Preacher's Block

This preaching tip was shared by Preacher’s Block co-founder, Hunter Bethea. If you’re interested in joining the most focused preachers in the world, sign up here.

Last week, I shared about how I learned about creating tension from Eugene Lowry’s book The Homiletical Plot. Today, I’ll share with you one way I’ve created tension through Scripture:

Too often, our congregants think that the pastor is the one who has all the answers and the only way they can learn about God is from a pastor or teacher. I don’t know about you, but my hope is to not just teach my congregation about God, but teach them how to know God. Creating tension helps with this. If I can be open about the tension I sometimes struggle with regarding God or my life, then it frees the people who hear me to struggle with their own tensions. This needs to be done appropriately (you don’t want parishioners wondering if you’re losing your faith in front of them) but you can invite them into some of the tension you’ve faced, even if you don’t always have a great resolution to it.

One way I’ve done this recently in a sermon was pointing out that Jesus tells us not to judge but then later teaching us how to judge. I created conflict by telling the congregation that I didn’t know how to reconcile these two things that were seemingly at odds. Later, I resolved that conflict by sharing what I thought Jesus was saying about judgment and how to appropriately judge. I think this frees our people to have their own questions and conflict with the Bible, while also engaging them more in the sermon.