Preaching as Sacred Practice

Moving from performance to transformation

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photo of a man preaching

It was 2 a.m. when the Rev. Dr. Lisa Cressman bolted awake with a complete vision for what would become Backstory Preaching. Having recently moved to Texas and unable to take a traditional parish position while her boys entered middle school, Lisa had been wrestling with questions about her next steps in ministry. That middle-of-the-night moment provided a crystal-clear answer: What if preachers could receive long-term support that combined spiritual direction with the craft of preaching?

Almost a decade later, Backstory Preaching serves preachers worldwide, both lay and ordained. The vision that woke Lisa in 2016 has transformed how countless faith leaders approach the art of preaching.

“Most of us go to seminary or our local formation program because we fall in love with God and we love the church,” Lisa says. “We’re very excited about it all and we learn and we grow and take our homiletics course.” But over time, as the demands of ministry pile up, preaching often becomes just another task on an overwhelming to-do list.

Here are key insights from Lisa’s Pivot Podcast conversation about reimagining preaching as a transformative spiritual practice:

Protecting Sacred Time

When sermon preparation gets pushed into the margins of the week, it essentially becomes volunteer work – something done in our “spare” time, often eating into Sabbath and family moments. “It becomes a box on the checklist,” Lisa says. “When am I going to get this thing done?”

Instead, Lisa advocates treating sermon preparation as a spiritual practice worthy of protection and prioritization. “We give at least as much priority to it as we do pastoral care appointments because really, sermon prep is a pastoral care appointment with the entire congregation,” she explains. “We are serving everybody at the same time and it is a deeply pastoral thing to do.”

This shift in perspective has helped many preachers give themselves permission to take the time they need for sermon prep. When preachers create space for genuine encounters with God through scripture during preparation, transformation happens first in their own lives. “When we allow sermon prep and our encounter with God through scripture to change and transform us, then we actually can believe it can transform our listeners,” Lisa says. “We believe what we are saying because we have been transformed by the good news ourselves.”

From Anxiety to Wonder

Many preachers approach scripture with anxiety about what they’re going to say, worried about making fools of themselves or having nothing meaningful to offer. Lisa suggests a different starting point: “Rather than asking ourselves, ‘What am I going to say?’ we ask, ‘What is God saying?'”

This means creating ritual and sacred space around sermon preparation—perhaps lighting a candle, finding a special location, or establishing other practices that signal this is holy time. “We come with curiosity and wonder,” Lisa explains. “We want to discover who God is, what God is doing, and what God is hoping for us. And we listen to the text, we listen for God, we listen for the good news.”

Preaching with Your Whole Life

One of Backstory Preaching’s key principles is that “preaching is your life; your life is preaching.” Lisa draws a parallel to parenting: just as children are constantly watching and learning from their parents’ actions, Christians – especially preachers – are always communicating something about their faith through how they live.

“The way we conduct ourselves, the way we comport ourselves, is always saying something about what we believe about God,” Lisa says. “Everything we’re doing is expressing something about who we believe God to be. The only question is, what are we preaching?”

This understanding of preaching extends beyond those formally designated as preachers. “We’re preaching because we’re baptized,” Lisa explains. “We were baptized into the church and that means something.” The goal is congruence between our proclaimed message and lived experience, ensuring that what comes from the pulpit matches what people see in our daily lives.

Listening to the Community

While personal spiritual formation provides the foundation for preaching, Lisa emphasizes the importance of “exegeting the congregation” – understanding what’s happening in their lives and what they need to hear. This involves considering questions like: Are they in a space of joy or grief? Are they being challenged or have they become complacent? Is a pastoral word needed, or do they need stretching toward new perspectives?

“We know why we believe this is true,” Lisa says, “but now we want to know what difference does it make to you?” This requires ongoing conversation and relationship with the community, moving beyond superficial feedback to genuine understanding of how people are making sense of faith in their daily lives.

The movement from seeing preaching as performance to embracing it as transformative spiritual practice offers hope for both preachers and congregations. As Lisa reminds us, “When God and I are in close proximity, close relationship, then I have a lot more to bring to you than if I am sacrificing that relationship to the tyranny of the urgent.”

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