Biblical Preaching Blog Review of 2012

December 28, 2012December 28, 2012 / Peter Mead / Leave a comment

At the end of every year I like to look back and see what went onto the blog during the year. It is probably of more interest to me than anybody else, but perhaps you might spot something you missed.

Somewhat arbitrarily, I look at factors like comments, likes and hits as an inaccurate means of evaluating the action! This has been the year of the series, since I decided to write mostly in series rather than stand-alone posts. But let’s pick off some of the stand-alone points of interest first:

Stand-Alone Posts That Stirred Interest – My review of Mike Reeves’ great book, The Good God, hopefully pointed a few toward a book all of us should own, read and give to others. The Heidelberg Catechism and Preaching got at least one conversation going! Reading the Bible seemed too obvious a post, but One Best Way still struck a chord with some. Misdistillation also poked at some errant approaches to finding the main idea in a passage.

Linked Posts To Note – Every other week I post on the Cor Deo site and link to the post from Biblical Preaching. Here are four posts that scored highly in terms of hits, comments and personal conversation, 2012 style:

Bronze – Grace Corrupted

Joint Silver – I Don’t Feel Like Reading My Bible and Does Jesus Tell Us to Love Ourselves?

Gold – Please Don’t Balance

Stand-Alone Posts Top Stats – I suspect this one may never be surpassed, but the top hits of all time continues to be Sermon Titles: Tricky Little Things from back in 2007! This year the new page, Books, has drawn lots of hits, but it has also been updated numerous times. But in terms of most hits for single posts, how about a 3, 2, 1…again in 2012 style:

Bronze – The Top 10 Mistakes Preachers Make Preaching Story

Silver – 15 Ways to Improve Clarity

Gold – Bible Software and Sermon Prep

I’ll come back with one more review of the year, on Monday, looking at the most active series on the site. Thanks for visiting this year, thanks for commenting, and thanks for all the encouragements in person too!

My Highlight Books of 2012

December 26, 2012 / Peter Mead / 1 Comment

It seems fashionable to offer a list of the best books of the year during these days. I can only offer some of the highlights in terms of what I’ve read. Consequently, not all these books were published in 2012, but they were read by me in 2012! I won’t include any of the books I am currently reading, even though there are some real gems, with bookmarks in them, next to my reading chair.

To be effective preachers we need to be readers. Readers for the sake of our preaching, our biblical studies, our theology, our cultural awareness, our personal spirituality and our growth in all aspects of ministry. So here are some books I’d encourage you to get hold of if they weren’t in your stocking yesterday or on your shelf already:

Best Theological and Spiritually Stimulating Read of 2012: The Good God, by Michael Reeves. This book is appearing on lists far more comprehensive and purposeful than mine. Hopefully people will get the point – this delightful book is well worth reading! It is rich yet accessible, theological yet heart-stirring, historically alert yet relevant and enjoyable. (It was released in the UK in March 2012 by Paternoster, and in the US in the fall by IVP under the title, Delighting in the Trinity: An Introduction to the Christian Faith. Click here to buy the book in the UK.)

Other Theologically Stimulating Reads in 2012. These are not new, but worth grabbing if you get the chance. Holmes Rolston’s John Calvin Versus the Westminster Confession is very thought provoking. Janice Knight’s insightful analysis of the Antinomian Controversy in New England in the 1630’s is a golden piece of work (at a golden price, it must be said). The contrast between a God obsessed with His own power and a God who gives of Himself in love is as fresh a discussion as any from all those centuries ago. Orthodoxies in Massachusetts: Rereading American Puritanism – buy or borrow if you can. (To buy in the UK, click here.)

Best Freely Accessible Historical Document of 2012: I have thoroughly enjoyed time with both Luther and Edwards this year. Edwards is not always the most accessible, and Luther is not always the most consistent, but both are worth some reading time! For starters, why not try The Freedom of a Christian, by Luther (aka Concerning Christian Liberty – easy to find online, but why not get The Three Treatises on your shelf – to buy in the UK, click here.)

Biblical Studies Book of 2012: Jesus on Trial: A Study in the Fourth Gospel, by A.E.Harvey. This is an older book, published in the 70’s, but worth its weight in gold. This book helps make sense of the continual legal tension between Jesus and his accusers. I will long remember reading this by flashlight in the sleepless nights after our youngest was born – she was worth being awake for, but this book only made it even better!

