Today’s post shows a bit of fruit of good old fashioned word study in Paul’s letters to Ephesus and Thessalonica. Might be of interest to you. But you’ll have to click here, or the picture, to get to the post.
Christianity
The Clarity Journey
Bible study feels like a journey. Perhaps for others the terrain feels slightly different, but I can often discern three stages I go through in the process of studying a passage. I am not referring to exegetical method here, but rather to a sense of progress in my quest to understand the passage.
1. Apparent Clarity. Not in every text, but often the first reading seems relatively clear. Perhaps I recognize the characters, or note some rich preaching vocabulary or concepts. Whether or not I’m thinking about preaching it, the text seems initially clear. This stage does not last long. Once I start questioning the text, I soon move into the next stage:
2. Complexity and Lack of Clarity. As I seek to plumb the meaning of the passage, hunting for the author’s idea, it often becomes murky. There’s word study, lexical study, contextual analysis, wrestling with the flow of the text, alternating between synthesis and analysis, etc. At this point it is sometimes tempting to quit or go for a shortcut (like preaching multiple distinct ideas from the same text). If I prayerfully push on through, there is often the joy of arriving at the last stage:
3. Informed Clarity. This is where the relationship of the parts and the whole make sense. This is where the section is clear in its relationship to the flow of the book. This is a great place to get to in Bible study. This is the place I like to be before I think about preaching the text.
My fear for myself, and others seeking to be Biblical preachers, is that we will fail to preach out of a “stage 3” informed clarity. I see in myself the temptation to quit in stage two and preach some form of textual confusion (obviously we tend to paper over confusion to give apparent cohesion to the message). At times I hear messages where I wonder if the preacher even entered stage two at all. The presence of some “rich” preaching words seems to be enough to spark a whole message!
Let’s be sure to be diligent, to study and show ourselves approved, to push through to informed clarity for our own sakes, and for the sake of those who have to listen to our explanation of the text!
Clarity of Source
This seems so obvious, but I wonder if some preachers are self-deceived. We need to preach the message of the text we are preaching. This is not the same as preaching a message that only has points of connection with the text we claim to be preaching. That is, reading a text and preaching a message that isn’t really the message of that text, simply isn’t acceptable. But it is common.
As people look at the passage in the Bibles sitting on their laps, can they see how your message comes specifically from that text?
If people cannot see how we get our message from the text we are preaching, one of three things can happen.
Possibility number one is that they will be impressed and so want more of us, rather than more of the Bible. They might be impressed because we can find things they would never have seen. They might think we have special knowledge, or a direct hotline to God for new revelation. They might even think we have a grasp of the Greek that far exceeds that of the entire translation committee for their Bible version!
Possibility number two is that they will feel intimidated and so not pursue Bible study for themselves, since they have no expectation of being able to get something so good out of the passage. Might as well wait until next week. Why bother trying in the meantime when all it takes is a bit of patience?
Possibility number three is that they will subconsciously lose trust in the Bible and begin to trust in the system we force on the text. After all, the person they are looking to for spiritual leadership shows no real confidence in the Bible. If he uses it as nothing more than a tool for preaching, then why should they submit to it in their lives?
If they can’t see how we get our message from the text, one of three things can happen, and all of them are bad.
Details and Clarity
This week I am reworking old posts as I transfer my family back across the ocean. Here’s one on details.
Preparation and presentation are not the same thing. For example, consider the issue of details in the preaching text. In one sense every text is made up of details. Nouns, verbs, adjectives, participles, grammatical constructions, quotations, allusions, etc. It can be a narrative, a speech, a letter, an exhortation, a poem, a wisdom saying, or whatever. Every text is made up of lots of details.
In preparation we begin with an interest in every detail. It is important to see and interpret every element of a text. It is often helpful to note what is not present too. As diligent exegetes we consider every detail important enough to study and interpret in its context. We continually move back and forth between analysis and synthesis, between details and big picture. However, during the course of the study process, some details will be seen as more critical to a solid understanding of the text. Every detail matters, but not every detail is equal. The goal in preparation is, in part, to find clarity in our understanding of how all the details are working together.
In presentation we are limited by time and motivated by purpose. Our purpose in preaching is not to present every avenue of inquiry that we have pursued at our desk. Our purpose in preaching is not to download (or dump!) all of our acquired knowledge to our listeners. Our purpose is tied to our main preaching idea and its application. So we carefully cut unnecessary explanation of details that do not drive forward the main idea and purpose of the message. It takes cutting to achieve a preached clarity.
