Homiletics

Majority Preacher – Part 2

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Continuing Stephen Gaukroger’s helpful list of necessary considerations for those who want to sustain a long-term preaching ministry in the same setting where they are the main or only speaker:

5. Know thyself – It is important to know your own strengths and weaknesses.  If you’re invited to a big event, then let your prejudices hang out, that’s probably why they invited you.  But in your own church be committed to long-term exposition.  Letting prejudices hang out too much will eventually annoy and cause problems.

6. Develop critical friends (not fans or foes) – Real and constructive feedback from real people will really help.

7. Have regular intentional review of your content and style – Be sure to compare what you have preached on with other lists, the lectionary, theology textbooks, other preachers and other churches.  This will help you spot holes in your own preaching diet.

If you’re preaching almost every week in your church, what would you add to this list?  I’d add something along the lines of “make sure you get breaks, sabbaticals, study breaks, etc. in order to renew your passion and vision.”

What If You’re The Majority Preacher?

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Some churches rely on itinerant speakers, others have a team preaching approach, and many churches have the solo preacher approach.  There are some unique challenges that come from being the main or the only preacher in a church.  At the BibleFresh preaching event, Stephen Gaukroger offered seven quick comments on what it takes to sustain a long-term ministry as the main preacher in a church:

1. You have to be a long-term preacher – That is, our personal integrity only becomes more important in a context where you preach over a long period of time, so you must be refreshing yourself under God’s Word continually.

2. Preach the Bible, the whole Bible – Don’t pick and mix your favourite passages based on personal or denominational biases, but allow the whole Bible to set the agenda over time.

3. Refresh your approach to preaching – Don’t get stuck in a style or always default to your default.

4. Work harder at multi-dimensional application – Not just to the individual and the church, but also to the society and global needs too.  (I would add that application should not just be relating to conduct, but also to belief and affection too.)

Tomorrow I will finish the list, but keep checking the Bible Fresh site as the talk should be uploaded sometime and is worth watching (look out for the quote of the conference about birds and mice!) – click here.

A List of Styles

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At the BibleFresh preaching event one speaker shared about preaching to the 20’s-30’s generation.  I think his name was Andy West (apologies Andy if I got your last name wrong).  His talk will probably be available online in due course at this site.

He shared four styles of preaching that he observes among effective preaching to the younger adult generation.  I’d like to offer the four styles he listed for your interest:

1. The Preacher Orator: “here is my argument!” – This is the expert speaker who will tend to fill venues with younger generation adults craving an authoritative word in an age where truth and depth are not common currency in everyday life.  People flock to hear Tim Keller, for example.  It is structured, linear, deep.

2. The Preacher Artist: “how would you feel…?” – This type of preacher paints pictures with words, engages through effective storytelling and is creatively imaginative.

3. The Preacher Conversationalist: “I’m like you…” – The preacher is an ordinary person who has honesty and integrity, connecting with the listeners.

4. The Preacher Facilitator: “Let’s go on a journey together.” – This preacher doesn’t so much dispense truth as help listeners to engage with the truth.

A few quick questions spring out of this:

A. Is this list complete, or are there other “styles” that are engaging effectively with the younger generation?

B. How much are we able to switch between styles as preachers in order to offer greater variety and appropriate engagement with our listeners?  (This is a critical question on numerous levels of preaching and with all generations.)

C. Should we be proactively exploring team approaches to preaching ministry that would more deliberately match the preacher to the subject and the listeners for each specific Sunday?

Struggling With Style and Substance

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A lot of comments are made about preaching to the younger generation.  Lots can be said about the newest set of adults in our culture, and it is imperative that we get to know who we are trying to reach, or who we are preaching to on a Sunday . . .

But let’s not fall into the trap of thinking that the new generation are simply looking for new style.  It is so easy to think that preaching in a certain style will appeal to the younger generation.  It is true that generationally there is a shift in preferred styles of preaching, but the danger comes when we presume that style is the key, then lose sight of substance.

The younger generation do seem to place a high value on authenticity, integrity and vulnerability.  Yet there is no waning in the desire for substance.  Perhaps it could be argued that the younger generation today actually yearns for depth and substance perhaps more than previous generations who placed higher value on structure and form?

So let’s not try to be “relevant” in style without pursuing God in a deep personal walk, nor offer lightweight preaching simply to appeal in style.  This is not to say that we should preach old style – whatever that might be.  The priority has to be substance, but in our passion to connect, we should be considering all aspects of how to communicate effectively (which inevitably is changing over time and will always do so).