Not Overtly Christian But Well Worth Reading Book: C.S.Lewis’ Experiment in Criticism is a delightful read on literature and how it engages people. Instead of evaluating readers by what they read, what if we evaluate literature on how it is read? This is well worth pondering on a spiritual, as well as on a literary level. (To buy the book in the UK, click here.)

Insight Into Human Psyche Book of the Year: A New Name, by Emma Scrivener. – This was published this year. It will make a mark on you if you read it. Autobiographical, profoundly vulnerable and deeply gospel-centred. This journey through the agony of anorexia gives insight into a world many of us know practically nothing about (but many in our congregation do). (To buy in the UK, click here.)

So Why Do We Preach?

December 22, 2012 / Peter Mead / Leave a comment

This week I’ve been pondering the motivations for a preaching ministry. Here are the eight points, followed by a summative two:

1. We preach because God is a God who speaks, therefore we have something to say.

2. We preach as an act of service to others.

3. Because the Gospel is thrillingly good news.

4. Because people need to hear the Gospel.

5. We preach to build God’s kingdom.

6. We preach to equip others for ministry.

7. Because we can’t help but speak of Someone so wonderful.

8. Because we care about the people to whom we preach.

9. (Odd Numbers) – We preach because we love the Lord. All of the odd numbered points have been different angles on the same issue. I certainly haven’t exhausted the possibilities here. Preaching as an act of devotion, an act of worship, and even preaching as obedience to God’s Word and as obedience to His calling on our lives – these could all be added. But the bottom line surely is this: as we take stock of our own motivation in preaching, are we still gripped and driven by a vertical responsiveness? This can so easily grow dull or become corrupted by a self-elevation and self-worship. Surely the best thing to do here is to spend time on our face before God and ask Him what our motivations are (ask yourself and you may respond with a lie!)

And what if motivations aren’t good here? Chase Him. Seek Him. Recognize that you cannot fix your own spirituality through personal resolutions and effort. The solution must always be a fresh vision of who God is. Open the Word, open your heart and here I come, ready or not!

10. (Even Numbers) – We preach because we love our neighbour. All of the even numbered points have been different angles on the same issue. Again I have by no means exhausted the possibilities. We could add preaching to strengthen the relationships of others (both vertically and horizontally), or preaching to influence society, or preaching to mark eternity.

Again, the bottom line is whether we have a horizontal outgoing motivation, or whether we have been corrupted by our flesh into a self-serving ministry that uses others to pursue our own goals and agenda. I find that the vertical spills into the horizontal. When I am the god of my life, then others become servants in my subconscious motivations. When God is clearly God from the perspective of the eyes of my heart, then I gladly reach out to serve others. Love the Lord, love your neighbour . . . always in that order.

Why Do We Preach 4

December 21, 2012 / Peter Mead / Leave a comment

Here are another pair of thoughts as we reflect on the why? behind the ministry. Perhaps these two should give more pause for thought than the others already posted?

7. Because we can’t help but speak of Someone so wonderful. This should be the case. Sadly, over time, it can easily cease being the case. We can end up in a role, in a ritual, in a rut. We end up preaching because that is what we do, or that is how we pay bills, or that is how we get respect. We feel we should. We feel it is expected. We know it is needed. And somewhere along the way we fail to notice the fog gathering between our hearts and heaven.

A growing spiritual complacency is the proverbial frog in boiling water syndrome for preachers. God can become familiar and distant at the same time. He can become a concept, a set of truths, a source of identity for us, but somehow fade from being the captivating One who so fills our hearts and lives that we can’t help but speak of Him. May we all have a constant stream of newly engaged folks in our churches – constant reminders of the simple reality that a captivated heart can’t help but spill out.

8. Because we care about the people to whom we preach. Again, this should be the case. Sadly, over time, our flesh can easily co-opt the other centredness of ministry and turn it to a self-serving project. We can become preachers doing so to gain respect, to gain credibility, to gain attention, to gain a following, to gain influence. The gain increases and the give becomes token. Of course we can talk about giving – we can frame the ministry in self-sacrificial and spiritual terms. But really?

Just as spiritual fog can go undetected for too long, so a growing self-absorption is hard to spot in the mirror. Our flesh will always justify a subtle pursuit of godlike status. So we must keep walking with the Lord and ask Him to search us and know us. Ask Him to underline the motivations that drive what may look like a gloriously giving ministry. The true biblical preacher is shaped by the Word they preach, and they join God in giving of themselves as they preach it to others. The blessings are hard to quantify, but they must be the by-product, not the goal.

