“A word fitly spoken,” observes King Solomon, “is like apples of gold in a setting of silver” (Proverbs 25:11). Fitly spoken... an apt phrase, that. It suggests the manner in which a message is spoken can be better or worse. There is a propriety to speech. Style and substance are not so easily divorced.
Saint Augustine wholeheartedly agrees. In our previous Preacher’s Toolbox, we looked at what the great doctor of the Church identified as the purposes of preaching: To instruct, to delight, and to move. But then he goes a step further, again following the lead of Cicero, and attaches a certain style to each of those purposes: Restrained, mixed, and grand, respectively.
Here I will briefly touch on these three registers which he identifies and then make some suggestions for when and how you might incorporate them in your preaching. I also encourage you to pick up Augustine’s On Christian Teaching for yourself.