Preaching in Relationship to the Congregation, Part 1

Driving home: It is the ability to get under another person's skin so that I feel what he feels. To get behind his eyeballs so that I see what he sees. Ability to share in another's emotions or feelings.

Martin likens the mutual empathetic involvement between preacher and congregation to an 'alternating current,' emphasizing that the flow of thought and feeling goes both ways, not just from preacher to people.

Now anyone who knows anything concerning real preaching and has addressed the subject has understood this. The importance of this two-way flow of mind, of thought, motion, feeling, electric alternating current between the speaker and the congregation and the congregation and the preacher. And I think perhaps that's the best analogy I know is to call it the alternating current. It's passing both ways. It's not direct current. It's not DC, only coming. From the preacher to the people.

7:00 - 7:52 Read in full sermon

Driving home: When a man who is apt in teaching, whose soul is on fire with the truth which he trusts has saved him and hopes will save others, speaks to his fellow men. Face-to-face, eye-to-eye, now listen to this terminology, and el…

Martin quotes Stalker, who describes 'electric sympathies' flashing between the preacher and hearers, lifting them 'higher and higher into the intensest thought and the most impassioned emotion,' highlighting the unique power of the living word over the printed page.

When a man who is apt in teaching, whose soul is on fire with the truth which he trusts has saved him and hopes will save others, speaks to his fellow men. Face-to-face, eye-to-eye, now listen to this terminology, and electric sympathies flash to and fro between him and his hearers, they lift each other up. There's mutual influence, you see. The preacher and his hearers, affecting one another higher and higher into the intensest thought and the most impassioned emotion.

9:15 - 9:55 Read in full sermon

Driving home: However, for all this is saying, the reason why preaching has been uniquely or ordained of God, for the advancement of the kingdom of God, is that in this peculiar chemistry of the living preacher and the living congrega…

Martin quotes Mackleville, who states that speaking directly to an audience brings the speaker into 'true, vital relations' by which he 'grasps them with his mind' and exerts 'direct mental influence,' emphasizing the speaker's active engagement with the congregation.

Here's his major axiom, and then he has his sub-point. Speaking directly to the audience brings the speaker into the true, vital relations to them. By which he is enabled to grasp them with his mind, and to exert a direct mental influence upon them. Isn't that a strange term?

11:39 - 12:00 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin quotes extensively from Stalker and Mackleville to demonstrate that masters of preaching have always recognized the crucial phenomenon of mutual empathetic involvement…

Martin quotes Mackleville, who explains that good delivery is a 'joint product' of speaker and hearers, where an animated pastor develops attentive habits in his people, and an attentive congregation can develop speaking talents in their pastor, illustrating the reciprocal nature of empathetic involvement.

In fact, this relationship between speaker and people is such that good delivery and even eloquence itself may be properly regarded as a joint product of the mental operations of the speaker and his hearers. It can hardly be overestimated where the speaker is called frequently to address the same or nearly the same audience as in the case of a pastor of a Christian congregation. The influence of the speaker upon the audience is exemplified in the case of a pastor who is dull and feeble in his delivery, for the tendency of his spiritless harangues is to render the audience habitually inattentiv...

13:47 - 15:00 Read in full sermon

Driving home: Eloquence is not the mere communication of a set of dry notions. It is a sympathy, spiritual infection, a communion of life and action between two souls, a projection of the speaker's thought, conviction, emotion, and wi…

Martin describes a scenario where a preacher senses a sudden break in the 'current' of empathetic involvement, feeling at a loss to understand why, perhaps due to a slip of the tongue or an incongruous remark, illustrating the preacher's sensitivity to this dynamic.

Understand its cause or what he may have said to excite it. You're in the midst of a situation where you're conscious of this current and suddenly you sense it's broken and you stop and you may ask the people, did I say something? What did I say? You wonder, you just sense something has cut that current and you're at a loss to know what it is.

16:25 - 16:43 Read in full sermon

Driving home: Eloquence is not the mere communication of a set of dry notions. It is a sympathy, spiritual infection, a communion of life and action between two souls, a projection of the speaker's thought, conviction, emotion, and wi…

Martin recounts Mackleville's description of a preacher being 'lifted off his feet' by the audience's influence, speaking in 'ecstasy or rapture,' unconscious of fatigue or time, demonstrating the profound impact of mutual empathetic involvement on the preacher.

He goes on to talk further about how the influence of an audience upon the preacher, sometimes this influence will seem almost to lift him off his feet. He will seem to tread on air. He may speak in a kind of ecstasy or rapture. However long he may be engaged, he is unconscious of fatigue or effort.

