The “Middle Zone” of Preaching
As part of a grant project studying vibrant preaching, I had the chance recently to read over a) the results of a survey taken by more than a thousand people who regularly listen to sermons and b) the in-depth interviews given by about two hundred more. The results have been fascinating and I’m only just beginning to process them. But one thing already stands out: People want to understand why the biblical stories they hear read at church matter. Desperately. More than that, they want what happens on Sunday to matter throughout the week.
When I processed this observation with a group of preachers participating in the study, one voiced the feelings of the whole group: “Aren’t we doing that already?” My response: yes and no. Yes, of course we are working hard to open up these biblical passages, to help people understand them, and to offer them ways to think about their life in light of the faith. This generation of preachers is as talented, hardworking, and faithful in this respect as any other.
At the same time, I’ve become aware of an interesting trend in preaching that was confirmed by the survey results. It has to do with sermon illustrations. (And by “sermon illustrations” I’m not talking about canned stories but honest-to-goodness attempts to help us link the sermon’s message to everyday life.) Most of the illustrations I hear are directed to one of two “zones” or “spheres” of our life in this world. The first is the congregational zone. That is, the sermon relates the biblical passage or theological theme to what’s going to in the congregation’s life, ministries, budget, outreach, volunteer opportunities, and the rest.
The second sphere that a lot of sermon illustrations tend to explore is what I’d call the global zone. Here the preacher takes up the matter of wars, natural disasters, systemic problems, and so forth and invites us to view these things from the standpoint of faith.
Now please let me be clear: both of these zones are incredibly important to preach to. But I nevertheless want to say that what often seems to be missing is all the life (which is most of our lives!) in between our congregational involvement and the world’s very real problems. Jobs, looking for a job, relationships, parenting, managing too many things at once, money, family, volunteering – that is, the stuff that constitutes our daily lives – often seems to be missing.
Honestly, I’m not looking for a simplistic application of the sermon to one of life’s problems, like the answer is to offer a series of sermons on stress management. At the same time, I would like to hear more preachers try to help us see how these ancient stories offer us a lens, a perspective, that helps me make sense of some of the ordinary and mundane things that make up most of my life.
Karl Barth and Dietrich Bonhoeffer used to scoff at talk of “relevant preaching,” where the Bible is instrumentalized into a self-help book. At the same time, they both – and Bonhoeffer especially – invited preachers to imagine that their job wasn’t so much to interpret Scripture as it was to open up a passage such that it could interpret our daily lives. This focus on how faith impacts the mundane and ordinary elements of our lives – that is, the majority of our lives – is what I’d call “the middle zone” of preaching, and I would love to hear more of it…and so would, as it turns out, a majority of the people we surveyed and interviewed.
The post image is Peter Bruegel the Elder’s Landscape with the Fall of Icarus (1558). What I love about it is how tiny Icarus’ fall and tragedy actually is, located in the bottom right hand corner of the painting. The people portrayed in the painting don’t even notice, because they’re too busy plowing and working and doing all the things that make up their daily lives. I sometimes worry that our preaching can be like that, hardly noticed because people are busy with their “real” lives, lives to which we don’t always give sufficient attention.
Thanks David. This is helpful to remember in the day-to-day work of proclamation/sermonizing/writing/…
I wonder if different contexts are better for different zones? Like, I can bring the “church/ministry” zone to light in a Session meeting, and the personal middle zone from the pulpit, and then, while not ignoring the newspaper-inspired global zone, maybe it can be better addressed in classroom/discussion times. Just thinking it through.
I think we need all three, including in the pulpit, but I think it’s easy to forget the middle zone, as if we kind of assume everyone knows how the faith applies to the everyday aspects of faith. But what we’re finding is that they don’t.
Thanks for articulating something I’ve intuited for a while. I struggle with that tension between the kind of “relevance” Bonhoeffer and Barth rejected and engaging what it means to be the body of Christ in the secular workplace, a busy household, etc. Most preachers only allude to this zone or cop out with a vague “God is there” (to which I want to say, “and…?”)
On the one hand, the exclusively topical, self-helpy homiletics that, for example, focuses on money management and time management misses the grandeur and mystery– and often the communal dimension– of what it means to be church in the world. But at the same time, I admire and learn much from preachers in the evangelical churches who really do have some faithful insights about how to creatively engage the daily zone of people’s lives.
David, what are your conclusions about how vibrant preaching makes connections between the Word and the daily zone?
Two things briefly. 1) I wonder if part of our task to to find some of the grandeur and mystery in the ordinary things of life – these ordinary places that God not only blesses but uses to sustain God’s creation. 2) Perhaps we don’t have to choose. Not every sermon needs to cover all three zones. But perhaps we can be more intentional in touching different elements of our shared life – congregational, daily, global – so that over a season of preaching, we are touching on a variety of elements. And, of course, preaching isn’t the only place to touch on our daily lives – just the most public – but perhaps if people begin to gain a sense of how faith affects daily life they’ll be more open to exploring other resources, whether it’s an Adult Forum on parenting or this blog. 🙂
Thanks David! The middle zone comprises 167 of the 168 hours available in a week (assuming 1 hour per week in church), so this is a truly great wy of looking at it. I think a lot of us try to aim for the middle, but…
Will the results of the preaching survey you mentioned be published? Will all of us preachers be able to hear what this study found? (The whole idea reminds me of the book “The Great American Sermon Survey” by Dr Lori Carrell. I’ve read some of it, but haven’t finished it yet.)
In time we’ll be sharing various elements of the report. Some of that will come through articles and posts on this site, WorkingPreacher.org, and others. Eventually – and we only recently got the 1000+ survey responses and 200+ interviews in – we hope to publish a more formal and compete report and overview of what we found. Thanks for asking!
Loved the article! I am working on my DMin and would love to have access to this survey, as I will be doing a survey myself on the subject of relevancy of preaching in the context of Central America. Is this survey available, or at least is there a more direct way to access some of the information? You help is greatly appreciated!
I’m interested in the demographics of the study. I lead a multicultural parish outside of Washington, DC with a high Sierra Leonean population & I was born and raised in this country. I am trying to assist all of us to move from the collectivistic culture in which many of these adults were raised (and long to live) and our individualistic culture in America into a free but collectivistic culture we call “the body of Christ”. That is part of the middle ground that we need to seek together. Thank you for your great resources and encouragement.