Bob Hyatt introduces us to the sin of “preaching for the nod” in a recent post. He writes this:
Every once in a while I find myself preaching for the nod. That’s when we try to hard wire a bit of ego-stroke into a Sunday morning message. We do it a lot, and it’s so easy—insert that small comment, that little aside, or even that main point that we know will appeal to the sensibilities of certain listeners. You know, the left-leaning (or right leaning) political comment. The doctrinal aside that scratches the itch of that person so prone to give up the “Amen” or the vigorous head nod…
…If my intention is to get certain people to see me as sufficiently hip and relevant (or standing against the tide of culture), or progressive (or appropriately conservative), or doctrinally adventurous (or steadfastly orthodox), then I have traded the proclamation of God’s Word for the proclamation of myself, regardless of how I dress it up. And all for that little nod.
Hyatt finishes by sharing two specific ways in he has preached for the nod: 1) by issuing an explicit evangelistic invitation after each sermon because he knew some listeners expected it; and 2) by trying to say something in each sermon which proved his congregation was not like other congregations.
I winced as I read Hyatt’s article because I read myself in it. Call it “being political” or “being savvy” or “trying to connect,” but I have, at times, sprinkled words, phrases, ideas, or images into a sermon primarily because of how it would allow me to score brownie points with certain key listeners and only secondarily because it legitimately flowed out of the text which was the sermon’s focus.
How about you? In what ways do you “preach for the nod?” In what ways does your preacher “preach for the nod?” (be kind :))? What’s the line between “trying to connect” and “preaching for the nod?”
[image: http://www.flickr.com/photos/the_glasshalffull/3785584927/]
