Homiletics

Don’t Just Get the Idea!

/ Peter Mead / Leave a comment

The Big Idea approach to preaching is birthed from an understanding of the nature of communication.  That is, when we communicate, we are not just firing words out into nowhere.  Rather, we are seeking to have the other party get the idea of what we are saying.  Communication is about ideas.  We want the other to say, “I see what you are saying.”

Ideas change lives.  People give themselves to ideas.  Christianity is a content-based faith.  Which is why a very high view of Scripture tends to resonate with a commitment to expository preaching.  That is, bringing out from the text the meaning that is there and seeking to effectively communicate that truth to others with an emphasis on why it matters to them.

But I don’t just want to extol the virtues of a “big idea” approach to preaching.  I also want to highlight a couple of potential misapplications of it.  Let’s use a very simple “communications” model:

WRITER > MESSAGE > RECIPIENTS

1. It is not just about the writer to the original recipients.  It is possible to be committed to discovering what the writer meant by what he wrote to the original recipients, and then to preach that.  Just that.  This can come across as textually accurate, but distant and irrelevant.  It can lose sight of the present and living nature of God’s Word.  We can become lecturers in ancient manuscript interpretation, even if we add on application by extension.  It is important to not lose the accuracy of original intent, setting, context, etc., but also to give a very clear sense that this is for us today.

So to tweak the model:

WRITER > MESSAGE > RECIPIENTS

                                                                                 including the message to Us

2. It is not just about the human writer, it is part of God’s self-revelation in the Word.  This is where I’ve seen Big Idea preaching misapplied and fall short.  Understanding, distilling and effectively communicating the main idea of a passage is not the whole deal.  We are not trading in brilliant information transfer, back then or today.  We are handling the inspired Word of God, given to us to reveal His heart to us.  When the text becomes opaque, when the personal nature of the Trinity grows distant, then all our meticulous accuracy and sermonic craft is wasted.  We don’t just preach the written word, we preach Christ.  Our preaching must be theocentric, for the Bible is all about God.

Final tweak?

The Revelation of God, who inspired the                                                                                                                       .

WRITER > MESSAGE > RECIPIENTS

                                                                                   including His message to Us

True preaching happens in the present.  As Donald Sunukjian puts it, in his shortened definition of biblical preaching: “Listen to what God is saying . . . to us!”  Let’s preach so that our listeners can meet the God who still speaks through His Word today.

Get the Idea Really Well

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A group of friends arrived back at the hotel where we were staying after visiting a famous church that morning.  We asked them, what was the big idea?  Their response?  He didn’t have a big idea, he didn’t a little idea, he seemed to have no idea!  Oops.  What are the characteristics of an effective and powerful main idea for message?

1. It will be an accurate synopsis of this text.  Looking at the passage, this stated idea gets a firm nod of recognition.  Or to put it another way: if just the idea were stated, then someone who knows their Bible well would be likely to pinpoint the passage from the idea alone.

2. It will be consistent with the Scriptures as a whole.  You may be preaching a single passage, but you are preaching from an open Bible.  The idea should not be contradictory to the rest of Scripture.  If it is, you need to keep working on understanding your specific passage.

3. It will be true to life.  There should be a deep sense of resonance in you as a preacher while you prepare the message.  It should ring true to those listening.  This isn’t trite, or simplistic, or out of touch, but profoundly true.  Good ideas stir people passionately, trite ideas just get a roll of the eyes.

4. It will be relevant to life.  You may be able to state a profound theological truth effectively, but if it isn’t stated relevantly, then you aren’t really preaching the Word.  God’s Word is relevant to life.  Make sure your main idea is too.

5. It will be pregnant with meaning and implications.  After stating your main idea, the follow up sentence shouldn’t be, “well, that’s about it, really.”  There should be plenty that flows out of it.  It is expansive.  It is rich.  It needs to be savoured.  It has to be pondered.  It begs development.

