Preaching by Ear: Speaking God’s Truth from the Inside Out

by Dave McClellan, Karen McClellan

According to Kenton Anderson, professor of homiletics at ACTS Seminaries of Trinity Western University, this volume represents “a powerful tool” because it offers a new (actually old) model of preaching. For centuries preaching has been shaped from a literary standpoint (i.e., reading, writing, outlining, and displaying sermons). But a pre-modern method of oral preparation and delivery largely has been forgotten. Preaching by Ear hearkens back to an earlier era when sermons were rooted inside the preacher and moved out in a natural and powerful way.

Table of Contents

Prologue

Part 1: Preparing the Preacher

1. Something Old, Something New

2. The Wise Preacher: Augustine’s Homiletic

3. Baloney: Why We Trust Some Speakers and Dismiss Others

4. Quintilian: A Surprising Preaching Tutor

Part 2: Developing an Orally Based Model of Preaching

5. Why God Is Partial to the Spoken Word

6. Tongue before Text: Introduction to Orality

7. Finding the Sermon That’s “Already There”

8. Swallowing the Word: Building a Sermon Inside You

9. Going Off Script: The Internalized Sermon in the Live Room

171 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2014

About the author

Dave McClellan is senior pastor of The Chapel at Tinkers Creek in Streetsboro, Ohio, and an adjunct professor at Indiana Wesleyan University, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, and John Carroll University. He received a Bachelor of Science in Communication from Grace College and a Master of Divinity from Denver Seminary before completing a Doctor of Philosophy in Rhetoric and Communication from Duquesne University. Dave has served as an editor for Homiletics and contributed to the Journal of the Evangelical Homiletic Society, Leadership Journal, and Preaching Today. He is married to Karen and they have two grown children, Kelsey and Kyle.

Reviews

[Michael Boling · Rating 5 out of 5]

While I am not a preacher, I must submit I do enjoy a quality sermon that is well delivered, demonstrates a great deal of preparation, and most importantly is biblically sound. Having never been a pastor and having never prepared a sermon for delivery, it is interesting to read and understand the methodologies involved for such an event. Some pastors seem to be inclined and comfortable with preparing and reading from what is essentially a script while others use a few notes as reminders for their sermon points. Dave McClellan in his book Preaching by Ear recommends a more oratory centric approach, one I found to be quite fascinating.

McClellan notes “The oral orientation is a movement away from safety and predictability. It’s a move toward vulnerability with a hint of the spontaneous. It’s not knowing exactly where you’ll go next. It has an openness, an unfinishedness. It pulls deeply from internal resources: emotion, experience, firsthand acquaintance with truth. It requires the preacher to speak into a live moment from a whole heart.” As a parishioner, I can only imagine that for many pastors, such an approach does indeed bring one to a position of vulnerability. A prepared sermon prepared and delivered in the manner one would expect for a seminary research paper certainly has a different feel than something prepared and delivered with a more conversational approach in mind.

Preaching by ear, the approach suggested by McClellan is rooted in the manner taken by Augustine, Plato, Aristotle, and Quintilian, great orators of old. In fact, McClellan uses their examples as a point of comparison and discussion. For example, he notes that Augustine believed a quality preacher “will not be consumed with looking eloquent or sounding eloquent. The good preacher is consumed with the truth of the message, which fuels a sort of unschooled or natural eloquence that is self-forgetful.” While I have attended seminary, I have yet to take a homiletics or teaching/preaching class meaning I am not up to speed on the methodology taught to the next wave of potential pastors. I would venture to say that spit and polish is something that is emphasized. While perhaps not overemphasized over and above the necessity for preaching truth, I would have to agree with McClellan that eloquence comes from an organic approach, from the delivery of the truth from a position of being fully engaged in the material that is being presented.

I also appreciated McClellan’s emphasis on pastor being trustworthy and credible presenters of truth. This emphasis is based upon statements from Aristotle to include his focus on a speaker’s ethos (credibility). Aristotle argued that one’s ethos “carries the most persuasive force.” This concept bears great importance to the delivered sermon. McClellan does an excellent job of relating to the reader what ethos means when applied to the pastor and the delivering of the sermon. He aptly states that ethos comes from reputation, vision, authority, is energized by good reasons, and finally, is evidenced by what he calls “shared time” – “a sense of union between preacher and audience”. This is when the audience feels that personal connection with the person delivering the message.

