Learning Conversational Preaching
Learning Conversational Preaching
One of the most amazing aspects of God is that he wants to communicate with us human beings. This post begins a series on learning conversational preaching. God is about communication.
We see this powerfully in the Garden of Eden after he creates Adam and then Eve. We read in Genesis 3 these words:
8 Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the LordGod among the trees of the garden. 9 But the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?”
God was walking in the garden, apparently seeking out the two creatures created in his image, to talk.
God “talks” to Moses from the burning bush. Moses has questions, and God answers them. They are having a conversation.
The New Testament also emphasizes that God wants to have a conversation with us. We see it in the life of Jesus, God made flesh. He interacts on an extremely interpersonal level with his disciples for a long time. They get to know one another as the disciples are being prepared to become apostles. When Saul, who will become Paul, is persecuting Christians, Jesus appears to him on the road to Damascus and has a conversation with him, resulting in the conversion of Saul to Christianity.
Recently, I was listening to music in my morning devotion time, and the old hymn, He Lives, played. I was struck by the chorus
He lives! He lives! Christ Jesus lives today!
He walks with me and talks with me
Along life’s narrow way
He lives! He lives! Salvation to impart!))
You ask me how I know He lives?
He lives within my heart
He walks and talks with me. God is about communication. In the next few posts we are going to learn principles of interpersonal communication and how those principles apply to preaching. I am deeply indebted to a man named William Browned who did a DMin project on the topic of Conversational Preaching
Why Do People Enter Into Conversations?
A good place to start is to consider what is the ultimate point of conversation. Why do people talk? Dr. Dalton A. Kehoe, professor of communications at York University in Toronto answers that question this way:
The answer to the question lies in the fact that as human beings we don’t come equipped with very much information in our genes and our neural systems when we are born. We are the most open-ended animals on the face of the earth at birth. Human beings spend longer in our parents tutelage and that of institutions of our society focused on making us “Human” than any other creature on the planet. We also work at a much higher level of complexity than other creatures on the planet. To do this we have to work out conversational relationships to take care of our most fundamental human needs, virtually from the moment we are born. (Dalton Kehoe, Communication in Everyday life, 5th ed. (Boston: Pearson Lerning Solutions, 2013j), p. 3)
So, we enter into conversation to explore the world around us, the people around us, and to get our basic needs met.
What Is Conversational Communication?
Here is the definition from the computer:
He lives! He lives! Christ Jesus lives today!
He walks with me and talks with me
Along life’s narrow way
He lives! He lives! Salvation to impart!
You ask me how I know He lives?
He lives within my heart
What Conversational Communication Is
Conversational communication involves both speaking and listening, creating a two-way exchange where participants feel heard and understood PositivePsychology.com. It is not just about conveying information but also about building relationships, trust, and emotional connection. Effective conversational communication balances clarity, empathy, and attentiveness, allowing for meaningful dialogue in personal, social, and professional contexts PositivePsychology.com+1.
Conclusion
Conversation is vital to our lives. My premise in these ensuing posts is that our preaching will improve if we learn some of the basic skills of conversation and apply them to our preaching. Learning conversational preaching can improve our impact as preachers. If you want to think about this more deeply, check out this YouTube vidoo.
