One Powerful Story

Rev. Matthew Ricks

After my first year of seminary, all my fellow students were procuring internships at churches, which was good because the seminary required the church to pay the student $3000. When I asked my church about setting up such an arrangement for the summer, they laughed pretty hard. I ended up with an internship as a chaplain at R.B. Winter State Park in Mifflinburg, PA. I also worked at a private campground and lived there. I loved getting to visit new and regular campers during the week. I would make activities for his kids and youth to help them think about their faith. Of course I preached at both campgrounds every week. My favorite responsibility was sitting around campfires with friends I had made over the summer, chatting the evening away, and eating hot dogs.

It was the first time ever that I had preached every week (and twice every Sunday). In other words, I was clueless. I still remember my first Sunday preaching. I preached at both campgrounds. The next day I made rounds visiting everyone who was there at the parks. One difference between the two campgrounds was that at the private campground, I had the same customers every week.

That Monday after my first sermon, I was visiting in the private campground. I will never forget meeting my first couple, Paul and Dottie. I asked them how they liked worship, and they said it went fine. This shows you I was a rookie: I asked them what they thought about my sermon. They said, “It was ok.” A very underwhelming response. They kept talking about their previous chaplain. In a rare stroke of genius, I asked them what they liked about him. They said he never read his sermons.

You better believe I memorized the next week’s sermon. I went back to Paul and Dottie the next day and repeated the whole visit. I asked, “What did you think about the sermon?” They raved about it. I found it hilarious because the words I memorized and spoke were basically the same words that I had written out for that sermon. The only thing that changed their perspective of my sermons was that I was not reading a manuscript.

That was twenty-two years ago. It took a long time to fine tune preaching without a manuscript, but it has been worth it. I have come to realize that if I write my sermon just the right way, memorizing it is a piece of cake. Here’s the secret I’ve found to doing this: your sermon should be one cohesive and powerful story. In fact, it’s a lot like writing songs. You never see musicians reading their lyrics at concerts and that’s because a song tells a story. I believe all people are natural-born storytellers. That is just what we do. It is a pretty powerful thing to do when it comes to preaching. If you can start learning how to preach without a manuscript it is so amazing what happens during the sermon. By looking at the people instead of a manuscript I am looking at my church friends eye to eye. It becomes a really powerful conversation and sometimes something even hits me mid-sermon that just seems to fit. It just feels like the way I imagine Jesus preaching and teaching.

I am not knocking anyone who does preach with a manuscript. I have seen some amazing sermons that were delivered with a manuscript. In fact, I have tried preaching with a manuscript, and it is honestly hard for me to do. What I am getting at is if you are a manuscript preacher primarily, learn to preach without it if possible. Likewise, if you only preach from memory or a loose outline, learn to preach from a manuscript. As my grandaddy taught me when I was a kid, you should be able to drive an automatic and a stick shift. Same goes for preaching.



Christian Nationalism is the Wrong Sermon Illustration

Rev. Beau Underwood

Christian Nationalism is the fusion of American and Christian identities designed to advance a particular ideological agenda. As it garners more attention in our public life, preachers should spend time reflecting on their own words and liturgical leadership to avoid perpetuating this problem. Indeed, mainline Protestants have a pretty poor track record in this area. 

Here are three things preachers can do to avoid adding to the harm:

• Be careful how you talk about the nation: Modern countries and governments are human constructions, not divine instruments. They are fallible entities that often fail to live up to their own ideals. Christian Nationalism makes the mistake of turning them into idols, leaving them beyond critique and sacralizing the actions they take. It’s more than okay to talk about the blessings of living in a particular place, but avoid language that talks about the U.S. (or other countries) as being a “Christian nation” or serving “divine purposes.” 

• Pay attention to the songs you sing: I remember worshiping in a congregation on a Sunday near a patriotic holiday and the bulletin was filled with songs like “America the Beautiful” and “Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory.” At the same time, U.S. leaders were considering launching a significant military assault against another nation that many citizens found morally questionable. The pastor thought they were picking hymns appropriate for the occasion on the calendar, but they made worship - at least for me - very uncomfortable that day. It felt like we were blessing a war rather than praising our God. 

• Remind people what worship is really about: I used to live in Washington, DC, which is full of foreign embassies flying the flags of their respective countries. Even though these buildings were on American soil, they were set apart from the authority and rule of the U.S. government. Sanctuaries are like that. They are embassies of heaven where we worship the God of all the nations. When we think about that truth, it doesn’t make sense to have symbols (like flags) in the sanctuary or nationalistic hymns in the liturgy. Such things reduce our worship to less than it really is; they make God a partisan, rather than the One who reigns over all the earth (and heavens). 

Whether it happens in sermons or other forums, pastors should also be educating their congregations about what Christian Nationalism is (and isn’t). As the concept grows in notoriety, the risk of inaccurate usage also increases. It’s a sociological concept that describes a specific worldview that props up a retrograde social order. There are great resources out there explaining in more detail what it is and the danger it presents to both democracy and the gospel. 

The unfortunate reality is that Christian Nationalism denies that each person is created in the Image of God. Its idolatry makes it a threat to both the unity of Christ’s Church and the prophetic witness of Christians acting as voices of conscience in the public square. By saddling Christianity with even more negative cultural baggage, it makes the work of preaching good news and creating disciples even more difficult.

For further study:

What Christian Nationalism Is and What to Do About It, by Cynthia G. Lindner in the Christian Century magazine.

Are you Accidentally a Christian Nationalist? by Mitchell Atencio at Sojo.net.

Baptizing America: How Mainline Protestants Helped Build Christian Nationalism, Brian Kaylor and Beau Underwood

The Flag and the Cross: White Christian Nationalism and the Threat to American Democracy, Philip S. Gorski and Samuel L. Perry

American Idolatry: How Christian Nationalism Betrays the Gospel and Threatens the Church, Andrew L. Whitehead

GA-2341: General Assembly Resolution Calling the Church to Oppose Christian Nationalism, adopted by the 2023 General Assembly of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)