LetsMoveToTheMoon

God, Technology, and Things That Make Us Want to Move to the Moon

Tribute to Jon Acuff, Part II: The Praynouement

May 18, 2009

This is part two of two of a Stuff Christians Like-style series. Check out part one: Closing Eyes to Avoid Bad Singing.

If there’s one thing I notice in a Sunday service, it’s the praynouement. I know, that’s a strange-sounding word, but hear me out on this. “Praynouement” is a combination of the words “prayer” and the French “dénouement,” the “events following the climax of a drama or novel in which such a resolution or clarification takes place” (American Heritage Dictionary). Therefore, the word “praynouement” describes the tidying up that often occurs during the concluding prayer of a sermon.

You’ve certainly heard a praynouement before. Often in a sermon, a pastor will use several illustrations, make a few points, and draw out some sort of personal application. It’s always left a bit sloppy at the end, though — that is, until he cleans up all of the loose ends. In the closing prayer, the pastor tells the ends of the stories with which he began his message, summarizes the points, reaffirms the personal application, and ties God into the mix. The praynouement ties the whole thing together, and I’m going to give you a couple sure signs that you’re hearing a praynouement:

• Any time the speaker starts on some sort of monologue in which he talks neither to God nor the audience, we’re looking at a praynouement.
• Whenever the words “God, you know that…” introduce a new piece of information, that’s probably something the speaker forgot to say during the message.
• If the pastor quotes outside sources such as C.S. Lewis, G.K. Chesterton, Jim Elliot, or Bill Cosby–praynouement.
• Finally, you know that the speaker is putting the final touches on his sermon when he includes three points in his prayer, particularly if all three of those points start with the same letter or if the three end up spelling a word like “FIG.”

There you have it, a surefire way to know that what you’re hearing is a praynouement. I’d love to hear your thoughts on praynouements in the comments, especially if you can think of other signs of a praynouement!

Image Credit: Catdancing