Sermon Link: https://subsplash.com/sentchurch/watch/mi/+cw47gyh?autoplay=true
Sermon Title: “Rivers Instead of Reservoirs”
Preacher: Pastor Kyle Ray is the Senior Pastor of Sent Church in Plano, Texas, before which he was senior pastor of Kentwood Community Church.
Address suspicions: “There’s nothing I want from you; there’s nothing I need from you—there are a lot of things I want for you when it comes to managing the finances God has entrusted to us.” When pastors talk about finances, congregations often listen with suspicion, wondering when the pastor will use the sermon as an appeal for funds. Especially since this can seem self-interested (as if the pastor is seeking contributions for themselves), Ray acknowledges this directly, and begins his sermons by articulating his hopes for the congregation, and his motives in preaching the sermon. This helps the congregation hear the sermon as an invitation from God, not as a precursor to fundraising.
Clarify the Stakes: “Most Americans are one missed paycheck away from financial ruin.”
The Gospel has an important contribution to the world of financial management; but if everybody is doing well with their finances, few will be primed to hear a better way. Ray clarifies the stakes here, sharing that most people have much to gain from greater clarity, commitment, and intentionality with their resources. By doing so, he opens up a new way to examine a core human need (financial security), which helps the congregation lean in further to see what God might have for them.
Examine the tension: “Severe trial; overflowing joy? And in the midst of extreme poverty, they overflowed in rich generosity. Opposition leads to opportunity; the last shall be first… these things don’t make sense.”
Ray (along with the apostle Paul) reminds his hearers that the wisdom of God often appears like foolishness; that foolishness is often expressed in our lives, as we do unusual things in relationship with our circumstances. How is it possible to be both extravagantly generous and extremely poor? Or to be “first” in this world, and yet “last” in the world to come? To the average hearer, these contradictions don’t make sense; Ray acknowledges this up front, and offers the congregation an invitation to dig deeper into the rich world of the text. By doing so, he teaches them that when they feel dissonance about the Scriptural message, they can benefit from wading further into their questions and into the Scripture.
Use Physical Space: “I know you see this pizza up here and wonder what it’s about.”
Ray takes the pulpit with a large picture of a pizza behind him, without any explanation—and he allows his listeners to contemplate this pizza for several minutes without clarifying its purpose on the platform. Later in the sermon, he uses it as a “pie chart” for financial management, and then—later still—returns to use the pie chart as an illustration of a story of generosity that he experienced during his ministry at Kentwood Community Church (a Wesleyan Church in Kentwood, Michigan).
Scratch the Itch: “I wonder if God the Father were to ask these questions: do you love me more than you love your phone? Do you love me more than you love your stuff, would we honestly be able to say, ‘yes’?”
Ray tells a moving story about his daughter asking, “Do you love me more than your phone? More than the fridge? More than your glasses?” And then immediately after the story, he pivots into questions for contemplation about our own priorities, before going on to the next movement of his sermon. By doing so, Ray moves his sermon at a fast enough pace to keep the congregation attentive (most people have an attention span well under 7 minutes for each movement of the sermon), while also moving slowly enough that his congregation has a chance to contemplate the Gospel’s implications on their own lives.
These are just a few of the things Ray did well as an effective preacher. To learn more about becoming an effective preacher, subscribe to the wesleyansermons.com email list on our home page.
© Ethan Linder