The Preacher in the Pulpit
Text: (no single text — homiletics instruction)
Series: Restoration Sermons
Date:
Speaker: Ed Rangel
Location: Waupaca Church of Christ
Bible Version: NASB 1995
Sermon Type: Expository
Learning Objectives
By the close of this lesson the hearer should be able to:
- State the controlling principle for all pulpit behavior: nothing should detract from the great truth being presented.
- Identify the four categories of pulpit concern — manners and mannerisms, gesticulations, the voice, respect for the audience — and name at least two specific points in each.
- Explain why "not what you say, but how" is the controlling principle and what this means for the preacher's investment in delivery.
- Identify the habits warned against most directly in this sermon — the "holy tone," ranting, sarcasm, the monotone-singsong — and explain why each detracts from the message.
- Apply the principle "hide behind the cross" to the question of self-display in ministry.
Thesis
The preacher's body, voice, and manner are either servants of the message or competitors with it. Every pulpit habit that draws attention to the preacher rather than to Christ has failed the sermon before the first word is spoken. The standard is simple: does this help the truth reach the hearer, or does it get in the way?
Burden
This is one of the homiletics sermons — instruction for preachers presented in the form of a sermon that any thoughtful congregation member will also find useful for evaluating what they experience from the pulpit. The burden is not criticism for its own sake but the protection of the message: "The preacher has a great truth to present, and nothing should detract from it." Everything in the outline flows from that commitment.
Introduction
"Many little things detract from effective speaking in public." The outline opens with an observation that is both humble and exacting: the problems he is about to address are not theological disasters — they are habits, postures, vocal patterns, and physical mannerisms that erode the effectiveness of a sermon that might otherwise be theologically sound. A good sermon can be poorly delivered. The message is right; the vessel leaks. What is addressed here is the vessel.
The underlying principle: "The preacher has a great truth to present, and nothing should detract from it." This is the standard against which every specific recommendation in the outline is measured. Not: what is comfortable, natural, impressive, or memorable about the preacher. But: does this help the truth land, or does it interfere?
I. Manners and Mannerisms
The first category is the broadest — it addresses the preacher's general presentation before a word is spoken.
Pulpit habits. Every preacher develops habits — things they do without thinking. The problem is that the congregation sees them very well. The rhythmic sway, the grip on the podium, the repeated phrase that opens every paragraph — these become the frame through which the sermon is received, and a distracting frame competes with the content it is supposed to display.
Dress neat, not gaudy, not attractive. The preacher's clothing should not be the thing people remember. Neatness communicates respect for the audience and for the occasion; gaudiness pulls attention to itself; clothing designed to be "attractive" in a way that draws attention to the wearer has misplaced its function. The preacher is not there to be noticed for how they look.
Be natural, not an imitator, not an eccentric. Imitation is the tribute a self-conscious preacher pays to someone they admire — but the congregation receives the copy, not the original, and they can usually tell. Eccentricity serves the same function in reverse: the preacher who cultivates an unusual manner has made himself the subject of attention. Natural delivery is the delivery that disappears into the message.
Do not display self; hide behind the cross. This is the controlling statement of the section. The pulpit is not a platform for self-expression; it is a location for proclamation. The preacher who is visible in the wrong way — whose personality, manner, or style is the dominant impression of the sermon — has failed at the basic task. The cross is what must be seen; the preacher's job is to get out of the way.
Do not preach self, but Christ. Paul's statement is the standard: "We do not preach ourselves but Christ Jesus as Lord, and ourselves as your bond-servants for Jesus' sake" (II Cor. 4:5).
II. Gesticulations
Gesture is the body's contribution to communication. Used correctly, it reinforces and emphasizes; used badly, it distracts or even contradicts.
Be at ease. A preacher who is tense communicates tension; a congregation that feels their preacher's discomfort cannot fully receive what the preacher is saying. Ease is not laziness; it is the settled confidence that allows the message to flow without the interference of the messenger's anxiety.