In the study, diligently analyze the details. In the sermon, remember that some details need no more than a passing comment, others just a careful presentation in the reading. However, some details are critical and central, calling on us to highlight them and clarify their significance to our listeners. We don’t want to lose the forest for the trees, but in order to enjoy the forest fully, some trees have to be highlighted. Details. They all matter, but they are not created equal.
Sweetest Agony – 2
Yesterday I considered the blessing of genuine encouragements received in preaching. The best encouragement of all may not be the comments from others, but the observed life change in those fed by the Word. But I also noted the need to record such encouragements, because there will be times when you encouragements drawer will offer much needed strength in the face of stone cold silence and apparent fruitlessness.
But there is more sweetness to preaching than just seeing lives changed.
If the sweetness is changed lives, then don’t miss the one life that hears every time you preach. I don’t mean your spouse, although any encouragements there are worth so much. I mean you. Every time you or I prepare a sermon we are involved. We go through the times of prayer, the valleys, the highs, the wrestling with the text, the grappling with the big idea, the prayerful cutting of material, the sermon run throughs for an audience of two (the Lord, and yourself).
A lot of this process may be agonizing. Much of it can seem like thankless toil. But there are good times too. Times of sweet fellowship with the Lord. Times of clarity in the exegesis of the text. Times of blessing and encouragement. Sweet times. When these occur, perhaps find a way to mark them just like the thank-you notes we mentioned yesterday. Perhaps an entry in a journal, or a note on your notice board, a visual memorial on a shelf . . . something to remind you of how good it can be, and will be again.
Preaching is agony much of the time, it has to be. But it is a sweet privilege to see God at work in your life, and through you, in the lives of others.
The Sweetest Agony
Since we are in the midst of packing up and leaving the US to return to the UK (we being a family of seven!), I have decided to re-post an expanded piece from almost five years ago. Apologies if you’ve recently read through the whole site, but I suspect most people haven’t joined you in this quest!
Somebody said that preaching is the sweetest agony. It is sweet when lives are changed. And it is agony all the rest of the time!
There is nothing as rewarding as seeing lives changed. Sometimes this can occur through a one-off sermon. Typically it occurs over the long haul. Sometimes it is hard to measure. Sometimes you receive a note that overtly expresses gratitude for the change that has occurred. Often you hear nothing.
Since preaching is often more agony than sweetness, it is a good idea to keep some reminders of the sweetness of lives changed. A drawer where those periodic notes or letters are dropped in, then sit there awaiting a time when you need a reminder of the sweetness of the preaching ministry. A folder in your email entitled “Encouragements” that you can go back to when the inbox is overwhelming and discouraging.
I have written before of how we shouldn’t be overly encouraged by post-sermon politeness, but we should take note of feedback that comes after some time has passed. After a sermon, people will usually be polite, and sometimes their politeness can stretch your confidence in their credibility! I’ve seen genuinely poor preachers pressing on in the face of polite comments, as though these words are the very affirmation of gifting for which they had prayed. But when someone comes to you months later with meaningful follow-up to a message, do take note.
In fact, make a note and stick it in your encouragements drawer. There will be a time when you need it!
Tomorrow I’ll probe some of the other sweetnesses of the preaching ministry.
Neither Padded, Nor Dense – 4
I don’t normally use the movie analogy, but perhaps I could linger with it slightly longer. A good movie does not pad the main plot, nor does it make it impossibly dense. In fact, every good movie can be boiled down to something more precise than a ten-minute plot. It will have one main idea. And that idea is driven home by the plot and every detail throughout.
I actually watched a movie in the cinema this week (I can’t remember the last time I did that!) One crystal clear main idea, effectively communicated with every detail included to support it.
Robinson uses the analogy of the arrow and the target – the big idea and the sermon purpose. I like that. I add to that the strategy of the preacher. How is the main idea to be delivered? Will it be up-front and repeated throughout? Will it be built toward and revealed strategically? There are several approaches.
However the bigger issue is not how it will be delivered, but whether it will be the control mechanism for the whole message.
If the biblical text determines the main idea, and if the main idea is the gatekeeper for every detail of the message, then the message should not be padded, nor dense.
It will not be a padded sermon because every element will be there on purpose. The explanations will be there to help communicate the main idea. The proofs will be there to reinforce and support the main idea. The applications will be there to drive home the main idea. There won’t be padding because padding makes no sense in a message designed to communicate a main idea.
