in common, that they were addressed to a Christian gathering – whether demarcated from the wider society, in the first, or open to influencing it and being influenced by it, in the second. But throughout the last two thousand years there have been times and places where the gospel has burst out in public beyond the limitations of any Christian gathering and any physical walls in which it might be enclosed.
It is hardly surprising if not as much of this kind of preaching survives today as of the other kind; in the nature of the case it may often be more spontaneous, less thoroughly prepared beforehand, and with fewer hearers taking notes! However, it has surely existed in all periods. One may assume that it continued to take place in the early period alongside the in-church ‘community interpretation’ that we have identified – in the kind of debating fora where Paul and the apostles found a hearing, if not always a response. After the Constantinian settlement, evangelization continued to be important; it is a misleading stereotype of Christendom to think that it ushered in the cessation of outgoing mission or an era of ‘automatic’ Christians. In North Africa, for instance, where Augustine was based, the task of evangelization continued to be much larger than it was in Rome.[27] In Britain, though the gospel came quite early on with the Roman conquerors, the task had to be carried out all over again after they had left, as the work of both Celtic missionaries like Aidan, Cuthbert and Patrick, and the Roman emissaries from Gregory, attest.[28] Again, the fact that the task was often incomplete, and sometimes employed dubious methods, does not invalidate all the vital public sharing of the gospel that went on – regularly in the open air, in places where people gathered. The monastic communities often formed a base for the activities of outreach, a model that some are finding attractive again today.[29]
A similar pattern is seen in later periods too. The friars took the gospel to the people where they were, on the streets and lanes, at a time when a divorce had opened up between the few educated, powerful clergy and the majority of the population, who were dependent on their ministrations but largely untaught. This became a popular, indeed entertaining form of preaching. The missionary activities of the post-reformation Roman Catholic orders took the gospel into the open in various parts of the world.[30] In the eighteenth century, when the spiritual life of the established church was at a low ebb, John Wesley took to his horse and drew vast crowds to his open-air preaching. In the nineteenth century Charles Haddon Spurgeon would also preach to great crowds in out-of-church venues. In an offshoot of the Wesleyan tradition, William Booth and his ‘Salvation Army’ took the good news on to the streets of the great industrial cities and gathered the poor and damaged into the fold through a ministry that combined (as it still does) proclamation and care in a powerful way. The ‘seeker service’ movement pioneered by Willow Creek Church in the late twentieth century deliberately set up meetings that were shaped upon the expectations and comfort-zones of those outside the church.
Nor is this model confined to those identified as ‘evangelicals’. Hyde Park in London provided the platform for the great Methodist preacher Donald Soper, while the streets of industrial Glasgow offered a pulpit to George MacLeod, founder of the Iona Community.[31] And today, preachers of various backgrounds are exploring again the potential for an out-of-church proclamation that attracts by its holy folly.[32]
A trend from the early nineteenth century onwards particularly exemplifies this model of taking the ‘word beyond the walls’. It has been dubbed ‘frontier religion’, and dates back to the time when the colonizers of America and their descendants were spreading west into new territory.[33] When there were few church buildings, Christians saw the potential for camps and outdoor gatherings where the gospel could be proclaimed. There was an advantage in the lack of traditional ‘baggage’ a church building represents, and preachers such as Charles Grandison Finney and later Dwight Moody would make full use of it, proclaiming the gospel in an earnest, often emotional manner that addressed the heart and won many adherents. This movement came also to encompass gatherings for the encouragement of the already converted (such as the Keswick Convention in Britain), and could espouse at various times a range of spiritualities and doctrinal positions (as the history of Keswick again shows). It influenced many evangelistic groupings, such as the Children’s Special Service Mission (later Scripture Union), Pathfinders, Crusaders, Youth for Christ, and most prominently in the twentieth century, Billy Graham and his evangelistic association.
It is natural that such movements should arise when the ‘mainstream’ churches of Christendom either do not exist or are on the wane. A gospel for the world demands to be taken ‘beyond the walls’, and it will go out perhaps especially when those within the walls are less than hospitable to it. But it is interesting that in all these instances, the preacher appears not simply as a lone pioneer, but as one who remains dependent on a community of faith, indeed often bringing that community and even its worship into the arena with him or her. The friars were rooted in a community of their order. The Methodists had their connexion and their classes which both supported and were increased through their travelling preaching ministry. ‘Frontier religion’ regularly comprises not just preaching but worship, as any who have attended a Billy Graham crusade will know. It seems to be a pattern that though preaching from time to time needs to take place ‘outside the walls’, it is unnatural for it to be a solitary exercise. It is always bound up, in some way, with a worshipping community.
Questions for the local church
What streams of tradition have influenced the preaching in your church?
Which of the three settings for preaching outlined in this chapter corresponds most closely to the preaching in your church?
How does your church’s understanding of its role in society affect its preaching?
Areas for research
The influence of various preaching movements on others across history would provide a fascinating area of study. So would a comparison between two or more such movements, even if no actual influence was being investigated or assumed. The way in which the social setting and self-understanding of a church affect its preaching would be an important topic for some careful empirical study.
Further reading
O. C. Edwards Jr, 2004, A History of Preaching, Grand Rapids: Eerdmans.
Hughes Oliphant Old, 1998–2007, The Reading and Preaching of Scripture in the Worship of the Christian Church, 6 vols, Grand Rapids: Eerdmans.
Paul Scott Wilson, 1992, A Concise History of Preaching, Nashville: Abingdon.
[1] For a recent account of older approaches to preaching style, see Jonathan Hustler, 2009, Making the Words Acceptable: the Shape of the Sermon in Christian History, London: Epworth. See also the classic account of Charles Smyth, 1940, The Art of Preaching: Preaching in the Church of England 747–1939, London: SPCK. Smyth’s account is of relevance to the Church much wider than Anglicanism, especially in that nearly the first half of the book is devoted to the pre-Reformation period. My main historiographical reference-point in this chapter is O. C. Edwards Jr, 2004, A History of Preaching, Nashville: Abingdon. References below are to vol. 1. Vol. 2 consists of extracts from sermons and writings on homiletics, and is contained on a CD ROM within vol. 1.
[2] Edwards, History, pp. 17–21.
[3]
