Category Archives: Stage 2 – Passage Study

by | May 13, 2013 · 6:36 am

Preaching and the Harvesting of Imperatives – part 2

CombineHarvester2Last time we looked at the importance of seeing all of a text in its context, rather than plucking out heads of command for instant applicational preaching.  We also highlighted the need for seeing the wider context since instructional sections of books were intended to be heard alongside the doctrinal foundations.  Here are two more points to ponder, especially for those of us who tend toward the harvesting of imperatives for our preaching preparation:

3. Impartial tone sensitivity.  Not every imperative is a command.  As I have mentioned before, a little Greek can be dangerous.  Knowing that a word is technically imperatival in mood does not mean it is automatically a command as we tend to think of them.  It could be a pronouncement, or an request/entreaty, or even a stereotyped greeting!  While it would be nice if we could all know our Greek better, that is not the only key here.  One thing we can all do is to develop a sensitivity to the tone of the text.  Some preachers are able to turn any textual “tool” into a sledgehammer–not because the text is one, but because that is all they can see.  Their personal baggage makes every invitation, every encouragement, every description, every single text into a sledgehammer that needs to be smashed into the consciences of their listeners. Personal baggage is hugely damaging in biblical preaching.

4. What kind of God is this? Here’s a final thought to keep in mind.  As you are reading through the Bible, consider whether the God being described is really a power-hungry law-giver, or whether we might be projecting something onto Him with such emphases.  After all, what if the consistent thread throughout the canon is God’s loving relationality and therefore the imperatives might be reflecting a jilted lover rather than a distant law-giver?  Perhaps it is worth a read through to see if that makes a difference to how we see the imperatives.

These posts are not intended to deny the importance of imperatives.  Thank God that the Bible does not leave us in the dark as to what a person brought into relationship with God will look like in everyday life.  But let’s beware that we don’t make our role as preachers into a pressuring role when our task might be presentation.  How lives are changed is so significant an issue that I’d invite you to take a sabbatical and ponder it at length.

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by | May 11, 2013 · 6:41 am

Preaching and the Harvesting of Imperatives

CombineHarvester2In our natural desire to make our preaching applicable and relevant, we may be tempted to simply harvest imperatives.  That is, to find the instructions in a passage and make them the preaching points.  That surely avoids all the baggage and allows us to get to the point and preach with potent relevance?  Here are four thoughts to keep in mind if you tend toward this approach:

1. Content, context and coloured fonts.  Some people are huge fans of red-letter Bibles.  These Bibles use different coloured fonts to allow the reader to spot when Jesus is speaking.  Maybe that is helpful.  And maybe, for some, it creates a level of confusion.  After all, surely more than one or two folks have fallen into the trap of thinking something Jesus said is therefore more important than the fully inspired packaging of Matthew or Mark’s gospel writing around the quote?  All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful, including the bits around what Jesus said.  Same is true of imperatives.  If we were to get an “orange letter” Bible with all the commands highlighted, we would be in danger of elevating imperatives in an unnatural manner.  In our preaching we can effectively do the same.  We need to be sure to study and present the meaning of the passage as a whole.  All the content matters, all the context is relevant.

2. Wide, wide as the canon.  The context of an imperative is not just the immediate setting of the sentence, paragraph or section.  We need to develop sensitivity to the wider context.  For instance, in the epistles we need to be sure to view the letter as a whole when we are looking at the imperatival sections in detail.  That is to say, Ephesians 4-6 assumes Ephesians 1-3.  It was meant to be heard at once.  If we dive into the latter part of the letter (same with Romans, Colossians, etc.) without the first part, then we can turn description of God’s mercies and calling presented in real life terms into stand alone burdensome commands and duties.  Let’s be sure to read imperatives in the context of the whole book, and with the assumed context of the theology of the writer as informed by earlier Scripture.

I will finish the list on Monday . . .

