Creativity in preaching

 I have just picked up John Cleese Creativity: A Short and Cheerful Guide (Penguin, 2020). And it has set me thinking about creativity in preaching. Cleese writes mainly as a writer, so of course there are obvious cross-overs for those who write or plot their sermons. 

Some of Cleese hints and suggestions will be familiar to the preacher. We are sometimes told to kill our darlings. The thing you most enjoyed in the study does not necessarily belong in this or any sermon. And we are sometimes encouraged to get a second opinion, for example. Preaching groups sometimes exist to give this kind of feedback from time to time.

The preacher, like the writer, can face the fear of the blank page. Or the treadmill of deadlines. This may motivate or paralyse. Both may worry about accuracy, or originality, or boring. Like some writers, some preachers struggle to start, or to finish. Writer and preacher alike want their content to engage and move.  

The dynamic which Cleese describes between tortoise and hare, diligently and doggedly pressing on and inspiration, insight and creativity, will, I think, also strike a chord with experienced preachers.

It seems to me that in our circles we tend to underestimate the importance of creativity in preaching. We can be very formulaic. Follow these steps and the sausage machine will produce the sermon. But it seems to me that in thinking about the big idea, or outline / headings, or applications there are often "aha!" lightbulb moments where one thinks, yes, that'll preach. Understanding and communicating the good news of the scriptures well is something of a creative process. 

Some other older schools of preacher (maybe Spurgeon or Lloyd Jones) might actually remind us of this element of creativity in that they did not spend as much time on an outline of a passage as we typically might. They would emphasise the freedom of the preacher to explore all the richness of the text and could take a verse in a number of legitimate directions. This would be a prayerful decision of the preacher thinking about the needs of his hearers. This is not to say that they neglected the Melodic Line of the text, but they would sometimes play other themes in other keys.  

Cleese also claims that "your thoughts follow your mood". And again I think this is something the preacher might do well to consider. You need not only to prepare your sermon but to prepare yourself. You may even need to prepare yourself to prepare. If you are brooding on that PCC meeting, you are not likely to do your best work in Philippians. Texts too will have their moods, and the preacher will need both to engage with them and perhaps separate himself from them. It is not always right to berate your congregation for the Galatian heresy if they are actually faithful people who are tired in their doing of good rather than near apostates who are at risk of deserting Christ. 

We might do well to think about creative preaching. And some of us might also want to make our sermons more short and cheerful. Our congregations might thank us for it.