There should be no predictable theme that emerges in your preaching every week (unless it’s Jesus!) There are times though when an appropriately-edited personal story can be an effective hook to start a message, or a dramatic way to land the homiletical plane at the end. You may need to change some details such as geography or chronology, for the sake of keeping the story at arms-length from recognisable subjects.

Recently I’ve been reading Janet Malcolm’s little book The Journalist and the Murderer and it has sparked some reflection on ethics and my preaching. The book is about a grievance between a (now-convicted) murderer and a journalist he invited to write a book about his case. The author was admitted into the circle of trusted friends and lawyers, and when the published book concluded the man was guilty, the subject sued him. Malcolm says the journalist’s “indefensible” act was to pretend to a belief in the man’s innocence, long after he’d decided the conviction was sound. But she also cites many journalists who make it a rule never to disclose their views to an interview subject, because “that may close off communication.” She takes the opposite view, that such “wooing” inevitably leads to betrayal, and is unethical because they “craft the facts to fit their opinion”. The book sparked outrage in 1993, and is still controversial in journalism schools.

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