Why Do We Preach 3

December 20, 2012 / Peter Mead / 3 Comments

As we come to the end of the year, it is a good time to reflect on the glorious burden of a preaching ministry. Our lives and ministries are probably tangled webs of motivations, but it is good to sift through and ask why we do what we do. Here is another angle on the same issue:

5. We preach to build God’s kingdom. There will always be a tension here. Ever since Genesis 3 we have all been deeply infected with the death-virus of godlikeness. We will default to independence in any way conceivable (including self-driven ministry), and our flesh will always look to build our own kingdom. But we are called to join Christ in His work of building the church. It is not about our pursuit of godlikeness, but about our humble service for the God we desire to honour and please.

There are so many factors to keep in mind in this pursuit. God often works more slowly than we’d prefer. So we need patience. God can transform people and communities in miraculously short order. So we need to expect great things. God can choose to build his work in ways we don’t expect. So we need to trust in His providence. God can choose to bless the work of others, even in our neighbourhood (after all, the earth is the Lord’s, including your neighbourhood!) So we choose to esteem others. We are not building our own kingdom. We are privileged to participate in building His.

6. We preach to equip others for ministry. No matter how great you may be, you are nowhere near as great as your whole congregation equipped, enthused and launched into ministry. I’m thankful that many churches have grasped that ministry is not wrapped up in a clerical class. God has given gifted people to the church to equip believers for their ministries. I long to see the day when an entire church is so gripped by God, so equipped by God, and so excited by God that they are like an army of effective witnesses, of empowering encouragers, of heartfelt worshippers, spilling out into the rest of the church and the community and the world.

We preach to that end. We don’t preach to look ministerial. We don’t preach to build our own reputation. We preach to serve Him, and we preach to serve them.

Why Do We Preach 2

December 19, 2012 / Peter Mead / 1 Comment

As an end of year pause for reflection, we are considering why it is that we preach. Yesterday we looked at the fact that God is a God who speaks, and that our preaching is not for our own sake, but as an act of service to others. From a slightly different angle:

3. Because the Gospel is thrillingly good news. The mission of the preacher is not merely to communicate ancient truths relevantly. God has given us a message. And that message is labelled as good news for a reason. The great sweep of redemption history involves the intra-trinitarian mission to rescue fallen creatures and restore them to full glorious fellowship with a loving and giving God.

It is not some sort of heavenly plan B to make the best of a bad situation and try to restore some semblance of respectability to a God who is on the throne but attacked on every side. When time is wrapped up and we have the benefit of both hindsight and eternal perspective, we will be gasping at the multi-coloured and multi-faceted dazzling beauty of what God has done in Christ.

We get to proclaim that now!

4. Because people need to hear the Gospel. There are only two types of people in the world. Those who need to hear the gospel and be saved, and those who need to hear the gospel as they are being saved. While we may get beyond simplistic and trite presentations of some scaled down version of the good news to some sort of legal loophole, we never move beyond the gospel in its glorious richness.

What God is like, what He has done for us in Christ, how much we need Him, redeclaration of total dependence – justification, regeneration, reconciliation, adoption, fellowship. Preaching Christ so that people will trust in Him. This is something our people can’t hear enough about. They need the hope, the faith and the love that is only found in the gospel. We are not called to give tips for successful independent living, or to offer life coaching team talks. We are called to preach Christ and Him crucified, that all may trust in Him, know Him, enjoy Him.

Gospel preaching, why wouldn’t we want to do that?

Why Do We Preach?

December 18, 2012 / Peter Mead / 1 Comment

As the Christmas messages get preached for another year, many preachers feel like there is a brief window in the schedule. It may be only a week or two, but psychologically there is a window of respite that allows for reflection and anticipation. Another year. Another year of preaching. So why do we do it?

There are so many factors involved. Let’s explore some of the reasons we preach over the next few days. I don’t want to ponder issues of pay (many preachers receive less than minimum wage for what they are doing). I don’t want to dwell on inappropriate motivations, even if they are significant for some. I will just mention some of them in passing.

Let’s take stock of some of the good reasons we preach.

1. We preach because God is a God who speaks, therefore we have something to say. Actually there are probably too many who are too confident that they have something worth saying. I don’t think we have much that is worth saying, but the Bible is a revelation of God that is certainly worth proclaiming! That is why Paul could urge Timothy to “preach the Word!” in his final words to him. He wasn’t urging Timothy to chatter and noise and declaration of vain imaginations relating to societal ills and self improvement principles. He wanted him to preach the Word.