Stand in a graceful posture; do not walk. Movement without purpose — pacing, wandering, shifting without relation to the content — drains attention rather than directing it. When a preacher moves, it should mean something. Constant motion means nothing.
Do not put hands in pockets. Hands in pockets communicate either nervousness or indifference; neither is appropriate in the pulpit. The hands are available for gesture — leave them available.
All gestures should be natural. Forced or practiced gestures are visible as performances. The gesture that arises naturally from the urgency of the content reinforces it; the gesture that is deployed as a technique announces itself as technique.
Be sure the gesture helps to emphasize the thought. This is the test: does this movement serve the idea being expressed? If not, suppress it.
Let gestures be graceful, not awkward. Awkward gesture makes the congregation uncomfortable on the preacher's behalf. It draws attention to the preacher's discomfort rather than to the truth being proclaimed.
III. The Voice
"Not what you say, but how." This is a provocative reversal of the usual priority. the is not suggesting that content is unimportant — the previous section on mannerisms assumes the preacher has "a great truth to present." What he is pointing out is that the same truth, delivered poorly, does not reach as effectively as the same truth delivered well. The voice is the primary instrument of proclamation; it deserves attention and cultivation.
Avoid the "holy tone." The "holy tone" is the affected ministerial voice — the voice a preacher puts on when they step into the pulpit that is not the voice they use when they talk to someone about directions or dinner. It is a signal to the congregation that what follows is Official Religion, and it activates their defenses. Natural speech reaches people; the "holy tone" announces that a performance is about to occur.
Do not "rant" or "yell." Volume is not the same as conviction. The preacher who compensates for the weakness of an argument with the force of their voice has confused the two. Yelling may produce a physiological response in the audience; it does not produce the persuasion that is the sermon's goal.
Avoid sarcasm. Sarcasm is the weapon of contempt; it demeans its object and communicates that the preacher has ceased to take the audience seriously. It may produce a momentary laugh; it does not produce conviction.
Avoid trying to be "funny." The preacher who is trying to be funny has shifted from proclamation to performance. Humor that arises naturally from the material is different from humor sought as a technique for holding attention. The second announces its own motivation.
Avoid a monotone-singsong. The monotone loses the audience by refusing to give them anything to follow; the singsong produces the same effect by giving them too predictable a pattern. Both flatten the sermon into a uniform experience from which the content cannot emerge.
Rising and falling inflection — speak distinctly and slowly. Inflection carries meaning; the same sentence can be a question, a declaration, or a challenge depending on the pattern of rise and fall. Clarity comes from articulation, not volume; pace matters because the congregation needs time to receive each thought before the next one arrives.
IV. Respect for the Audience
The fourth section reorients the preceding three around the relationship between the preacher and the people they serve. All the specific recommendations about manner, gesture, and voice flow from a prior commitment to the audience.
Do not speak too long. Length is not a virtue in preaching. The sermon that has said what it needed to say and stopped has respected the audience's time and attention. The sermon that continues beyond its natural conclusion has consumed what it had already given. "Quit when through" is the caution in the delivery section — it applies here as well.
Treat the audience as intelligent hearers. Condescension in the pulpit — the posture that assumes the congregation cannot follow a complex argument, handle a difficult text, or receive an uncomfortable truth — diminishes both the audience and the message. The congregation is composed of people whom God considered worth dying for; the preacher who treats them as less than intelligent has misunderstood his audience.
Enlist the sympathy of the audience. The preacher who begins by alienating the audience — by condescension, sarcasm, irrelevance, or an opening that announces a topic the congregation considers disconnected from their lives — has to spend the rest of the sermon recovering ground that could have been avoided. The introduction is designed to open the audience to what follows; that requires their sympathy, not their defensiveness.
Get and hold the attention. Attention is the prerequisite for everything else. The sermon that is not heard cannot persuade. The obligation to get and hold attention is not a concession to entertainment culture; it is the recognition that truth that is not received has not fulfilled its purpose.
Learn group psychology. The congregation is not a collection of isolated individuals — it is a group, with dynamics that differ from the dynamics of individual conversation. The preacher who understands how groups listen, respond, and resist is better equipped to reach the individuals within the group.
