Humor is not just a good communication tool, but it is a tool of the Holy Spirit and reinforces the idea that there is joy and laughter within Christian life and belief. The focus for this project was to preach to anxiety using my natural tendency to humor and drawing on a theological foundation of grace. I looked at the two rural churches which I serve and the anxiety that is present in each- both systemic and circumstantial anxiety. The paper discusses the thoughts of others on humor in the literature, the use of humor in the pulpit in general and how I used humor to preach to anxiety and some of the results of that effort as well as thoughts on grace. The knowledge of grace can be accomplished through humor in ways that may not always be possible otherwise and the knowledge of grace is a strong antidote to anxiety I use humor for at least three different purposes. First, looking at the lighter side of our faith and our scriptures helps to make what we believe and base our beliefs upon more accessible. Second, humor tends to soften any tendency to demagoguery and can be a way to break down resistance to ideas that might be tough to hear. A third reason to use humor is simply that listeners tend to be more engaged.