17:10 - 17:28 Read in full sermon

Driving home: Eloquence is not the mere communication of a set of dry notions. It is a sympathy, spiritual infection, a communion of life and action between two souls, a projection of the speaker's thought, conviction, emotion, and wi…

Martin quotes Dabney, who defines eloquence not as dry notions but as 'a sympathy, spiritual infection, a communion of life and action between two souls,' emphasizing the deep, spiritual nature of true preaching.

And I want to quote from Dabney. All we're doing now is establishing the fact and the importance of this mutual empathetic involvement in preaching. And we find, and this quote on page 333, Eloquence is not the mere communication of a set of dry notions. It is a sympathy, spiritual infection, a communion of life and action between two souls, a projection of the speaker's thought, conviction, emotion, and will into the mind and heart of the audience.

18:17 - 18:57 Read in full sermon

Driving home: Another element to which I attach importance is that the preacher, while speaking, should in a sense be deriving something from his congregation. Not just imparting to, but deriving from. There are those present in the c…

Martin quotes Gardner Spring, who argues that the 'instructions of the living teacher are beyond measure more impressive and affecting' than other methods, because 'nature demands the presence, the sympathy, the eye, the voice, the action, the expressive countenance,' highlighting the multi-sensory impact of a live preacher.

What is of greater importance, the instructions of the living teacher are beyond measure more impressive and affecting than any other method of instruction. Nature demands the presence, the sympathy, the eye, the voice, the action, the expressive countenance of the living teacher. Thought and shape, deeds and emphasis of thought are thus expressed which must otherwise be concealed. Men are interested in what the speaker says by observing how he says it.

20:38 - 21:16 Read in full sermon

Driving home: Another element to which I attach importance is that the preacher, while speaking, should in a sense be deriving something from his congregation. Not just imparting to, but deriving from. There are those present in the c…

Martin quotes Martyn Lloyd-Jones, who states that a preacher should 'be deriving something from his congregation,' not just imparting, and that 'there is always an element of exchange in true preaching,' distinguishing it from an essay or lecture.

And then he goes on to illustrate that from both secular and from religious history. Lloyd-Jones, coming down into the 20th century, the doctor who stood head and shoulders above his peers as a preacher in his own generation, writes on page 84 of Preaching and Preachers, Another element to which I attach importance is that the preacher, while speaking, should in a sense be deriving something from his congregation. Not just imparting to, but deriving from. There are those present in the congregation who are spiritually minded people and filled with the Spirit, and they make their contribution t...

21:48 - 22:49 Read in full sermon

Driving home: Another element to which I attach importance is that the preacher, while speaking, should in a sense be deriving something from his congregation. Not just imparting to, but deriving from. There are those present in the c…

Martin uses Jesse Jackson as a contemporary example of a communicator who understands how to 'play with his audience' and let their responsiveness carry him, illustrating the principle of mutual empathetic involvement, despite reservations about his political substance.

There is an interplay, action, and response, and this often makes a very vital difference. Any preacher worth his salt can testify to this. Indeed, any man worthy to be called a speaker, even on secular matters, politics, and so on, knows something about this, and has often experienced that a meeting has been made by the responsiveness of the audience he has been addressing. Now, I hope you don't imbibe much of what Jesse Jackson has to say, but I hope you will imbibe something about the fact that he obviously understands what we're talking about.

23:09 - 23:52 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin continues to cite historical figures, including Dabney, Gardner Spring, Martyn Lloyd-Jones, and Bridges, all of whom affirm the reality and importance of mutual empathetic…

Martin quotes Bridges, who asserts that the 'passage from heart to heart is more direct and the sympathy more immediate' with the natural flow of the preacher's heart, and that the 'reality before his eyes' (the congregation) inspires warmth and energy not found in the study.

As a general rule, we must feel ourselves in order to excite others. And perhaps the passage from heart to heart is more direct and the sympathy more immediate with the natural flowings of the preacher's heart than with the communications through a written medium. The look, attitude, manner of address of the extemporary preacher is more direct, personal, and arresting. His habit is more ready to improve passing occasions and to introduce a striking hint to rouse his careless hearers.

26:01 - 26:41 Read in full sermon

The point: Prioritize the disciplines necessary to master sermon content, structure, and thrust week by week, even if other tasks must be set aside, to enable open and dynamic empathetic involvement.

Martin illustrates that if a preacher is glued to a manuscript due to uncertainty of content, his mind is too occupied with 'sub-processes' of reading and grasping words to engage in mutual empathetic involvement with the congregation.

Now, let me illustrate what I mean. If you are so uncertain in reference to the essential content of your sermon that you must be glued to a manuscript, you cannot be taken up to that extent with the activity of the eye taking in words and registering on the brain, and then the mind having to make sure that it grasps what the eye sees, then seeking to articulate it, the sub-processes of speech, in that given set of factors, are so active that you can't be open to these dimensions of alternating current. You just can't be. Your mind and your soul and your spirit are so constituted that they can...

