Emotive Preaching

According to Frank Thomas there are two essential levels of preaching: cognitive and emotive. Most of the styles that are taught to people in seminaries are built upon a cognitive model that may or may not contain any emotive material and when it does, it is often by happenstance. An emotive framework is designed to engage the cognitive and move deeper into the emotive language of the person so as to affect change at the level of core belief, or what Frank calls soul material. The basic assumption in this model is that by staying at the cognitive level, the preacher is trying to convince the congregation of a point of view that is easy to forget. However when the preacher moves to the cognitive level there exists the opportunity to engage people at the level of core belief and, that if change is affected at this level, it tends to be more significant and longer lasting. However, if preaching becomes purely emotive then there is no grounding for the sermon and thus the experience of the message. The goal is a balanced approach to both the cognitive and emotive. The sermon needs to have enough material to engage our cognition while at the same time engaging the hearers personal experience through an appeal to the emotive via language that bridges the two creating a symbiotic relationship that deepens the overall experience for everyone involved, including the preacher.