How to be a Better Preacher according to Saints

Three Books on Preaching
How to be a Better Preacher according to Saints
Introduction
We Speak the Word of the Lord: a Practical Plan for More Effective
Preaching by Harris; How to Make Homilies Better, Briefer, and Bolder by McBride and Preaching to the Hungers of the Heart by Wallace all have the same objective in mind, which is to improve one’s preaching. However, their approaches are different and the areas on which they focus reveal the preoccupations of their authors. This paper will discuss the main ideas of the books, their similarities and their differences and show how they all compare and contrast with one another.
Main Ideas
The main idea of the book by Harris is to approach the job of preaching from a practical standpoint. The argument that Harris makes is that preachers lose sight of their immediate objective when they lack a practical plan for their preaching. The immediate objective of the homily, according to Harris, is to allow the audience to experience the Word of God—not just to receive a catechism lesson on the difference between mortal and venial sin. Harris gives several examples on the difference between preaching Christ and preaching about Christ. One example he uses is the giving of two different sermons on the parable of the prodigal son. The first sermon uses the parable to give a catechism lesson about what sin is. The second sermon engages the audience and approaches the topic of forgiveness first as a skeptic and cynic and then concludes with a major reversal and shows that the “foolish” father in the parable is like God who forgives us our sins without beating us down as most of the audience fully expects a father to do towards a son who has gone wayward.[footnoteRef:2] The second sermon is the better example of what it means to approach the practice of preaching in the way that is most effective. The main point of Harris is that the preacher has to preach from God’s Word, include other voices, tell a story in a fresh way, and relate it to the audience so they experience the Word of God. Those are the kind of homilies that achieve the ultimate objective of conversion and the development of faith. [2: Harris, Daniel E. We Speak the Word of the Lord: a Practical Plan for More Effective Preaching Eugene, Oregon: Wipf and Stock Publicshers, 2001, 12.]
The main point of the book by McBride is that a homily is not just a recitation of information that is meant to stimulate intellectually but rather it must also be a call to action that inspires people to want to amend their lives and draw nearer to God. McBride gives a basic step by step approach and illustrates each step by providing an example from preachers throughout Church history—from St. Augustine to St. Leo the Great to St. Gregory and so on. His main points are that the preacher should fully be owned by the Word of God so that he can call people to faith, and a good way to call them is to begin with a story as St. Ambrose used to do, which allowed him to dramatize Scripture and make it more experiential for the audience.[footnoteRef:3] McBride provides preaching lessons from Cardinal Newman, known for his gift of oration, and a final chapter entitled “How to Talk” by one of the most gifted elocutionists and preachers of the past century, Fulton Sheen. Thus, McBride provides numerous different points on how to preach by appealing to dozens of different voices and experts in the matter—most of them saints, but all of them worth listening to. [3: McBride, Alfred. How to Make Homilies Better, Briefer, and Bolder. Huntington, Indiana: Our Sunday Visitor, 2007, 25.]
The main point of the book by Wallace is that people in the modern world are hungry for direction, hungry for meaning, hungry for the Spirit, and hungry for words that will move them. They are mainly weak and need to be motivated because they are incapable of motivating themselves. The author describes how Jesus was not unconcerned about the hunger of the people following Him and performed miracles to feed them.[footnoteRef:4] Essentially, this should be the aim of every preacher, to be concerned about the essential needs of his hearers so that he can satisfy them before sending them off into the world where they will undoubtedly be attacked and assailed. They need all the fortifications they can get, and the preacher is like Christ, fortifying those who have followed Him before sending them away. [4: Wallace, James. Preaching to the Hungers of the Heart. The Homily on Feasts and Within the Rites. Collegeville, Minnesota: Liturgical Press, 2002, 6.]
Similarities and Differences
Each book is like the other in that they all focus on how to be a better preacher. They all see that perfect form of preaching as being found in Christ’s own example, whether in His spirit, His actions, or His Word. The goal of good preaching should be to move the hearer in some way, to come around to giving more to God, to come around to seeing what God wants them to see. To do so, of course, one has to know one’s audience, and the authors note that this is important. McBride says, “Make your homily relevant to your listeners.”[footnoteRef:5] Harris states that one must adapt one’s homily to the needs of the audience, and his example of the prodigal son parable that he preached to children was a good example of this because he first painted the father as foolish for welcoming back such a wayward son knowing that the children he was preaching it to would immediately leap to the conclusion that every father is angered at wayward children. But Harris’s trick was that of course God the Father is not that way at all and he was able to surprise and move the children to love God by setting them up to expect an angry God only to be delightfully surprised that God loves to forgive those who seek forgiveness and he wants everyone to come to Him with a true heart, unafraid and hiding nothing.[footnoteRef:6] Thus, Harris essentially makes the same important point as McBride. [5: McBride, Alfred. How to Make Homilies Better, Briefer, and Bolder. Huntington, Indiana: Our Sunday Visitor, 2007, 10. ] [6: Harris, Daniel E. We Speak the Word of the Lord: a Practical Plan for More Effective Preaching Eugene, Oregon: Wipf and Stock Publicshers, 2001, 12.]
