50 Summer Preaching Tweaks: 16-20

August 21, 2013August 15, 2013 / Peter Mead / 2 Comments

A little pick and mix selection of fifty tweaks that you might want to ponder as we head into another school year of preaching ministry:

16. Smile. If you know you do this, move on (but only if you actually know, not just if you think you do). There are a surprising number of preachers that never seem to smile. Implication? Either there is no good news (we are called to preach good news), or no love for listeners (we are called to love listeners), or no delight in God (no comment necessary).

17. Use your preaching space effectively. You may have a vast platform area, or a small cluttered space, but are you using it to maximum communication value? I remember preaching Pilate with Jesus (one side of the pulpit) and the Jewish leaders (on the other side of the pulpit). The use of space helped the message to be visualized, simply by my deliberate movement.

18. Step outside your preaching mode to communicate effectively. Periodically drop the preaching mode and just be real. Actually, you are still preaching, and deliberately so, but it offers another ethos. If your normal preaching mode is too preachy, just drop it permanently and preach real!

19. Increase the vulnerability value. Speaking of being real, how vulnerable do you get in your preaching? Some think it is wrong to let any of you show in your preaching. That’s fine. You can continue to preach from another room via radio mic. But for those who recognize that preaching involves communicating God’s truth through your personality and life (i.e. an incarnational view of preaching), then evaluate how vulnerable. Where can you be appropriately, but helpfully, vulnerable?

20. Preach first-person at least once. It is so different, you have to give it a go. Pick a passage, study like crazy, write a message from the perspective of one character in the story or associated with the passage. Decide if the listeners have gone back there, or if the character has travelled through time to today. It is more work, but the impact is typically worth the effort (costumes and fake voices are not worth the effort!)

50 Summer Preaching Tweaks: 11-15

August 19, 2013August 15, 2013 / Peter Mead / Leave a comment

Continuing my random assortment of preaching tweaks to consider before the next year of preaching:

11. Watch yourself on video. If you have never done this, maybe now is the time. It does not need to be Hollywood quality filming, but I guarantee you will learn a lot when you watch yourself preach. There really is no alternative that will achieve the same value.

12. Go somewhere different in the Bible. Are you an epistles preacher? Always in the gospels? Push the boat out and try wisdom literature or a minor prophet. Try a Psalm that isn’t an obvious one sitting up ready to be preached. Pick a book you have never preached from. You will enjoy, others will be helped, and you will grow as a result.

13. Avoid the moral finish. And so the moral of the story is . . . don’t finish messages this way! Wrestle with and recognize the insidious danger of moralism in preaching. It is the most tempting option to get the most affirmation and feel most Christian in your ministry. But moralism is not the gospel. Moralism is not what we are called to bring to society, or to the community of believers. Try finishing a message with a warm invitation to respond to the Christ offered in Scriptures (and watch the moral fruit!)

14. Add vocal variety. Watch a great communicator and you will see more pauses, more pace variation, more pitch range, more volume extent. Listen to yourself and see where your voice freezes into a certain zone. Vary there.

15. Prune that distracting mannerism. Most people have slightly distracting mannerisms. That includes you. Ask or watch until you discover it. Shoot it. Preach without it. It will just be better that way.

50 Summer Preaching Tweaks: 6-10

August 16, 2013August 15, 2013 / Peter Mead / Leave a comment

Continuing my random assortment of preaching tweaks to consider before the next season of preaching begins:

6. Target relevance in your introduction. Try to plan an introduction that demonstrates the relevance of the preacher, the message and the text. How can you make sure, in those first two or three minutes, that people lean forward because they know you are not out of touch with them, the message will make a difference to them, and the text is going to be on target?

7. Call on the REF as you conclude. When you come to your next conclusion, call on the ref for a simple and effective wrap-up. R stands for review – take a moment to survey where you have come together in the message. E stands for encourage – end with an encouragement rather than critique or guilt. F stands for finish – land the plane first time, don’t keep circling, and saying a bit more, and continuing on, and reinforcing your earlier points, and adding new materials, and . . . ok, enough.

8. Slow down through the curves. Specifically evaluate the transitions to make sure they are not too sudden or brief. Make sure your listeners can come with you and not suddenly wake up and wonder where they are!

9. Read a preaching book. If you haven’t read a book to help you as a preacher lately, make the investment. If you click on “Review” in the right hand column, you’ll find a selection on here, or ask your friends for a recommendation on facebook. Books to help you preach better are typically not tomes, but usually beneficial.

10. Get some helpful feedback. Ask certain people for certain feedback. Ask about your content. Ask about your personal warmth. Ask about your delivery and mannerisms and gestures and so on. Make sure they know they can be honest. You will improve as a result. Practice makes permanent, but evaluated practice makes for improvement!