We should also be careful not to disparage popular speakers among the younger generation.  It is so easy to mock and dismiss the currently popular speakers across the spectrum.  Upon closer inspection it might be found that some of them are actually speaking with considerable depth and substance.  The problem is that many simply copy style and lose that substance, which exacerbates the impression of superficiality.

There aren’t simple solutions, but we have to take seriously how to connect with each new generation.

Non Solo Sermon Ministry

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At the BibleFresh conference on preaching – here’s the online magazine – we discussed various aspects of preaching and how it can be refreshed in the UK.  Over the next few days I’ll share a few of the thoughts coming out of that event.

Traditionally the sermon was considered by some to be the full extent of ministry, or at least the primary avenue of ministry.  Today preachers are realizing more and more that the sermon is part of a larger package of ministry.  So this makes me think of several ministry partners for the sermon:

1. Other sermons in your church. This isn’t cutting edge thinking to many of us, but some still don’t see the value of preaching in series and allowing a combination of messages over time to reinforce the message and impact.

2. Other ministries in your church. In recent years many churches have moved to having home groups instead of another midweek sermon.  In many cases churches have tried to connect midweek content to Sunday’s sermon.  Some continue this practice, others have found it to be more difficult than expected (in part because preachers didn’t preach with homegroup on their horizon, and in part because leading a homegroup takes a significant amount of skill which often is not trained in a church).  But whatever your church is doing with “curriculum” for homegroups or other gatherings in the church, how can we as preachers think through how our sermons might actually be reinforcing and motivating what is happening in other ministries of the church.  Too easily the sermon falls into an educative model in which it is the main avenue of information transfer, when actually it might better serve the church in respect to encouragement, motivation, challenge, conviction, vision casting, etc.  It is worth pondering the interface between our preaching and the other ministries of the church.

3. Other ministries outside your church. It was mentioned that some preachers struggle with a sense that they cannot compete with the big event festivals people are attending.  Again, if a significant proportion of the church go away for a Christian event or festival, would it be possible to take advantage of that rather than being intimidated?  Could the church think through pre- and post- event preaching that reinforces the often life-changing crises that take place in these settings?

It is always much easier to just preach a single stand alone sermon, but what might help synergize the ministries of the church and beyond?  Worth pondering, even if there are differences in every situation.

Preparing in Silence?

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“A lot of preachers are introverts because they need to be able to prepare on their own for hours.”  “Preaching is an oral event, yet the preparation of outlining and manuscripting is all pursued using written language skills.”  “Silence is the soil in which sermons sprout.”

All statements with some truth to them.  But also all statements that indicate a subtle tension between preparation and delivery of a spoken sermon.  A lot of preachers are introverts, perhaps for the reason stated.  So much of our preaching training is essentially an adaptation of skills for producing written work.  And there is a definite place for silence in the context of walking with Christ – as essential if preaching is truly a “God-event.”

So this post is not about turning all preparation upside down and advocating sermon preparation with loud music on, or in the midst of conversation.  (Actually there are preachers that find it helpful to do the message formation phase of their preparation in a public place – like Starbucks – in order to be able to better think through who they will be speaking to . . . a thought to ponder, perhaps.)

A couple of suggestions, though, in light of the oral nature of preaching:

1. Don’t just pray then prepare, but pray during out loud preparation. That is, don’t just pray and then work on the sermon.  Try praying as you prepare.  Talk through your thinking out loud, in conversation with the Lord.  Say your thoughts out loud, and also talk about what you are saying.  Why not?  It might help your thoughts to form in coherent oral form, it might help your prayer to be more than introductory, it might help you notice when your mind has drifted away from the task at hand for the last twenty minutes!

2. Don’t always write, then talk, but invert the process. We are trained to pray, then read, then write, then talk.  Why in that order?  Why not keep the prayer going throughout, but instead read, then talk, then write?  Often a written sermon won’t deliver well, but a well-delivered sermon can always be written in some form or other.  Talking through the message earlier in the week will almost certainly help you know where you are in the process far more than looking at your notes will!

Preaching is a spoken event.  Perhaps we need to prepare appropriately.

Shaded Differences Not Poles Apart

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The Bible often distinguishes humanity in stark alternatives.  There are those being saved and those perishing.  There are those who trust God and those who don’t.  There is love and hate.  Heaven and hell.  Faith and fear.  The righteous and the wicked.  The wise and the foolish.  Often the stark alternatives provide for very strong opportunities to preach the Word boldly and with great clarity.

