“I don’t have any young preachers in my class,” the professor said to me. “I teach worship arts.”
Worship arts, I thought: Why would that exclude preaching?
Isn’t preaching an art? Doesn’t preaching demand the element of drama? Isn’t storytelling an art form? Some preachers even dance around the pulpit and others break into song. Preachers are called to paint pictures with words.
Furthermore, if worship services are designed with an artistic element in mind, why would this planning not involve the preacher? And why would the preacher not be considered one of the prime performers in the drama of worship?”
No: the preacher does not play the guitar, or choreograph the dance, or project the slides, or sing second tenor. But does that mean the preacher is not an artist, that preaching is not an art?
As long as “worship arts” is so defined as to exclude the spoken word, the rehearsed word, the structured word, the inspired word, the arresting word, the compelling word, the gospel word, it will constitute a distortion of worship. As long as “worship arts” is so defined as to exclude the use of the unaccompanied human voice to declare the mercies and mysteries of God, it will constitute a mis-definition of the word “preaching.”
Preaching is an art. A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold presented on platters of silver. That is what the Bible says. And the selection of the words demands an artistic ear; and the presentation of the word requires an artistic sense.
The divorce between preaching and art in worship is unworthy of both gospel preaching and Christian worship. The exclusion of preachers from the course in worship arts is bad for preaching, bad for worship, and bad for art.
The Academy of Preachers understands preaching as worthy of the highest pedestal in the temple of worship arts. After all, the most powerful force in the world is the human voice articulating a moral vision for the human race. It is compelling, inspiring, transforming. It is the work of God and God is, after all, the original and ultimate artist.