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by | January 30, 2013 · 8:25 am

Three Common Mistakes Preaching Genesis

OpenScroll1GenGenesis is such a critical book!  I suspect it simply isn’t preached enough.  The rest of the Bible is built on the foundation of Genesis, and so preaching it enough and preaching it well are very important.  Here are three mistakes to avoid, although many more could be added:

1. Atomistic Reading – This is where a text is snipped from the flow of the context and becomes a stand alone.  Typically this leads to a Sunday School type of preaching that treats each narrative as complete in itself, and with its own “moral of the story.”  Cain and Abel has to flow out of Genesis 3, and into the two genealogies of chapters 4 and 5.  Abraham does not offer us a set of stand alone tales, but a sequence of growing faith, obedience and connection with God.  Joseph’s brothers show consistency between snapshots, making them more than 11 faceless foils in the story of Joseph.  Be careful to study and preach each unit in context.

2. Moralistic Reading – This is where a text is snipped from the artery of life that is God’s involvement in specific history, turning the text into a tale with a moral, a lesson for the day, a suggestion on how we can live better.  So we should try to avoid infidelity like Joseph did, or not give away our wives like Abraham/Isaac did, or not get caught up in tempting conversations like Eve did.  But actually the goal is not our independent successful functioning: that was what the serpent was pushing for.  The goal is surely more God-centred than that.  Eve didn’t trust God’s Word and God’s character, but God himself works the resolution to the sin problem and invites us to trust Him and His Word.  Abraham was on a journey of faith as we are.  Joseph lived as if God were with him, even though he had very little indication that he was!

3. Impositional Reading – This is where a text is seen, but not heard.  It is where a text acts as a trigger to recall sermons heard and points previously stated.  The preacher reads the text and looks for a sermon, instead of studying the text and looking for God.  Impositional reading will always lead to superficial preaching.  Probe, question, examine, query, ponder, mine, and wrestle with the text.  Do that with God in conversation and see if the preaching of Genesis suddenly becomes a spring of living water instead of stale old picture book fables.

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by | January 25, 2013 · 6:12 am

The Preacher’s Clock: Anticipation

clock2For the last couple of days I’ve been pondering issues of procrastination and preparation.  But it is also important to consider anticipation.

Anticipating Future Preaching – The whole issue of preparation cycles is important.  Robinson taught us that a five-day cycle was not long enough and he was right.  This is only exacerbated by delays as you can end up with a message on Saturday night that has one night and one breakfast time to be embedded in your life as a preacher.  That is hardly long enough to scratch the surface of personalizing experience of the message or forming any sort of conviction.  You may know the material, but only in the head.  A longer cycle allows for the Bible passage to do some work in you and on you, the preacher.  But it could be argued that even a 10-day cycle is not really long enough if the goal is to let the message become part of your own life and experience.

This is why it is helpful to anticipate preaching for weeks or even months.  Obviously you can’t be preparing months worth of sermons in any detail at all.  However, knowing that a series is coming ahead of time does allow for an initial reading, some initial prayerful pondering, etc.  I am considering preaching through Colossians later in the year.  Awareness of that series, even without any sort of extensive study, can influence my life and thinking now.  By the time the series comes, there should be some deeper rootedness in my heart and life.

Anticipating Future Interruption – Any talk of schedules and delays must also lead us to ponder the possibility of future interruption.  Could there be a pastoral crisis, family illness, broken kitchen appliance, car trouble, unexpected guest or excessive administration between now and the sermon.  I suspect there might be.  That is why we need to build in margin to the schedule, rather than cramming things into every corner and relying on a smooth run through the week.  This isn’t easy for most of us, especially when it means saying no to ministry invitations, but there is no other way to avoid seasons of overwhelming stress than to say no to things before the crisis emerges.

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by | January 24, 2013 · 7:18 am

The Preacher’s Clock: Preparation

clock2Yesterday I mentioned Robinson’s advice on moving from a five-day to a ten-day cycle simply by shifting the initial exegetical work back to the previous Thursday.  I know that in my own experience most weeks are not consistent and so I have to be flexible on my preparation schedule (even if I have my own ideal).  But I suspect that even many who have a standard weekly schedule still have to flex more than they would like.  So what kinds of time go into a sermon preparation phase?