50 Summer Preaching Tweaks: 1-5

August 15, 2013 / Peter Mead / Leave a comment

As we are all about to head into a new (school) year of preaching, how about a big collection of little tweaks for effective preaching? In no particular order, here come the fifty summer tweaks to sift through and prayerfully consider:

1. Be mastered by a book. Whether you regularly preach through whole books or not, make sure you spend enough time soaking in a book that it can truly grip you. Be saturated so that when squeezed, you ooze the content of that book. Then prepare a series to invite others into that blessing.

2. Invite others into the preparation process. We all tend to go solo on preaching preparation. Invite some folks to join you. Perhaps in a group, perhaps a series of conversations, perhaps ask for help on facebook or twitter. Perhaps talk through the message, perhaps ask for help on support material, perhaps find out where others think the points of tension lie. It will probably be better together.

3. Lean less on your notes. If you are a manuscript reader, take only an outline. If you are a notes user, experiment with note-less. Be as prepared as you can, but make the message simpler in structure, stick in a passage and run through it several times. Going noteless is not as hard as you think, and the benefits might mean you never go back!

4. Stay put, dig deeper. If you are a concordance freestyler, try preaching a message where you stay put. You will find that you will tend to dig deeper in the passage and apply more fully in the present. Both are good things! Only cross-reference if there is a genuine need to do so.

5. Craft the main idea a little bit more. Take an hour at some point and work on the main idea of the message for an hour more than you normally would. How can it be more precise, more memorable, more relevant, more text specific, more encouraging, less wordy, less historic, less theologically phrased?

Preaching Myths #8 – Delivery Equals Circus

August 10, 2013August 5, 2013 / Peter Mead / 1 Comment

How about a pair of myths?

“As long as the content of a sermon is true, that is good preaching.”

“Delivery doesn’t matter, the church is not a circus.”

According to the dictionary a circus is “a frenetic disorganized disturbance” or “a performance given by a travelling company of clowns and animals.” I should probably leave that alone and affirm the notion that the church is not supposed to be a circus.

However, to reject any effort regarding the delivery of preaching because that may turn into a performance of entertainment is like refusing to exercise in case you turn into Mr Olympia.

Preaching is not about performance, and neither is it about a set of words. It is about communication. This is crucial to grasp. The prophets, Jesus, the apostles – they were effective communicators! Good communication is always concerned with what the recipient hears and understands.

Take a solid biblical sermon and preach it without any thought as to the delivery, what might be understood?

1. This is not important. Why? Because the preacher’s body language, posture and energy levels indicate a lack of conviction.

2. This is not relevant. Why? Because the preacher’s dress sense and lack of eye contact made the message feel distant and aloof.

3. This is not true. Why? Because the preacher never looks at us and is decidedly shifty in mannerisms.

4. This is not good news. Why? Because the preacher never smiles and gives off an aggressive I-don’t-like-you vibe.

5. This is not comprehensible. Why? Because the preacher gives no thought to annunciation, and the delivery is not engaging, so the bored listeners perceive the message to make no sense.

Delivery can never substitute for content, but bad delivery will always sabotage good content.

If preaching were just the content, we could mail a manuscript and save time from our Sunday mornings. Preaching is content appropriately clad in the clothing of relationship, communication and connection.

Preaching Myths #5 – Short Talk Required

August 7, 2013August 5, 2013 / Peter Mead / 1 Comment

People still like to wheel this one out:

“The current generation cannot concentrate as long as in the past, so reaching this generation requires shorter talks.”

Uh, no. There is no evidence to support this. People always like to cite the rapid-fire nature of contemporary TV, or they buy into the increasingly high-paced and frantic presentation at some youth events. But what about other evidence? Films are longer than ever – gone, it seems, are the days of 80 minute action films. And of course, preachers popular with the younger generation are all only giving 12 minute mini-talks, right? I listen to a lot of 40 minute messages, and then there’s the folks attracting the younger generation with their 60 minute messages!

The evidence is not all stacked up in favour of bite-size preaching.

1. People could never concentrate for 30, 40 or 60 minutes years ago. People have always been gripped and regripped by good preachers every few minutes. People have always been bored to tears by dull and unengaging preachers. 10 minutes is far too long to tolerate some preachers, others can hold attention for an hour.

2. Gripping content and effective delivery, combined with engaging persona and prayer-prepared people will add up to concentration. Notice that it isn’t delivery alone. Great content poorly delivered will always be an open invitation to mental drift. But poor content delivered well will still lose you.

3. Concentration is not optional. As a preacher you either keep people with you or go learn how to do it. Preaching to drifted minds and distracted hearts is not acceptable. Get their attention and keep it. If they aren’t listening, and you are ok with that, what are you doing? Please don’t preach just to fulfill some sense of obligation, or worse, for the money . . . preach to connect and communicate!

