Precision is good, pride is not. Pomposity is slightly different than lofty language. But there’s still more to write on this issue. When we preach, we pick words.
Develop your descriptive vocabulary. The Bible text is usually quite lean and sparse when it comes to descriptive details. It certainly doesn’t paint the pictures like contemporary fiction writers do – “It was her long, flowing, mahogany-brown hair that first caught his attention. Her confident gait held in tension by the reserved expression on her face. Was it reserved, or was it demure? He wondered as she approached the ticket desk, lifting her black leather purse onto the high grey surface and leaning forward on her elbows…” I could go on, I know you’re intrigued (she wanted non-smoking tickets).
So if the Bible is lean and sparse, surely we shouldn’t preach like we’re writing contemporary fiction (where it can take 10 pages of description to get to the conversation)? It’s true, we shouldn’t trivialize the text, or over-describe and assign inspiration to that which is merely sanctified imagination. On the other hand, our listeners are listening. They can’t go back over the text and read it again, engaging their imaginations (as they might at home in their quiet times). As listeners they need sensory details and sufficient time for the story to form in their hearts and minds.
I try to imagine a blank screen in the minds of my listeners. As I explain the text, tell the story, etc., I am trying to give enough information, using effective word choices, and taking enough time for an image to form on those blank screens. It is tempting and too easy to preach the Bible at such pace that listeners never get beyond the fog on the screens. They won’t remember a set of propositions in the same way as they’d remember the mark left by a clear idea imprinted through the experience of the text well preached, effectively forming on the screens of their minds.
