The high schooler in my small group leaned in close, as if confessing a secret. “Sometimes I write sermons in my head,” she said to me. Then she asked, “What do you think that means?”
I responded, at the time, by talking with her about exploring a call to be a pastor, even though I knew she had her heart set on teaching chemistry. Given what I know now, I wish I had said this: you don’t have to be a pastor to preach. You can have a “secular” job and be faithful to a God-given call to preach–as a lay preacher. Lay preaching doesn’t require a full seminary education or ordination; instead lay preachers receive training and oversight in sermon preparation.
In Cascadia, inviting the voices of lay people to share the pulpit with clergy has multiple benefits. First, including lay preachers can help rebuild trust after abuses of overly condensed power have created a deep skepticism of clergy and church structures. Additionally, lay preachers provide partnership for pastors, giving voice to the diversity of life experiences and perspectives in the congregation. Logistically, lay preachers allow pastors to tend to the other important parts of their shepherding role and their own need for rest.
Theologically, developing lay preachers is part of what it means to be the priesthood of all believers. Professor Shauna Hannan, author of the book The Peoples’ Sermon: Preaching as a Ministry of the Whole Congregation, says to her seminary students, “Even as you are being equipped to be faithful preachers, at the same time you are being equipped to equip others to fulfill their baptismal call to proclaim the gospel. If you don’t do that it is going to be a missed opportunity.” To really bring the Word to life in Cascadia, we need more voices in the pulpit. (Hear more from Dr. Hannan on the latest episode of the Center for Transforming Engagement Podcast.)
Maybe you are a lay person who writes sermons in your head, or a Bible study or small group leader who is ready to take the next step in sharing your love for engaging God’s Word. Maybe you’re a clergy person considering sharing your pulpit. Or perhaps you are a board member or church attender open to building imagination for what preaching could be at your church. In any case, I want to invite you into my conversation with two lay preachers in Cascadia: Jim Fletcher and Emmy Bean.
First Steps
Jim is a retired family doctor, and Emmy is a small business owner. They each had a different pathway into preaching. In general, the pathways to preaching start with an internal or external nudging. My youth group student’s experience above is an example of an internal nudge–you have a sense that you have something to say, that you can see connections between scripture and everyday life, and that those connections need to be voiced. The prophet Jeremiah had this internal nudge so strongly that he wrote that “God’s word is in my heart like a fire, a fire shut up in my bones. I am weary of holding it in; indeed, I cannot.” (Jeremiah 20:9) An external nudge is also a very common–and equally legitimate–pathway into lay preaching. Examples of external nudges include someone who knows you well mentioning that you might be gifted in this area, a pastor inviting you to preach, or a season when your congregation needs someone to fill in due to illness, sabbatical, or transition.
Jim’s pathway to preaching started with an external nudge; a pastor invited him to fill in when he was out sick, and then a different pastor urged him to develop a more regular practice of preaching. Jim is currently pursuing training as a lay preacher through the Reimagining Preaching Cohort program because he wants to be able to serve the large subset of his congregation who are from Pakistan. As someone who grew up in India, he feels at home with the languages and cultures of that region of the world. He is learning Urdu and grounding his preaching in the relationships he builds during home visits with congregants.
For Emmy, the call to preach came as a mix of internal and external nudges. Emmy had started seminary classes to become a certified lay leader around the time that preaching help was needed in her church. So Emmy wrote down a robust list of ideas for sermons and sent them to a friend. The friend quickly confirmed the calling Emmy felt stirring, saying, “Look how many sermons are inside of you!”
Developing as a Lay Preacher
The first steps in preaching aren’t always easy; like doing anything new, there can be a learning curve. Both Emmy and Jim noted that it was worth persevering, and both mentioned the importance of proactively seeking input and help with sermons.
In Emmy’s horseback teaching business, she mentors many young women and sees the need for more women’s stories to be addressed in preaching. So for her first sermon, she chose the Old Testament story of Tamar–an intense passage about trauma that is rarely preached. She rose to that challenge by creating an informal sermon review team made up of friends and colleagues with varying experiences in ministry, background in the subject matter, and theological degrees. She still sends sermons to this team for feedback on theological alignment and effective communication. “I love preparing–doing the study and the exegetical work and the prayer–diving in with the Holy Spirit. It’s fun to see the Holy Spirit bring all the threads and pieces from my mind into something cohesive! I enjoy the actual preaching, too–getting people to engage, to really connect and think about their faith.”
Jim acknowledged that developing preaching skills takes time. “To be honest I wasn’t happy with the earlier times I did it; it can be hard,” he said. He recommends getting help and advice from a pastor to make sure you are prepared and to build your confidence. Preaching, Jim found, was an excellent way to grow in spiritual maturity: “It really got me reading and studying to figure out what to do. So much learning goes into the process!”
Why Lay Preaching Matters
Lay people have a wealth of different experiences and interests to draw from as they engage a congregation with scripture. Because of those differences, they can bring a breadth of metaphors that speak to the reality of Christian life and hope today: the hospice nurse’s grief, the conflict in the office, a compassionate read of a scriptural lawyer from a current lawyer.
“I think that a diversity of voices is important–a diversity of backgrounds, genders, races, and themes,” Emmy said. “I’ve heard it said that ‘Everybody has about five sermons in them. It is hard for a pastor to go outside of those few major themes of their faith. By having other people preach, you get a wider variety of themes.”
Jim shared that he incorporates medical anecdotes from his time as a doctor into his preaching. He also emphasized that lay preaching matters because it can help the wellbeing of clergy and congregations. “Pastors have a 24-7 job, and they need to have vacations and sick time. Not that many churches have multiple pastors.” Lay preaching is “needed for the survival of churches and of pastors.”
For sure, some people are called to pastoring as their solo vocation, and their education, experience, and focus is invaluable to churches. But for others, preaching becomes a part of a constellation of callings they experience. They are family doctors and preachers, small business owners and preachers, chemistry teachers and preachers. Be open to the internal nudge that tells you preaching could be a part of your calling. Consider: is there someone who comes to mind as a possible lay preacher that you could nudge? Someone who needs to hear you don’t have to be a pastor to preach?
Bringing the Word to life in Cascadia requires all of us, not just professional ministers. When the pulpit contains a diversity of voices, our life as a faith community is more rich and whole because of it.
For next steps and more resources on lay preaching, consider attending the Reimagining Preaching Conference on May 3, 2025 in Shoreline, Washington. The conference features several workshops, including Developing Lay Preaching Teams for the Congregation, Culturally Intelligent Preaching, and Efficient Sermon Preparation. In conjunction with this conference, we are hosting the Christ & Cascadia Gathering on May 2, which will focus on the question “How do we bring the Word to life in Cascadia?”
Cover photo credit: Thomas Vitali