Whether you preach for 15 or 60 minutes next time, make sure it is appropriate to the occasion and the listeners, and then do everything you can to avoid the charge of going on too long – that is, make it so good that folks leave pondering the punch of the message, not the pain of its protraction.

Preaching Myths #2 – Cool Preaching

August 3, 2013 / Peter Mead / 5 Comments

Here’s another idea that bounces around in various forms, but I think should be probed a bit:

“Cool preaching attracts people.”

This could be the thinking of church leaders who decide to go with a “cool preaching” option in order to seek growth. Or it could be the critique of traditional church folks who are looking sideways at a different church which has a perceived “cool factor” and is growing faster than their church is. When used as a critique, it tends to carry with it the implication that such a church must be dumbing down, softening, weakening, diluting or corrupting the gospel in some way.

Before critiquing the myth, I suppose both thoughts can be affirmed. Some churches do make superficial style issues a driving factor in their growth strategies and in some cases it does seem to attract people (although any style may well put others off coming in the first place, even a contemporary style).

And indeed, some contemporary styled churches have weakened the gospel leading to shallow conversions and poor discipleship. But let’s be fair here, some traditional styled churches have weakened the gospel leading to shallow conversions and poor discipleship too! Sweeping generalizations about contemporary versus traditional are very naive.

So, does cool preaching attract people? I would say that it might, but probably not. The primary people who tend to be attracted to “cool Christianity” may well be Christians whose tradition store has become overstocked and they want to try something different.

Three thoughts:

1. Christ attracts people. Re-read the gospels and notice how normal and broken people were so drawn to Jesus.

2. Christlike communities attract people. If people are not drawn to Jesus today, it is probably because their exposure to his body is cluttered by other baggage and distraction. A community being transformed by the love of God so that they love each other (like Christ) will spill outwards in love to the community (like Christ) and thereby be a magnet to broken people (like Christ).

3. Effective preaching engagingly communicates what matters. Cool preaching without biblical substance is see through. People may well see through “cool-empty” just as they may see through “traditional-empty” (although sadly there will be those who don’t see through one or the other). So what then for our preaching?

A. We must seek to get the substance right: the Bible offered engagingly, the gospel full and clear, and the presentation of God in Christ as clear as the incarnation requires.

B. We must seek to remove unnecessary obstacles: issues of delivery, packaging, presentation, and content need to be carefully evaluated to make sure that people are not choosing to walk away from the gospel because of something other than the gospel.

Being cool is not the goal in preaching, unless you are wanting to temporarily attract young disenchanted Christians. Cool is really not the issue at all, but recognize that in your pursuit of best substance, obstacle-light preaching, you will probably be critiqued for being “cool” but shallow. Make sure you’re not.

Preaching Myths #1 – Pew Trust

August 2, 2013August 2, 2013 / Peter Mead / 2 Comments

I may not debunk these myths fully, but I do hope to make us think. Here’s one:

“Put effort into a one-off evangelistic preaching event in your church and people will bring people.”

Many churches recognize the need for preaching (as well as everything else), to be targeted if unchurched folk are going to be interested and understand. So periodically we might have an evangelistic “guest service” and encourage our people to bring people. Some will. But churches often struggle with why the majority won’t bring anyone. Perhaps the non-guest-bringers are just not as committed? Or perhaps it is something else altogether. Could it be:

1. They don’t have any meaningful contact with non-Christians. This is sadly too common. Too many church folks either feel woefully incapable of meaningful spiritual conversation or they are so busy with church activities that they have no time for meaningful relationships with anyone else.

2. They are not motivated to see others get saved. This points to issues in their spiritual maturity, and the answer will not be more arm-twisting and pressure tactics. Instead the church leaders need to think through actually helping them grow spiritually.

Perhaps the majority of people don’t bring people because they are very committed to reaching their friends, family, colleagues and neighbours! Bringing a contact into church for an evangelistic event is a big step of trust:

3. Perhaps they don’t trust the church or event. Here are some questions your church folk may be asking:

A. Do I trust the church to give my contact a good exposure to Christianity? This means more than just the preaching. Will they feel welcome? Will people talk to them? Will it feel awkward? Will there be unnecessary obstacles to their coming to faith in Christ?

B. Do I trust the speaker? Will the speaker be warm-hearted or fiery and offensive? Will the speaker offer good news, or just a cringe-worthy critique of society today? Will the speaker speak in Christian-ese and preach to the choir, or will the speaker be relevant, engaging, interesting, clear? Which version of the gospel will be preached? How will the speaker end the message – strong appeal, awkward appeal, gentle landing? If it is a guest speaker, do I even know him or his plan?

