Author: Peter Mead

John Wesley’s Advice – Part 4

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The final part of the list of John Wesley’s advice to preachers.  Points 1-2, and 3-5, and 6-8 are already covered.

9. Take care to avoid anything awkward or affected either in your gesture or pronunciation.  It is interesting to see this from Wesley.  I tend to think of affected pronunciation as being related to vocal projection in vast unamplified venues – a concern that we no longer have.  But that would not be the only reason for it.  There is the awkwardness that comes from feeling self-conscious, or from attempts to be theatrical, or from a learned “pulpit voice” that attempts to sound more “hallowed.”  To connect with coal miners on Hanham Mount in the 18th century, or normal people anywhere today, it is better to communicate naturally and authentically.  Nobody likes listening to an actor.  Actually, the reason real actors are so good at what they do is that they convey that natural communication as someone they are not.  As preachers, our only goal is to convey natural communication as someone who we are!

10. Don’t just say ‘I read only the Bible’ in order to preach, read the most useful books, and that regularly and constantly… at least five hours in twenty-four… or return to your trade.  Can I be brief on this one?  I don’t know, but I suspect he wouldn’t include social media surfing in that at least five-hour goal.  Once we limit this to book reading, then it does feel like a big ask for many today.  Perhaps we should take this away and ponder it.  Are we neglectful of our calling, responsibility and opportunity to not give ourselves to as much reading as we should?  (And if you are a “lay preacher” – you can determine the appropriate goal for your circumstance.) 

11. There is no need to throw away old sermons just because they are old – the best can be reused.  I agree.  I would add that when reusing a sermon, it is helpful to spend some time refreshing it and making sure that it is current in your heart and not just present in your notes.

12. Never preach without doors when you can with any conveniency preach within.  This is the advice that probably needs the most pondering.  For Wesley, his move to preaching outdoors was radical and had huge implications for his church relationships.  But once he got known for it, it is intriguing to think about this advice.  Maybe the point for us is not so much about whether we preach indoors or outside.  Perhaps the point is to not allow anything we do to become a gimmick.  Don’t get known for something and then keep working that thing to the detriment of what really matters.  Be a preacher of the Word.  End of.  Once you get known for a specific type of sermon, a particular location(!), a specific type of biblical text, or even a specific subject, then you have to reckon with this point of advice from John Wesley.  What does this mean for you and me?  Maybe nothing at the moment, but it is a good one to prayerfully ponder.

There we go!  All done.  I have enjoyed thinking through these brief thoughts.  I hope that has been helpful for you, too.

John Wesley’s Advice – Part 3

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Continuing our walk through twelve points of advice from John Wesley.  So far we’ve looked at numbers 1-2, and numbers 3-5.  Let’s move on…

6. Speak justly, readily, clearly… Clearness in particular is necessary…because we are to instruct people of the lowest understanding… Constantly use the most common, little, easy words (so they are pure and proper) which our language affords.  Most of us are not preaching to uneducated miners like Wesley did, but don’t let out-of-date phrasing obscure the point he is making.  Our job as preachers is to communicate, not to show off.  If you don’t have a theological and grammatical terminology that is higher than your preaching vocabulary, then you are either aiming too high with your words, or you are too weak in your study.  Say the profound things that the Bible says.  And say those things in the simplest way possible.  Even if ten PhD’s walk into your church, you still need to preach so that people with the least understanding (by means of their education, church being an alien environment, English not being their first language, or whatever) will be able to understand what you are saying.  Be clear.  Simple.

7. Beware of clownishness… Avoid all lightness, jesting, and foolish talking.  Again, good advice.  There is a place for humour in preaching, but we do need to be very wary of entertaining or making the sermon about us.  I suspect that if we avoid jesting and foolish talk, as well as clownishness, then we are on safe ground.  We don’t have to come across as sombre in every moment, but we should speak as if we have a very important message to convey – which we do if we are preaching the text properly.  We need to be wary of inappropriate formality.  Just as wearing a tuxedo can feel out of place, so can a strange and affected formal tone or a presentational gravitas that is not consistent with our personality and natural demeanour.  In our fear of jesting, let’s not come across as unloving, lacking in warmth, or out of touch with the room.  

