George Herbert’s advice for preaching is helpful for young pastors fresh out of seminary. Having lived in England during the tumultuous era of James I and Charles I, Herbert (1593-1633) experienced the fallout of competing theologies and philosophy of ministry. Turning down a potentially high-level academic career, he settled for quiet ministry at St. Andrews just north of Edinburgh.
In The Country Parson, a collection of prose meditations on the duties, joys, and hardships of a pastor’s life, he offers five practical pieces of advice for preaching.
Preach Consistently and Constantly
“The pulpit is the country parson’s joy and his throne…when he intermits, he is ever very well supplied by some able man who treads in his steps.”
–George Herbert
Occasionally, a lapse in the pulpit is permissible, and even strategic. A pastor can find that he is better heard upon his return. On other occasions, he may find another voice to speak the truth from another angle more effective. But, when finding another voice to occupy the pulpit, choose one who you know will build up your work and not pull it down.
Preach to Procure Attention
Herbert’s advice reads like a modern homiletics textbook:
- earnestness communicates importance
- catch the eye of the listener
- make age appropriate application
- use of story, or sayings of others
- avoid thick and heavy argumentation
- remind of the significance of the sermon
- be not witty, eloquent, or learned, but holy
Preach to Provoke Holy Devotion
By picking texts suited to devotion rather than controversy, a minister focuses the hearts of his congregation toward God. But a minister cannot move others if he has not “dipped and seasoned” his our words through our own heart. Appropriate exclamation of praise to God moves others to join you in exultation. Explicitly focus on the potential good desired for your people as they follow in the ways of the Lord–just like Paul and Peter. Finally, push your congregation to observe the majesty and presence of God in the breadth of of ones life. Help them see that the Spirit of God is not only fire but also water.
Preach the Whole Text
“The Parson’s Method in handling the text consists of two parts; first a plain and evident declaration of the meaning of the text; and secondly, some choice Observations draw out of the whole text, as it lies entire, and unbroken in the Scripture itself. This he thinks natural, and sweet, and grave. Whereas the other way of crumbling the text into smaller parts, as, the Person speaking, or spoken to, the subject, and the object, and the like, hath neither in it sweetness, nor gravity, nor variety, since the words are apart are not Scripture, but a dictionary, and may be considered alike in all the Scripture.
–George Herbert
The puritan style of homiletic exegesis at times overwhelmed the simple folks in the countryside, leaving them unable to process the text as a whole. There is a lesson here, in taking care not to “crumble the text” so fine that it slips through the hands of hungry souls.
Preach to the Whole Person
Rounding out his advice for preaching, George Herbert pays recognition to the old adage that the head can only the handle what the bottom can endure. So, in the end, he suggests that any longer than an hour wearies the flock rather than bring them refreshment.
George Herbert’s advice for preaching is practical in the 21st Century as it was in the 17th century. May we not crumble the text so fine that our people lose the joy and majesty of our very present Savior and God.