1. Blocks of concentration – Good sermons don’t get crafted in snatches between emails.  Having significant blocks of concentration time is critical and need to be carved out of normal life.  This can mean taking deliberate steps: turning off the phone, moving away from the computer or turning off the email notification, perhaps leaving the office and finding a “study” zone that allows for concentration.  When we moved I left behind my favourite wooded area where I used to sit in the car and work without phone signal, but gained access to a church building that is quiet at key times.

2. Chunks of process progression – Some things don’t require being “in the zone,” but are needed to move the process forward.  Perhaps researching a specific issue for an illustration, or chasing a quoted passage to gain familiarity.  The key thing here is to know what needs to be done, and to have some days in which to get these chunks of work done.  It doesn’t matter that it is only three times twenty minutes worth of work, if you are already at Saturday afternoon, these will get squeezed out.

3. Brief and extended moments for contemplation – Focused and planned prayer time is important.  Taking prayer time when available also counts.  Praying through a message in the car is better use of time than hearing the same cycle of news and chat on the car radio.  I wouldn’t want to rely on car time for prayer.  That makes it sound unimportant.  But I wouldn’t want to be without those “non-traditional” times either.  These times to think and pray are cumulative and valuable.

4. Focused prayer time – So as well as fitting in prayer and spilling out prayer as you soak in a message and anticipate preaching it, it is also worth scheduling and planning real prayer time.  I like to spend some time praying in the church, focusing in on the people I associate with certain seats.  Some like to pray and walk, others have a prayer closet.  I don’t think God minds where.

5. Pre-delivery time – I value that time the night before and the morning of preaching to be able to run through the message.  This is why I can’t just preach from old notes as if it were fresh.  At this stage the work is done, but it is amazing how much can be improved when hearing the message through your own ears.

All of this time takes, well, it takes time.  Hence starting the process earlier always allows opportunity for both the planned blocks and the smaller pieces in the whole puzzle to come together.

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by | January 18, 2013 · 7:42 am

Biblical Girders 4

GirderWhere does each girder go?  The Bible has a superstructure that holds it all together.  So the thematic element of the promised seed in Genesis 3:15 will work its way through multiple books and become overt in places like Galatians 3 at the other end of the canon.  But this poses a challenge.  How much should we be preaching Galatians 3 when we are supposed to be preaching Genesis 3?

Many preachers would see no problem with springing from Genesis to Galatians since that is the fulfillment and the clarification of what is first stated in the Garden of Eden.  I am certainly not going to criticize the impulse to preach Christ and it would be strange to leave listeners wondering who that seed might be (unless such suspense were part of a bigger teaching strategy).

On the other hand, I do wonder if we can collapse themes forward too easily and lose some of the strength of the steel at that point in the biblical story?  If the Bible were a building, then Genesis would be the foundation.  Steel starting there does go through the whole structure and holds the whole together.  Themes of creation, of relationship, of fellowship lost, of divine grace and rescue, of divine promise, etc. all work their way from Genesis on through the Bible.  That  steel girder seen in Genesis 3:15 later on turns out to be the spire at the top of the whole structure, the pinnacle of it all.  It makes sense to let folks know the significance of that, but at the same time it makes sense to help people see the importance of the foundation.

That is to say, instead of immediately looking up to the spire that caps off the whole building, when we are preaching in Genesis lets be sure to help people see how the foundation fits together, how the hope offered by God’s grace in the seed of the woman is such a striking promise in the context of a spurned relationship in that first senseless human rebellion.  That passage is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training, etc.  So let’s preach Genesis 3, not just bounce off it to go straight to the spire.  At the same time let’s not get our noses in the foundations and let people miss the grandeur of the whole.