6. It will be precise.  This brings us back to number one, but with a nuance.  Not only must it be accurate to the text you are preaching – that text distilled into a single sentence.  It also needs to be precisely phrased.  No ambiguity (unless that is both an effective and accurate summary!)

7. It will probably not be perfect.  Just to add a slight caveat…most of the time you may only feel you have a decent idea, rather than a stunning one.  Accurate, clear, just decent ideas preached from God’s Word would bring significant health and growth compared to the standard fare in most churches today.  We can’t knock it out of the park every time we preach.  But decent ideas will transform lives.

They Might Get the Idea!

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Why is it worth the effort?  Getting and giving out a big idea is not easy.  It is much easier to preach collections of thoughts, rather than seeking to present a message that holds together around one main idea.  If I could cut out the “main idea” phase of preparation, I could probably save 30% of my preparation time.  Here’s why it is worth being committed to pursuing the main idea:

1. Pursuing the main idea will force you to study the passage more effectively.  I think we are all experts in following bunny trails wherever they may lead us.  Bible study can be an endless vista of bunny trails.  But pursuing the main idea forces me to not only ponder the meaning of the details in a passage, but also to ponder how they are working together to communicate the author’s intent.  The writers weren’t drunk or frivolous.  Every word mattered, and every word was included to communicate something specific.  Pursuing the main idea of a passage keeps me focused on what the author was trying to communicate, rather than playing creative word association games where I end up finding things that would leave a panel of original author, recipients and God Himself scratching their heads at my ingenuity.

2. Having a main idea will give you a guide for shaping the message cohesively.  The beauty of a main idea is that it becomes the organizing factor for the content of the message.  Should an illustration be included?  What about the historical explanation?  And that word study?  How about that anecdote?  Hundreds of decisions in every message.  But actually the main idea gives a clear organizing factor – does including it help communicate the main idea?  If not, save it for another day.  The main idea is the message distilled into a single sentence, everything else is scaffolding, or a strategically designed support structure.

3. Offering a main idea will help listeners engage with what matters in the message.  Here’s the thing: human minds don’t hold conflicted complexity.  Its true in politics, its true in preaching, its true in most things.  Rather than hang on to four major points, thirteen sub-points and five telling illustrations, the listener will subconsciously sift and determine the central thought.  Problem is that they may well end up with that extraneous illustration being the main point.  Since you’re spending the week preparing the message and thinking about it, do the work and decide what you want them to see as the most important thing.

4. Giving a main idea means there is a hope that listeners will remember something helpful from the message.  People don’t tend to remember outlines.  When they do, they don’t tend to do much with them.  Even if they write them down.  But Robinson is right when he tells us that “what people do live for, what they do die for, is an idea, some great truth that has gripped them.”  Let’s give the greatest of truths every week.

Get the Idea!?

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As a child I would ask my Dad for help with various projects – fixing the brakes on my bike, getting the scalextric set up, getting the lawnmower to work.  Invariably he would show me and then say, “do you get the idea?”  I usually did and that was that.

Then I studied preaching at seminary.  All of my teachers (thankfully) were proponents of “Big Idea” preaching.  So now, as I prepare to preach, I am haunted by the question from years ago – do I get the idea?  If I don’t, I’m not ready to preach.  However, finding the main idea in a passage is usually not as easy as fixing the brakes on my bike.

It seems like a disproportionate amount of time can be spent trying to formulate a single sentence in the preparation process.  But this single sentence is so important that it is always time worth investing.  The payout is always sermon-wide.  And the fallout should be church-wide and beyond.  So let’s spend some days chasing the issue of the main idea, or as Haddon Robinson would put it, the Big Idea.

1. Ideas are the building blocks of communication.  We communicate in ideas.  Not words.  Ideas.  It is possible to get across a message without speaking a word – just think of advertising on the television or a billboard that uses imagery rather than words, just think of your mother when you came up with a creative activity as a guest in somebody else’s home.  Words matter, but ideas communicate.  So with any biblical passage – it consists of a set of ideas, some bigger, some smaller, all interrelated, and ultimately, all serving the main idea that drives the whole passage.  Our job as communicators is not to parrot words, but to grasp and give out the main idea of a passage.

