The use of humor in Gospel Preaching

[phat8594]

When you are trying to be very serious about a very serious subject (heaven or hell) can you really take people to the point of laughing out loud and not detract from others caught up in this life and death situation?

I do not see Jesus or any of the others trying to get their audience to laugh out loud. The “humor” was also very thought provoking and if you “laughed” it would be because you did not grasp the seriousness of the subject.

I attended this church in which the preacher was short, bald, wore thick glasses, spoke in a monotone and never used “humor”. His message was always very serious and you had to take notes to keep up, if you wanted to discuss it later. This church grow rapidly, to standing room only. The leadership announced there would be two morning services with different lessons directed at different age groups and the preacher would announce the subject the week before for you to decide which one you wanted to attend. There was standing room only at both serves, all the members went to the first and stayed for the second. The leadership pleated with the members to just go to one service, but since the leaders where hypocrites (they were attending both services themselves) the congregation followed their example and not their words. The preacher had to repeat the same sermon twice to keep the people from going to both services.

Simply put, there is nothing wrong with humor. There are many ways in which to engage an audience - one of which is humor. Not only can you keep an audience engaged with humor, you can also make serious points with humor.

That being said, humor isn't the only way to engage an audience or make a point come across. Different people, and different cultures communicate differently and we have to be ok with that - as long as TRUTH is being taught. In fact, we should be concerned with how to communicate the truth of God's word, and His gospel in the most effective way possible to our audience. All too often we want others to conform to our culture and our preferences, and then we justify it by conflating our cultural preferences or personal tastes with God's moral guidelines -- but that, in its most simplest form, is pride -- and pride in the worst way.


When we focus on the method or style rather than the message itself, I think that is where we get in trouble. We hear these arguments all the time:

music or no music
humor or no humor
big screen or no screen
hymns or modern
topical or expository

etc., etc., etc.


The problem is that any of these issues focuses on what is man made, rather than what God wants. I truly believe that all these things fall into a category that can dealt as such:


Colossians 2
If with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the world, why, as if you were still alive in the world, do you submit to regulations— 21 “Do not handle, Do not taste, Do not touch” 22 (referring to things that all perish as they are used)—according to human precepts and teachings? 23 These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body, but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh.