A controversial theme⤒🔗

The theme of this collection of articles is controversial. Some groups deem preaching to fall short if it is not experiential. Preaching is poor and does not build up the congregation if it is not experiential. It does not feed the souls.

There are other groups that want to have nothing to do with experiential preaching. Their objection is that experiential insight is an addition that supplements the Word of God. That would mean that the Word itself is insufficient. Experiential insight focuses man on his experience. How can one proclaim the Word of God if human experience receives a central role in it?

If we define the problem in this way, we encounter a contemporary quandary. It is the difficulty about the relation between revelation and experience. One can hardly open a book on theology which does not address this problem. How are revelation and experience related?

Does revelation precede experience? Or does revelation proceed from experience? Also, is only that considered revelation that  is experienced by people? Or is there a third option, for instance the reciprocity of revelation and spiritual experience? This latter position was taken by the (Dutch) Reformed Churches [now PKN, ks] in their report to the meeting of the Reformed Ecumenical Synod in Harare, in June 1988.

Preaching and experiential insight; revelation and spiritual experience. One cannot say that they are equal, but they touch on the same quandary.

Clarity craved←⤒🔗

It is necessary to first provide a clear description of what should be understood by experiential preaching, or experiential knowledge in the preaching.

It is not easy to provide that description. One may consult various books for it, and I now mention some publications that occupied themselves with the question of experiential knowledge in the preaching. In chronological order, the 1939 booklet by Rev. I. Kievit comes first: Objective and subjective preaching — the requirement of the Holy Scripture. In 1951, L.H. van der Meiden, the former professor from Apeldoorn, wrote What is spiritual experience? For the practice of godliness. It is perhaps characteristic for our topic that both booklets are collections of articles previously published in church periodicals. In 1978, Dr. T. Brienen published an extensive elaboration of a public lecture, entitled Spiritual experience. Character and role of religious experience. His book deals with no less than eight authors who wrote in Dutch about spiritual experience, including Dr. J.G. Woelderink. From the period after 1978 other names could be mentioned.

While I mention publications, I do not want to skip over the Dutch Reformed Church’s [Hervormde Kerk, ks] professors K.H. Miskotte and A.A. van Ruler, in whose work this theme plays an important role. One may say that it was Prof. van Ruler who drew theological and ecclesiastical attention to the topic of spiritual experience. He did that in his characteristic eloquent way in which he managed to combine inner soul-focus and thoughtful theological sagacity. I avoid mentioning more names now. Dr. Brienen’s book provides a generous overview of the relevant authors and their publications.

Meanwhile, we have not yet answered the question of what experiential preaching is. We consult Van Dale, the unparalleled Great Dictionary of the Dutch Language. It provides two meanings: “1. Observation based on investigation; 2. What people experience, especially becoming aware inwardly, in-the-soul, of communion with God.” By way of illustration, we then get the phrase “the spiritual experience of a believing soul.”

This is a reasonably adequate formulation. The topic of spiritual experience takes us to inward in-the-soul acquaintance with the communion with God. This is the core of spiritual experience. It is what a person becomes aware of in his soul and becomes aware of communion with God. I find it remarkable that Van Dale uses the expression of becoming aware of communion with God. This becoming aware points up that man is dependent on God. We can only become aware of spiritual experience that God gives us to experience. In that way, Van Dale’s description of spiritual experience points to the gracious character of what one experiences in communion with God, without actually saying so.

The experiential aspect of faith←⤒🔗

So, spiritual experience refers to the experience of communion with God. It is about everything a person experiences when he gets to know God and lives with God.

In spiritual experience we encounter the experiential side of faith. The relationship with God is a relationship of faith. Faith responds to the Word and lives from the Word. There is no contrast between spiritual experience and faith. Spiritual experience is experience of the faith. That is what the authors we have quoted emphasize repeatedly. Spiritual experience is experiencing faith, or, in other words, faith in its efficacy.

If we once more connect the theme of spiritual experience to the theme of experience, we can say that spiritual experience is about experience. It is about experiencing faith. That is the further limitation that must be applied. There are many experiences in life: sad and happy experiences, foreign and familiar experiences. A person who lives experiences things. We express the significance of experience with the description “That is a man or woman with life experience.” He has used his eyes and his ears well. He has thought about things that happened in his life. He has contemplated on people and things and learned something from it. That is a person with life experience.

It is similar with spiritual experience. A person with spiritual experience is one who knows communion with God personally and knows what happens when God enters a person’s life. This knowledge includes: to know one is saved when despairing, and to keep hoping in God in disappointments, knowing oneself in his guilt before God, and knowing what forgiveness is for the sake of Christ’s sacrifice. And further: to experience as a reality the love of God that was poured out in our hearts, but also the remorse about the evil we committed against God. That is spiritual experience in the sense of faith experience. There is no true faith without spiritual experience. That is how we speak about it in this collection.

Spiritual experience in the preaching — a question mark or an exclamation mark?←⤒🔗

This is what experiential preaching is particularly about. In short, that is the kind of preaching in which this spiritual experience finds a place. It is also the preaching in which the experience of faith is not only mentioned as a fact but also considered as an experienced reality.

But what to do with the allegation that experiential preaching is incompatible with the idea that preaching consists of bringing God’s Word? One who brings God’s Word should not speak about man, should he? To use the well-known words from the description of the miracle of Pentecost, preaching is to proclaim the mighty works of God to everyone, each in their own language (Acts 2:11). Whoever proclaims the acts of God does not speak about man, does he? He keeps himself far from all that might put man in the centre, they say.

No one will object to this thesis to the extent that it emphasizes that it is all about God’s Word, and not the word that man wants to say about his experience. It certainly is the case that the preaching, after the Reformational tradition, brings God’s Word. Whoever allows preaching to be engulfed by descriptions of experiences of faith remains below the standard of Scriptural preaching.

We want to be very clear on this point! Yet, this does not say all that needs to be said. Whoever would draw the conclusion from the above that the administration or proclamation of God’s Word is therefore incompatible with spiritual experience goes too far. He misses the point.

Preaching aims for experience←⤒🔗

Why so? We could answer that preaching intends to evoke experience. In other words, preaching seeks experience. The message of the Bible must penetrate the lives of people. As soon as that happens, there is experience. Preaching aims for spiritual experience. It does not get wrapped up in a dry theory, a dogmatic explanation, or a moralistic lecture. After all, faith is a matter of the heart, and therefore of experience and spiritual experience. It might be that certain people would agree with this statement and yet continue to object to connecting spiritual experience and preaching. They would say: It may be true that spiritual experience is fruit of the preaching, but that does not give me the right to give a place to spiritual experience in the preaching proper. What comes after the preaching does not therefore belong in the preaching itself.

Spiritual experience in the Psalms←⤒🔗

This thought may make sense. Yet, the question remains whether it holds up. Our answer to this objection is that in the Bible itself we meet the believers with their spiritual experiences. The most experiential book in the Bible, if I may express myself in that way, is the book of Psalms. With this I do not want to say that other books in the Bible are not experiential. They surely are. But the book in which the believer speaks of his spiritual experience is especially the book of Psalms. That is where he complains and rejoices. That is where he pleads and accuses himself. That is where we find the call to the absent God for his presence. That is where the “why” resounds. To cite one of the texts that could be mentioned here:

I say to God, my rock, “Why have you forgotten me? Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?” Psalm 42:9

Or consider these words, which were said to God from the experience of his absence:

Awake! Why are you sleeping, O Lord? Rouse yourself! Do not reject us forever!” Psalm 44:23

Whoever lets these words sink in must acknowledge that the poet has the impression that he is dealing with a sleeping God.

We can also mention another example of a Psalm-poet’s spiritual experience:

I acknowledged my sin to you, and I did not cover my iniquity; I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,” and you forgave the iniquity of my sin. Psalm 32:5

What follows is that beautiful exhortation to others: “Therefore let everyone who is godly offer prayer to you at a time when you may be found; surely in the rush of great waters, they shall not reach him” (Psalm 32:6).

Or think of that emotional confession from Psalm 73:Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever (Psalm 73:25-26)

This expectation is the fruit of the fact that the poet has come to know God experientially!

The New Testament←⤒🔗

To avoid leaving the impression that only the Old Testament contains experiential material, we will also cite some texts from the New Testament. Romans 5 tells us,

And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly” Romans 5:5-6.

Listen to these words: “That according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith” (Ephesians 3:16-17). Paul speaks here of the experience that Christ lives in us. He calls it an experience of faith. Many more texts could be mentioned. The New Testament also speaks clearly of the spiritual experience of a believer. It is noteworthy that the Holy Spirit is mentioned in the texts above.

Spiritual experience is fruit of the Holy Spirit←⤒🔗

We want to say a bit more about that. It is the Holy Spirit who works and lives in the hearts of people. From his presence all spiritual experience springs forth. After all, this is the fruit of the Holy Spirit. If the Spirit does not enter us, we remain far from and foreign to all true spiritual experience. In one of his many publications, Dr. W. Aalders spoke about the inner work of the Holy Spirit. With this, he means that the Holy Spirit works in our hearts. That is precisely what we understand by spiritual experience: the work of the Holy Spirit in people. The Spirit makes contact between God and us. The Spirit establishes the presence of Christ in us. The Spirit pours out the love of God by entering us himself. That is how the Spirit is the seal of God’s grace! “And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption” (Ephesians 4:30). Paul speaks with joy and a relaxed certainty about having received the Holy Spirit: “He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee” (2 Corinthians 5:5).

The place of the Holy Spirit in the preaching←⤒🔗

At bottom, the theme of experiential preaching is the theme of the place of the Holy Spirit in the preaching. With this, we are in the field of what is called pneumatology in Reformational theology: that is, the doctrine of the Holy Spirit. It was especially Calvin who paid extensive attention to the work of the Holy Spirit. We now only recall the beautiful title of chapter 1 of book III of the Institutes: “The things concerning Christ profit us by the secret working of the Spirit.” Whoever reads through this chapter can also say the converse. What has been said about Christ remains foreign to us and does not become our own without the hidden work of the Holy Spirit.

The Bible does not only name the Holy Spirit but also shows the work of the Spirit. We find his gifts and fruits described in both the Old and New Testament.

One who asks for experiential preaching does so rightly if he asks for preaching in which the work of the Holy Spirit gets unfolded and explained.

One may wonder whether it is necessary to speak separately about the work of the Spirit in the preaching. Is it not sufficient to proclaim the work of Christ? After all, what he has done is for our salvation. Must something be added to that?

The answer to this question is quite simple. God reveals himself as the Triune God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. His Word does not merely mention the names of the three persons, but describes their work.. One who wants to limit himself to the work of Christ reduces the scriptural message. He leaves the work of the Father as well as that of the Spirit out of the picture. With that reduction he does not do justice to the fullness of revelation. He gives the impression of wanting to be wiser than God. With the unfolding of salvation, after all, the Lord also gave the work of the Spirit a place of its own. In his Word, he let us know much about that Spirit. Should we then not consider it necessary to give a place in the preaching to the Spirit and his work?

In Trinitarian context←⤒🔗

Of course, in the preaching it has to be about the Spirit in the Trinitarian context, not about the Spirit independently from Christ, but always about the Spirit of whom Christ himself says to his disciples, “Whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me” (John 15:26).

This work of the Spirit, revealed in Scripture, must also have a place in the preaching. That work of the Spirit is the content of God’s promise. This is how that work and the spiritual experience the Spirit works must also be preached: as a promise that God wants to fulfill in us. It is difficult to think of a stronger foundation for the request for experiential preaching. When God promises us his Spirit, we may not leave the work of the Spirit unaddressed in the preaching.

In a 1986 article, Dr. A.N. Hendriks critiqued the expression “experiential preaching.” His objection is that the expression is experientially characterized, as the experience of the believing person! We do not deny that there is experiential preaching in which man is in the centre — the questioning, the seeking, the doubting, or the delusional man who views himself as autonomous. Yet, it depends on what one understands by “experiential.” As for us, we take it to be what God causes a person to experience or to become aware of when his Spirit works in him. Spiritual experience in preaching is experience of faith. Precisely because the Spirit is the worker of the experience, we dare speak of experiential preaching. We even have the right to do so. In Lord’s Day 1 of the Heidelberg Catechism the question asks about your only comfort in life and in death. The answer is that I belong to my faithful Saviour Jesus Christ. In that same Lord’s Day, the question is also raised about what is necessary to live and die in this comfort. The answer includes the reference to the knowledge of my sins and misery, of my deliverance, and of how to show my thankfulness. That knowledge is the fruit of the Holy Spirit. [See LD 7.21] In its threefold aspect, that knowledge must get addressed in the preaching. Experiential preaching is preaching in which these three pieces receive a place. They belong to the great works of God that are proclaimed. In this collection we want to explore elements and aspects of the experience of faith. We do not do so to shift the attention from the great works of God to a man’s inner being. [God’s intention and promises to us are very clear and sure. We always start and finish with what he has done for us in Christ. That is the only way to full assurance, as the assurance cannot be found in us.] But it is necessary to give attention to the experiential aspect in order that the great works of God may be known with all our heart.

Experiential preaching speaks about what God does outside of us and about what he does in us.