2. Ideas are made up of two parts.  I tend to call it the single sentence summary.  Somehow that feels easier to grasp than the full explanation of an idea.  But let’s go to the full explanation, it isn’t that bad.  What is the passage about?  This is the subject.  What is the passage saying about that?  That is the complement.  Put them together and you have the idea.  Sounds easy.  Sometimes it helps to ask, “what question is this passage answering?” (subject-question), and “what answer does it give?” (complement-answer).  Or just summarize the whole passage in a single sentence.

Whatever it takes, let’s be sure we get the idea!

What Teaches Us?

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Today’s post looks at Paul’s teaching to Titus on the mechanism for producing godliness in believers.  From our perspective as preachers, perhaps the bottom line is this: let’s do a better job of preaching Jesus.  Seems like many preachers are too concerned to be the moral police for churchgoer and society alike.  But if we are really concerned, perhaps we need to let Him become greater, and other arm-twisting approaches become less.  Feel free to comment on either site.  Click here to go to the post.

Faint Not: The Discouraged Preacher 4

/ Peter Mead / 1 Comment

What are we to do when facing discouragement?  Yesterday I started with crying out to God and to a helpful friend.  I think that is fundamental.  But there are some other thoughts that are worth throwing into the mix as well.

3. Keep pressing on.  Discouragement is all about losing the courage to persevere.  It can be so hard to move forward when it feels futile, or you feel opposed.  Our minds will always and quickly justify whatever our hearts desire.  “I don’t want to compete” or “Maybe this is time to move on”, etc.  Maybe.  But typically it is better to first, inasmuch as it depends on you, do whatever you can to make things right.  Perhaps this is a season of spiritual attack.  Or perhaps you are personally drained.  It probably isn’t the season of life to make big life-changing decisions.  The alternative is to press forward, eyes on the Lord, trusting Him to bring you through or make it clear if you actually are in a cul-de-sac.  As a default, when times are tough, press on.  Just be wary of doing so in your own strength.

4. Look for the bigger picture.  It is natural that during times of discouragement we tend to look inwards and take our eyes off the Lord.  One way to pursue the bigger picture is…

5. Don’t surrender, but do retreat.  Not in the military sense, but go on a retreat.  Perhaps a day in the woods.  Maybe head for the coast.  Turn off the phone.  You and God.  Pray.  Plead.  Pause.  Pursue Him in the midst of everything and ask Him to help you see clearly in a time when your vision feels clouded.  Listen to great chunks of Bible.  If you’re married, don’t always just retreat alone, but share together the ministry journey you are called to together.  And in retreat, don’t simply dwell on your own corner of the great mission field.  Take some time to consider the greater things that God is doing (after all, it isn’t all about you and me!)

6. As you look outwards, consider giving.  Huh?  Ministers are always giving.  I know.  But it might be worth finding someone totally disconnected and serving them in some way.  Take time to pray for a ministry you are only vaguely connected to.  Give a financial gift anonymously to something or someone that isn’t part of your own sphere of influence.  Go cut an elderly neighbour’s lawn.  Perhaps it is an act of faith, or just recalibrating the fact that you are a servant and it is blessed to give.  Somehow preaching and ministry can easily get complex, so that our self-giving in our own sphere grows entangled and confused.  But in giving we reflect our most giving God.  It might help.

Whether we are discouraged or not, all of us stand at a fork in the road.  One way is the way of trusting God, the other is the way of trusting self.  In times of victory, or in times of failure; in times of great hope, or in times of discouragement, the paths remain the same.  In response to His self-giving, let’s give ourselves first to Christ, and then let Him lead us carefully on.

