Yes, I have already said my piece about professionalism in youth ministry, but I still need to say that communication of the Gospel needs a closer look.  Most youth ministers communicate from the Scriptures twice a week, yet have little training. For many of us, we find communicators that we really like and try to imitate their style. I will say that Duffy Robbins and Doug Fields have begun to address this need with a book and seminar called Speaking to Teenagers.

O.K, so I’ll step down from my soapbox and continue with my original thought on styles of preaching. In Thomas Long’s The Witness of Preaching, he initially offers 3 helpful metaphors for preachers.

The Herald- The Herald attends to the message and proclaims it. Heralds don’t often care how the listeners perceive or receive the message. The Herald is an insider because he/she is seen as “one of us” but also seen as an outsider due to their prophetic nature. There is also a weakness to the Herald. How many times can you bust up in your youth ministry shouting HEAR YE, HEAR YE and expect a response from the students? Do you know a Herald? They feel burdened to share whenever and with whoever. If you are not a herald, do you see circumstances where the these gifts are needed?

The Pastor- The Pastor focuses on the listener and the impact of the sermon. There is a spotlight on the pastor. Their personality is often pastoral by nature. Pastoral preachers see sermons as healing words and they focus on the healing power of the Gospel and the change inside the listener. Pastor-preachers can often be too relevant or utilitarian. If we just solve problems from the pulpit, then Christianity is just a bunch of answers. Another danger of the pastor is that they can also reduce theology to anthropology.

The Storyteller-The Storyteller doesn’t need much explanation. They can draw a congregation in with their captivating renditions of the Gospel message.  This style has increased in popularity and is most often seen as art. While everybody loves a good story, the weakness is that the Storyteller underplays the non-narrative aspects of the Bible. While Zacchaeus is a humdinger of a story to tell, it’s not gonna last you 52 sermons.

So which one do you identify with? Are you a swirl of several? Think about famous preachers you may know and try to see which category they associate with. As I have thought so much about the art of preaching in youth ministry over the past month, I have come up with a few thoughts for you to chew on as I do the same.

* We need to find our own God-given style. Don’t try to pull a Mark Driscoll if are a tender-hearted pastor type. If you can’t tell a story, don’t go put on cool classes, drop Hebrew words and film a DVD series.

* All 3 approaches have their place. I can’t be all 3, therefore having multiple people preach to our students is of great benefit.

* Preaching is meant to do things.

*Most times we preach, we don’t expect anything to happen.

* If God can use a donkey, he can use us.

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Many of these thoughts have been stirred up by Fuller’s  Dr. Carolyn Gordon.