Saturday, October 10, 1998

Good news, bad news on sermons

By Ken Garfield

Knight Ridder Newspapers

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- There's good news and bad news on the sermon front, if your goal is to be first in the cafeteria line after church and to have a clear conscience when you get there.

The good news is that sermons are getting shorter, at least in the view of three pastors who are about to take us on an insider's tour of preaching.

The bad news is that some people are more eager to have their toes stepped on during the 20 crucial minutes the pastor works to bring them closer to God. Actually, that's good news, too. It's hard to eat meat loaf when the sermon is weighing on your conscience.

"It isn't the point of guilt," said the Rev. Matthew Horne of Covenant Presbyterian in Rock Hill, S.C. "It's making the point that Jesus said this, and we weren't listening."

The basic lessons of Sunday morning are as solid as the foundation on which the church is built. What's changing is how people today want to receive the message -- and how some pastors are reshaping their sermons to get it to them in a powerful way.

My extremely unscientific survey found a move to shorter sermons in some churches. The Rev. George Thompson of Providence United Methodist preaches for 20 minutes and considers that long. The Rev. Wardell Henderson of Weeping Willow AME Zion goes 15 -- down from the 40 minutes of his stem-winding past. Horne kicks himself if he goes beyond 20. He said studies show that Americans' woefully short attention span begins wandering after 17 minutes.

Thompson, new to Charlotte from Greensboro, believes a growing number of people want substance instead of entertainment. They don't want their ears tingled, as he put it. They want guidance in dealing with "matters of ultimacy" -- where to find hope, how to deal with mortality, how to take meaning from a life on earth that doesn't last very long.

He also believes the preacher should use the sermon to bring people closer together, to build a community of believers who care about each other. In his second service at Providence, Thompson illustrated Jesus' washing of the disciples' feet by washing the feet of three church members.

Henderson, who has been preaching 27 years at Weeping Willow, believes worshippers have a growing appetite for sermons that stick close to Scripture. No throwing out the word at his church to rail on about the latest twist in the White House scandal. He preached recently on moral and sexual responsibility, but it wasn't just about the president and the intern, and he didn't use CNN as a reference.

"I think Scripture would cover everything," Henderson said.

Horne left an assistant pastor's post at Covenant Presbyterian in Charlotte so he could preach every Sunday at his 250-member church in Rock Hill.

He didn't do it to hear the sound of his own voice or to force his opinion on a captive audience.

He did for the same awesome reason other pastors get up on their pulpit each Sunday, fighting the nerves and self-doubt that come with trying to navigate people through the tricky intersection of faith and life.

He preaches so people will talk, think and pray about life, together.

The sermon?

"It's the church conversing with itself," Horne said.

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(Ken Garfield is the religion editor at The Charlotte Observer. Write to him at: The Charlotte Observer, 600 S. Tryon St., Charlotte, NC 28232.)

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(c) 1998, The Charlotte Observer (Charlotte, N.C.).

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