 

Faint Not: The Discouraged Preacher 3

/ Peter Mead / 3 Comments

Yesterday we looked at some of the causes of discouragement.  But what should we do about it?  Maybe one or more of these suggestions might be the prescription for your particular situation:

1. Cry Out to God.  God was never a huge fan of our independent autonomy, in fact, that notion of functioning apart from Him came with a hiss.  Yet in our upside-down world we can so easily assume that the right response is to grit our teeth and press on, not bothering God with our struggle, but somehow proving something by our faithfulness.  Uh, no.  What we prove by such independent proaction is anything but faithfulness.  Faithfulness carries an implicit sense of trusting dependence upon, and responsiveness to, God.  We are not being faithful when we leave Him out, even if everything we do is technically right.

So while our flesh may urge us to press on alone, our hearts should cry out to God.  Be real with Him.  He is not delicate. He is not easily offended.  Look at the prayers coming from Job, Jeremiah, David, et al., as they vented heavenward in the Hebrew Scriptures.  Why do we think we shouldn’t do the same?  God is not offended by our venting frustration or expressing fear.  He probably is hurt by our stony silence, however.  Cry out to God.  Be honest.  Be real.  Tell Him you need Him.  Express utter dependence.  Express utter frustration with Him if that is the case.  When you’ve poured your heart out and all your strength is gone, lying face down before Him completely spent, then perhaps He’ll pick you up and ask if you are prepared to trust Him.  To serve Him.  To be His.  Like a fire in my bones, as Jeremiah wrote, I have to preach.

2. Cry Out to Another.  Just as our flesh likes to go it alone on the vertical dimension, so we are prone to going it alone on the horizontal.  It isn’t appropriate to blab our problems to everyone.  But it also isn’t appropriate to share our problems with no-one.  Prayerfully consider who would be a wise confidante in a time of discouragement.  Be careful not to slip into gossip or slander, but be willing to be vulnerable with someone who cares, who will pray, who might offer wise counsel, who will give courage to move forward.

Tomorrow we’ll add to the list, but feel free to add your thoughts at any time.

Faint Not: The Discouraged Preacher 2

/ Peter Mead / 1 Comment

What are the causes of discouragement in life and ministry?  I suspect there may be many, but let me share just a few:

1. Frustration.  When we see things moving forward, when we see progress, we all tend to get encouraged.  The opposite is also true.  When things seem to slow to a snail’s pace, or when there seems to be an invisible blockade in our path, then frustration can set in.  It has been said that we over-estimate what can be achieved in a single sermon, but under-estimate the impact of five year’s of solid biblical teaching.  But sometimes it is the years of ministry without significant progress that wears us down.  It is easy to lose sight of the progress among some, even many, when our thoughts become dominated by one, or a few.

And when we start to feel that what we are giving ourselves to cannot be achieved, then we are very much in danger of burning out.  I remember, as a child, blocking the progress of a scalextric (slot) car on the track.  The engine made noise, but it wasn’t long before a smell of burning electrics started to exude.  Some preachers feel like that, and burnout is a very real and present danger.

2. Failure.  Sometimes it isn’t just a sense of frustration that builds in us.  A loss of the sense of progress.  Sometimes it is outright failure.  It can be the failure of others.  It can be our own failure.  A poorly aimed sermon or two, a misjudged application.  What about getting distracted, or failing to prepare properly?  Then what about personal struggles?  The moral failure of someone we esteem.  The moral vulnerability of our own inner struggles.  We don’t have to look far to see failure and feel discouraged.  Sometimes the mirror is far enough.

3. Fatigue.  In the toil of ministry, combined with family life, all in the context of intensified spiritual battle, fatigue is an ever-present danger.  But fatigue is a symptom, and it can be the symptom of many different issues.  I remember Bill Hybels referring to the warning lights on the dashboard of his life.  He assumed the warning light meant a spiritual problem (inadequacy of devotions, for instance), but found the issue was emotional, relational.  It could be physical.  Sleep.  Nutrition.  Exercise.  There are many factors underlying this one.

