ABSTRACT
Thousands of Protestant preachers deliver sermons week after week in worship centers throughout the world. This chapter aims to investigate and compare the effects of preaching, and the effects of preaching supplemented by dialogue in small groups, on a listener's knowledge, behavior, and attitudes. Many advocates of both preaching and preaching supplemented by small group dialogue maintain that these means of communication have unique characteristics when occurring in religious settings. The chapter demonstrates the Semantic Differential as a useful tool in investigating the religious phenomena of preaching. The sermons were prepared with specific knowledge and behavioral changes as objectives. Such knowledge and behavioral changes evidently did not occur compared with the control groups. The control groups attended Church Sunday morning but did not go into the worship service. They were also advised that their Christian service as control group members was essential to the success of the project.
