Invitational Preaching

Back in the days when I was preaching every Sunday, it was my privilege for a number of years to lead some workshops on preaching and worship for young preachers.  One of the things I always underscored in the preaching groups was the importance of invitational preaching.  There is all kinds of things offered from the pulpit in the name of preaching, but not nearly enough of it is invitational.  Some preaching is informational.  Some sounds more like a teacher who is presenting all the possible interpretations of scripture.  And, unfortunately, some sounds like political commentary.

 

It has always been my personal opinion that good preaching is both persuasive and invitational.   Preaching is not a lecture, but more like a conversation.  It may be that the pew sitters never say any words, but good preaching always brings people to a point of responding. It is in the moment of responding that the homiletical conversation is completed.  And, of course, good preaching ends with an invitation to respond to what the Word of God is saying in the midst of the people of God.  It is, therefore, important that the Word of God being proclaimed has as its basis the written Word of God.  Otherwise, it is personal opinion which is not what people come to hear on Sunday morning. 

 

It often takes a bit of prayerful work to figure out how the sermon is going to be used as an invitational tool.  There was a time when invitational preaching meant altar calls and nothing more.  While using the altar for something other than communion is no longer considered by many preachers, there is always value in inviting people with troubled hearts to kneel before God.  As important as an altar can be, it provides only one way of responding to the proclaimed Word of God.  There are as many ways to respond as there are good sermons.  When a preacher cannot figure out how to invite people to respond to a sermon, maybe the sermon is not worth preaching.