Sunday sermons--feast or famine?

Paul Schrag and Melanie Zuercher

"I would describe Mennonite preaching as undercooked home cooking," says June Alliman Yoder, professor of communication and preaching at Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary in Elkhart, Ind. She means that Mennonite preaching is nourishing and prepared with careful thought for those who will eat it--but without enough time to cook it right. Evidently, Mennonite preachers like to preach but are frustrated by a lack of time to prepare. Yoder notes that most respondents to a recent survey of Mennonite pastors had little to say about their relationship with God. "How little time there seemed to be for the quiet reflection and personal prayer that are so needed," she says. "Only if we are in relationship with God can our preaching in any way reflect a word from God."

The lack of preparation time is crucial because "our congregations are hungrier and needier than ever before," Yoder says. "Sermons are more challenging today because congregations are more diverse. They are diverse in vocations, in worship-style preferences, in ethnic backgrounds, in education and in economic levels. And they don't know their Bible as well as they used to. . . . Few pastors teach the Bible outside the pulpit, and sermons are getting shorter."

Yoder's comments came in a workshop on "The State of the Mennonite Pulpit" which she gave at a symposium on preaching Feb. 22-24, 1998 at Bethel College in North Newton, Kan. Yoder also used food analogies to categorize other approaches to preaching in Mennonite churches:

* Snack food. "Our congregations have a reduced ability to concentrate," Yoder says, "[and] a five- to seven-minute homily is all they can handle."

* Junk food. This kind of sermon is short on Scriptural content.

* Carry-out. This is borrowing someone else's sermon.

* Buffet. This kind of sermon lacks focus--it has too many good things.

* Leftovers. A pastor is serving leftovers when the congregation gets the same thing too often. Sometimes, Yoder says, the pastor changes the text, but the sermon remains the same. On the other hand, some sermons are worth preaching twice: "I think there are a lot of congregations out there that didn't get it the first time."

* Feast. The ideal sermon, Yoder says, is the company dinner or feast. It's carefully prepared and exquisitely presented. It takes everyone's needs into account. It's delivered with joyful language, sterling images and passion.

But you can't expect a feast every week, Yoder concluded. Well-cooked home cooking is good, regular fare.