True, there was some humor to the initial statements about the relationship between speaker and listener, but the persisting humor is on a disturbing level that should lead anyone listening to consider their own presuppositions when we hear our own leaders admit sin in a not-so-conventional manner.

This happened in a much smaller way at a message I heard him give at TX A&M. He opened with trouble that had happened between him and Noel and how he was fighting his own sin and how continually it besets him. There was this strange initial laughter, but it was room full of college kids…and it didn’t last very long at all. They picked up very quickly that he wasn’t kidding. This makes me feel like the audience had almost been primed to think something different was coming than what they got.

Any thoughts?

With that said, a speaker does have a duty to know his audience and know his setting. Though I’m a Teaching Pastor, I am also a licensed professional counselor and have attended AACC meetings in the past. Lots of entertainment, lots of laughter—that what this thing is. It is one week of having fun and being refreshed in a beautiful environment(and the primary reason I stopped attending). Still, to walk into that setting and start with a deeply and deadly serious confession of personal sin was guaranteed to be misunderstood. The audience wasn’t prepared for it, had no way to expect it (I assume not many Piper-fans were there), and misunderstood it. He walked in thinking a group of professional christian counselors would take the issue of sin seriously–and he was confronted with the ugly truth that they do not.

Great stuff here from Piper. Sadly, he misjudged his audience.

I’m also a preacher. I have often wished more preachers would do like Piper (or Martyn Lloyd-Jones, for that matter) and just get up and preach and leave off the opening jokes. I don’t mean to imply that one must be somber; I very much appreciate humor, and like to laugh. Certainly, from teaching high schoolers, I’ve learned how to be silly and make an audience laugh, but when you’re about to proclaim a message from God’s word, that’s just not the time for frivolousness.

It sounds like he’s joking about neurosis: “Since you might analyze me and discover I’m a sinner, I’ll just let you know right up front what all of my hangups are. Point 1: I’m a sinner.”

Of course he is. Doesn’t that sound a little like a joke to state the obvious to a roomful of Christians who believe all are sinners?

And then he said “schmoozing.” I mean, come on. That’s a funny word.

Also funny: Suggesting this is evidence that pastors tell too many jokes. Seriously?

I love John Piper. He took a shot at an extremely serious cold open with a roomful of strangers and it didn’t quite connect as he intended. So, let’s blame the audience? Society? The profession?

I’m guessing that those who laughed were less familiar with Piper’s ministry and responded in the same vein. Certainly, I can easily imagine someone else saying exactly the same words, confessing the same sins, and intending to poke fun at himself, all the while making a serious point – it is a common trait where I come from. Obviously, that was not Piper’s intention, but I don’t think it reflects badly on the audience. It’s just unfamiliarity with where the speaker is coming from.

Of course, there may be those who suggest that such an approach denies the seriousness of sin, but I think such a suggestion would go too far.

Perhaps this.

It could be that people thought that John Piper was making a stereotype of Christian Counselors and he was in turn playing to that stereotype.

Which makes a good case for the Pathos in preaching. You will be received by how you are seen. John’s style, brutally transparent, deadly-serious, and hard-hitting made people think he was building up to a ironic/sarcastic punchline which he wasn’t.

The case could easily made that they haven’t encountered preaching in which the preacher puts himself upon the altar (in humility, confession, and surrender) that others may do likewise.

“The heart is deceitfully wicked, who can know it?”

Things I’ve learned.

1. As Bryan Chappell has said “Pathos is most important”
2. When you have no clue what to do, pray.
3. The heart is deceitfully wicked who can know it?

Pastor Piper did start with some ironic quips to which the crowd responded with natural laughter. Though the tape and Dr. Piper’s comments might make it seem like all 6,000 people were laughing, this is far from the case. Many people “got it” and understood that John had switched to serious mode. Many people were “with John” in thinking it odd that some people didn’t get the switch to serious. I spoke to many people directly after the message who were saddened that the laughter by some continued.

Additionally, I think it is rather an unfair stereotype by one poster who claims he is not surprised that “AACC counselors who primarily follow psychological models … would laugh at confession of sin.” Please attend an AACC conference, keynote messages, pre-conference forums, and track presentations and you will find that sin and suffering are both dealth with (parakaletic and nouthetic biblical Christian counseling), as they should be in a Christ-centered, comprehensive, compassionate, and culturally-informed approach to biblical counseling and spiritual formation. Take pot shots at one another hardly advances the cause of Christ.

One reason for laughter is the violation of expectations. Someone does or says something unexpected, and it seems so quirky and odd that we laugh in response.

Piper starts his talk by honoring his hearers, and my reading is that they laugh because of their own insecurity. He suggests that this group would be able to see right through any pretense, and they find the notion laughable, because something in them thinks they aren’t really that good at recognizing facades.

The audience also doesn’t expect a sincere confession of sin in front of a large group in the first two minutes of a talk, particularly when the speaker has not already been caught publicly. I am certain that, for most of these counselors, such confessions are only extracted either after lengthy relationship-building or when the confessor feels that (s)he is in grave danger of losing something dear if a confession is not forthcoming. That Piper would open up and proclaim that he is a sinner is completely unexpected, so it must be a joke! I am sure that many in the room marveled at his ability to keep a straight face!

So, in addition to reflecting the fact that we, as listeners, are conditioned for a lighthearted opening before the speaker gets down to business (which I do not dispute), I find this also to be a commentary on the way we relate to one another as a rule. We don’t praise one another, and we don’t confess to one another. Piper does both, and in both cases, the unexpectedness causes disbelief and laughter.

Once he says, “You’re a strange audience,” I think the laughter that ensues is almost the only reasonable reaction. I salute Piper for the way he lets them know that “this is a serious talk,” and they are able to join him in getting down to business fairly quickly, though not without a great deal of discomfort on all sides.