Sunday Listening: The Congregant
In my previous post, I broached the subject of listening, particularly as it relates to Sunday sermons. I noted how most of us were born hearing well, but all of us must learn how to listen well.
My initial focus was on the communicator and how he/she needs to develop certain skills that can capture an audience, hold their attention, and bring them to a point of practical application. In short, the preacher is responsible for giving those gathered something worth listening to.
However, there is another key ingredient for Sunday listening. It’s not in the pulpit – it’s in the pew. All too often, the preacher did his job, but the listeners did not do their job.
What can be done by the members of the congregation to keep from tuning out and losing out of the message? How we might leverage the before, during, and after of our gatherings so as to obey Jesus’s command, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear” (Mark 4:9).
Before: Till the Soil
If the word of God is seed, and our hearts are soil, then our aim before the gathering is to till. Remove the stones. Break up the dirt. Furrow the ground. Make way for the word. Practically speaking, how might we do that?
First, remove stones by clearing away unnecessary hindrances — especially tiredness and lateness. How many of us struggle to listen on Sunday morning because we stayed up too late on Saturday night?
Or because we shuffled into the gathering partway through the second song, our heads still swirling with the events of the morning? We cannot always control our sleep and our timing, of course, but often we can.
Second, break up the ground by putting your heart in a listening posture. You might consider, for example, reading the sermon passage the morning or evening beforehand.
You might also take a moment to quiet yourself in prayer before the service begins and offer the prayer that young Samuel did: "Speak, LORD, for Your servant is listening" (1 Samuel 3:9).
During: Bury the Seed
A well-tilled heart is only the first step in faithful hearing. The richest soil will bear no fruit unless a seed finds its way into the furrows. We need to bury the seed of the word deep into our hearts. Which means that we strive to pay attention. (Hebrews 2:1).
Haddon Robinson, a Ph.D. in the field of communication, offers three "don'ts" which will help you do that.
Don't assume the subject is dull. When the topic is announced, avoid the habit of thinking, I've heard that before or This doesn't apply to me. Good listeners believe they can always learn something. Nearly every message will have a fresh insight or a helpful illustration. A keen ear will listen for such.
Don't criticize before hearing out the speaker. All speakers have faults. If you focus on them, you will miss some profitable points being made. Those who listen well refuse to waste valuable time concentrating on the negatives.
Don't let your prejudices close your mind. Some subjects are charged with intense emotions. Effective listeners keep an open mind, restraining the tendency to argue or agree until they fully understand the speaker's position in light of what the Scriptures teach.
Several other practical steps may also help us bury the word deeper. We might turn off our phones entirely, rather than allow them to vibrate, alerting us to calls or texts. We might follow along with the sermon in a paper Bible so that we can circle or underline key words. We might take brief notes of the sermon’s most striking points.
After: Water the Ground
With the soil tilled and seed buried, the remaining task is to water the ground. Faithful hearing does not end when the sermon does. In some ways, the most decisive moments for our hearing happen in the hours afterward: in discussions regarding the message when we drive home with the family or meet for lunch with friends, or when we walk with our spouse in the afternoon.
One practice you might consider is to bring the sermon into your Monday devotional time. Twenty-four hours after the fact, ask yourself two questions: (1) “What do I think God wanted to say to me?” (2) What am I going to do about it?” And then determine to act on that.
There is always something God wants us to do in response to the preaching of his Word. We are called to be "doers of the word, and not hearers only" (James 1:22). And if we are not doers, then we were not hearers, and the seed sown was wasted on us.
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