8. Never scream.  Never speak above the natural pitch of your voice.  This was probably a greater concern before amplification equipment.  Nevertheless, this point still applies.  There is a natural upper limit to your pitch, your power, and even your pace.  Don’t go above that level to achieve some kind of emphasis.  The screamer seldom communicates anything other than a loss of control.  In fact, it is good to consciously work on going down instead of up for emphasis.  Down in pitch.  Down in power.  Slow down the pace.  Emphasis sounds very natural in the opposite direction, but it takes unnatural work to develop the skill!  And even more foundationally, your emphasis and impact is not ultimately determined by your vocal delivery, but by God’s Spirit bringing conviction to your listeners.

Next time we will finish the list.

Is Biblical Interpretation Boring?

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When Paul wrote to Timothy, the senior apostle urged the younger Timothy to do the work necessary to “rightly handle the word of truth.”  The implication is that it is possible to mishandle the word of truth.  You only need to listen to a few sermons online or visit a few churches to start your collection of scary examples! 

Nuanced technical caveats notwithstanding, it is essential to recognize that every passage says something specific.  Our job as we study is to determine, as best we can, what that something is.  That is to say that each passage has one accurate interpretation.  It cannot mean anything, and it does not mean everything.  It means something.

Once we determine that meaning, that one interpretation, we can then begin to evaluate the many potential applications of the passage.

Here is a video on this specific matter:

But if we are going to talk about the rules and principles of interpretation, then are we not embarking on a tedious task?  After all, who wants to memorize rules?

You could say the same thing about other processes too.  Learning to ride a bike feels tedious, but it opens a new world of adventures for a child.  Learning to drive a car safely can feel overwhelming, but it creates new freedom that is a wonderful blessing.  Learning anything will involve some rules or principles.  The real question is this: is it worth learning?

When we learn to handle the word of truth rightly, we start to see the richness God has put in our Bibles.  We get to understand his glorious message to us.  We get to enjoy the beauty of the divine revelation in all of its literary splendour.  We get to experience the life-change that comes from living a Bible-marked life.  The rules of interpretation sound dull, but they are a means to infinite treasure!  Boring is not the word; let’s try exciting instead!

Check out the video to see which Bible passage I use to introduce this point!

John Wesley’s Advice – Part 2

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So last time we started this list of 12 points of advice to preachers from John Wesley.  Let’s keep going!

3. Choose the plainest texts from the Bible to preach on.  Again, if I were purely speaking to non-believers then I would completely concur.  However, in a typical church setting, we will be speaking to both Christians and non-Christians.  A steady diet of the same evangelistically oriented passages will lead to some malnourishment among God’s people.  I think it is good to help our churches experience the full breadth and scope of God’s Word.  You might preach more from the New Testament than the Old, but if they never hear the Old Testament preached, why would they read it?  And if they don’t read it, what a vast vista of theological truth is lost.  Different types of text are also important for the health of the church.

So on the one hand, I would agree that every passage has a redemptive force that should be brought out because believers never move beyond the need to hear the gospel being applied to their lives.  On the other hand, while every passage is useful, not every passage is equally useful on every occasion.  Don’t be stubbornly preaching through Jeremiah when people are coming for a Christmas Carol Service.  Bottom line?  Be selective and choose what you are going to preach appropriately for the listeners and the occasion, but in a church choose from the whole Bible because people need more than your favourite five passages.

4. Take care not to ramble from your text but to keep close to it.  Can I just say I agree and move on?  Of course not, otherwise this would be a “Quote” rather than a “Blog!”  It is quite remarkable how little weight the Bible passage will have in some sermons.  Some will leave it behind to ramble into excessive personal anecdotes and humorous illustrations.  Others will leave it behind to ramble into theological presentations that resemble explosions in a concordance factory! (Hyper cross-referencing is very common in some circles!)  Few seem to recognize that this passage is uniquely powerful and should not be missed by superficial coverage in the sermon.  Your church may not be back in that passage for several years.  Keep close to it, do it justice, allow time for clarity to emerge and its impact to be felt.

