Preaching in Relationship to the Congregation, Part 2

The point: Open your own human spirit to the congregation.

Martin quotes McElvain, who states that the degree of a speaker's sensibility to the audience's attention and sympathy is an 'infallible test of natural genius for public speaking,' emphasizing that a truly effective preacher cannot speak well without it.

Open your own human spirit to the congregation. And I'm thankful I found something in McElvain where he's trying to say the same thing.

3:06 - 3:18 Read in full sermon

The point: Open your own human spirit to the congregation.

Martin references Spurgeon's statement that he 'could not go on preaching if he did not have the eye of a blind man upon him,' illustrating the deep need for a preacher to feel connected to his audience.

On page 105, he says, Now, listen to what he says. In fact, the degree of this sensibility is an infallible test of natural genius for public speaking. For he who does not feel the need of the attention and simplicity of the audience, and the sympathy of his audience, who hardly knows whether he has it or not, and who can speak as well with it as without it, for there are such speakers, that man is incapable of eloquence and ought to dismiss all thoughts of becoming an effective preacher. The speaker who has any natural adaptation or genius for this art seems to reflect, as it were, all the st...

3:20 - 4:49 Read in full sermon

The point: Open your own human spirit to the congregation.

Martin describes preachers who are unaffected by a dull or distracted congregation, droning on regardless of whether teenagers are giggling or old ladies are asleep, highlighting a lack of empathetic connection.

For public speaking. So you must open your spirit to the congregation. Now, though not satisfied with the wording, I hope you understand at least approximately what I'm trying to say. Some men obviously preach with an empathy-proof wall around them.

5:20 - 5:41 Read in full sermon

The point: Pull out your antenna; don't jam them in and cut the wires, so you can receive signals from the congregation.

Martin uses the metaphor of pulling out antennas to illustrate the need for preachers to be receptive to signals from the congregation, rather than jamming them in and cutting the wires.

The signals are coming loud and clear to any man whose antenna are out to get them. So I had in the margin here under the exhortation, open your spirit to the congregation illustration. Pull out the antenna. Don't jam them in and cut the wires.

6:35 - 6:51 Read in full sermon

The point: If you've lost the people, it's better to quit the sermon early than to drone on, earning respect for honesty.

Martin compares quitting a sermon when the audience is lost to busting landing gear from 30,000 feet rather than staying in an irritating holding pattern, arguing for honesty and respect for the congregation.

Pull them out so that if you get the sense that you've lost the people, far better to quit after having to and say it's obvious that for some reason or other you're not taken anymore. I hope what I've given you will be a profit. Let's pray. Far better to just drop on the deck from 30,000 and bust your landing gear than, you know, get in a holding pattern that just gets everybody irritated and sleepy and at least they'll respect you for your honesty.

6:51 - 7:21 Read in full sermon

The point: Pray that God will give you the ability to lock into where the congregation is and to sense accurately.

Martin shares a personal story of a man in his congregation who sat for two years with a hostile demeanor, illustrating the trauma and difficulty of preaching when faced with open antagonism and the vulnerability it creates for the preacher.

It means if you have some hostile faces, you're going to have to look at them. God alone knows the trauma I went through for two whole years with a man in our congregation, and I'm talking about something that goes back for 50 years, who sat week after week with his jaw set, his lower lip out, his arms folded, and closed his eyes as if to say, just try to get something in. I tell you, it was distressing. And I didn't have the strength or the spiritual strength at times to even look at it.

8:21 - 9:01 Read in full sermon

The point: Engage the congregation with real eye contact at the outset and maintain that contact throughout the sermon.

Martin quotes Blakey, who argues that a preacher should 'preach with his face as well as with his voice,' as people expect to see the preacher's countenance for a fuller understanding and belief.

In a real sense, the eye and the face are the windows and mirror of the soul. And if you think of your own experience, for the most part, unless you're at such a great distance that it makes it impossible, when someone stands to address you in a group situation, your attention is focused from the neck up, and you only take in generally into your peripheral vision. Like right now, you're taking into your peripheral vision the activity of my hands, but your attention is from the neck up. And it's the look of the eye, it's the set of the jaw, it is those things that are the primary focal point in...

10:33 - 11:43 Read in full sermon

The point: Engage the congregation with real eye contact at the outset and maintain that contact throughout the sermon.

Martin lists various emotions expressed by the eye (sparkles, flashes, melts, etc.) and gives examples of dogs knowing their master's intent and gamblers judging opponents, to emphasize the power of eye contact.

The eye, for example. What a variety of emotions can appropriately be represented by the eye. It sparkles with intelligence, flashes with indignation, melts with grief, trembles with pity, languishes with love, twinkles with humor, starts with amazement, or shrinks with horror, according to the impulse given to it by the soul within. A dog knows from his master's eye whether he's about to be petted or kicked.