McClellan also spends a great deal of time demonstrating that the oral method of delivery has a long history. Additionally, he suggests that Scripture is really an oral book. In fact, he comments “we can see and hear that the transmission of Scripture is a confusingly beautiful blend of oral and literate sources.” Furthermore, he notes we see many times the reality that God spoke, either directly or through the biblical authors through inspiration by the Holy Spirit. Once again we see the oral element as essential. Parents are commanded in Deuteronomy 6 to speak of the things God commanded them to their children all day long and everywhere they go. Yet again, this is another emphasis on oral transmission of God’s word. Jesus noted the sheep hear the shepherd’s voice, another emphasis on orality.

For McClellan, this entire concept boils down to having the word so deep within you that it is a natural response to bubble that message of God out through the delivering of the sermon. He saliently avers this internalization of Scripture necessitates “familiarity with Scripture.” An example of this is provide by McClellan, namely that of quoting from memory passages of Scripture during the sermon. This demonstrates the internalization and the reality that the pastor has taken the time to memorize the passage and furthermore, can properly use the passage in context.

Preaching by Ear is truly an interesting book. I highly recommend it not just for preachers but for all believers to better appreciate what goes into a sermon to include what I found to be a very solid approach, that of a more orally given sermon rather than a prepared script read in the manner a politician would from a teleprompter.

I received this book for free from Weaver Book Company via Cross Focused Reviews for this review. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

Preaching is an oral act. It involves climbing into a pulpit (or at least standing before a congregation) and declaring God’s Word. Strangely though, sermon preparation has become increasingly a literary act. Since the dawn of the printing press and proliferation of print media, our reading of texts (and the Bible) have become increasingly private and individualized. This has had an effect on how sermons are crafted and delivered. In many churches, sermons are read and performed and do not deviate one iota from the script. Sermons are theologically precise, but often stilted in their delivery.

Dave McCellan urges the recovery of ancient homiletic practices. This would mean preparing sermons with the oral patterns of listeners in mind (rather than a literary outline which appeals to readers). In Preaching By Ear: Speaking God’s Truth from the Inside Out, McCellan draws on the insights of ancient authors like Augustine, Aristotle and Marcus Fabius Quintilianus and the contemporary historian, theologian and cultural critic Walter Ong (1912-2003). It is McCellan’s conviction that recovering oral patterns for preaching will transform us as preaches, and as churches and that preaching in this way is more responsive to the Word–reading it and proclaiming it in the way it was intended to be read and proclaimed.

In part one, McClellan begins with a focus on preparing the preacher. Chapter one relates an anecdote about McClellan preaching a manuscripted sermon in the ‘Big Church’ (he was a youth pastor speaking to the main congregation). His friend’s feedback to him was that his sermon was good but didn’t ring authentic. It sounded stilted. He concludes that extemporaneous sermons allow for the greatest amount of authenticity and vulnerability in the speaker. He then grounds his argument for extemporaneous preaching in ancient writings. From Augustine (chapter two), McClellan argues that we should be ‘theologians’ who sit under the Word. He encourages us to deepen our understanding of passages and how they relate to others and what they say to us. McClellan uses Aristotle’s Rhetoric to explore the proper ethos in communication–speaking with personal character in an authentic voice (chapter three). In chapter four, Quintillian provides the most profound lessons about oral communication and preaching. McClellan says that this ancient rhetorician calls us preachers to moral character formation. He also has a method for improving our rhetoric (ccuriosity constant oral reading and writing, and casual debates with fellow preachers and small groups.

In part two, McClellan makes the theological case for the primacy of the spoken word in proclamation and walks us through how to prepare and deliver an extemporaneous sermon. It is in this section that McClellan delves into the work of Walter Ong, Ong’s thesis in his classic Orality and Literacy was that with the dawn of the printing press, fruitful practices of oral culture fell by the wayside. He identified nine characteristics of oral speech: imprecise, redundant, tradition driven, quotidian, acquainted with suffering. participatory, united in purpose, and comfortable with stories (91-96). In contrast, literary approaches are precise, follow a logical sequence but are not reliant on the same devices for capturing and communicating shared memory. McClellan than delineates the implications for preparing an extemporaneous preaching. One of the most profound insights on how oral preparation, invites communal preparation and allows for conversation which feed into and reinforce discipleship (129).

My push back would be that my preaching teacher manuscripted everything in his preaching preparation but in the preaching act was as free to move off script and take a new direction, often depart from his page to connect with the congregation or respond to the winds of the Spirit. He also wrote his manuscript with the spoken word in mind (short phrases, redundancy, internal summary). I think many preachers are sensitive to the dynamics that McClellan describes, even if their approach is more literary than what he commends.

