As I mentioned before, my good friends at Fellowship of Wildwood in Missouri are giving away copies of Pleased to Dwell as part of their pre-Christmas outreach this year. Alongside the book, they have a weekly reading and a discussion. So here are the first three discussions.
Discussion 1: The Presence of the Promiser
Discussion 2: We Do Not Face Sin Alone
Discussion 3: The Birth of the Baby
I hope these are encouraging. There is one more coming in the next few days. Have a wonderful Christmas!
My good friends at Fellowship of Wildwood in Missouri are giving away copies of Pleased to Dwell as part of their pre-Christmas outreach this year. Alongside the book, they have a weekly reading and a discussion about an aspect of it. Here is the first reading:
And here is the first discussion:
I will post the others on here, but feel free to subscribe to their channel and see them as soon as they come out. Thanks so much!
The end of the year brings a strange combination of familiar traditions and genuine challenges. While we may be surrounded by bright lights and cheerful music, with parties and celebratory gatherings, we may also be struggling financially, wondering how we are supposed to get everything done and concerned about how we will handle looming difficulties. It could be navigating an awkward conversation with that difficult family member, or coping with the exuberant happiness when we are grieving a loved one, or facing particular challenges that would be hard enough at any time of the year, let alone during the “festive season.” Life can feel like too much, and Christmas sometimes makes it feel even worse.
As Christmas approaches, whether we are dealing with a particular challenge or not, we will all again be confronted with the challenge of seeing past the consumer festival and the nostalgic traditions to the reality of the incarnation. Finding the relevance of this critical doctrine is not achieved by simply revisiting familiar truths through nostalgic traditions. We also have a fresh need to explore how the old truth resonates with contemporary life – including all its challenges.
We are familiar with reviewing the great step taken by the Son of God from heaven to earth – the infinite taking on infancy, the glorious riches to abject poverty, etc. We are used to noting that He came with a purpose; He took on a human body and life so that He could experience death in that body for us. Indeed, Christmas is an arrow pointing to Easter, and it is right to think of that each year.
More than that, Christmas is an arrow pointing to a God who is revealing Himself in the ultimate way, and an invitation opened to rich and poor, local and global, Jew and Gentile. It is a story to stir our nostalgia and our worship, an inspiring example, and, if told well, a thriller with a villain, a deadly threat, and a perfectly-timed escape.
Actually, Christmas is a many-layered story, with intriguing characters, long-awaited prophecies, and profoundly moving themes woven together.
And yet, we so often end up repeating it as if it were merely a nostalgic children’s story to retell like an old family tale that gets trotted out once a year as we gather around a fire and nibble on seasonal treats.
How will you engage the Christmas story this year? How will it connect with your current experiences and concerns in a unique and fresh way in 2025?
Your life, your struggles, are very real. So was the first Christmas. It was not a pretty scene with snow falling peacefully. It contained real fear, real confusion, real hopelessness, real heartbreak. The bewilderment for Mary would have been so constant, the uncertainty for Joseph so vivid. The emptiness and despair of life for the shepherds would have been genuinely bleak. The intrigue of the wise men and all who came into contact with them must have been genuinely perplexing. The first Christmas was real.
As we come to another Christmas, let’s not just go through the motions of another ritual celebration. Let’s not think of it only in picture book scenes, nor apply its truth in nice generalities. Let’s be sure to bring the most real concerns of our time to the Christmas story and find in it a Saviour who has learned what it is to be human, what it is to enter into a world of political tensions, of the deadly inhumanity of men to one another, of the searing heartache of poverty. May we find a richer appreciation for our Lord because our 2025 Christmas realities meet with His first Christmas realities.
The reality of the incarnation is big enough to maintain its relevance and to shine forth its significance, no matter how difficult our current experience might be. May we honour God by bringing our real mess up close to the very real messiness of the first Christmas. There we will find a true Saviour, who is Christ our Lord, and that really is good news for all of humanity.