4. Fear.  Ministry is not always experienced on the mountain top.  Often it is in the valley.  A dark one.  Lots of threats.  Rumours of threats.  Unseen enemies and breaking twigs.  We minister in the context of spiritual warfare, and in the context of our own struggles and weaknesses.  Whether the enemy is directly attacking or not, we can so easily look away from the Lord to the perceived threat, into the darkness.  Faith is not a commodity we collect or an inner power we muster.  It is a fixed trusting gaze.  When that gaze shifts, fear can flood in.

Tomorrow we’ll think about responding to discouragement.

Faint Not: The Discouraged Preacher

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Charles Spurgeon wrote about the minister’s “fainting fits” in his first series of lectures to his students.  He wrote, “Good men are promised tribulation in this world, and ministers may expect a larger share than others, that they may learn sympathy with the Lord’s suffering people, and so may be fitting shepherds for an ailing flock.”

The ministry of preaching seems to be fertile ground for discouragement.  It is so easy to feel deterred, disheartened or hindered in some way.  Sometimes it is only a feeling, but this doesn’t change its influence on us.

The New Testament has a lot to say about not fainting, growing weary or losing heart.  Paul writes of the perishing state of our outward man, while at the same time the inward man is being renewed.  But what about times when that doesn’t feel like the reality we are living in?

Tomorrow I’d like to ponder several factors that may be leading to discouragement.  Then by the end of the week we’ll ponder some pathways forward.

According to John Stott, “Discouragement is the occupational hazard of Christian ministry.”  

Let’s throw in a bit of Luther too, who apparently stated, “If I should write of the heavy burden of a godly preacher, which he must carry and endure, as I know from my own experience, I would scare every man from the office of preaching.”

Our experience agrees that these great preachers knew what they were talking about.  Let’s ponder together what the contributing factors may be, and what might be done about it.

And let’s pray for others too.  Perhaps you know a preacher who is facing discouragement in some form.  Maybe one who is unwell, or who’s context is particularly challenging.  Why not pray for their hearts to be encouraged this week? Maybe link to this post and tell them you prayed for them?  The battle we are in is too much for any of us to go on alone.

Spaces: Thinking Through the Process

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A little while back I offered the preparation process in terms of four locations: Study, Stop and Pray (Prayer Closet), Starbucks, Stand and Deliver (Pulpit).  To finish this series on spaces I want to poke around in each of these four locations and prompt our thinking.

1. Study.  I’ve talked about this over the past few days, but essentially the issue here is both noise and access to resources.  To really concentrate on getting to grips with the exegesis means not being pulled away by other things.  It also means being able to spread out the books, while also opening up the heart.  Is it worth considering a separate desk for this?  Is it possible to make the key resources easily accessible?  Can you put a “Do Not Disturb” sign on your door?

2. Stop and Pray.  This one is all about noise.  The noise of people interrupting, the noise of phones beeping, the noise of tasks calling you.  You need to silence them all.  I suspect many of us can’t achieve this in our study or office.  Would it be better to walk and pray with the mobile phone left at home?  Would it be better to go to the church and pray through this phase in the place where you will preach the message?  I find this helpful as it helps to prompt my prayers toward the specific people and families that will be there.

3. Starbucks.  This one is about targeting the message.  Personally I don’t find coffee shops the most conducive to concentrated preparation.  But I see the argument in favour of them (as long as I have music in my ears instead of loud conversations from the volume-unaware that tend to sit near me in these places!)  Somehow the goal here is to be sensitive and alert to the people and the kind of people to whom the message will be preached.  This could be as simple as putting a couple of pictures up on the screen, or placing names on 3×5 cards on the desk, or being around people.  But, if I can’t help but be distracted by being around people, it is better to get the work done in a room on my own!

4. Stand and Deliver.  Different issue, but worthwhile . . . what are the issues in terms of preaching proxemics?  Is there clutter in the preaching environment?  Am I situated in the best place for this congregation?  Should I come down to their level?  Can I lose the seaworthy pulpit and be seen?  Is there clutter from their perspective?