Nevertheless, there are also many times where what we intend and what is heard can be close, but still be across the divide.  How easily we preach for relationship and are heard to be preaching for religion.  Thinking in the terms Tim Keller uses for Luke 15 – we can easily slip into trying to turn the irreligious younger son into the religious older son, but God reaches out to both the rebel and religious in order to draw them into relationship.  Sons, not servants.  If we are not very careful, we can preach for relationship and be heard as preaching religion.  This is heavily influenced by the religious tendency of humanity in the flesh, but that is no excuse since we have to preach to those who are listening and can’t just blame them if they miss our point.

I was thinking about a vision for the local church for a presentation this week. I was struck by how easily we settle for a line drawing, a sketched representation of the reality, rather than the full multi-coloured vivid 3-D reality of God’s wisdom demonstrated in the church.  There may be some extremely dead churches, but for many the difference between vibrantly alive and slightly hollow is marginal, little shaded differences, in some areas and not others, in some people and less so in others.

We like to think in black and white terms, in one extreme or the other.  Since we’re not completely dead, we must therefore be completely alive.  It’s easier that way.  But as preachers we need to help people not settle for a mere representation of life to the full, of the delight of being fully alive in Christ, sharing in the communion of the Godhead, participating fully in all that God has for us.

Let’s preach the texts that offer strong polarities and not hold back.  Let’s also recognize that often the difference between reality and mere representation is marginal – so our preaching needs to sensitively engage and encourage in the midst of the shaded differences.

Obvious Texts and Not So Obvious Texts

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When you speak on a subject, rather than preaching an assigned text, you have the choice of which text to preach.  In many cases there are obvious texts to preach.  Asked to preach on the church, you might be drawn to Ephesians, or Matthew 16.  Preaching on marriage?  Ephesians 5 or Colossians 3.  Preaching on missions?  Matthew 28 or Acts 1.

There are advantages to preaching the more obvious texts.  First, they are obvious because they address the issue clearly.  Second, people will often feel a sense of an expectation being satisfied, like watching a good movie for a second or third time.

But you might like to go with a less obvious text.  Perhaps a narrative.  Perhaps a text people don’t know so well.  Interest may rise, impact may be deeper, perspective may be enriched.  Preaching on church?  How about the last section of John 17 . . . that’s my choice for today.  The other subjects?  I’ll think about them another time, my mind is captivated by John 17:20-22.

You Can’t Cover Everything

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People appreciate expository preaching if it is done well.  People tend not to prefer the taste of exhaustive preaching.  The preacher is always tempted to try to cover every angle on every detail in the text.  After all, you’ve probably put hours of work into prayerful study and research, much of which has proved to be interesting and helpful to you.  But when it comes time to preach, selectivity is required.

Here is where the Big Idea becomes such a big deal.  Having the sharp focus of a main idea that reflects accurately and relevantly the main idea of the passage allows you to determine how to be selective.  An avenue of detail, or an anecdote of background information, or a cross-reference, or an illustration, or a side-point, or a personal soapbox, or whatever . . . if it doesn’t fully support that main idea, then it is immediately under scrutiny and should probably be chopped.

Selectivity has to take place before preaching.  Preparing to preach is not just about studying the passage.  Effort is required in preparing the message too.  Going into the preaching event stuffed full of information and selecting as you deliver tends to be as effective as planning your conclusion when you arrive at the end of your preaching time.

As Haddon Robinson has put it, “preaching can be like delivering a baby, or like delivering a missile.  In one your goal is to hit the target, in the other, your goal is to just get it out.”  It is in the “baby delivering” sermons that listeners tend to confuse expository preaching with exhaustive, exhausting, rapid-fire or overwhelming preaching.

Selectivity is probably one of the hardest skills and disciplines in preaching to master, but one of the most important.

Here’s a post from the early days . . . just for old time’s sake!

Refreshing Preaching

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As part of the Bible Fresh initiative, an e-book of advice to preachers has just gone online.  Here’s the link – just click here!

There are contributions from various respected voices, plus one from me on page 12.

Feel free to comment on here about any of the articles that you find helpful as you look through it.  (So far I’ve only read Conrad Gempf’s succinct offering, a third of which is: “Cut to the truth of Scripture and you’ll be relevant.  Sometimes too relevant for people’s tastes.”)