It isn’t either/or, it surely needs to be both/and.  And with that both/and, I think it needs to be honouring to the earlier text in its own right, not just a token glance.

 

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by | November 22, 2012 · 3:22 pm

Providence and Preaching 3

Last time we thought about the potential value of unsolicited information.  Perhaps we shouldn’t be so “in the zone” that we become blind to God’s providence at work.  Let’s take another example:

Unknown perspective on the passage may be critical – This probably shouldn’t come through lack of good exegesis and study, although it might.  So let’s think about that first, then come at it from another angle.

Good preparation should involve not only good accurate study, but probing study that comes at the passage from multiple angles.  It is good to think through how people may misinterpret it, or mis-hear you.  It is good to ponder the various theological and philosophical positions in your group of listeners (even if they don’t know what their theological and philosophical presuppositions may be, you should have a fair idea!)  So while it may take only so long to grasp the meaning of a passage, let’s study for so long plus a bit to ponder the potential alternative perspectives, even if the alternative is built on a flawed approach or biblical background.

Another approach is to proactively pursue varied input from others before preaching.  Having grasped the main idea of the passage, offer that to others and see what they do with it.  Hear the perspective of others.  You can do this with commentaries, of course, but why not go for real humans too.  A friend who knows the Word can be a real blessing, but don’t overlook interaction with someone who seems to be less informed.  The interaction with one or with a purposely-formed group can be so significant.  Better to hear that you are off target, or shallow, or misfiring, before you stand and deliver.

So the issue may be one of exegesis, but as we’ve already hinted, it could be with reception too.  You may fully grasp the import of a passage and get the meaning very accurately.  But how will people misunderstand the message?  This is why we cannot prepare a perfect message in the solitude of a study.  We need some interaction in general, and it wouldn’t hurt before this next message.  It isn’t just accurate exegesis that you pursue, but effective communication to others.  Their preconceived notions can be massively significant – if you know them ahead of time.

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by | November 6, 2012 · 6:38 am

Get the Idea!?

As a child I would ask my Dad for help with various projects – fixing the brakes on my bike, getting the scalextric set up, getting the lawnmower to work.  Invariably he would show me and then say, “do you get the idea?”  I usually did and that was that.

Then I studied preaching at seminary.  All of my teachers (thankfully) were proponents of “Big Idea” preaching.  So now, as I prepare to preach, I am haunted by the question from years ago – do I get the idea?  If I don’t, I’m not ready to preach.  However, finding the main idea in a passage is usually not as easy as fixing the brakes on my bike.

It seems like a disproportionate amount of time can be spent trying to formulate a single sentence in the preparation process.  But this single sentence is so important that it is always time worth investing.  The payout is always sermon-wide.  And the fallout should be church-wide and beyond.  So let’s spend some days chasing the issue of the main idea, or as Haddon Robinson would put it, the Big Idea.

1. Ideas are the building blocks of communication.  We communicate in ideas.  Not words.  Ideas.  It is possible to get across a message without speaking a word – just think of advertising on the television or a billboard that uses imagery rather than words, just think of your mother when you came up with a creative activity as a guest in somebody else’s home.  Words matter, but ideas communicate.  So with any biblical passage – it consists of a set of ideas, some bigger, some smaller, all interrelated, and ultimately, all serving the main idea that drives the whole passage.  Our job as communicators is not to parrot words, but to grasp and give out the main idea of a passage.

2. Ideas are made up of two parts.  I tend to call it the single sentence summary.  Somehow that feels easier to grasp than the full explanation of an idea.  But let’s go to the full explanation, it isn’t that bad.  What is the passage about?  This is the subject.  What is the passage saying about that?  That is the complement.  Put them together and you have the idea.  Sounds easy.  Sometimes it helps to ask, “what question is this passage answering?” (subject-question), and “what answer does it give?” (complement-answer).  Or just summarize the whole passage in a single sentence.

Whatever it takes, let’s be sure we get the idea!