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Peter’s book, Pleased to Dwell, is an ideal read in the Christmas season. To buy in the UK or Europe, click here, and to buy in North America, click here. Please do subscribe to the podcast, and let others know about it too:
It has been a busy few months and I haven’t posted links to the podcast on here as much as I had planned. But let’s do a quick catch-up:
After a sequence of weddings, I shared some thoughts on preaching at a wedding. The last months included some great interviews, including:
Andy Paterson – Firstly, on how the Word does the work of ministry, and then, the relationships of a preacher.
Marcus Honeysett – First, on painting with fire, then on the nature of true transformation, and finally, on the heart of the preacher.
Steve Mathewson, we crossed the ocean to hear from Steve on the importance of all scripture in our preaching, and then we reminisced together about lessons learned from our mutual mentor, Haddon Robinson!
Jonathan Lamb – back to the UK to hear from Jonathan on crossing cultures as we think about preaching, and then we thought about how preaching models for listeners!
Rick McKinley – and once more back to the US to hear from an experienced pastor in the Portland metro area on connections required to connect with our listeners, and a great discussion about the role of humility in preaching.
Along the way, we have had some bitesize episodes on specific subjects, like adding to the text, is something missing in your preaching?, preaching the prophets, preaching at Christmas, and highlighting historical accuracy when we preach.
Mike and I have also enjoyed some helpful discussions: thoughts on being a guest preacher – something we’ve both done quite a bit of over the years!, landing a message, bad preaching (another area where we have experience!), a chat about Pleased to Dwell in anticipation of the advent season, and a chat about preaching at Christmastime!
We hope these episodes have been helpful for you, and if you have missed any, please do catch up! As ever, we really appreciate any help in getting the word out about the podcast – sharing links, liking, subscribing, etc., is all really helpful. If you particularly like an episode, please do let others know about it on social media – thank you in advance!
On Wednesday 29th October, I will be doing a free webinar on enjoying the Bible. You are very welcome to join if you are free. Click here for more information and to register.
When we preach a Bible passage, we need to preach the text. That may sound obvious, but many don’t do it. Some preachers use the text as a launching point – they read the text and then preach an associated thought from their own thinking or theology. Others bounce briefly off the text and then preach other passages with some perceived connection.
God is the best communicator, so as preachers, we want to reflect his communication as best we can. When you are preaching a passage, really try to preach it. That includes helping your listeners to see what is there, to understand what is there, and to feel the force of what is there. To really preach a passage is not simply to educate listeners in the meaning, although that is a good start. It is to get them into the text and get the text into them, and it is to introduce the God who is revealing himself through the text so that they experience the transformative power of a personal encounter. The preacher is not merely teaching, but introducing, match-making, and fanning the flames of the relationship between listeners and God.
If we commit to truly preaching a passage, then we will come up against the challenge of saying more than the text says. That is, if we are really committed to a high view of the biblical text, are we straying if we add any detail not overtly stated in the passage? If we have a biblical narrative, are we restricted in telling the story so that we cannot fully tell it, but instead end up preaching theological points connected to it? Are we trying to cram a 100-word reading into a 4000-word speech without really saying anything beyond the 100 words of the passage?
Here are five thoughts that may help when it comes to the subject of “adding to the text.”
1. Think about the “informing texts” – As well as the passage you are preaching, there will be other passages that inform the content of your preaching passage. Any passage quoted, or alluded to, or that provides the relevant history (think Acts for some of the epistles) should be considered as fair game for helpful content as you preach your passage.
2. Consider “related texts” – This is more subjective, but some passages are more related to your preaching text than others. The same author or the same time period will tend to be more related than a distant author and era (unless the era is earlier and may have informed your writer, but then we are back to number 1: informing texts). Related texts can be helpful, but don’t lean on them so much that your preaching passage is lost in the process.
3. Make plain “assumed knowledge” – When the Bible writers wrote, they were not thinking of readers in a different culture, language, location, and historical era. So there is a lot of background information that is assumed. The author might assume the reader knows who the Pharisees were, named individuals, cultural events, or societal norms. Geographic descriptions weren’t needed for the original readers, but they might be highly helpful for modern listeners to make sense of the setting of a passage. It is not going beyond the text to state overtly what is implicitly assumed within the text. Study the background, the culture, the geography, etc., and help people to understand, visualize, and feel the impact of the passage as you preach.
4. “Imagined” thoughts and feelings in a passage can be shared honestly – We don’t know what was going through a character’s mind, or even what was happening in their life around the events of a story. Where we use our imagination to help bring a passage to life, be sure to help listeners know that you are not asserting divine revelation. I was listening to a Haddon Robinson sermon recently, and he said something like, “I’m not sure he said this, but I know we do…” It was a helpful way to connect the real-life aspects of the story to the real-life experiences of Haddon’s listeners. “I can imagine how Peter may have felt…” is a perfectly legitimate statement because your listeners know you are using your imagination.
5. Only “assert what the text asserts” – While sanctified, humble, and informed imagination can be helpful, it should never be the substance of your preaching points. Let the thrust of your message, both at the level of the main idea and the main points, come from the passage. Do not make assertions based on assumptions, imagination, or guesswork. An example comes from Psalms where the historical setting is not stated but only guessed, and then the preacher makes a point that depends on a guessed historical setting. Let the text drive the points you are making. Use your imagination to help proclaim the passage.
Seasoned preachers know that the bigger challenge will always be what to leave out, rather than what to add to a message. But in some settings, people have an overly restricted view of what should be said in a sermon. They fear saying anything more than the passage itself states overtly. That can restrict effective preaching.
Let’s make it our goal to plumb the depths of our passage, to proclaim it as fully and engagingly as possible, and to make sure that it does its work in bringing listeners into an encounter with the God who reveals himself through the Word.
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Here is last week’s podcast episode on this subject:
Evangelical Focus just published an interview with me. Lots about preaching in here, so I hope you find it helpful!
“The solution is not less preaching, but better preaching”, Evangelical Focus
The last couple of months have been busy, to say the least. A conference with Josiah Venture in Czech Republic, the European Leadership Forum in Poland, two family weddings, two baptism services in the midst of a busy season at church – these all added up to not sharing much on this site. So, it is time for a catch-up on the podcast. What has been happening since the last post that was linked to an episode?
Mike and I discussed the various kinds of interruptions that can add some intricate dynamics to a preaching event. We also talked through the most basic sermon preparation process. While there is plenty of potential for complexity in the area of sermon preparation, we wanted to make sure the basic process is clear.
We have had quite a few bitesize episodes, including Peter on 5 Aspects of Natural Delivery, The Four Worlds of the Preacher, and Preaching Without Notes. (I will write another post on that subject soon!) Mike shared about the courage to confront yourself, and the potential poison of preaching ministry.
Along the way, we also had a couple of episodes hearing from Si Munsie of Life Church, Southampton. (Click here for part 1 on preaching to real people, and here for part 2 where we think about past employment and preaching.) And this week, we have part 1 of my interview with Andy Paterson, currently pastoring in Hong Kong – a fascinating conversation with a very experienced pastor-preacher! We have some great interviews lined up in the next months too.
So my apologies for being quieter on here and social media in recent weeks. We really do appreciate every encouraging comment, both in person and online. If you are able to subscribe on YouTube and in whatever podcast platform you use (eg Spotify or Apple), that really does help. Also, every like, comment, share, etc., is massively appreciated. Thank you for helping to get this podcast off the ground!
I recently had the privilege of speaking at the Josiah Venture Spring Conference. What a joy to spend those days with great people in a beautiful place, enjoying an excellent Bible book! In light of that time, I have been pondering the idea of being mentored by the biblical text.
To begin the series of messages, I suggested that if we could time travel, we would be changed by spending half an hour watching Jesus, Moses, Daniel, Paul, or whoever. If we could just be there and see them in action, we would be mentored by the experience. But we have the Bible! So why not allow the experience of the text to mentor us? Time spent watching Jesus (in this case) should surely mark our lives in significant ways.
Here are some thoughts on “Preaching as Biblical Mentoring” –
1. The move from then to now is essential, but the move from text to sermon can be overdone. I have seen sermons so crafted that listeners may marvel at the sermon construction but lose the passage. Maybe our sermonic work of art is not as valuable as the inspired text. After all, whatever we can do with the text is not as good as what God did when He inspired the text. So perhaps we need to consider how to let the passage drive the message more in our preaching.
2. Overly crafted wording can hide rather than reveal the inspired text. In the detail of the sermon, do we demonstrate our linguistic skill rather than elevating the text itself? Our wordcraft may impress listeners, but is our goal to impress them? Surely our pastoral goal should be for them to encounter God Himself in His word? Let us make it our goal to communicate rather than to exhibit our craftsmanship.
3. The shape of an overly crafted sermon can hide rather than reveal the shape of the text. I remember one moment as a student in a class. I was the member of our group who went up to write our outline on the whiteboard. “That is incorrect,” the teacher declared, “you have to make all the points parallel.” I was taken aback and responded, “But, isn’t that the shape of the passage?” The teacher looked at the Bible. “Yes, it is the shape of the passage, but your outline has to follow the rules of rhetoric, so it is wrong.” I politely pointed out that Haddon Robinson (who was in charge of the preaching department at that seminary for many years) had taught us to reflect the shape of the text in our sermons. It became clear that there was a point of difference between these two excellent teachers. I’m with Haddon. Let’s aim for sermons that reflect the shape of the text rather than squeezing the text to fit our rhetorical expectations and standard sermon shapes.
4. Overly crafted rhetoric can hide rather than reveal the experience of the text. As we preach, we should communicate clearly, with good organisation and a thought-through structure. But sometimes, our sermons can hide the text and keep listeners from experiencing the tensions and contours of a passage. So let’s use whatever skill we can, but remember that our goal is not to present the work of art that is our sermon. No, our goal is to bring our listeners into a rich experience of the passage and, in doing so, to encounter God as He reveals Himself there.
5. We should preach so listeners can “see” the movie projected in their hearts. I find it helpful to imagine every listener with a movie screen in their hearts. If I prayerfully and carefully present the message to them, a movie should form on that screen. It is easy to offer theological insights and speak theoretical truths. But those screens will remain blank. However, suppose I can effectively describe what is on the page. In that case, my prayer is that they will not only understand it but also experience it. And when they experience it, it will change their lives. It can be like being mentored through the text by God revealing Himself in that passage.
I am sure there are more angles to consider on this subject. Perhaps too much of our ministry uses the Bible, begins with the Bible, or connects to the Bible, but what people really need is to experience what God has given us in the Bible. Supremely, the Bible reveals Him. Let’s prayerfully shape our ministries so that people can encounter Him and not simply learn theological truth at arm’s length.
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Most people in Christian ministry would like to think they have a biblical ministry. But what does that mean? Is it simply an evaluation of whether what they do is in the Bible? Or maybe better, an assessment of whether their values and methodology reflect biblical qualities? This would be a good question to ponder prayerfully.
Let’s take a few minutes and consider what role the Bible plays in your ministry. I will start with some troubling ones I have observed, then move on to better options. I have seen all of the troubling Bible roles over the years. Perhaps one or two have crept into my ministry at times. How about you?
5 Troubling Bible Roles:
1. Token Requirement – This is where a Christian ministry uses the Bible here and there because it is expected or required. The driving energy for the ministry comes from the individual’s drive, the rhythm of habit and tradition, or the necessity of keeping their position. But the Bible seems inert, a lifeless requirement quoted here and there to endorse what is happening in the ministry.
2. Quotes and Springboards – This is a slightly more specific version of number 1. This is where the Bible gets used to either endorse the message or to launch the message. Please understand me: the Bible is capable of both roles. However, in this case, it feels more used than living. The person makes their point, then adds a proof-text. Or the preacher reads a bit of the Bible, then launches away from it to preach what is essentially their own set of thoughts (often leaving the Bible far behind in the process).
