Humour in Preaching?

[oworm]

Ive been increasingly concerned with the use of humour and humourous anecdotal stories in sermons. Personaly I can find no scriptural support for the use of humour in teaching although I know Jesus used hyperbole to illustrate. What is your view in the use of humour in the pulpit?

[jlujan69]

The only time I could see that humor would never be appropriate is if you could show me where humor itself is unbiblical or otherwise offensive to God. I've heard say that when Jesus spoke of the splinter in one person's eye and the plank in the other person's eye, that was understood to be a humorous illustration. Ditto for when Christ said that if we know how to give good gifts to our kids, how much more the Father will give the Holy Spirit to those who ask. A sermon shouldn't be based on silliness or filled with jokes, but if a funny story or quip is in good taste, serves to illustrate a biblical principle, and is limited in quantity, I see no problema with it being used as a tension breaker or comic relief bit.

[TwinCrier]

Illustrations are usually exaggerated to make a point, so therefore come across somewhat funny and elicit a few chuckles, but if a pastor seemed to be trying out a stand-up comic routine out on the church, I would have to leave.

[DeaconDean]

Have you ever heard Charles Swindol preach?

There is nothing wrong in adding a sense of humor to preaching. If we can't laugh at ourselves, what can we laugh at? God must have had a sense of humor.

Question: "Does God Have a sense of humor?"

Answer: The American Heritage Dictionary defines a “sense of humor” as “...The ability to perceive, enjoy, or express what is comical or funny.”

According to this definition, then, God must show an ability to either perceive, enjoy, or express what is comical or funny if he is to have a sense of humor. The difficulty is that people perceive what is comical or funny differently. I believe that you would agree that much of what the world calls humor is not funny but is crass and crude and should have no part in a Christian’s life (Colossians 3:8). Other humor, such as blonde jokes (which I tell) are usually told at the expense of others (they tear down rather than building up), again something contrary to God’s Word (Colossians 4:6; Ephesians 4:29). But I do believe that God has a sense of humor, but that perhaps too often His sense of humor is not always perceived or appreciated by us.

Some cite the fact that God giving Abram (“exalted father” or “father of many”) the name Abraham (“father of multitudes” or “father of many nations”) is comical (Genesis 17:5). Can you imagine Abram coming back to his barren wife and his servants, saying, “Guess what! God has changed my name from “the father of many” to “the father of many nations!” All the while he is still without a single child in his old age! Would that not make you laugh if you were part of his household? Obviously, it was prophetic, but still the situation is comical.

To me, the greatest indication of God's humor is in the instant in which the Israelites were using the Ark of the Covenant like a good luck charm in taking it to battle, and the Philistines end up capturing it and placing it in their temple before their idol of Dagon. What happens next? They come into the temple the next day and find Dagon flat on his face before the ark. They set him back up. The next morning, there he is again, but this time he has his hands and head cut off as a symbol of his powerlessness before the God of the ark (1 Samuel 5:1-5). To me, the picture is hilarious!

And then you have the illustration that Isaiah makes concerning idolatry in Isaiah 44:9-17. The prophet paints a word picture of a guy cutting down a tree and using part of the tree for firewood to warm himself and cook his meal and then carving up the rest of the tree and bowing down to it! Is it not comical?

There is also the instance of Elijah on Mount Carmel with the prophets of Baal (1 Kings 18). He challenges them to a test to see who has the true God. The test is to prepare a sacrifice but to put no fire to it but to let the real God show Himself by lighting the fire from heaven. He lets the prophets of Baal go first. For hours they call on Baal but are getting no response. How does Elijah encourage them? In verse 27, he says, “Hey, boys, you better yell a little louder. Maybe Baal is in the middle of a conversation, or on a journey, or maybe he’s asleep and you need to wake him up!” (my paraphrase). Is this not sarcastic humor?

Psalm 2 talks about God laughing at those who would rebel against His kingship (verse 4). It is like the comical picture of a kindergarten-aged child being upset at his parents and running away from home...all the way to his neighbor’s house. But there is obviously a serious side to this as well, and although the picture of weak and silly man trying to match wits with an almighty and all-knowing God is comical, God takes no delight in their waywardness and its consequences but rather desires to see them turn around (Ezekiel 33:11; Matthew 23:37-38). And I believe that it is this serious side of man’s condition that keeps us from seeing more expressions of God’s sense of humor this side of heaven. And this is why I believe that we find so many more expressions of God’s holiness, righteousness, mercy, and grace than of His humor.

A person does not crack jokes in the presence of one who has just lost a close loved one; silly jokes are out of place on such occasions. Even so, God is focused on the lost and is looking for those who will care for their souls as He does. That is why our lives (while having times of refreshing and humor) are nonetheless to be characterized by “soberness” (seriousness about making our lives count for Christ) (1 Thessalonians 5:6,8; Titus 2:2,6).

But even as we see comical characters in some of the creatures God has graced this world with, so I believe that our new home in eternity will be adorned with so much more. This will cause our already joyous hearts to overflow into laughter (Psalm 16:11).

http://www.gotquestions.org/God-humor.html

Heres one for ya:

How to find Jesus


A young little boy is walking through the downtown area. He hears a noise nearby and decides to check it out. He walks down the block turns the corner and sees people gathering for an old fashioned tent revival. About that time a man walks up to the boy and asks:

"Son, can you tell me where the Post Office is?"