12:36 - 13:09 Read in full sermon

The point: When you stand up to preach, don't start until people have folded hymn books and gotten out notebooks; wait for attention.

Martin quotes 'I will guide thee with my eye' to underscore the divine precedent for the eye's significance in communication and influence.

Gamblers are said to be able to judge of the hand of their opponents from their eye and their countenance. Wild animals like the lion are said to quail before the steady gaze of a fearless man. And God himself uses the eye as the symbol of his influence. I will guide thee with my eye.

13:09 - 13:31 Read in full sermon

The point: When you stand up to preach, don't start until people have folded hymn books and gotten out notebooks; wait for attention.

Martin describes different 'looks' a preacher might discern in the eyes of the congregation—glassy, questioning, or eager—to illustrate how eye contact provides vital feedback during preaching.

This will engage your people with those things that are expressed through your eye and you then will be able to discern in looking into their eyes what's going on with them. Whether there's that glassy look of, I love you, Pastor, but I don't know where in the world you are. Or whether there's that look of, well, wait a minute now, you're not quite carrying my judgment. I'm not convinced yet.

14:16 - 14:41 Read in full sermon

The point: When you stand up to preach, don't start until people have folded hymn books and gotten out notebooks; wait for attention.

Martin draws an analogy to personal counseling, explaining that constant eye contact can be intimidating, and occasional breaks are wholesome, just as in preaching.

I've made it a policy never to sit there during a whole counseling session just looking in someone's eyes. That can be very intimidating. So I've learned how to just look off at my window to the left and how to lean back in my chair. Otherwise, people can feel intimidated.

16:41 - 16:56 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: The second sub-directive is to engage the congregation with real eye contact from the outset and maintain it throughout the sermon, using the eyes as a means of both expression…

Martin recounts an incident in Carolina where he waited five minutes for two young men to pay attention, eventually rebuking them non-verbally and then directly, demonstrating the need to establish attention forcefully if necessary.

So in saying all of that, I'm not giving a full theology of eye contact, but what is vital is that right up front you establish you're coming to speak directly to them and there's no way you can establish that without looking into their eyes. And if you don't have eyes, you wait for them. This is where I had to do it again just some weeks ago down in Carolina. I had to say, one night I waited for about five minutes, two young men sitting on the back, they just would not look at me.

17:23 - 17:51 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: The second sub-directive is to engage the congregation with real eye contact from the outset and maintain it throughout the sermon, using the eyes as a means of both expression…

Martin quotes McElvain on the speaker's need to scan individual countenances to note expressions and effects, and to direct words particularly to those showing inattention.

Well, it may come to that, but you make it evident right at the outset by engaging with real eye contact that you expect that locking up between you and the people. Again, McElvain understood this principle well and addressed himself to it on page 98. The mind of the speaker being directed to his audience, his eye naturally follows his mind. He looks at them, not barely as a sea of faces without distinction, but he scans their individual countenances.

18:31 - 19:09 Read in full sermon

The point: If you notice a person consistently inattentive or disengaged, approach them privately and ask if they are unwell or if you have misread their signals, giving them a chance to explain.

Martin quotes McElvain, who states that undivided attention is indispensable for sympathetic action, and even a single inattentive person can disrupt the 'mysterious currents of sympathy and thought.'

And number four, and this flows out of it very naturally, seek to establish and maintain undivided attention. Seek to establish and maintain undivided attention. McElvain writes so perceptively on page 110, the attention of the audience is indispensable to this sympathy between preacher and congregation. In order to such results, it is necessary that the attention of the audience should first be gained and concentrated upon the thoughts and sentiments of the speaker as they are delivered.

20:53 - 21:35 Read in full sermon

The point: If you notice a person consistently inattentive or disengaged, approach them privately and ask if they are unwell or if you have misread their signals, giving them a chance to explain.

Martin illustrates how a disaffected church member might refuse to laugh at humor as a 'silent protest,' cutting the empathetic current and signaling their lack of involvement.

This is indispensable to the free play and greatest effect of the sympathetic action. For even a single person who is inattentive, or whose mind is otherwise occupied, not only fails to contribute his share to the effect, but he presents an obstacle to the propagation and flow of the common feeling, and exerts a positive influence in crossing and confusing the mysterious currents of sympathy and thought. You're in a congregation where something unplanned of a humorous nature is said, and there's a disaffected church member sitting there. One of the ways the disaffected church member will alway...

21:35 - 22:31 Read in full sermon

The point: Speak in a simple, unaffected, frank, masculine manner.

Martin uses Jesse Jackson as an example of someone who 'exudes masculinity,' making him attractive to people, to illustrate the power of a masculine manner in gaining a hearing, even if for wrong reasons.

We live in the age of the clerical wimp. And God has so made us that by and large a man that speaks like a man with something of the assertiveness and authority of manhood will have a hearing. That's another thing about Jesse Jackson. He exudes masculinity.

