We have considered a lot of possible causes of discouragement over the past week.  David Wilson commented on some of these posts and also sent me some notes from a message he gave on discouragement.  To conclude this series I would like to quote the three simple but critical pieces of advice with which he concluded that message, and then a quote to finish.

How can we avoid discouragement in ministry?

1. Determine to please God alone. We can easily be tempted to pursue the applause of others, or even from ourselves, but the central issue has to be pleasing God only.  Our audience of One.  (See John 8:29, 2Cor.5:9 and Gal.1:10)

2. Spend time alone with God. Just as Jesus spent time alone with the Father, so must we.  Intimacy with Him must come before ministry for Him.

3. Set realistic goals. Some goals are out of our hands, and so can be a source of real discouragement.  Evaluate goals in ministry and make sure they are achievable as we lean on Him for strength and help.

Here’s a closing quote from Warren Wiersbe’s Walking With Giants (p268):

Discouragement is an enemy we must learn to expect, face honestly, and fight with all our strength. No man can preach the good news effectively if he himself is discouraged. We must try to understand the causes of our despair and, above all else, never yield to the expensive luxury of self-pity. The “I-only-am-left” complex can only lead to defeat. There are yet seven thousand who have not bowed the knee to Baal. It would be nice if one of them would step out and stand by our side, but until then, let us dare to believe God’s Word and keep on going.

We’ve covered ten categories already.  But there are still others, perhaps ones which we tend not to mention:

11. When numbers don’t matter, but it seems like they do. Hopefully we’d all agree that it doesn’t matter how many you preach to each week.  We don’t want to be caught up in finding self-worth from large numbers or fleshly fame.  But at the same time, numbers can discourage.  Why is it still just a couple of dozen (four of whom can’t hear anyway)?  Why is the church not growing?  It would feel better if a couple of hundred could be helped by my ministry, or a couple of thousand.  This is a real issue that often goes unstated.  It seems unspiritual to mention it.  But it is a category nonetheless.  There is a fine line between a well motivated desire for church growth and wrongly motivated desire for personal accolades.  We can only wrestle this through before God and allow His Spirit to convict that part of our mixed motives that is not pleasing to Him.

12. When we feel so cold spiritually. None of us want to preach when our own walk with the Lord is weak, but Sunday comes ready or not.  People pedestal preachers and we struggle to admit struggle.  But there are times when the heavens seem to be brass and your spiritual fire is more of a smoldering wick.  Times when the best you can hope for is that God has pulled back slightly to work in your character, but fears flash across the mind that it is worse than that – something about candlesticks being taken away, or to be more accurate on an individual level, that the Spirit is grieved.  Or there are times when a sin has a foothold in your life and while you may be repentant, you know the problem persists.  These are very real issues for us, whether we talk about them openly or more likely, not.  Obviously we need God for these things, we pray for that.  But perhaps it’s time to stop resisting the help of others too?  Perhaps God will answer our prayers through other believers, but we need to let them in.

Discouragement may come with the territory, but let’s seek to be discerning as to its source.  Then we can at least pray intelligently about a way to overcome it!

In part 1 we saw how feedback can discourage us.  Typically this is not the carefully pursued constructive feedback – that is almost always helpful, and usually very encouraging (either reviewing your own preaching, or getting deliberate input from others).  It is the self-talk in the emotional aftermath of preaching, or the comments from others who perhaps haven’t fully thought through their criticism.  But discouragement can come from other feedback too:

3. Inanely positive feedback. While a critical comment not given carefully can steal joy and motivation, so can a wave of inane niceties.  How many handshakes and smiling “nice message!” comments does it take before discouragement sets in?  Hours of prayerful preparation, pleading at the throne of grace for life change and church renewal, personal sacrifices along the way and all you get is “nice message.”  We’re not entertainers!  Perhaps it is best to hold onto post-message comments very lightly.  Excessive criticism or excessive praise is best left at the throne of God.  The polite comments in between are not necessarily indicators of much at all, other than the listeners’ desire to be polite and appreciative.  You struggle with wording in the sermon, many listeners struggle with the wording of appreciation!

4. No feedback either way! It’s as if the preaching is just an expected element of the service, like notices or the start time.  This feels horrible for the preacher who has given so much.  It would probably be worth asking for feedback from certain people in order to show that you want to preach well, and to guarantee at least a few are listening purposefully!

5. Lack of real change. This is a biggie!  It’s the ultimate feedback on your preaching.  You pour yourself into ministry, believing God uses preaching to transform lives.  Over time you see the same old problems, the same old lack of motivation, the same old squabbles.  The church seems to be standing still or moving backwards.  Many experience this.  Perhaps it points to the need for reinforcement ministry outside the pulpit (discussion groups, Q&A times, personal mentoring, training sessions, etc.)  Perhaps it points to the need for more direct and specific application in the preaching.  Perhaps it simply points to the need to trust God and hang in there . . . sometimes it can take a lot of chipping away before the first cracks in the dam appear.  Preaching is a critical ministry, but it is not the complete answer to the needs of individuals or the church as a whole.  Nevertheless, we preach by faith!

That’s three more.  I’ll add more in part 3.  Feel free to pre-empt that post, or to suggest other categories of discouragement.

When you step into the pulpit to preach, certain things come with the territory.  When you preach, you will be discouraged.  Not every time, hopefully, but fairly regularly.  In this series of posts I want to list sources of that discouragement.  Perhaps there are ways to overcome each one, but I don’t claim to have the answers here.  It is helpful, however, to be able to distinguish between types of discouragement.  In this series I want to recognize and honor the discouraged preachers.  Perhaps the discussion stimulated by this will help us all, whether we are discouraged now or not yet!

1. Falling short of personal expectation. Often the flowing power-packed sermon you knew in the study feels like a stuttering limp effort in delivery.  We can be our own worse critics and it is worth remembering that we spot flaws in our preaching that others don’t see (vice versa is also true, of course!)  You know you missed that illustration, they don’t.  Sometimes it is worth getting feedback either from listeners or by reviewing the CD or video to see for yourself whether it was as bad as you thought.  Typically it wasn’t.

2. Negative feedback. Sometimes we receive feedback that pours cold water on any embers of motivation left after preaching.  It could be a “constructively helpful critic” who feels it is their ministry to spot a hole and point it out (a “well-intentioned dragon!”)  It could be a negatively wired individual whose general demeanor is cloudy and who speaks in a moan – they don’t have to comment on the sermon, just interacting with them steals any joy you may have.  Right after preaching, negative comments don’t have to be about the sermon to make us feel bad about our preaching!  Perhaps a persistent offender could be carefully encouraged to submit feedback later in the week when the emotions aren’t so raw and vulnerable.  Perhaps a persistent moaner will require a different strategy!

In part 2 I will list more sources of discouragement for the preacher.