The most memorable conversation from my preaching class at Starr King (other than the professor threatening to hit me with a pie) was the point that Lizard Eater and jinnis raise. It was surprising that otherwise strong, confident female classmates undercut their message by ending each sentence as it it were a question. They were also surprised that they were doing it, which is one of the gifts of rehearsing our preaching with one another, and learning how others hear us.

We men have our own pitfalls in speaking, of course, but I think that the pitfalls women often face are loaded with so much cultural baggage, as unfair as it is. Projecting warmth without being flirtatious, or childlike, or wispy, is just damned HARD for some ministers, and complicates an already challenging power dynamic with the congregation.

It was a valuable lesson for me to watch my female classmates struggle with this, and I took it to heart in my own preaching. When I was newer to ministry, I would practice by speaking each sentence and STOPPING. Having to listen to each statement hang out there in silence for a moment was agonizing, but it forced me to end them with an ENDING, neither lilting up at the end, or rushing them into the next sentence. Of course, I didn’t exaggerate this when I actually preached it, but I know that it makes my sermons easier for listeners to follow, and it puts more confidence into what I say. Eventually, preaching as if you have confidence turns into genuine confidence, too!

And, PB, I’m so glad that you addressed the issue of apologizing for our words — my God, what a self-destructive behavior! Let’s just start the service by telling everyone that they might as well stay home!

But I want to throw out a question/challenge to my sisters in ministry. What’s your take on sermon structure? When I hear colleagues questioned about their rambling, directionless sermons, a response I’ve heard from a few female ministers is, “oh, that’s just my preaching style; women use a different model, you know.” I was reminded of this not long ago, when I heard a dear female colleague preaching, and I thought the sermon had reached its ending four or five times. I appreciate the point that we may have different tendencies in our sermon structures, but do you see basic standards that we all might follow?

Again, great topic, PB… thanks!

This is a pastoral issue and an evangelical issue in direct conflict. The only way to solve the conflict is to outright decide what you as a group care more about: providing quality worship or giving everyone the sense that all are equally able to lead quality worship. Since the second option is patently false (the plain reality is that all are NOT equally able to lead quality worship), I might more honestly rephrase it as:
Do we want to provide quality worship, or do we want to avoid hurting people’s feelings?

Of course part of the problem is that Unitarian Universalists are lothe to admit that there IS such a thing as quality worship, preferring to lift up the value of everyone feeling equal. I do wish we were better at the art of communal discernment and helping people find their strengths rather than insisting that everyone should have the right to take on leadership wherever and however they want.

Thank You

This reminds me, of something else. It’s common in US design and decorating to add things for effect, whereas in Japan one would take something away. As people who think more is more, I’d think in our culture - short attention spans notwithstanding - we have a hard time editing ourselves. We’ll cut someone else off pretty easily, but we tend to believe in embellishment.

And I forget his name, but there was a famous writer who, in a letter to a friend, wrote something to the effect of, “I’m sorry this letter is so long, but I’m in a hurry.”

I think the consensus among writers is that it takes longer or at least more effort to distill thoughts and information into something short and concise. I know in the article I wrote for UU World, I was SO HAPPY to have Chris edit that. It was overwhelming and he kept it on point.

I recall a priest who would preface almost all of his daily mass homilies with a “well, today was a busy day, I didn’t get a chance to study the readings very much, so…” and he would proceed to give an endless, rambling homily each and every time. NEWSFLASH: if you didn’t have time to really look at the readings, do not advertise this fact, and please, keep your comments SHORT!!

In fact, not to hijack the conversation, but what do people think of that whole issue, sermon length? I am a big believer that as attention spans get shorter and shorter, we simply cannot afford to think as long as a sermon is well crafted, researched, etc., that length doesn’t matter….I think it matters very much, and a shorter sermon with one clear, concise, well delivered message is worth much more than a lengthy sermon that contains multiple messages, no matter how well crafted.
What say you?