Consequently the Bible must never become just a repository of preaching material. It must always remain the very exclusive fuel for the fire of our walk with Christ, through whom we can know the Father. When the Bible starts to feel dry to us, we have a real issue. Not because we need to squeeze a message out of its apparently dusty pages, but because something isn’t right in our relationship with the One whom we represent when we stand to preach.

2. We preach as an act of service to others. Paul views every gift given by the Spirit to the church as a gift given for the building up of others. Consequently any gifts that relate to preaching must be offered to others in faithful service. So it can’t be primarily about our own fulfillment, and certainly shouldn’t be about our own egos. We preach to build up others – to proclaim, to offer, to invite, to comfort, to challenge, to help.

Not to control, that would be self-focused. Not to cajole, that would be self-serving. Not to show off, that would be self-glorifying. We preach to serve.

Lose Jesus, Lose What?

December 17, 2012December 18, 2012 / Peter Mead / Leave a comment

To start the week, I’ve posted over on the Cor Deo site. What happens when we leave Christ out of Christianity? Click here to go to the post.

Christmas Sundays

December 15, 2012 / Peter Mead / Leave a comment

Apologies for the blog-silence . . . illness over, it is time to post again. The next couple of Sundays are prime “visitor” days in church world. It is easy to talk as if we just need to preach the gospel well and we’ll see a massive amount of life change. Realistically this is not the trend most years. Without denying the possibility of immediate and radical life change, here are a few brief thoughts:

1. Visitors have some expectations of the message that should be met. They are almost certainly coming to church because it is Christmas season. Make sure the message is relevant to the reasonable expectation that Christians celebrate Christmas.

2. Visitors have some expectations of the message that should be shattered. They may well expect the message to be antiquated, almost fairy-tale like and safe. What an opportunity for them to be surprised that the Bible is actually interesting, and profoundly relevant, and disarmingly engaging.

3. Visitors should feel lovingly pulled by something spiritual, not pestered by desperate church people and “retention strategies.” Of course it is wise to think through greeting procedures in the church venue, from the front, etc. It would be strange for visitors not to feel warmly welcome to return beyond Christmas. It might be sensible to have a follow-up plan in place (a bit late if this hasn’t been considered before now, so don’t do an emergency version now). But if people feel like everything is tailored to win their attendance (too many comments, excessive announcements to that end, perceived manipulation or pressure in the preaching, etc.), well, how would you feel if you were visiting?

The next two Sundays are weighty ones for preachers. Extra busy in church and for family (including our own). Perhaps a strain on creativity when you’ve been preaching Christmas in the same church for years and feel the pressure of a limited number of passages and “angles” left to take.

But let’s not lose sight of the great opportunity here. People don’t expect uniqueness. In fact, if you are genuinely excited by the coming of Christ, gripped by the engaging Word of God, and effective in communicating both its meaning and relevance to all our lives today . . . then many people will be genuinely, and positively, surprised!

Truth Through Personality 6

December 11, 2012December 11, 2012 / Peter Mead / 2 Comments

I have been blogging about the basic requirement that preachers should themselves evidence growing fruit of the Spirit in life and ministry. It is a disaster when the truth of the gospel is undermined by a perceived lack of Christlike character in the preacher.

So we’ve gone through the fruit of the Spirit in pairs, but we skipped the first. Or did we? Perhaps the four pairs lay out what that first fruit looks like.

It shows in the joy that comes from resting in the goodness of God, and the peace of healthy ordered relationships with God and others.

It is patient in trusting God’s work in the lives of others who often need longer than we feel is necessary (just as we do too!), with a kindness that is giving for the good of those also still in process.

It has an inherent goodness that reflects the profound quality of God’s character, as well as the gentleness that is fitting for someone reflecting God’s manner of authority.

It has a faithfulness that speaks of both trusting and persisting for that which is good and right, while always retaining the appropriate self-control of a life lived in the desires of the Spirit rather than the impulses of the flesh.

We have had several interrupted nights in a row as a virus has worked through our family. The loss of sleep does add a certain strain to daily life! Under pressure, does the fruit of the Spirit show? I’m sure I am not the only one who wishes it showed more. But the solution isn’t to strain in my own effort to look good under pressure, the solution is to grow as one walking in step with the Spirit. I hope that my preaching next week, next year, in twenty years time, will show a more Christlike personality than it does now. I’m sure I’m not the only one.