Augustine warns that his focus should not be given solely to the rules of oratory and eloquence in order to accomplish these two tasks. While this will undoubtedly prove useful for the preacher and beneficial to the congregation, what is of utmost importance when considering how to say what one must say is prayer. Success in preaching must be pursued to the best of the preacher’s ability. Yet, he must recognize that all of his ability comes from God. As the apostle says, “what do you have that you did not receive?” (1Cor. 4:7).
Every preacher has been there. You have your chosen text before you, you’ve studied and determined what it is you will teach from the text. The question now is, how do I get my point across on Sunday morning? Preaching is more than a mere lecture. It is more than a transferal of information. In On Christian Teaching, St. Augustine, following Cicero, states that the Christian teacher “should speak in such a way as to instruct, delight, and move [his] listeners… instructing is a matter of necessity, delighting a matter of charm, and moving a matter of conquest.” (Book IV, 74)
The preacher must labor to bring true and relevant facts to his listeners from the text, he must “delight” with his words in order to captivate their attention and make his argument more persuasive, and he must move his listeners to act, that is, apply what they have learned in love and obedience. Delighting and moving an audience can be one of the most difficult tasks for the preacher. But Augustine warns that his focus should not be given solely to the rules of oratory and eloquence in order to accomplish these two tasks. While this will undoubtedly prove useful for the preacher and beneficial to the congregation, what is of utmost importance when considering how to say what one must say is prayer. Success in preaching must be pursued to the best of the preacher’s ability. Yet, he must recognize that all of his ability comes from God. As the apostle says, “what do you have that you did not receive?” (1Cor. 4:7). Augustine says that the preacher, “…should be in no doubt that any ability that he has and however much he has derives more from his devotion to prayer than his dedication to oratory; and so, by praying for himself and for those he is about to address, he must become a man of prayer before he becomes a man of words. As the hour of his address approaches, before he opens his thrusting lips he should lift his thirsting soul to God so that he may utter what he has drunk in and pour out what has filled him” (Book VI, 87).