Application
Three diagnostic questions for the preacher:
What is the thing in your pulpit manner that your congregation sees most clearly but you are least aware of? Ask someone who will tell you the truth. The habits that distract are usually invisible to the person who has them.
Are you hiding behind the cross, or are you in front of it? The test is simple: when people leave the assembly, what is the dominant impression — the message, or the messenger?
Are you treating the audience as intelligent hearers? Are you giving them a truth worth their time, delivered with a respect for their capacity to receive it?
Conclusion
"The preacher has a great truth to present, and nothing should detract from it." This is where the sermon began; it is where everything in the outline returns. Manners, gestures, voice, audience respect — these are all in the service of the message. The preacher who has mastered them has not mastered preaching; they have simply removed the obstacles. The preaching itself is the truth, carried by the word, driven by the Spirit, aimed at the souls of people whom God loves. Everything else is preparation for that.
Invitation
There is no invitation in the conventional sense for this sermon — it is instruction for preachers and an encouragement for congregations to receive the preaching with patience and discernment. But the sermon's closing word belongs to the congregation as well as the preacher: the great truth that the preacher is responsible to present clearly, you are responsible to receive honestly. Whatever the preacher's manner — however much it may be improved by these principles — the truth itself makes a claim on the hearer.
Believe it. Obey it. Believe in Jesus Christ as the Son of God. Repent. Confess his name. Be baptized for the remission of your sins (Acts 2:38).
Word Study
| English Term | Greek Term | Basic Meaning | Usage in This Sermon | Sermon Significance | Key Texts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Holy tone | the affected ministerial voice | the affected ministerial voice | the vocal pattern that signals "this is a religious performance" rather than authentic communication; it is the sonic equivalent of wearing a costume; the avoidance of it is part of his broader commitment to naturalness in the pulpit. | the phrase | |
| Natural | in the homiletical vocabulary, the natural preacher is the one who has internali | in the homiletical vocabulary, the natural preacher is the one who has internali | in the homiletical vocabulary, the natural preacher is the one who has internalized the message well enough that its delivery arises from genuine conviction rather than technique; naturalness is not absence of preparation but the result of preparation deep enough that technique disappears into content. | contrasted with "imitator" and "eccentric" | |
| Hide behind the cross | the spatial metaphor for the preacher's proper position | the spatial metaphor for the preacher's proper position | not in front of the cross where they are the primary visible thing, but behind it, so that what the audience sees most clearly is the cross and what it represents; this is the summary principle of the entire section on manners. | the phrase | |
| Group psychology | the awareness that the congregation functions as a social unit with dynamics the | the awareness that the congregation functions as a social unit with dynamics the | the awareness that the congregation functions as a social unit with dynamics the preacher must understand; the term reflects his commitment to understanding the audience as a real set of people with predictable responses, not a passive receptacle for the sermon. | the phrase — unusual for a preacher of his era |
Scripture Interlock Table
| Theme | Boles' Outline | Supporting Scripture |
|---|---|---|
| "We do not preach ourselves but Christ Jesus as Lord" | I.5 | II Cor. 4:5 |
| Speak as one who is speaking God's oracles | I | I Pet. 4:11 |
| "So he spoke, and a large number believed" | IV | Acts 14:1 |
| "Preach the word; be ready in season and out of season" | Concl. | II Tim. 4:2 |
| Baptism for remission of sins | Invit. | Acts 2:38 |
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Converted from H. Leo Boles, Outline 124. Primary text: none stated — homiletics instruction outline. OCR corrections: "INTRODUCTI O N" → "INTRODUCTION"; "lJ." → "II."; "JV." → "IV."; "gaud y" → "gaudy." Doctrinal audit: the sermon is homiletical instruction rather than doctrinal exposition; no theological content requiring correction; "hide behind the cross" treated as the controlling principle for all pulpit manner; "not what you say, but how" interpreted as a concern for delivery effectiveness, not a denial of content's importance; invitation retains full obedient response (Acts 2:38).
