Preaching and Practical Ministry

When one is asked, `what does a minister do?', among the first answers always given, is `preach!'. So closely is the minister, pastor, or priest identified with this role that `preacher' is often considered a closely-synonymous title for the same position. Preaching is an important piece, some would say the most important piece, in this job description - to say this, and to consider whether or not this is true, requires analysis on a systems basis. This is the kind of analysis that Ron Allen, prolific writer in the field of homiletics and professor of preaching and New Testament at my seminary, gives to the role and the task of preaching. As Allen states at the beginning, systems thinking makes assumptions about groups and communal relationships on different levels. Allen's first chapter develops his ideas of systems, drawn both from his own experiences (what would a book by Ron Allen be without a story originating in the Ozarks?) and his extensive studies into the matter. Congregations are a special kind of social system, with a theological purpose and an origin in a call from God through the Holy Spirit. In most congregations, this same Spirit is considered to be continuing in presence and action, which makes systems analysis for congregations a somewhat different matter from straight sociological or business-paradigm analyses. There are formal, informal and tacit aspects of the congregational system, and each of these has an impact on how preaching functions in the community. Allen then goes through a short list of some of the major roles that a preacher assumes (or is assumed to assume) in congregational systems - the preacher as teacher, as pastor, as administrator, as missionary, and as spiritual leader. Most people who have gone to church for any length of time come know ministers who are better and worse at the different functions, as rare is the individual woman or man who is equally gifted across all of these functions. A person may be a great preacher and administrator, but lack personal gifts for pastoring. More frequently, the gifted pastor and preacher will lack administrative abilities. Some of these titles are difficult to define. The role of teacher does not mean the preacher should stand in a pulpit with a blackboard behind her. Allen traces the teaching office of the preacher through history in the experience of Israel and the early Christian church, who both thought of themselves broadly as communities of teaching and learning (an insight that comes from Allen's shared work with Clark Williamson). Allen discusses the frequent disconnect between formal and informal Christian education programmes and the preaching done in congregations; he also explores ways to help the education and catechetical aspects of the church coincide with what happens in the congregation. With regard to pastoral care, Allen is in line with the thinking that the congregation itself can function as a system of pastoral care, getting aw