C. Do I trust the following weeks? Huh? People look beyond the evangelistic event? Some do. I do. What if my colleague enjoys it and wants to come back, will church continue to be a good exposure to Christianity for them? Who is speaking next week? What will that experience be like?

D. Do I trust the discipleship ministry of the church? Let’s say my colleague becomes a follower of Christ, wonderful! Now, will the church be able to effectively disciple them?

Simply having an evangelistic event and pressuring folk to bring people is not enough. As my good friend puts it, “I don’t want seeker-sensitive, but I do want seeker-safe.” What has your church done to make this kind of outreach more effective? What do you wish your church would do?

The Fourth Ingredient

June 28, 2013 / Peter Mead / Leave a comment

What goes into good preaching? Many point to a mix of three ingredients that are needed:

Biblically Faithful – The message needs to be the message of the text faithfully interpreted and communicated.

Organizationally & Vocally Clear – The listeners need to be able to hear and follow the train of thought.

Contemporarily Relevant – The listeners need to sense that the message is relevant to their life and circumstance.

If preaching could tick these three boxes on a consistent basis, then the church would be healthier by far. But all three can be present and the message can still be painfully dull. Biblical, but dull. Clear, but dull. Relevant, but dull.

So when I evaluate preaching, I always include a fourth necessary ingredient: Interpersonally Engaging. Good preaching needs to be biblical, clear, relevant and engaging.

What goes into engaging?

Engaging content – the content of a message needs to go further than just being biblical and relevant. It engages by being intriguing, or attractive, or gripping, or vivid. The narratives of the biblical text or sermonic illustration need to form images on the screens in listeners’ hearts. The poetry of the text needs to shape images and stirs emotion in the listeners’ hearts. The content needs to captivate listeners so that they can’t help but want to listen.

Engaging delivery – the delivery of a message needs to go further than just being clear. I’ve heard clear preaching that sent me quickly to sleep. Engaging delivery engages through energy – energy appropriate to the situation and personality of the preacher, but energy nonetheless. Energy is not just about hype and volume. It is about facial expression, gesture, movement, vocal variety, eye contact. The delivery, whether big and demonstrative or measured and deliberate, needs to engage the listener in some way.

Motivation to Engage – the key, though, is neither content nor delivery. The key seems to be at the level of the preacher’s motivation. If the preacher is prayerfully prepared to the point that they share God’s heart for the listeners and the situation, then they will want to connect. If they want to connect, then both the content and delivery will tend towards what it should be in order to engage the hearts of those listening. The real issue here is not technique, but motivation for relationship. If the preacher is connected to God and wants to connect with the listener, there is a good chance that they will. And if they do, then there is much greater chance of the preaching being life changing.

Listener Levels: 7 Suggestions to Improve Accessibility

June 12, 2013 / Peter Mead / Leave a comment

How can we improve at offering explanation that will help people at the lower range of understanding? Perhaps your preaching goes over peoples’ heads, but you want to explain the Bible in a way that is accessible to younger Christians or less biblically literate folk? Some suggestions:

1. Pray about it – Nobody cares about your listeners as much as God, so ask for His coaching.

2. Get feedback – Try to find out from people what is lacking. It could be that your vocabulary is obfuscatory, or your content is too dense, or your delivery is unengaging, or your words are indistinct and hard to catch, etc.

3. Watch and evaluate some great explainers – Watch a preacher who is especially effective at explaining and describing the biblical content and action. What are they doing well?

4. Vary the elevation of your helicopter – If everything is explained from 100ft, then your messages will be deadening. You need to be able to lift up to 5000ft for a brief overview of the Bible, and you need to be able to land the chopper when you are settling for a while in a verse. Too much content where you need to be flying higher will lose listeners in overwhelming detail.

5. Surrender prideful vocabulary – To put it simply: your mission is not to impress, but to communicate. Relegate your original language vocabulary, your technical grammatical vocabulary, your systematic theological terminology and any other impressive jargon to your study. Know it, understand it, and sometimes, if necessary, explain it, but generally speaking it is best to leave it behind when you go to preach.

6. Achieve more by preaching less and driving it in more – Speaking of leaving things in the study, try leaving more of your message there. Often we confuse people by trying to achieve too much education in a single sermon. Andy Stanley says that many sermons would make great series. Try to cover less and you will have time for clearer explanation.

7. Improve your outlining – A lot of messages are complex because the preacher hasn’t thought themselves through to a point of clarity. I typically point to the main idea at this point, since a clear main idea will create clarity throughout the message. So true. But also give some time to evaluating the outline. Is it as simple and clear as can be? Is each part of the message doing something specific? If at a certain point in your message you don’t even know that you are trying to explain, nor will your listeners!

What else would you add?