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by | October 26, 2012 · 6:11 am

Spaces: Thinking Through the Process

A little while back I offered the preparation process in terms of four locations: Study, Stop and Pray (Prayer Closet), Starbucks, Stand and Deliver (Pulpit).  To finish this series on spaces I want to poke around in each of these four locations and prompt our thinking.

1. Study.  I’ve talked about this over the past few days, but essentially the issue here is both noise and access to resources.  To really concentrate on getting to grips with the exegesis means not being pulled away by other things.  It also means being able to spread out the books, while also opening up the heart.  Is it worth considering a separate desk for this?  Is it possible to make the key resources easily accessible?  Can you put a “Do Not Disturb” sign on your door?

2. Stop and Pray.  This one is all about noise.  The noise of people interrupting, the noise of phones beeping, the noise of tasks calling you.  You need to silence them all.  I suspect many of us can’t achieve this in our study or office.  Would it be better to walk and pray with the mobile phone left at home?  Would it be better to go to the church and pray through this phase in the place where you will preach the message?  I find this helpful as it helps to prompt my prayers toward the specific people and families that will be there.

3. Starbucks.  This one is about targeting the message.  Personally I don’t find coffee shops the most conducive to concentrated preparation.  But I see the argument in favour of them (as long as I have music in my ears instead of loud conversations from the volume-unaware that tend to sit near me in these places!)  Somehow the goal here is to be sensitive and alert to the people and the kind of people to whom the message will be preached.  This could be as simple as putting a couple of pictures up on the screen, or placing names on 3×5 cards on the desk, or being around people.  But, if I can’t help but be distracted by being around people, it is better to get the work done in a room on my own!

4. Stand and Deliver.  Different issue, but worthwhile . . . what are the issues in terms of preaching proxemics?  Is there clutter in the preaching environment?  Am I situated in the best place for this congregation?  Should I come down to their level?  Can I lose the seaworthy pulpit and be seen?  Is there clutter from their perspective?

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by | October 24, 2012 · 6:42 am

Spaces: Noise and Prayer

Yesterday we thought about the spaces in which we work – both office and study.  One of the key issues that I think we need to face in this generation, even more than ever before, is the issue of noise.  In a world filled with productivity gurus, we as preachers need to be more than productive.

1. It takes more than productivity to produce a profound ministry.  It is great to have such quick and easy access to information.  We can access so much online, some of it worth the minimal effort we put in.  We can order books and have them delivered next day (at least some of us can).  We can use software on our computers that instantly parses verbs, searches for the lexical root and finds all instances of whatever in wherever.  We are so blessed.  But profound ministry is not just about access to information.  It isn’t even just about knowing what to do with it.  We have educational opportunities like never before.  But it takes more than that.  Profound ministry also requires something that has become ever more difficult to find.  You can’t buy it online and you can’t use software to get there.  It is that old fashioned notion of spending time with the Lord, away from all the noise.

2. Noise may be the biggest threat to a substantial ministry.  Noise takes many forms.  It can be the ping of arriving emails, the tyranny of the urgent text message, the variable usefulness of social media updates streaming our way, the fascination of online bunny trails, the old fashioned but ever present junk mail, not to mention the important stuff of family life, church needs and a far more connected realm of extended friendships.  Some of this is good.  Too much of all this and you have a recipe for living in permanent noise.  I suspect it is worse now than when sunset meant reading by candlelight, conversation with those immediately present and hours of quiet to spend with God.

3. A noisy world means we must be proactive in pursing “sunset.”  The old idea of a prayer closet, an undistracted place for meeting with the Lord, shouldn’t be an old idea.  I have had some great times of prayer while driving, but also easily fill that time with noise.  I always find I pray better walking or pacing, but so easily fail to make the most of such simple insight.  How can you be proactive in pursuing “sunset” – a time when the noise grows distant and you can pursue and enjoy intimacy with the Almighty?  I fear that if we don’t do something, the profound ministry of those truly close to God might become a relic of history.

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