31:06 - 32:32 Read in full sermon

The point: Prioritize the disciplines necessary to master sermon content, structure, and thrust week by week, even if other tasks must be set aside, to enable open and dynamic empathetic involvement.

Martin illustrates that if a preacher is unsure of his sermon's structure, he will be visibly 'struggling in your own mind to get those horses yoked,' drawing attention to the sub-process rather than the truth, hindering empathetic involvement.

if you're involved in the sub-processes because you don't have the content down firmly enough embedded in the file drawers of the mind, then you're going to be taken up with the sub-processes. Likewise with regard to the structure. If you're not sure how you're going to go from this thought to that thought, from this unit of concern to that, you'll be taken up with the sub-processes of thinking. Now, how can I get these two horses yoked together?

32:32 - 33:00 Read in full sermon

The point: Seek to be mastered by the biblical truths and their practical implications which you preach to others.

Martin likens preaching to two wrestlers on a mat, each holding the other, to illustrate that the preacher must not only grasp the truth but also be grasped by it, creating a dynamic where mutual empathy can flourish.

Seek to be mastered by the Biblical truths and their practical implications. Seek to be mastered by the Biblical truths and their practical implications which you preach to others. Seek to be mastered by the Biblical truths and practical implications which you propose to preach to others. In a real sense preaching can be likened to two wrestlers on the mat, each one holding the other in a firm grip and yet conscious of being held himself. Now if I could indulge one sport I would love to be able to work into my schedule to get over to watch the Montclair State wrestling team. There was a time t...

35:01 - 36:20 Read in full sermon

The point: Seek to be mastered by the biblical truths and their practical implications which you preach to others.

Martin quotes Spurgeon, who advises, 'Be interested yourself and you will interest other people,' emphasizing that the preacher's own engrossment with the subject is key to engaging the hearers empathetically.

their minds but you are pouring an energy of the soul into their hearts I don't know what else to call it and that's what these old writers were referring to where the preacher has as it were a conduit into the very emotions and SOULS of his people and if that's going to be true then you must be mastered by the biblical truths and their practical implications before preaching them to others now listen to Spurgeon as he addresses himself to this issue on page 136 in his chapter on attention if you need another direction for winning attention I should say be interested yourself and you will impr...

40:27 - 41:44 Read in full sermon

The point: Heed the exhortation to be mastered by biblical truths and their practical implications, so that your preaching is attended by the energy of your soul, creating a holy contagion that reciprocally benefits both preacher a…

Martin quotes Gardner Spring, who describes Whitefield's ability to 'enchained his audience by his intense interest in his subject,' forming a 'chain which bound his congregation to him,' illustrating the power of a preacher mastered by his message.

Speaking of Whitefield, he said, but intensity of feeling he had no equal. He enchained his audience by his intense interest in his subject. His being held by his subject formed a chain which bound his congregation to him. That's what Spring understood. He enchained his audience by his intense interest in his subject. That's what Spring understood. He enchained his audience by his interest in the subject. A ship carpenter once remarked that he could usually build in his mind a ship from stem to stern during the sermon.

42:26 - 43:02 Read in full sermon

The point: Heed the exhortation to be mastered by biblical truths and their practical implications, so that your preaching is attended by the energy of your soul, creating a holy contagion that reciprocally benefits both preacher a…

Martin shares the anecdote of a ship carpenter who could usually build a ship in his mind during a sermon but under Whitefield 'could not lay a single plank,' demonstrating Whitefield's captivating power due to his intense interest in his subject.

Speaking of Whitefield, he said, but intensity of feeling he had no equal. He enchained his audience by his intense interest in his subject. His being held by his subject formed a chain which bound his congregation to him. That's what Spring understood. He enchained his audience by his intense interest in his subject. That's what Spring understood. He enchained his audience by his interest in the subject. A ship carpenter once remarked that he could usually build in his mind a ship from stem to stern during the sermon.

42:26 - 43:02 Read in full sermon

The point: Heed the exhortation to be mastered by biblical truths and their practical implications, so that your preaching is attended by the energy of your soul, creating a holy contagion that reciprocally benefits both preacher a…

Martin quotes Gardner Spring, who states, 'A drowsy pulpit makes an inattentive and drowsy congregation,' and that a strange preacher can judge a settled ministry by the people's attentiveness, illustrating the reciprocal influence between preacher and hearers.

A drowsy pulpit makes an inattentive and drowsy congregation. Let a strange preacher enter any pulpit in the land, and from the attentive or inattentive habits of the people, he will not fail to form some just conceptions of its settled ministry.

43:16 - 43:35 Read in full sermon