McClellan’s approach is most fruitful for practitioners of expository sermons. He advocates listening to the text, learning to place it, inhabiting it and preparing a storied outline to share its truths. Topical preachers will find this sort of preparation difficult. I personally lean in a more expository and extemporaneous direction (though I still preach topically and from a manuscript when I feel it’s warranted). I am still processing how to best use McClellan’s insights in my own preaching but he does validate some of my own homiletic practice. I give this book four stars. ★★★★

Thank you to Weaver Books and Cross Focused Reviews for providing me a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

[Jonathan Tomes · Rating 4 out of 5]

McClellan, Dave. Preaching by Ear: Speaking God’s Truth from the Inside Out (Wooster: Weaver Book Company, 2014), $15.99.

Dave McClellan defines preaching by ear as “speaking from personally held, deep convictions in a way that enables our words to unfold in the moment by considering the actual people present with us.” He continues, “ “Preaching by ear is humble. It means speaking with less artifice. It means speaking firsthand truth. It means sharing the spotlight with the hearers. It means being sacrificially vulnerable. It is risky, yes— but not in pursuit of glory. It actually focuses on the hearers and the message so much that a beautiful self-forgetfulness emerges . It pursues the good of the congregation more than position, polish, power, or prestige. It is in this direction we will aim— to find ourselves less automatic, less contrived, and more open in our preaching.” While this is the task that McClellan sets for himself, Preaching by Ear is also an application of the insights from media ecology and ancient rhetoric to homiletics. Utilizing these disciplines, and a dearth of personal anecdotes and illustrations, McClellan slowly unfolds his vision for less robotic preaching.

Strengths: Good personal anecdotes and illustrations. Great concept.

Weaknesses: Too many personal anecdotes and illustrations. McClellan’s use of media ecology is dated and does not take into account the post-McLuhan and Postman advances in this field.

For McClellan, the sermon is not a literary exercise but a sacred event. It is sourced in a sacred text. So, preparation to preach cannot be framed entirely a literary process. Outlines can be great, but an outline is not a sermon. Likewise, a memorized- or read- manuscript is not a sermon. In a sense, one of the goals of preparation is to lose track of ourselves- or to get out of the way. McClellan contends that we cannot get beyond our spiritual experience and maturity in our preaching. Character governs our sermons. He memorably notes, “We can’t take people somewhere we’ve never been.”

Preaching requires character (ethos) and the conviction to preach “nothing that you haven’t wrestled with yourself.” You cannot preach to the affections if you do not have those affections to some degree. It would seem to follow that the more affection you have for the truth the more free you will be to communicate the truth of divine things. Artifice works as a chain around the preacher to drag him down. McClellan’s writes Preaching by Ear to remove these chains. I recommend this book as generally useful to young preachers. It should not be the first thing that you read, and it will not be the last thing that you read, but its message is worth hearing.

- Jonathan Tomes

I received a review copy of this book from Weaver Book Company via Cross Focused Reviews. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are those of a novitiate preacher. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

[Chris · Rating 5 out of 5]

The best preaching is preaching that comes from the heart. That’s what this book is all about, preaching from the heart. Although preaching seems not to have changed much over the years, there has been one fundamental difference between preaching done today and preaching done eons before. And that difference is, the invention of the writing.

Dave McClellan has written a book that helps preachers see the differences between preaching done today and preaching done in Jesus’s time. Essentially this book is a book that will help preachers think critically about our preaching today. McClellan points out many pointers that would have escaped the modern preacher due to the sheer magnitude of the influence of writing to us.

For example, McClellan points out that prior to writing, words, speeches were always considered to be temporary and transient as compared to the written word now, which can be compared, edited, reference long after the “speech” has been spoken.

This has practical applications to preachers who has always been drilled and trained to think about crafting a sermon, by typing or drafting a long “speech” that one has to reads off. McClellan points out that in an era before writing, preaching would have never been done this way, rather preaching would necessarily be extemporaneous. The difference between the two would be evident to the hearers, the one who preaches extemporaneously would not expect the listeners to be able remember every word that was preached and thus come out with hooks to help readers remember the progression and the flow of the speech. “Preaching” a typed sermon, no matter how well written still suffers from the problem that it never sounds like conversations but rather as messages typed out.