5. Be sure to begin and end at the time appointed… People imagine the longer a sermon is, the more good it will do. This is a grand mistake… the Methodist rule is to conclude the service within an hour.  Several points in this one.  Let’s go one-by-one – (1) begin and end on time.  I understand that different cultures have different expectations in terms of time.  But the point still applies.  Abide by the expectations of the culture.  Once we break the general expectation, then we distract attention from the sermon.  If we go 10 minutes over, parents are concerned about children in kids’ groups, volunteers in kids’ groups start to lose their joy in serving, and others are concerned about their plans, their lift home, etc.  Generally speaking, stick to time.  Seems fairly simple.

(2) Longer is not necessarily better.  Again, agreed.  Haddon Robinson was captivated by how some preachers preach for ten minutes and it feels like an hour, while others preach for an hour and it feels like ten minutes.  Length tends to become the key focus when too little attention is given to clear, engaging and relevant content and delivery.  Generally speaking, longer sermons could be sharpened into shorter sermons.  But shorter is not automatically better either.  Some things take time.  Just as an illustration might be lost in two sentences, but really capture hearts in two minutes, in the same way, a sermon can be technically precise in a shorter timeframe, but more vivid and engaging with enough time given to let the listeners’ imagination flourish.  There is no right length of sermon.  It depends on preacher’s skill; listener’s background, expectations and focus; and the occasion too.

(3) Service length should be less than one hour.  That feels quite arbitrary and culturally bound.  I imagine that didn’t translate effectively in some other global contexts!  But, service length should be considered for the sake of church attendees, as well as their perception of service length for potential guests they might invite in the future.

Ok, let’s leave it there for this time.

Bible Posture – 2 Points

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We live in an age marked by resistance to authority.  The idea of submission has fallen on hard times.  But don’t miss either the logic or the blessing of this concept:

The Logic – Submit yourselves to God (James 4:7).  This is logical.  God is God, and you are not.  And being a Christian involves a thorough acceptance of that reality.  Nobody else has ever achieved even a tiny fraction of success in their attempt to usurp God’s role in the universe.  It is so simple.  God is God.  And I am not.  It makes sense not to pretend otherwise.

The Blessing – The Christian faith is not simply about logic, however.  James 4:8 goes on to describe how we can draw near to God, and he will draw near to us!  What an amazing thing!  If we try to usurp his place, we create a conflict between ourselves and God.  He opposes the proud.  But if we will humble ourselves and submit to him, he gives grace to the humble (see 1 Peter 5:5-6).  The blessing of submission to God is closeness with God.  And since he is a good God, this is a good thing!

So the first posture point to ponder: Be under, not over, the Word!

It would be bizarrely arrogant to think that my finite mind and experience can evaluate and judge God’s Word.  Who am I to imagine that I can decide what to accept, what to dismiss, etc.?   

In Acts 17:11 we read about the Jews in Berea. They were commended for receiving Paul’s message with eagerness, and then checking that teaching against the Scriptures.  May that be our posture too . . . leaning forward, hearts open, head nodding, eager to hear from God’s Word!

Post point two: Receive God’s Word with eagerness!

Here is the latest video (and click here to subscribe to the YouTube channel) –

John Wesley’s Advice

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For some years I have had a postcard with “John Wesley’s Advice on How to Preach” sitting on a shelf.  I think one of my children gave it to me.  I thought it would be fun to work through these twelve points and ponder them together. 

Full disclosure, I have no dog in the fight when it comes to John Wesley.  I don’t feel the need to defend him, nor critique him.  So, let’s just engage with these points and see what we can learn in the process.

1. Always suit your subject to your audience.  Well, some might want to argue that since “all Scripture is God-breathed and useful…” therefore this advice is not necessary.  Just preach the Bible and it will be suitable, they might say.  Yes, 2 Timothy 3:16 is certainly true, but it does not mean that every passage of Scripture is equally useful to every set of listeners.  Some will take too much work to arrive at a point of usefulness for the listener.  For example, if I am speaking to a group of children with English as a second language who have no church background, then I probably don’t want to preach from Leviticus.  Seems obvious enough. Technically it may be useful Scripture, but for this group, it is probably not the best-suited text.  

We could restate the advice as follows, “make sure you preach to the people who are in front of you.”  Prayerfully ponder who they are so that your preaching will be suitable for them.  Think about your passage choice, your vocabulary, your manner, your demeanour, your volume, your speed . . . everything.  It would be unloving not to do so.

