Repeatedly, my hands arch themselves over the keyboard while one knee props open Acts for Everyone. I pause momentarily, as if to fight the impulse that has overtaken me. Then, my fingers start slow-dancing over the keyboard. It’s as if I can’t help myself:
One of the great arts of Christian theology is to know how to tell the story: the story of the Old Testament, the story of Jesus as both the climax of the Old Testament and the foundation of all that was to come (not, in other words, a random collection of useful preaching material with some extraordinary and ’saving’ events tacked on the end), and the story of the church from the first days until now. - N.T. Wright, Acts for Everyone Part One
Jacob Dylan’s band, the Wallflowers, has been out of the public eye for a little while, but he’s written some great lyrics (remember “With One Headlight?”) and clearly knows his word-smithing. I lifted this post directly from Jonathan Dodson of Church Planting Novice, who points out that Dylan has a few things to teach us about sermon writing. (To repay my karmic debt to the blogosphere, I’ll soon be posting, “Church Planting Lessons from The Office’s Pam Beasely”) Anyway, good stuff.
In the May issue of Interview, Jacob Dylan had this to say about song-writing:
I mean, I’ve always had this disciplined approach to it. You have to have a work ethic and you have to be educated in what you’re doing. You have to take it seriously. It doesn’t mean that everything you do has to be serious. But you’ve got to have the tools. There are certainly a lot of people—and I won’t name names—who are getting by simply on expression. And I guess that’s valuable in some sense. But songs are not better just because they’re emotionally honest. To write a song well, you have to put some work into it and grind it out.
Great advice for both song and sermon writers. Too often we bank on emotion to get us by in our songs an sermons. Dylan pulls us back center by emphasizing education, tools, thoughtfulness in our communication, in our art. There are a lot of songs and books being written these days that glorify being “emotionally honest,” but if these pieces aren’t complemented by thoughtful, educated reflection and hard work then they may not even be worth putting out there. Song and sermon writing are a craft. Heed Dylan and treat them as such. Get your tools and work them.