From here, McClellan proposed how to help preachers preach extemporaneously, he emphasis the importance of being marinated in the word of God, not just because one has to preach on the text in the coming week, but rather the preacher ought always be found thoroughly soaked in the Word of God. Next, he also helps preachers make the task of preaching easier by showing them that the burden of what and how to preach it, never lies on the preach, rather it rests on the Word of the Lord, and preachers just have to preach what it was originally preaching about. Finally, he advises preachers with a technique to help preachers slowly be able to preach and link the sermon in a way that preachers can eventually to be able to preach without notes.

This is unlike any preaching books I’ve read so far, and it has been very insightful and has made me aware to be a more “verbal” preacher and to preach in such a way that would really sound like preaching. McClellan also redeems the problem of how should I preach this or that, by simply letting the text speak for itself. A very helpful and insightful book for preachers, and should be recommended for preachers young or old.

Rating: 4.75 / 5

Disclaimer: I was given this book free from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

[B · Rating 2 out of 5]

In his book Preaching By Ear: Speaking God's Truth from the Inside Out, Dave McClellan (with Karen McClellan) wants to teach preachers "to be both verbally fluent and deeply grounded" in their sermons (Kindle location 105). His goal is to teach them to speak from the inside out because their "flocks need to hear God's Word coming from our [preachers'] mouths in a compelling, convincing way, with passion and conviction," (Kindle location 113).

Mr. McClellan introduces his new style of risky preaching in Chapter 1, "Something Old, Something New": "The oral orientation is a movement away from safety and predictability. It's a move toward vulnerability with a hint of the spontaneous. It's not knowing exactly where you'll go next. It has an openness, an unfinishedness. It pulls deeply from internal resources: emotion, experience, firsthand acquaintance with truth. It requires the preacher to speak in a live moment from a whole heart," (Kindle location 176). He continues: "Preaching by ear is this: speaking from personally held, deep convictions in a way that enables our words to unfold in a moment by considering the actual people present with us. We are well-prepared, but we're not certain exactly how it will come out of our mouths," (Kindle location 185).

The author's main argument is that preaching a sermon is an oral event; therefore, preparing the sermon as a pure literary event creates a disconnect between skills and setting (Kindle location 257). This approach places more emphasis on the preacher than what is being preached. It is the Word of God that brings faith (Rom. 10:17). However, the author dangerously proposes that it is the preacher and his presentation that is more important than the Bible and what God actually says to His people. Mr. McClellan states: "Our theology must be experienced in our own lives to unlock the firsthand sense in our sermons. Our own spiritual experience and maturity will necessarily be the governor on our sermons. We can't take people somewhere we've never been," (Kindle location 393). The author does not cite a biblical reference for this because the false idea that theology must be experienced before it is preached is not in the Bible. Quite honestly, the statement that we must experience theology doesn't make sense. Theology is the study of the nature of God. The finite mind of a Christian can barely comprehend the attributes of God, let alone experience them.

As he moves through the book, Mr. McClellan seems to soften his tone regarding the superiority of the oral method in preaching. He rightly notes that preachers are bound to the Bible (Kindle location 2175). In Chapter 8, "Swallowing the Word", Mr. McClellan states that the background research done by a preacher is no different in the oral model (Kindle location 2365). But instead of using homiletics and creating an outline, he recommends mapping the information using a narrative structure with pictures. Instead of memorizing the sermon, the information should be sustained by memory (Kindle location 2437) so that it is delivered in a natural, extemporaneous style (Kindle location) without literary prompts (i.e. notes). Regardless of the author's contention of supremacy, it is important to remember that the oral method may be good for some preachers, but not necessarily for all.

The author references many non-Christian experts on orality to support his claim: Aristotle, Jesuit Walter Ong, Quintilian, and Bakhtin. Ironically, as he looks at Mikhail Bakhtin, a speech genre theorist, he states that "Any sermon genre that separates the preacher and his thoughts from the actual needs of the flock is deeply flawed...This is why sermons that are read lose something vital," (Kindle location 1889). Jonathan Edwards, a prominent figure in the Great Awakening, was very unimpressive in his preaching technique because he read his sermons; however, it's quite obvious that his preaching was still powerful and used mightily by the Holy Spirit.

The London Baptist Confession of Faith states: "The grace of faith, whereby the elect are enabled to believe to the saving of their souls, is the work of the Spirit of Christ in their hearts (2 Cor. 4:13, Eph. 2:8) and is ordinarily wrought by the ministry of the Word (Rom. 10:14, 17)," (Chap. 14, para. 1). Thus, saving faith is a work of the Holy Spirit by the Word of God. The preacher is a means used by God in the foolishness of preaching (1 Cor. 1:21), but the preacher does not have any power in and of himself, nor does he have any control of the outcome of the preaching. Therefore, to require a certain method of sermon preparation is not necessary.

