Improving Preaching by Listening to Listeners: Sunday Service Preaching in the Malagasy
Lutheran Church explores the reaction of the congregation to Sunday preaching. Preaching has
been a significant activity since the founding of the Lutheran Church in Madagascar in 1867.
However hardly any research has been carried out to explore this interesting field
particularly from the listeners' perspective. This book is an attempt to remedy this situation.
With the aid of methodology from rhetorical studies adapted into homiletics this book
investigates: How do the character of the preacher the content of the sermon and its
emotional appeal impact the listeners in such a way that preaching becomes significant in their
lives? Listeners consider the preacher himself important both his spiritual and everyday life.
They evaluate his good intentions whether he believes in his own message and whether his
message is moulded by an encounter with the risen Lord. The Bible provides the sermon's basic
content and foundation and The Holy Spirit is considered an active agent in the preaching
event. The listeners encounter words from God through the sermon. They can experience change in
their lives by listening to preaching from caring pastors who create presence for important
issues for change to happen. The Malagasy context and culture form the backcloth throughout the
investigation and this book specifically investigates Malagasy rhetoric that is the public
speech tradition with regard to its possible role in increasing the impact of preaching on the
listeners.