3. Magic Charm – This is where the Bible is used superstitiously to “guarantee” the effectiveness of the ministry. The people of Judah treated the temple as a guarantee in the days of Jeremiah, but they didn’t know what God was doing in their day. So, Christian ministries can hold up the Bible or quote a verse, thereby guaranteeing that their ministry should be successful. Again, the Bible seems to be used rather than alive.
4. Blunt Weapon – This is where the Bible gets used without precision. Instead of being the sharp scalpel wielded by a careful and kind surgeon, biblical words get plucked out of context and used for delivering blows to the poor recipients. Without God’s grace, character or plan, and tangible reliance on the Holy Spirit’s work in the heart, the Bible gets used to beat people into behavioural submission.
5. Self-Support – Maybe you have come across this one too? It is where the person doing the ministry uses the Bible to affirm their personal limitations and quirks. Instead of being humble, teachable, and open to help, the minister quotes the Bible to self-affirm, self-support, and defend from criticism or concern.
5 Better Bible Roles:
A. A Rule Book (An Instruction Manual) – I will start here because this could easily slip into the troubling list above. It is good to recognise the authority the Bible has in life, ministry, etc. We should be looking to see what God’s Word has to say about each issue we face and each difficulty we navigate. At the same time, I hope you can also feel the awkwardness that can come when the Bible is seen as just a rule book, an instruction manual, or a guide for life. It can so easily lose its vitality and begin to feel lifeless – one common factor in the list of troubling Bible roles. So yes, the Bible does have authority, and we should submit to what it says, but let’s not be satisfied with that. Let’s go on to the rest of this list!
B. An Inspiring Book – Again, this could be an inadequate label. Sometimes, a work of art can inspire those beholding it, but the Bible is much more than a well-written collection of books. It is inspired by God, meaning it uniquely comes from God, breathed out by him. The writers were not just inspired by something divine, pulling out a pen to try to capture their feelings at that moment. They wrote Scripture, carried along by the Holy Spirit, giving us the unique Word of God. And if anything that has ever been written should stir our hearts and change our lives, it is God’s inspired and uniquely inspiring Word.
C. An Equipping Book – Whatever your ministry may be, the Bible has been given to you so that you may be “thoroughly equipped for every good work.” (2Tim.3:17) Whatever your ministry may be, if it is biblical, there will be an element of helping equip others for life and ministry. When the Bible is active in a ministry, both the one doing the ministry and the recipients of that ministry will be fashioned and formed for ministry in some way by the life-changing Word of God.
D. A Life-Giving Book – Because the Word of God is alive, it is also life-giving. An encounter with biblical ministry can draw a dead heart to Christ, it can call back a drifting believer, it can motivate greater godliness, inspire Christlike sacrifice, launch cross-cultural missionaries, lift drooping hands, strengthen weak knees, and comfort the grieving believer. When people encountered the Word of God incarnate (Jesus), their lives were changed. In the Gospels, many people meet Jesus and leave more alive than when they came. The same can and should be true of biblical ministry. After all, the Word of God inspired (i.e. the Bible), is a life-giving book. Biblical ministry should result in many leaving more alive than when they came.
E. A Him Book – Jesus rebuked the Jewish leaders for thinking they were so Scripture-saturated that they knew God and had life. His rebuke? They thought they would find life in diligent Scriptural study, but the Scriptures were “about me” (see John 5:37-40). Above all else, the Bible’s role in life and ministry is to reveal God to us, ultimately in the person of Jesus Christ. While we may treat the Bible as a me-book (what I need to learn for my life), actually, it is a Him book (whom I need to meet to know life). As someone involved in ministry, I need to come to the Bible and look for Him.
My God, I need you. More than I need anything else, I need you. As I open your Word on my own, show me your heart, your character, your plan, your Son. Captivate my heart afresh with yours. Then, by your grace, would you allow me to share that life with others in my ministry? May they see you because they need you, just as I need you. Amen!
Final thought – One time, a friend and supporter gave me a very generous gift. I still remember his words close to three decades later: “When others speak, I can tell they are repeating their notes from when they went to seminary. When you speak, I get the sense that you have been studying the Bible fresh.” I pray that I will not grow stale but have a freshness to my preaching. Let’s encourage one another in that!
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