2. Do not preach more than twice a day during the week or three times on Sunday.  This feels a bit specific to his context.  It was a day of horse riding, handwriting and voice projection.  We live in a different world.  And yet, we are still human.  Perhaps the point still stands.  It will be tempting to do more and more because sometimes, there is more and more to be done.  We would be wise to evaluate our ministry schedules, and our tendency to accept invitations so that we know our limits.  Each of us is thoroughly capable of burning out or flaming out, so let’s think through our limits before we hit them.

Incidentally, I have been in settings where I crammed in as many teaching sessions as could fit and went way beyond these limits. Sometimes there may be a place for sacrificially serving like that, especially during a short and defined window (i.e. a conference or a visit to a place).  Even if we do that, we need to know our own capacity to give, our ability to sleep under pressure, our mental state if our sleep is less than ideal, and our recovery plan for after the event or visit is over.  And one thing is clear to me – we cannot sustain anywhere near as much as we can achieve during these brief windows of time.  Typically there will have been weeks of work prior to the conference or visit. And normal life simply needs more margin – not only for preparation, and for rest, and other responsibilities, but also margin for the unannounced encroachments that always hit us when we think we have found the perfect schedule.

We will keep going next time!

Whose Word?

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The Bible is unlike any other book on earth for this reason: it was inspired by God.  Other books may be written by inspiring people or by people inspired by their subject.  But the Bible is “God-breathed” – it comes from God.  God superintended the writing process so that the original authors wrote their thoughts, in their words, in their language, and God made sure that they wrote exactly what he wanted to be written.  That is why we call it God’s Word.  (2Tim.3:16)

So when the prophets wrote their books, they did not dream up their content.  Rather, they were carried along by the Holy Spirit – he was the wind in their sails!  Again, that means that what we have in our Bibles is not just humanly authored but also divinely inspired. (2Peter 1:20-21)

This all means that our goal in reading or studying the Bible is to understand what is there.  What did the Author and the author intend to communicate?  Our job is not to be creative, or fanciful, or original.  We do not get bonus points for making up a meaning nobody has seen before.  No matter how clever you are, what you can make it say is not as good as what God made it say!

Check out the latest video in the Enjoying the Word series:

Say It

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CH Spurgeon’s conversion is one of the great conversion stories in church history. Feeling under heavy conviction and longing to find out how to be saved, he set off for church one January Sunday morning (172 years ago tomorrow, in fact). The weather was atrocious and he couldn’t make it to his intended destination, and instead slipped into a small chapel where about a dozen people were attending. Their preacher had also been thwarted by the weather, so eventually, a thin man stood up to preach. Some have said it was the wrong preacher, in the wrong church, in the wrong weather, with the wrong congregation. Whatever, God is still God!

Spurgeon himself said, “Now, it is well that preachers should be instructed, but this man was really stupid. He was obliged to stick to his text, for the simple reason that he had little else to say.”

Of course, the story continues. The text was from Isaiah. “Look unto Me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth.” And the message was on target for young and troubled Spurgeon, “there was a glimpse of hope for me in that text.” So the thin-looking preacher restated the text every way he could manage for about ten minutes, and then told the young guest at the back that he looked miserable and needed to look to Jesus to be saved. And Spurgeon was born again. Spurgeon often told the story and it is well worth reading.

But let’s just ponder that earlier point. “He was obliged to stick to his text, for the simple reason that he had little else to say.”

Three points to ponder:

1. Our job as a preacher is to say what the text says.

2. Our education does not give us something better to say than what the text says.

3. God once spoke through a donkey, so humbly say what the text says.

Looking back on that moment, Spurgeon quoted words you may have sung:

E’er since by faith I saw the stream
Thy flowing wounds supply,
Redeeming love has been my theme,
And shall be till I die.

To read a slightly fuller version of the story, click here. (And if you want to sing the song, I enjoyed this!)

5 Reasons to Study the Bible

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Some Christians seem excited about Bible study, while others seem scared of the concept.  Why should we invest time in studying the Bible?  Here are five good reasons!

1. For spiritual life.  Some years ago, I was pointed to a fascinating book about conversions in the Muslim world.  I am sure you have heard of how God is using dreams and visions to bring Muslims to Jesus.  The book’s author pointed out that when these testimonies are investigated, the dreams are a key link in a chain, but they are not the whole chain.  In each case, the person had to encounter God’s written word before coming to faith in Christ. 

