Should Preachers Tell Jokes?

In this regular feature, Dave and Tom respond to questions from listeners and readers of The Berean Call. Here’s this week’s question: “Dear Dave and Tom: I know that you two do your share of preaching, so I thought I would put you on the spot. How far should a preacher go when it comes to introducing humor and entertainment into his messages? What are some guidelines?"

Tom: Dave, I’ve heard you speak,and you can tell a story every once in a while, but you usually do it right at the beginning and I’ve rarely heard you in your message, especially when you are getting into Scripture, you seem to avoid that.

Dave: Well, Tom, there are some excellent stories. I only use the story that illustrates a point, and let me use one quickly.

This man that thought he was dead (I don’t think we’ve told that story on the air) and you couldn’t convince him that he wasn’t. They took him to one psychiatrist after another and they couldn’t change the guy. They finally found a psychiatrist who said he could cure him. So every time when he came in for his weekly session the psychiatrist would take him to the morgue, pull the sheet back from a corpse, puncture the finger, squeeze it, no blood comes out. So, week after week he would say, “Now what are we learning about dead people?”

“Well, they don’t bleed.”

And the sixth week when the man came in, he sat down at his desk and he said, “Now, what have we learned the last five weeks? We know one thing for sure—what do we know for sure about dead people?”

“Well,” the guy said, “they don’t bleed.”

So the psychiatrist grabbed his finger, punctured it, and squeezed it, and out came some blood. And the psychiatrist said, “What do you say to that?”

“Well, I’ll be! Dead people do bleed after all!”

So, there are some people you can’t convince them with anything, Tom—they will not accept the evidence. And I think that’s a perfectly good illustration.

Tom: Yeah. Now, when somebody leaves…you’re preaching, you know, you are doing a Sunday service, and here’s the concern that I have, and I’ll give you an example of a recent experience that I had. If they left with just that funny story—didn’t get the point—or somehow that story distracted them from the message that you were giving, isn’t that where we run into trouble?

Dave: I would say you would run into trouble, but I would hope that the story would impress upon them the point I am trying to make, and that is, unfortunately, many people come to the Bible looking up a verse that they can find somewhere that will support what they already believe. No, I have to come to the Bible, and I have to be willing to be corrected, be willing to be taught. And stubbornness, it’s a besetting sin of most human beings. We don’t want to be corrected. So, I would only tell that story to show, I mean, “Look, we are really stubborn, number one; number two, it illustrates the fact that no matter how logical you are, and the Scripture does tell us we should be logical, 1 Peter:3:15But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear:
See All...: Be ready always to give an answer to everyone who asks a reason of the hope that is in you.” So, I should be able to give a solid reason. The Book of Acts tells us that Paul reasoned with the Jews. Paul says that he persuaded people: “Knowing the terror of the Lord, we persuade men,” 2 Corinthians 5.

So, I do emphasize a certain amount of that. I think we need apologetics, proof that the Bible is God’s Word, we can give proof that Jesus really rose from the dead. So, that little story also illustrates the fact that no matter how much proof you give someone, unless the Holy Spirit works in their hearts, unless their hearts are open to the truth, it isn’t going to convince them. And Tom, we see that with—how many denominations do we have? How many different religions do we have? and they stubbornly cling. That’s one of the most difficult things, and Islam, as you know, is really—what am I going to do with it? They will take your head off! They don’t go by facts, they don’t go by truth, but force—might makes right. So, I think it’s a valid illustration, but I wouldn’t want someone to come away with that’s all they have in their memory.

Tom: Right. Dave, just a couple of examples. Not too long ago I went to a pastor’s conference. I went there with my church kind of to be fed and so on, and of the three speakers, one—his taking us through the Scriptures, Dave, it was impeccable. I mean, I was so under conviction because of how he pointed to the Scriptures and the Scriptures he brought, it was just fantastic. I mean, anytime I go to a church and hear a message, if I don’t leave there under conviction, I wonder why I was there, but he did just an impeccable job.

Dave: And the Scriptures themselves did that.

Tom: And he never got in the way of the Scriptures. He always brought them forward, never pointed to himself.

Now there were two other speakers there, and I know they love the Lord, I’m convinced of that, but they were like two stand-up comedians, the next two. And no matter how hard they tried to get back to the Word of God, you could never go there because you were either laughing, you know, thinking about the last joke, and so on and so forth.

Let me take you another step along this line. We could have our listeners go on to pastor.com—this is Rick Warrens’ website—and he talks about how you put together a sermon, and he says the important thing to do is to get together with other pastors in the community. You find somebody who is really funny and he provides that part for you, or you find somebody who, you know, has this particular ability and skill, and you collectively come together for your sermons. Dave, is this spirit-led, is this the way we’re to go about it?

Dave: Well, apparently Paul was lacking, then, because he didn’t have this team that he could discuss things with, and I don’t recall any humor in the Bible. The only time we hear about God laughing is—it’s frightening—Psalm 2: “He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh, The Lord shall have them in derision,” and He is laughing derisively at those who are rebelling against Him on this earth, the rulers of this earth. The Scripture says, 1 Peter 4: “If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God.” In other words, if I am standing up to preach the Word of God, it says, “as the Spirit leads,” I should be led of the Holy Spirit, and I very rarely tell a joke and I certainly don’t want to tell a joke to make people laugh but to illustrate a point. But Tom, you’re making a good point, maybe there shouldn’t be any of that at all and I will think carefully about it.

Tom: But, Dave, look, this is a fun place to work. I mean, the sense of humor around this complex, I mean, it’s wonderful. On the one hand, here’s my rule: As a screenwriter doing movies, you know, which was my life before I came to Christ, anything that got in the way, whether it was the music, anything that drew attention to itself, the dialogue, the acting, whatever—it distracted from what you were trying to do. And I think that’s my point here, that anytime that we get in the way of the Lord, we get in the way of His Word in the process of trying to present it or deliver it, I think we are running into trouble.

Dave: Well, I would agree with that.