One evening last week brought together my love for film and my love for the music of Bob Dylan. I went to see the new biopic of Bob Dylan: A Complete Unknown.
The film was spectacular. The actor Timothée Chalamet catches the ambition, energy and self-absorbed, yet almost transcendent genius of the twenty-something Dylan and the songs that changed the way people think about music.
What could a preacher learn from a film like this?
Good preachers, like good songwriters, are born not made!
You cannot manufacture a songwriter or preacher although it is possible to nurture and develop natural gifts.
Good preachers, like good songwriters, learn from a multitude of sources.
Dylan was like a sponge that soaked up the refreshing water of the Great American Songbook. This exposure fed and honed his own songwriting skills.
I have always enjoyed reading and hearing great sermons. In the past five years I have more intentionally read ancient preachers every day. If you want a taste of that, follow me @PreachersDead on X!
Good preachers, like good songwriters, choose role models carefully.
The film A Complete Unknown shows the place the singer Woody Guthrie had in Dylan’s development as a singer and songwriter. The film movingly follows Dylan to the hospital where Guthrie, who had the disease Huntingdon’s Chorea, was being cared for. The high point of these visits was when Dylan sang his own Song for Woody to the frail veteran singer.
I have been grateful for role models from Augustine to Timothy Keller who have helped me to hone my instincts and skills as a preacher.
Good preachers, like good songwriters, are more than the sum of their parts.
It is impossible to dissect a fragrance or to turn a unique skill like songwriting or preaching to a simple 1–2–3 technique. Dylan speaks of some of his early songs emerging from another place.
I remember reading that Dr Martyn Lloyd Jones reckoned that he had only really preached twice, and that both times he was asleep!
Perhaps that raises the bar of preaching far too high. I have certainly been aware of times when I or other preachers have preached sermons that have had a greater impact than the preacher had expected or deserved.
Another area of the film that I found instructive as a preacher was how some of those older folk singers, who had originally welcomed him as the great white hope for folk music, found it difficult to give him space to develop as a singer and songwriter. Dylan going electric was seen as a betrayal. At one famous/infamous concert 1966 a member of the audience cried out, “Judas.”
Perhaps this is a cautionary note for those like me who train preachers?
The temptation is to force young preachers into a certain mould. This can be artificial and harmful. Preachers and songwriters are always better being a first-rate version of themselves than a second-rate version of someone else.
My advice is: Be yourself in God.
Photo by Chris Boland on Unsplash
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