And it will not be a dense sermon because over packing makes no sense when the goal is the effective applied communication of the main idea. Over packing only makes sense if the goal is something else. If we want to show off, we may over pack. If we want to communicate multiple ideas, we will over pack. But if our desire is to see the main idea do its job, then we won’t want anything to get in the way of that.
Neither Padded, Nor Dense – 2
When information is crammed in, it is not just information that will be lost. For example, I used to have a laptop that allowed me to watch DVD’s in normal speed and 1.2x, 1.4x and 2x, and all without losing sound. This was great. It meant I could watch a 40 minute episode of some crime drama or other in less than 30 minutes. I saw everything. I heard everything. But something was different.
The faster transfer of information somehow meant that while I could follow the story and get the details, I didn’t feel it. That tense moment when the detective entered the abandoned warehouse, gun drawn, eyes wide . . . it wasn’t tense. That shocking moment when the body was found, well it wasn’t really shocking. All of the emotion seemed to be drained by amping up the content transfer density.
So back to preaching. What is our goal? Is it to transfer information as efficiently as possible? I was reading about Jonathan Edwards and his preaching style. He wasn’t flamboyant and flashy like his contemporary, George Whitefield. Edwards had a quiet intensity. His goal wasn’t just that people learn, or even that they act on what they heard. He wanted them to feel the truth of the doctrine being presented.
But does the Bible intend to be felt? Or is it just information transfer? It seems to me that every genre incarnates truth in the non-vacuum of reality. Narratives, poems, prophecies, letters, etc., are all theological truth wrapped up in human experience and story and description. It seems as if the Bible wasn’t given as an inspired collection of abstract truths, but as theology in concrete.
So how do we preach sermons to be felt? This is a question worth pondering. Here are some suggestions:
1. Recognize that cramming in information squeezes out feeling. I am not reducing the value of information. Hopefully our exegetical work generates great information. But putting too much information in the sermon will not only make it harder for people to take any of it in. It will also mean they don’t feel the truth of it. We are not in a race to speak all truth as exhaustively and as rapidly as possible. We need to grow in our ability to be selective. Every time we preach we will not be exhaustive. There will always be more good information that could be said. But there has to be a balancing of content density with other factors for maximum effectiveness.
More tomorrow…
Neither Padded, Nor Dense
It takes more than a good story, good actors and good visual effects to make a hit movie. Think of a movie you particularly liked. In most cases that movie could have been made in the form of a 10-minute featurette. It would have been a whole lot cheaper to make, but it never would have made any money. Why is that?
What is the difference between a 10-minute featurette and a full two-hour blockbuster? The answer is not padding. It is almost the opposite. It is careful development of characters and scenes, giving space for the audience to grow into the plot. But it is also numerous scenes cut and omitted to keep the flow from being too dense or too long. All padding is typically cut out, but room to breathe is carefully included.
The same is true of good preaching. You could take a decent sermon and hammer out the bottom line in a 10-minute sermonette. You could include the main idea, the outline, etc., but you’d be missing a lot. And the difference between that and a fuller version of the same sermon shouldn’t be 20-30 minutes of padding, nor should it be 20-30 minutes of dense information.
It is only the beginning preacher that wonders how they will fill the time. Experienced preachers know the real challenge is in what to leave out.
This week I was speaking with a good friend who has trouble keeping his sermons from becoming overwhelming monsters of content. All good stuff, but too much to take in for the listener. We spoke of the main idea and its role in sermon development. And we also pondered the possibilities of having a three step process. First, define the main idea. Second, work out a 10-minute development of that idea. Third, move up to the full length.
So, how to go from the 10-minute to the full message? The temptation here is to cram in the information. But when information is crammed in, then there is a real problem for the listeners. Actually, there are several problems:
1. They will have to be selective in what they take in. It isn’t possible to grasp everything when there is too much. Do you want listeners to pick and choose, or to be gripped by the whole?
2. They may select elements as take home material that was incidental in your eyes. For instance, the passing remark, the humourous illustration, or the side point, could all become their memorable take home gem.
3. They may check out altogether if it is overwhelming. While some may selectively choose highlights, others will switch to something their mind is motivated to cope with: their plans for the afternoon, their challenges at work, etc.
4. Their hearts are unlikely to engage. This one suddenly takes us to a whole new level. Not only is the issue with their ability to mentally grasp information, there is an issue with their experience of that information.
Tomorrow we’ll probe this fourth point some more.
The Self Shift
Today’s post could not be more relevant to preachers. But to get to it, you need to click here.
Biblical Preaching 