Congregational Survey:
What We Heard (Part Five): What Is Great Preaching?
You probably won’t be surprised to learn that the topic you identified
as the single most important ministerial quality is “Great Preaching.” We asked you define that for us and your
responses were both thoughtful and passionate. You told us some remarkable
things:
“Great preaching is when I feel that I haven’t been fed any predictable
answer, but rather, have been challenged to face hard questions.”
“He or she makes the space safe for me to search for the truth
within.”
“Good preaching digs deep, exposes me to new thoughts and unexplored
ideas and traditions from other cultures/religions, makes me uncomfortable with
my smugness and desirous of greater spiritual growth and knowledge.”
“Great preaching connects everyday life with the spiritual and the
cosmic. It draws me out of my little
world and puts me into the stream of life.”
“[Great preaching] challenges us to think about a spiritual/moral/ethical/life
differently. Thinking about what we usually
let slide is like shaking off our spiritual cobwebs before we head out into the
world again.”
“A good preacher always makes me think about things in a way that I
might not have otherwise, and reminds me of my responsibilities to my fellow
human beings.”
“Good preaching brings humor and humanity. Good preaching is humble and uses stories
from life experiences to connect with the rest of us. Good preaching touches us at deep levels.”
“I like to feel that the minister has led me to question my own beliefs
without finger pointing (a tongue lashing on a political issue or ‘topic of the
day’ is not good preaching).”
“Leaving on Sunday with a thought not considered before.”
And there were 82 more!
In the November 12th newsletter, we published an excerpt from our
response to the question in the Congregational Record that asked us to “profile
the minister we seek.” We did our best to summarize what you told us and used
several quotes from the survey to be sure the message was clear. To review what
we wrote, go to the right margin of this article, click on "November," scroll down to "Profile," and click on it!
Below is a “Phrase Cloud” that represents your comments in the survey (the
size of the letter represents the number of times the word was used):
Reverend Merritt once told us:
“The UU mind needs to be intellectually challenged. The UU heart needs
to be opened. The longing of the UU soul needs to be acknowledged.” It seems we’re all pretty much “on the same
page” on this one.
Our “Survey: What We Heard” series will resume in mid-January, when we
turn to what you told us about your spiritual beliefs and practices.
--The Ministerial Search Committee: Jesse Anderson, Alison Barrows Ronn,
Jane Beckwith, Noel Cary, Shannon Kirshenbaum, Diane Mirick (chair), Lee Reid
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