Why is it so hard to explain faith?
Coming home from the St Paul's cathedral service where Paul Williams became our new Bishop of Kensington I ended up on the bus from Richmond and decided to use the time to do some more thinking about the next few sermons I'm preaching.In my hand was a printout of Romans 8, from which I'm aiming to teach from over the next three Sundays.
In my head was some of the stuff I've been reading in a very stimulating book on communication, advertising and education called Made to Stick - 'why some ideas take hold and others come unstuck', by Chip & Dan Heath.
The bus got pretty full - particularly with an entire class of secondary school kids who boarded on their way home from a day out.
How would I explain Romans 8 to the people on this bus in a way that (a) made sense and (b) sounded relevant and life-changing to the 90% (at least) who have never been near church and heard a sermon?
The step from that to the 'Made to Stick' book was formed by the idea of what the writers call The Curse of Knowledge - and I'd add my own term, the equally damaging Curse of over-familiarity. Here's how it cashes out:
- When experts explain something, they tend to talk in the abstract, the conceptual, the theoretical...
- ...and equally, when we're over-used to the language of faith - from sin, to redemption, to sacrifice - it's the easiest thing in the world to stick to the language in front of you. Easiest, not least, because it means we don't necessarily have to fully understand or come to terms with the implications of what we're talking about.
Instead, what newcomers - whether it's when we're beginners at maths or first-timers to the writings of Paul - most look for is (according to the book's authors) "concreteness" - what does this really look like in real life?
And, of course, tat's the great challenge of really good children's/youth work - you can't get away with sticking to buzzwords, theological shorthand and half-understood phrases. They want to know what you mean...
Adults, sadly, are rather less likely to complain at jargon or vagueness - assuming, instead, that lack of understanding is their fault, not the speaker's.
And so, we return to the sermons, for here's the great challenge of really decent preaching too: asking the same questions I asked on the bus, but starting with me first: What does this really mean for me, today? Why is my life different because this is true? and then finding a way of connecting with real people, real lives and answering the rather concrete So what?
Good point. That's so true. Actually, I think you already do a great job in this respect.
But surely the first question should be 'what did that mean for the readers then?'. Then you can think about what it might mean today, for us.