I have never liked to listen to sermons preached from a pulpit. Not because of the content so much as the delivery. Of course, for some pastors (like the prosperity hypergrace ones), their content is not worth hearing and more fit for the garbage incinerator. The American gospel is no gospel at all.
I do not understand why preachers feel they have to shout at the top of their voices in a hyper-adrenaline fashion all the time. I mean literally all the time! Throughout the entire sermon! It is no different than a used car salesman TV ad on Channel 9 or 10 in Australia. They absolutely turn me off. Perhaps they want to keep the audience awake. But a constant high pitch, high volume, hyped-up drone dulls me to sleep. It just doesn’t work.
I think pastors can really learn a thing or two from dharma teachers. I say this not out of disrespect but as genuine feedback for more effective and fruitful preaching and teaching. Take time. Go more slowly and deliberately. Modulate the volume, pitch, tonality, speed, and intensity of voice. Imbibe more and more of Christ’s presence in the Spirit and flow in His unforced cadence of grace.
Transmit the still intensity, warm compassion, vibrant luminosity, powerful presence and impassible empty pleroma of God in our words and gestures. Forget theatrics and motivational feel-goodism. It is not a performance or rock concert. It is a holy sanctified tabernacling of God in each and every earthly moment.
