Rev. Dr. Fred Craddock on Storytelling and Preaching: Insights for Effective Sermons

The Rev. Dr. Fred Craddock, renowned for his exceptional preaching and as a mentor to preachers, has left an indelible mark on many through his unique approach to storytelling and preaching.

As the Bandy Distinguished Professor Emeritus at Candler School of Theology, Emory University, and an ordained minister in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), Dr. Craddock's wisdom has inspired generations of ministers and congregations alike. In this insightful interview, recorded at the Festival of Homiletics 2008 in Minneapolis, Dr. Craddock sits down with Rev. Peter Wallace, to delve into the art and science of preaching in today's world. Join them as they explore the power of storytelling in sermons, how to craft narratives that resonate, and why the movement of a sermon can be just as impactful as its structure.

You can also watch this interview on YouTube

Peter Wallace:
I know you do a lot of storytelling at the Craddock Center, which has become a center for storytelling. What do you think is more effective, a good story or a good sermon?

Fred Craddock:
Well, that's a toughie. A good sermon, it seems to me, has a story-like quality to it. That is, it is a kind of narration. A good sermon gives you all along a sense of an ending. This is going somewhere. Well, that's true of a story. There are a lot of preachers who never tell stories but have the reputation of being a good storyteller because of the way their sermons move. Movement is more important than structure because it's not going to be pictured on a camera; it's going to be heard by the ear. Now, a good story, if it fits and if it's appropriate, is powerful because it reminds most of the people in the house of something that happened to them: "When I was nine years old, my father did that," or "I remember the church back home." And here, everybody then has something they want to say. That's what good preaching does; it causes people to want to say something themselves. So it's a toss-up. But good preaching, if it dips into the qualities of storytelling, it's pretty close to the same power. I'd hate to come off in front of everybody saying a story was better than a sermon, but a good sermon seems like a good story.

Peter Wallace:
This question comes from a Presbyterian pastor in Decatur, Illinois, Jim Montgomery. He asks, "How do you specifically choose or create stories in your sermon preparation?" And he also wanted to know specifically, what percentage of your stories would you say are based on your life, and is it okay to create stories, make them up?

Fred Craddock:
There are several things I do. Number one is, most of the stories that I tell grow out of observation—something that I observed, heard, watched, or experienced. But I try not to be on camera myself, but hold the camera in the story on the other person. It may start off, "I was in the airport the other day," but it moves to the other person. You don't want to make it a "you know too much." But when I have such an experience—talking with a child, visiting with a man on the street, something that happens in the sanctuary, in a home, wherever—all kinds of things, if it strikes me as having the quality of common human experience, it would cause somebody to say, "That's exactly the way life is." I write it down in detail. It may be in a nursing home, it may be in a kindergarten, but the time and the place and who and what was said—I write it on one page, and I have notebooks of these. 75% of them never see the light of day, never occur in a sermon. But it enlarges my capacity to sympathize and empathize with people.

So I preserve the stories. Very seldom do I tell a story that you read in a book or in another sermon or something like that. Now, it's tough to choose them. They choose themselves, more or less. But you have to have a stock of material on which you draw coming into the sermon. You don't want to sit there chewing your pencil or doodling with your machinery, saying, "Now, I need a good story." At this point, that's going to be a flop, a real flop. There are experiences you've had, things you've observed that would say, "Let me in right here. I fit right in here," and you'll have a hard time keeping it out. I don't have any order or catalog or subject arrangement of these stories. They're just there, and I reread them sometimes and mess up sometimes. But I don't believe you should avoid experiences you've had, but you have to believe it's not unique to you. People are normally going to sit back and say, "Our pastor has some really unusual experiences every time he goes to the Fiji islands," or something like that. It has to be out of the heart of life so people identify with it, whatever the source.

And sometimes it's appropriate to create a story. I have it on good authority—Jesus created stories, parables. You have to put a tag on it. He put a tag on it: "Which one of you?" or "Once there was a certain man." Once you start that way, the listener says, "Parable." Well, if you start off, you want to put a tag on it. "Let us suppose," "Suppose there were," "If it were the case,"—some little tag that says "created." I usually insert an absurdity in a story so that everybody knows it's not fact; it's created. But the fact that it's created doesn't lessen the quality. You don't want it to be fakey, trying out stuff on the listeners, but experiences from life that you've observed that intrude themselves into your sermon, saying, "Now, here's where I fit into your preaching." Otherwise, if you're grabbing for stories, you'll use one too soon or too late. You use it too soon because you think, "Hey, that's a good story," and you put it in a sermon. And then a month later there's a good place where it would have fit, but it's too late. You've already used it. It's a delicate piece of material.

Peter Wallace:
Garrison Keillor is a great storyteller. Some say his monologues are rather like sermons to his flock, his listeners. Do you ever listen to Garrison?

Fred Craddock:
Yes, I listen to Garrison Keillor, and I read Garrison Keillor. He is a master storyteller, and he has a keen moral sense and a keen ethical sense. He can sneak up on you with a story. You think he's talking about hog killing time in Minnesota, but actually, there's something about life and the sacredness of life that he's getting across. But he's the best I have heard. He's a sort of prose Burl Ives. I don't try to imitate him because he has the capacity to start a story that reminds him of another story that reminds him of another. Then he can come back to his original one. That's a little too much footwork for me, but I do admire and respect him very much.