Pew Rights: For People Who Listen to Sermons

James L. Heflin  |  Southwestern Journal of Theology Vol. 36 - Spring 1994

Pew Rights: For People Who Listen to Sermons. By Roger E. Van Harn. Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1992. 162 pages. Hardcover, $14.95.  

Van Harn serves as pastor of Grace Christian Reformed Church, Grand Rapids. This book affirms that such things as pew rights exist. Van Harn reminds that “all rights are rooted in responsibilities/’ Thus “pew rights are rooted in pulpit responsibilities.” He speaks of pulpit responsibilities, but casts them into the form of pew rights and “offers the people who listen to sermons some guidance about what they have a right to expect” (Preface). Each of the book’s twelve chapters identifies a “right.” For example: “When we listen to a sermon we have the right to sit at the center of the church’s mission” (p. 4), based on Rom. 10:13-17 in which Paul “gives hearing central place in the church’s mission order” (p. 5). The chapters are arranged in four parts, which together form a sentence telling listeners the overarching reason why we listen. “We listen to sermons (Part One) from Bible texts in God’s story (Part Two) to us in God’s story (Part Three) to hear the word of God (Part Four).”  

This volume is a welcome addition to the recent literature on the role of the listener in the preaching event. It does not limit itself to technical information about how one is to listen, but stresses what to hear. It offers counsel to the preacher as well: Preachers do not merely preach to people; they listen with each other in preaching.  

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