Church Reporter: “Sermons are too long, too personal, disorganized”

(POSTED: 8/22/11) Preacher man, preacher man, sing me a message: I reached the age of reason in the ’30s, voting and drinking age in the ’50s, ineligibility for the draft in the ’60s (military, not athletic-scholarship draft, for which I never quite qualified). Many other ages since then, too numerous to mention, but now I’m at the age when sermons almost never satisfy me.

That’s the bad news. The good news is, being older than almost all the preachers I hear, I’m allowed to complain. Sermons are too long, too personal, disorganized, lacking beginning, middle and end (you never know when one will stop, though eventually they all do), insufficiently conducive to the worship experience, etc. (I unloaded all my cares and woe about it in a Wednesday Journal of Oak Park & River Forest column a few years back.)

More good news: there are happy exceptions. The Jesuit Fr. Chris D. a few months back got from me these words of commendation:

As to my liking yr sermon a week ago, it was because it was on faith, which gets not enough attention, as if true believers are the only ones who go to church, it had one idea, you gotta have trust (which doesn’t solve the problem, of course, but no sermon can do that, just give a nudge), it had a beginning, middle and end, it was short and sweet.

I admit I almost bailed out attention-wise at the start, which sounded like an old-time philosophy thesis, and admit you didn’t keep me entirely from wandering, but yr whole demeanor and honest, earnest presentation kept me enough on board to catch the ending. I might have cheered when you called a halt before I was wondering when the end would come.

That last is crucial. So: length, signs of organization, basic stuff here. Ordination gives a license to preach, but it doesn’t make a man a preacher. Nor would it a woman, nor a married man, by the way, which makes this a problem that’s impervious to your favorite revolutionary change in direction of who gets ordained or not.

Another sermon I recall, though not in detail, was by Deacon Tom D. a while back, which was remarkably well prepared, and I’m not sure but I think was read by him. Yes. Reading a well-written sermon is the way to go for many. Deacon Bruce B. years ago also delivered sermons that showed careful preparation, almost certainly written out beforehand. Are deacons more careful about it, familiarity not having bred contempt for the process?

A Southwest Side priest, Fr. George P. at Queen of Martyrs in Evergreen Park, goes beyond that, providing his sermon in writing before he delivers it. Now that’s what I call accountability.

My model for such preparation is one of our separated brethren, the Rev. Bob L., of Oak Park, whose sermons were available for several weeks, easily taken off the vestibule rack at his small Lutheran church. Bob was a neighbor. He and his wife raised five very presentable kids, by the way. And the sermons? They were meaty and provided much food for thought. Now that’s what I call preaching.

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By Jim Bowman

He was religion editor for The Chicago Daily News, 1968 to its closing in 1978, and since then has written many books and articles, including Bending the Rules: What American Priests Tell American Catholics (Crossroad, 1994). He blogs at <http://blithespirit.wordpress.com/> and elsewhere. www.jimbowman.com <http://www.jimbowman.com/> has the links.