When Jesus spoke to the religious leaders in John 5, he shocked them by saying they did not know God or have his word in them.  These were men who spent hours in their scrolls every day.  Jesus pointed out that they thought they could find life in the scriptures themselves, but actually, those scriptures were pointing to a person – him!  (John 5:39)  As we study the Bible, it points us to Jesus.  As we meet Jesus, we find spiritual life itself.  Knowing God the Father, through Jesus the Son, is the very essence of eternal life. (John 17:3)

2. For spiritual growth.  Six times we have had the joy and privilege of bringing a newborn into our family.  Life is relatively simple for the baby.  Eat and sleep.  And those regular meals with Mum result in the biggest growth spurt of their lives (even more than a teenage boy!)  So Peter positively uses the analogy of milk to describe how the Bible will nourish us and grow us as believers.  We should long for that sustenance so we can grow spiritually.  (1Peter 2:2)

3. For spiritual maturity.  That same analogy is also used in Hebrews but in a negative sense.  The preacher to the Hebrews is concerned because these believers have not matured as they should.  Instead of solid food, they are still on a liquid diet.  Mature believers can discern between good and evil because they have been trained for the challenges of spiritual adulthood.  Where should we look for solid food if the Bible provides spiritual milk?  Still, the Bible – that part of the analogy remains consistent!  (Hebrews 5:11-14)  Have you ever met a genuinely mature believer who had arrived at that stage without a steady diet of the Bible shaping their life and character?   No, nor me.

4. For spiritual effectiveness.  We live in an era of unlimited opportunities.  Where do you go if you want thorough equipping for ministry in the church, home, and workplace?  There are so many seminars, workshops, books, courses and institutions inviting us to come along and learn.   Paul wrote to Timothy and described the God-breathed usefulness of Scripture.  It teaches, reproves, corrects and trains us.  What is the result of that biblical influence in our lives?  It is that we may be complete, equipped for every good work.  That is quite the promise! (2Tim.3:16-17)

The Bible offers us salvation, spiritual growth, maturity and equipping for all aspects of life and ministry.  Some might stop there, but there is another reason to study the Bible:

5. For spiritual delight.  Psalm 1 introduces us to the righteous man who doesn’t allow the world’s message to shape his life.  Instead, his delight is in the revelation of the Lord; on that word, he meditates day and night.  Have you ever paused to ponder the word “delight” in Psalm 1:2?  He does not merely concern himself with the message or even simply find his life instructions there.  He delights in it.  There is something about God’s very character, and therefore his inspired Word, that means we can read and study it for sheer delight.  The ultimate reason to spend time in God’s Word is not that we have to, but because we get to!  The heart of eternal joy and never-fading delight is opened toward us in the revelation of Scripture!

There are more reasons to read and study the Bible, but that’s a good starting point. 

Enjoying the Word – Introduction

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New year and new project! Last year I enjoyed working through the book of Psalms on YouTube.  I hope those videos will be useful to more people this year as people choose to use them as companions in a journey through the Psalms.  And now we are into a new year and a new project: Enjoying the Word.

Enjoying the Word will be a growing collection of videos that will hopefully help people to enjoy reading and studying the Bible.  The first part of the sermon preparation process is the privilege of every believer – to spend time in God’s Word so that it gets into us and changes us.

The plan is to release short videos related to Bible reading and Bible study.  I will share a simple process to think through the Bible study journey.  I plan to release more mini-series called Pursuing God’s Heart Yourself. These short series use a single Bible book or section to illustrate important principles of biblical interpretation.  And I may work through a Bible book or two from start to finish to show the workings of healthy Bible study. 

I hope this will be helpful to you and to others you know.  Please do let me know if you have questions or ideas for videos.  And please share the resources with others too!  As videos are liked and shared, and as more people subscribe to the channel, so these videos will get in front of more people. (You can click here to subscribe to the YouTube channel.)

I am also planning to write companion posts on this blog to point to individual videos or mini-series of videos.  The subjects we will cover in the videos perfectly fit this blog, so why not?

The introductory video includes a quick look at a fantastic biblical truth!