How do you avoid the pitfalls of assumptions in a new call? Good questions.
When I received the call to serve as a rector, I was as thrilled as every rector hopes to be.
They fit my hopes, and I fit theirs!
They fit my hopes with their location, potential for growth, and faithful, loving hospitality. When they said they welcomed all, they meant it.
I fit their hopes because I was young, would be their first female priest, and was full of energy, enthusiasm, and love of God.
Thanks be to God!
However, it became clear their enthusiasm for me as their first female priest was in their assumption that my youth and gender would draw young families and revitalize youth programs.
Meanwhile, I assumed they had a yearning to hear about and experience female attributes of God.
“Because,” we all thought, “why else would you call a young woman to be rector?”
You can guess what happened.
Neither my efforts nor “superpowers” of youth and gender led to more than modest “results” in youth and family ministry—results which fell far below their hopes and expectations.
Their delight in hearing about female characteristics of God from the pulpit—however obliquely and sensitively I thought I placed the references in my sermons—fell far below what I hoped or expected.
We still did a lot of good ministry together, but these bumps cost us considerable time, attention, and energy—and could have been avoided.
Why It’s Important to Ask questions
The purpose for receiving answers to these questions is not so that we “do what is expected” but rather to build our listeners’ trust so they can hear the gospel we have been given to preach as their preacher now.
If we know we’re matching their expectations, it’s easy for trust to be built.
And if we know we’re preaching contrary to expectations, we can build trust even more by acknowledging the unwritten norms and respecting the surprise a change may elicit. Without judging the reaction, then, we can walk them kindly, gently, and with informed encouragement into new preaching territory.
If that congregation and I had done a better job at asking questions and listening to responses, we might have established a mutual ministry that was more aligned with everyone’s hopes and expectations—without the wasted energy and bandwidth.
If you’ve faced bumps like this in your current call, or if you’d like to head some off in your next one, consider these questions preachers can ask to unearth assumptions on both sides in order to establish clearer expectations.
I’ll highlight two areas preachers may want to dig into with their prospective (or current) congregations with questions to help you explore all the places unspoken assumptions may lurk.
If you find these helpful, you can download more at the end.
What kinds of sermons is this congregation accustomed to hearing?
Pastoral, experiential, didactic, prophetic?
With notes or without?
Short and sweet or long and savored like an epic movie?
Sermon titles or not?
The list of sermon styles, preferences, and expectations go on and on.
Most preachers have a go-to style they lean on more than others.
Your predecessor or congregational preaching colleague(s) probably have theirs.
What are you walking into? What are people used to? What might happen if you do things differently?
These questions bring light to the congregation’s (or your colleagues’) expectations about sermon tone and style. Be sure to add your own.
Questions about content and tone
What subjects have been preached about?
What subjects have not been preached about, and why?
When is the last time there was a known disagreement between listeners and preacher over the content of the sermon? How was the disagreement addressed?
How do they respond to prophetic, pastoral, didactic, or kinesthetic sermons?
Questions about style
How long is the average sermon? How do people feel about that length?
Do listeners prefer a sermon preached with notes or without? How come?
Where do they prefer the preacher to preach from? Pulpit, crossing, or elsewhere?
Questions about inclusion
How are people of diverse backgrounds, physical capacities, or neural diversity included? If they aren’t, why not?
How are worshippers who are physically present and those online addressed and included?
Who is allowed or encouraged to preach, and who is not allowed or discouraged?
Questions about the sermon’s purpose
What is the purpose of the sermon?
What is God’s intention and hope for us?
How do listeners hope they feel by the end of the sermon?
Do members of the congregation participate in a bible study that’s applied to the preacher’s sermon prep?
If so, expectations around whether and how insights from the study can be used in sermons should be clarified.
If not, questions around how such a time might be received would be important.
Why it matters
Online or in person, a weekly bible study with your listeners can offer a wealth of sermon fodder.
Not only will you all learn more about Scripture, participants may be more eager to hear what you’re going to do with it, and the preacher can learn a great deal about how the text intersects with their listeners’ lives.
If the Bible study is offered early enough in the week, the preacher has time to take what they’ve heard and wrestle with it more deeply, or (with permission) apply a story, image, or anecdote offered in the session.
But it’s important to understand the culture and expectations for this time.
Participants may feel a deeper sense of meaning and purpose if parts of the conversation find their way into the sermon, appreciating that the preacher heard their struggles or questions and is using those to contribute to the wider church, to the glory of God.
On the other hand, participants might assume the conversation is private and feel betrayed to hear themselves in the sermon.
How will you know which type of congregation you’re dealing with?
Furthermore, if you establish a Bible Study like this where it hasn’t existed before, some might feel the preacher is cheating, that sermon prep is exclusively the preacher’s job: “Isn’t that what we’re paying them to do?”
Good questions can help you avoid these pitfalls.
The following questions are not exhaustive, nor is it necessary to ask them all. But even if you ask and get answers to a few, you might avoid a world of hurt and surprise.
Questions to help you learn the who, what, why, where, when, and how of a mutual Bible study in service of sermon prep:
Who participates in Bible study? Who leads it? Who doesn’t participate and why?
Which part of the Bible is studied? How is it studied? What are the norms for the questions that are asked and responded to?
When does the study take place, where, and for how long?
How do they feel it’s working? What might they like to do differently?
What are people’s hopes for this study? Why do they participate?
How do participants feel about helping the preacher do “their” job of sermon prep?
How are disagreements about the text or its applications managed?
How do participants feel if parts of the Bible study conversation make their way into the sermon? Is there a norm established for the preacher to ask permission? If there isn’t, ought there to be one?
If there isn’t a Bible study that’s part of the preacher’s sermon prep, would they like to be part of one?
Interested in other questions to unearth unspoken expectations/Assumptions?
If you’ve been in ministry a while, I hope these questions provide new ideas for meaningful conversation with your listeners.
And if you’re a recent grad (or know one), it might not have occurred to you how foundational and important these questions are.
We’ve put together a guide with more questions like these to help you thrive in your first year in a new call.
Like the ones above, these questions will help you uncover unspoken expectations around everything from preaching style to sermon prep time to topical landmines.
You can download it here.
And if you’re early in your preaching career (or know someone who is!), we have a one-year coaching program designed especially for recent grads: Transition & Thrive.
You can find program details at the end of the guide.