26:30 - 26:58 Read in full sermon

The point: Speak in a simple, unaffected, frank, masculine manner.

Martin quotes McElvain on the power of a 'simple, frank, and artless manner' combined with earnestness and respect to engage attention and awaken sympathy, contrasting it with affected or pompous styles.

So brethren, speak in a simple, artless, frank, masculine manner if you would have people attend to what you are saying. Again, McElvain on page 112. His manner and tones must be simple, earnest, and respectful. A simple, frank, and artless manner free from pretentiousness and affectation, and one at the same time earnest, respectful, and affectionate, has great power to engage attention and to awaken sympathy.

27:10 - 27:48 Read in full sermon

The point: Speak in a simple, unaffected, frank, masculine manner.

Martin shares his experience at funerals and weddings, where speaking like an 'ordinary human being' instead of a 'clergyman' in Elizabethan English 'absolutely blows people away,' creating a powerful opportunity for genuine communication.

I have found, for example, in funerals and weddings, that just standing up and talking like an ordinary human being instead of a clergyman, in Elizabethan English with a prayer book, or a minister's manual in front of me, absolutely blows people away. I have seen it time after time after time. I come into the funeral parlor, some of you have been at funerals I've conducted, and I just stand behind the little desk and say simply and honestly and straightforwardly, I am not here to go through some prescribed ritual, to simply read some prayers and some scripture and to go through a forum, but in...

28:27 - 29:29 Read in full sermon

The point: Make judicious use of the pause and other arresting rhetorical devices to regain attention.

Martin recounts Whitfield's dramatic rebuke of a sleeping man during a sermon on judgment, where he stomped his foot and declared, 'Thou shalt not sleep when thy God summons thee to judgment in the last day,' as an example of an attention-arresting device.

And in given situations, you may use some that in other situations would appear ludicrous, would be indecorous, would be unwise. I'm not advocating you do what Spurgeon did when a man fell asleep when he was preaching on judgment. Not Spurgeon Whitfield, but as Spurgeon Whitfield did. He saw the man sleeping.

31:46 - 32:09 Read in full sermon

Driving home: Friends, I'm here to speak to you, and I'm going to do it. You're here to listen, and you have got to do it. The sooner you begin, the better it will be for us both.

Martin quotes McElvain on the speaker's need to exercise authority over a refractory audience without showing irritation, maintaining good nature while firmly asserting the expectation of attention.

So you've got to make a direct appeal, but make it gracious. McElvain speaks on this issue and says, In difficult cases, the speaker may exercise authority over the audience, but with special care not to manifest irritation. Whenever the audience proves refractory in an extraordinary degree, which will sometimes be the case, the speaker must not yield to them or he's lost. He must try to rise with the difficulty, and by his voice, countenance, and manner exert a certain authority over them, for which his position and relations to them afford him peculiar advantage.

35:24 - 36:02 Read in full sermon

Driving home: Friends, I'm here to speak to you, and I'm going to do it. You're here to listen, and you have got to do it. The sooner you begin, the better it will be for us both.

Martin quotes Spurgeon on dealing with people whose manners are 'inimical to attention,' such as looking around or making noise, and Spurgeon's method of describing entrants to shame the audience into attention.

The sooner you begin, the better it will be for both of us. And I think all of our hearts say amen to that. There's something, again, that is gracious, manly, and befitting to our position as heralds of the living God. Spurgeon, in his own inimitable way, on this matter of the exceptional use of a direct or gracious appeal, writes on page 130, Sometimes the manners of our people are inimical to attention.

36:43 - 37:15 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: The third suggestion is to indulge the exceptional use of direct appeals or gracious rebukes to address inattention, doing so with authority but without irritation.

Martin shares an anecdote about Andrew Fuller, who, seeing his congregation asleep before he even began, made a direct appeal for them to wake up, humorously shifting the blame for inattention to them.

He gives an instance here of how you can use a pause. And then he gives an incident from the life of Andrew Fuller, where Andrew Fuller had barely commenced a sermon when he saw the people going to sleep. He said, Friends, friends, this won't do. I have thought sometimes when you were asleep it was my fault.

38:43 - 39:06 Read in full sermon

The point: Maintain throughout the act of preaching a prayerful dependence upon the Holy Spirit.

Martin quotes Spurgeon's analogy of the pause as a 'verbal jerk to the cradle' to prevent people from falling asleep during monotonous preaching, emphasizing its power to arrest attention.

Know how to pause. Make a point of interjecting, arousing parentheses of quietude. Speech is silver, but silence is golden where hearers are inattentive. Keep on and on and on and on with one commonplace matter in monotonous tone and you're rocking the cradle and deeper slumbers will result.

39:24 - 39:44 Read in full sermon