Wallace makes the same point but in a different way. He emphasizes the need for the preacher to trust in God that the message being communicated with reach the hearer. He states that every preacher is facing a great many different people in just one audience: “so many whose life experiences are vastly different from the preacher’s and even from one another’s: the elderly, the baby boomers, Generation X, and so on.”[footnoteRef:7] The preacher cannot possibly tailor his sermon in such a way that it hits everyone the same or with the same force—thus he need not agonize over what is essentially the mystery and miracle of preaching. The preacher is there as a sign in and of himself that God exists, and if the preacher does not himself take God seriously then the audience will not either. If the preacher seems wearied by the idea of preaching then the people will see it as a sign of a soul who is weary of taking God seriously and they will think, “If my leader does not take God seriously, why should I?” This is the point McBride makes as well: it is not about preaching immortal words or sermons that will be remembered forever. One does not have to preach a perfect homily but instead one should strive to be perfect in Christ and that grace will shine through the sermon no matter how bad it is because people can sense goodness and they can see the light when it is there to be seen and they are there to look for it.[footnoteRef:8] The main focus of all preachers should therefore be in becoming more Christlike because that is what will ultimately emanate most in their words to their audiences. [7: Wallace, James. Preaching to the Hungers of the Heart. The Homily on Feasts and Within the Rites. Collegeville, Minnesota: Liturgical Press, 2002, 8.] [8: McBride, Alfred. How to Make Homilies Better, Briefer, and Bolder. Huntington, Indiana: Our Sunday Visitor, 2007, 18.]
However, Harris does make the point that the preacher still has to find a way to connect with the people of his parish. He has to think about age, ethnicity, income, neighborhood, and faith experience.[footnoteRef:9] The various epistles in the New Testament are all written to different communities and churches and people and they are shaped according to the audience and the needs of the audience. It should be the same with the preacher. Harris pays special attention this point and explains that the audience brings something to the preaching experience and the preacher should be mindful of that. [9: Harris, Daniel E. We Speak the Word of the Lord: a Practical Plan for More Effective Preaching Eugene, Oregon: Wipf and Stock Publicshers, 2001, 121-122.]
McBride does something a little different, which is that he provides tips and quotes to help cement certain ideas in the reader’s mind. He also provides Scripture resources as well as numerous other secondary resources the reader can turn to for support. All of this is helpful because the reader can benefit from the works like the Jerome Biblical Commentaries, commentaries from the Fathers of the Church on the Internet, and so on. These are all very helpful tips and suggestions.
While McBride’s book is full of quick pointers and tips and resources, Wallace’s book is more scholarly in the way it reads. Simply going by the structure and appearance, Wallace’s book feels heavier than McBride’s, whose book is a lot easier to read and feels more useful just from a practical point of view. Harris’s book feels a bit more practical as well, but it is also a bit like Wallace’s in that it feels heavier than it really should. McBride’s on the other hand is written and displayed textually in such a way that it really has the busy reader in mind. The eye can quickly and easily scan it, and each chapter focuses on a specific saint or preacher with a specific idea at the heart of the chapter, so the reader can peruse the table of contents and immediately find what he is looking for. This is not really the case with Wallace’s or Harris’s book. There is much more slogging through the chapters in order to find the nuggets and pearls of wisdom in their books. Wallace has many footnotes at the bottom of most pages, which give it a scholarly look and that can be a bit intimidating for a reader who does not want to be overwhelmed with academic information. For those who do not mind that kind of approach, it will be welcomed, but most readers are likely to connect with McBride’s simple but effective approach.
Conclusion
Overall, all three books are fine and are worth reading because each offers insight into how to be a better preacher in their own ways. There is no one size fits all approach to preaching and it is important for the preacher to find his own strengths so that he can utilize these as well. The three books certainly complement one another in terms of identifying and commenting on particular areas where preachers should pay especial attention, but when it comes to which book is the easiest to read that would have to be McBride’s book. The most interesting to read, however, is probably going to be Harris’s because it has so many interesting anecdotes. Wallace’s is going to be the most scholarly, however, with all its myriad footnotes.
Bibliography
Harris, Daniel E. We Speak the Word of the Lord: a Practical Plan for More Effective Preaching Eugene, Oregon: Wipf and Stock Publicshers, 2001.
McBride, Alfred. How to Make Homilies Better, Briefer, and Bolder. Huntington, Indiana: Our Sunday Visitor, 2007.
Wallace, James. Preaching to the Hungers of the Heart. The Homily on Feasts and Within the Rites. Collegeville, Minnesota: Liturgical Press, 2002.