Exhortational preaching challenges. Urges. Implores. It is filled with phrases like “you should” and “we ought” and “do this” and “consider that.” It challenges people to change beliefs and behaviors based on the propositions included in the sermon.
Evocative preaching is different. It seeks to evoke a response in the hearer; to craft the kind of experience that moves the emotions before it speaks to the mind. Fewer imperatives. More rhetorical questions. It’s heavy on images, often leaves the “punch line” to the end, and sometimes leaves the implications of the message in the hands of the listener. The experience of the message as much as the content of the message will empower people to change beliefs and behaviors.
I believe evocative preaching communicates well with 21st Century people — people who are often skeptical of authority and yet accustomed to receiving their information from screen-based images.
I typically strive to be more evocative than exhortational in my messages — though I’m not sure how often I reach the goal.
When done well, evocative preaching can even open the way for exhortational preaching: as the proclaimer engages the hearts and minds of listeners, he or she then has the trust, space, and freedom to issue challenges.
Even blunt ones.
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Thanks for this post. I was just sitting here thinking (praying) about my first few sermons at my new church. This helped a lot.
Thanks, Talbot,Speakers as long ago as Aristotle agree with you. They knew persuasive communication takes Logos (good argument), Ethos (believable messenger), AND PATHOS (emotional connection). Some excellent research by Damasio at the University of Iowa and others is demonstrating that even if someone agrees with what you are saying, they won’t change their behavior if they aren’t feeling something when they agree with what you are saying. I’d also suggest most Christians have built up defenses against preaching and it takes evocation to sneak around those defenses.
I’m reminded of what Reinhold Niebuhr once said: “You may be able to compel people to maintain certain minimum standards by stressing duty, but the highest moral and spiritual achievements depend not upon a push but a pull. People must be charmed into righteousness.”
Goodness is evoked, not extorted (er, exhorted).