Pew Rights: For People Who Listen to Sermons

We who preach understand how difficult it is to preach well; those who hear us probably understand it even better! With that in mind Roger E. Van Harn wrote Pew Rights: For People Who Listen to Sermons (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, c. 1992). This pastor of Grace Christian Reformed Church in Grand Rapids is a veteran who's profited from in-depth academic study of his subject. And he asks us, in this book, to think more about listening than speaking, about "pew rights" than "pulpit prerogatives." Hearing the Word of the Lord is one of our "pew rights." It's indicated in Paul's letter to the Romans: "'Every one who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved.' But how are men to call upon him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? . . . to hear without a preacher? And how can men preach unless they are sent? . . . So faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes by the preaching of Christ" (10:13-17). In Van Harn's view, central to the ordo salutis stands hearing. It's not all there is to sal¬vation, but it's basic. So preaching, the Reformers said, is God's way of saving people. "It is the preaching of the word, they said, that brings faith to people and people to faith" (p. 13). If this process takes place, the one who preaches must, first of all, hear the Word of the Lord! "Preachers should be listeners before they are speakers" (p. 18). Indeed, they should be "pioneer listeners"--vanguard experts who're part of the listening community, folks who first hear and faithfully transmit the message. In the pews, hearers have a right to hear from a preacher who's heard (through study and prayer) God's Word. Our hearers also have a right to have their deepest needs addressed. There are, in fact, ultimate issues which deeply concern us. There is, in fact, a difference between finding meaning in life and living resigned to absurdity . . . between truth and illusion . . . between heaven and hell. In the pew, we have a right to hear preachers who're concerned with more than trivial pursuits, more than political polls, more than psychological pabulum. Clearly the Bible, when hermeneutically focused on Jesus, deals with life and death issues. It faces the tragedies and absurdities of existence, and it offers supernatural endowments such as faith and hope and love. We might like our preachers to be more interesting, even more entertaining--but we don't merely want interesting lectures or funny stories. We have a right to hear of things eternal when we attend church. What we want, in church, is "the story behind the text" (p. 47). It's the story of Jesus' birth, life, message, death, and resurrection. It's often subtly shadowed rather than boldly stroked, but it's basic to every biblical message. It's "the Story. The Story with a capital S. The gospel is the good news Story of what God has done for us in the history of