I appreciate Mr. McClellan's admonition for preachers to preach "their way through a whole book of the Bible," (Kindle location 2181). He gives sound advice for moving through longer books of the Bible. In addition, he encourages preachers to use their memory so that it is easier to keep things in their head and recall things organically (Kindle location 2241, 2257).

The author also notes another modern disadvantage in today's churches: "Adding to the problem is so many new translations of the Bible. For better or for worse, when one standard English version was established, all ears became tuned to that familiar vocabulary. Now no one knows what Scripture "should" sound like because we all hear it in so many different versions and with increasing levels of paraphrasing," (Kindle location 2267). I wholeheartedly agree with this assessment.

I find it interesting that the author goes to great lengths to vilify the invention of printing press. He contends that this invention moved the focus from orality to the composition as the key to preaching (Kindle location 236). It made the sermon a "thing" and separated the thought from the thinker. However, God providentially brought about the invention of Gutenberg's printing press to produce a standard, printed form of the Bible giving it a fixed and stable format.

In the end, Mr. McClellan's focus on the preacher and his oral presentation creates a distraction from the ultimate focus of preaching--Jesus Christ. I am not convinced that the oral method is the best way to preach, nor is it the only effective way. I recommend reading Preaching By Ear if you are a pastor looking at various methods for preaching, but with the caveat that while the author has found a workable preaching style for himself it may or may not be a good style for you.

Full Disclosure: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

[R. · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have been convinced that the most important element of preaching is the Biblical text itself in this book the author offers a way to keep the Biblical text primary and make the sermon a natural sharing of the ingrained Biblical text to the people. Looking forward to putting into action these new insights.

[Edythe · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Preaching by ear is this: speaking from personally held, deep convictions in a way that enables our words to unfold in the moment by considering the actual people present with us. We are well-prepared, but we’re not certain exactly how it will come out of our mouths.” -Dave McClellan

Dave McClellan with Karen McClellan have comprised a ‘how-to’ on preaching by ear from within to the outside showing that true preaching should be lead by the inner spirit leading to an unscripted sermon. The book gives insight to present day preparation that Pastors use for weekly Sunday congregational sermons which sometimes includes fully written sermons to completely memorizing whatever is written.

Preaching by Ear shares history on homiletics citing Saint Augustine and Marcus Fabius Quintilianus as having great influence in teaching skilled oratory communication without the use of memorialized or written speech.
The book also discusses the fear of some preachers to speak from within as the quote above states, “not certain exactly how it will come out of our mouths.” In my opinion, this should not be a concern if what is spoken comes from within through the Spirit of God.

Another point in this book discusses the importance of ‘preaching by ear’ your personal trials and tribulations that people can relate in their own lives and understand that the deliverer of the sermon is not just talking, they are sharing the same experience as yourself.

This book is a good starting point to learn more regarding preaching from within to the outside that is not just for Pastors or teachers of faith but also for the layman to understand how the Word should be presented to a faithful following.

I will end my review with another quote from Preaching by Ear:

“Preaching by ear, from the inside out, pushes me toward stronger internal character and internally driven sermons. When it’s risky or scary, it opens us up to that kind of help Jesus talked about when the words will be given to us as a gift, and not from our own wit. Keep on preaching like that.”
–Dave McClellan

[Doug Hibbard · Rating 5 out of 5]

Today’s book was provided by Cross-Focused Reviews. Shaun lists books, I pick one that I like and review it. No obligation, no cash, no coffee is exchanged in this case.

Dave and Karen McClellan’s Preaching by Ear addresses a question many of us preachers have never thought to ask: “Why have we taken a written approach to an oral practice?”

The sermon, after all, was initially an oral presentation. There is no biblical evidence that Peter, Paul, or John prepped a written document before their messages in Scripture. Further, many historical sermons, prior to the printing press, were delivered orally from the mind and heart rather than from paper.

First, McClellan makes his case for the historicity of the oral sermon. He clearly demonstrates how much better we understand things by internalizing them through oral practice.

Second, McClellan gives some ideas on developing and delivering sermons from an oral perspective. Rather than looking at the sermon as complete when it is good paper, the sermon is not done if it isn’t clear aloud.

Here is where the work really shines. It is one thing to express a disagreement with common practice, but without developing how-to ideas about implementation.

In all, if you are looking for a different approach to preaching than the current written-oriented methods, I think Preaching by Ear is well worth your time.