"Sure mister, it's just down the block turn left and it's on the right."

"Thank you son, would you like for me to tell you how to find Jesus?"

The boy thought for just a split second, then he replied:

"No thank you sir, you can't even find the Post Office, how can you tell me how to find Jesus."

God Bless

Till all are one.

[No Swansong]

I have no problem with humor. What I do have a problem with is making the sacred profane. A preacher is handling the words of God, they in themselves should not in my opinon be used as the punchline of a joke. No kidding I have acutally heard them used as such.

[twistedsketch]

Since Scripture doesn't condemn it either, I don't see what the problem is unless it is used poorly.

[Sprint3]

I have no problem with humor being used from the pulpit in it's proper context. I am sure some preachers use it to make sure we are still paying attention.

[DiscipleOfIAm]

As long as the entire service is not a stand up routine, then why not. A lot of times a point can be made more clearly if used in a humorous illustration that the audience can relate to.

Of course, if the whole sermon is one long joke or humorous story (see Jesse Duplantis), then no, this is not right. We are still people and human. We all learn or respond differently to different teaching methods. I don't think Jesus is this strict, no humor, serious all the time, God. We were created in His image, so He must have humor as well.

Just my take!

[cavymom]

Numbers 22:28 Then the Lord opened the mouth of the donkey, and she said to Balaam, "What have I done to you, that you have struck me these three times?" 29 And Balaam said to the donkey, "Because you have abused me. I wish there were a sword in my hand, for now I would kill you!" 30 So the donkey said to Balaam, "Am I not your donkey on which you have ridden, ever since I became yours, to this day? Was I ever disposed to do this to you?" And he said, "No."

Genesis 1:27 So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.


^_^ Of course God has a sense of humor... come on, a talking donkey !?! God created us to be in His image, and that image includes a sense of humor. We should appreciate all the attributes that God has given to us. And to be humorous when we tell others about our Loving God is not a sin.

[TheGroominator]

Yeah, I've gotta go with the majority on this one. Whether we want to admit it or not, sitting still listening to a monotone preacher who doesn't take 2 steps from the pulpit during the complete sermon is a sure ticket to Snoozville. It's nice to have a little tale or quip to keep our attention. As long as it's not overdone.

[MaidforHim]

There is no Biblical teaching for or against it.

I think if it gets someones attention, gets them listening, conveys the word accurately and in a way the the person can understand it and relate it to their lives then there is nothing wrong with humor in the pulpit. It's a great thing leave the church with a true message and feel joyful about God's word.

If the Holy Spirit is leading a pastor to deliver the word in a humorous way then so be it.

I personally enjoy a humorous sermon once in a while and have a favorite pastor who does this a lot. However, in those same sermons he also gets very serious, to the point and keeps it Biblical. It's well balanced.

When I was a kid I experienced a pastor that was always serious, everything sermon seemed heavy. As a young person I found it very hard to keep listening to him. When you left his church you felt like he had beat you with the Bible.

I supose a pastor could take it too far the other way though, but I've never experienced that.

[chris777]

I have seen them use humor in an attempt to be entertaining, I feel that is profaning Gods word. I have also seen it used in poor, and unseemly taste Ribald if you will. that is also bad.

I agree with several post Jesus used extreme examples, which might seem humerous, but they were used to teach most prominently.

[WannaWitness]

I personally see nothing wrong with it to a degree, but there's also a time when enough is enough. Getting downright goofy would be disorderly, and would quench the Holy Spirit.

[MaidforHim]

I think what it comes down to is balance and Biblical accuracy. Any pastor, if not yeilding to the Holy Spirit, and taking either humor or even seriousness to an extreme is out of line.

However, if the pastor is led by the Spirit to be humorous about something then he would be sinning to ignore that prompting that is coming from God. This humor may or may not speak to you or me at that exact moment in time, but it may be touching someone elses heart and bringing the message to them when they might not have recieved it, or understood it in another way... I think this could be especially true for the unbelieving curious or the new believer.

I really think it's all about balance. There is no shortage of pastors who fall short like the rest of us, no doubt that comes through in their sermons sometimes.

However, if a good "spirit led" pastor uses some humor to deliver or illustrate The Word accurately, and his message is well balanced with the seriousness of the message, and is accurate Biblically, I still see nothing wrong with it. I think God has a sense of humor.

[hindsey]

I heard evangelist Jamey Ragle down in Georgia back in May. He uses comedy throughout his message, but he doesn't (that I recall) make the Bible the joke. For example, someone's cell phone rang, and he said, "you know... there are only 2 kinds of people that need cell phone on during church: Doctors... and drug dealers..."

His messages would be considered "hard" but having the humor in it, lost people are more apt to sit through the whole thing. Many people made professions of faith that weekend I was there, and the gospel presented was not an easy-believism gospel either.

I'm not a pragmatist, but I don't see anything contrary to Scripture - does becoming all things to all men include this? I don't know.