Preaching Myths #4 – Non-Gospel Preaching

August 6, 2013August 5, 2013 / Peter Mead / 6 Comments

How about this one?

“We should preach the gospel to unchurched folk, but give teaching to church people.”

I grew up going to two church services on a Sunday. One was for the church people. One was supposedly for the unchurched people. This second service always included a sermon that was a basic gospel presentation. Whether or not there actually were unchurched folk there is not the point. 6:30pm was the time for a gospel presentation.

But can we make, or indeed, should we make, such a strong distinction? I am not convinced. The reason is because I have heard enough preaching that is supposed to be “teaching” to realize that believers need gospel preaching more than something entirely different.

Too many have dumbed down the gospel to a transactional deal struck between God and the sinner at the point of conversion, which then recedes into the background as the new believer now learns to implement their responsibility with good moral teaching from the Bible. Learn this lesson. Apply this truth. Heed this warning. Follow this example. But gospel-less instruction can really start to sound like something other than Christianity.

Paul warned the Galatians when they started to think there was something more for them than an ongoing application of the gospel.

What about meat? Indeed, we should move on to meat instead of milk. How meaty do you want your gospel? But to move from gospel to something non-gospel is not progress, it is moving backwards into the fleshly world of religion. This is why some preaching could easily pass for instruction in another religion . . . responsibility-preaching will always appeal to the flesh, but it won’t be Christian. Some closing thoughts:

1. Preach the gospel to whoever is present, whatever stage of faith they may be at. The lost need it, and so do we. But preach the full, clear gospel, not a paper thin pale reflection of the real deal.

2. Since the gospel is at the core of instruction for believers, this means that every week can be both teaching for the believers and accessible for visitors. Special guest events can be great, but visitors may return the next Sunday, or they might even just show up on a random Sunday. Make every week seeker-safe.

3. Beware of the false “meat” of heavyweight responsibility preaching, or purely informational educative preaching. It seems more meaty to raise the bar and pressure people to perform better, or to edify their intellect through an educational presentation . . . but our biblical preaching should be driving the gospel deeper into a life, not taking people away from the gospel – that is never progress.

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?

Ten Top Testimony Tips

July 19, 2013July 13, 2013 / Peter Mead / Leave a comment

Testimonies can be so powerful, but there is an inherent risk that is not often mentioned: testimonies are often given by people who are not used to public speaking. I believe anyone giving a testimony should be given instruction, but especially someone unused to the situation and what is expected. Most testimonies that I have heard where things didn’t quite go according to the hopes of the organizers were testimonies where the person giving it was not instructed properly. So here are my top tips:

1. Don’t teach. Simple. Don’t see this as your chance to teach. It is not the desire of the organizers that you teach. Giving teaching in place of testimony is unhelpful, and giving teaching based on testimony is often ineffective. Keep it clean and just give testimony. You may be asked to teach another time.

2. Don’t turn experience into lessons for others, let God do that. It is so easy to finish what happened to you with a lesson for them. It rarely works. Better leave that to God’s Spirit in this case.

3. Only refer to Bible verses if significant to your testimony. Again, this isn’t the time for teaching or biblical exposition. If it made a difference to you in your life story, great, otherwise save it for when you’re asked to preach.

4. Keep to time. If you are given ten minutes, work hard to get it to ten minutes, don’t just free-wheel and drift to 15 minutes. I remember hearing a trio of testimonies back to back and the first chap spoke for longer than was allotted for all three. Everything fell flat after that.

5. Keep it simple. Don’t start elaborating with extensive back story. What was the situation before, what changed, what now? Christ changed your life, tell that story. Don’t tell random other life stories too. And typically don’t pray, just do the testimony and leave prayer, exhortation, application, etc., to the meeting host.

6. Get stuck in, don’t waffle in the introduction. Plan your testimony and really plan your launch. Get stuck in, otherwise minutes will pass before you’ve even begun and then you are already in a losing battle. Many testimonies could be told in the time taken for their own introductions!

7. Be humble. Point to Christ, not to yourself. In fact, point to Christ, not to books, preachers, ministries, etc. If they were significant, make reference in passing, but keep the spotlight on Jesus.

8. Don’t get theologically out of your depth. Plan it so you don’t wade into issues you don’t understand yet. Nothing worse that the awkwardness created by somebody still uninformed making declarations about something currently beyond their reach.

9. Don’t declare things are unexplainable just because you don’t understand them yet. This could be the “you can’t explain it, just believe it . . . leap in the dark” kind of confusion often offered by new believers freezing in front of informed folk. Or it could be the “nobody can explain the end-times/predestination/creation/Trinity” type of theological assertions.

10. Don’t worry about your nerves, everyone expects you to be nervous. They want to hear you and will probably listen better to you than the more assured preacher.

And last of all, remember this – when a testimony doesn’t work as planned, it is probably because the organizers failed to make expectations crystal clear. Testimonies are so powerful, let’s use them well!

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 Ways to Add Steak to the Diet

June 13, 2013 / Peter Mead / 3 Comments

What if your biblical explanation is typically at a level lower than many of your listeners? What are some suggestions for adding steak to the diet of listeners that are needing it?

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

2. Get feedback – It would be better to know what people think than assume they are needing weightier content. For instance, just because there are seminary professors in your congregation doesn’t mean they want to be “stretched” by your preaching. Good, solid, biblical and faithful preaching that is clear and applicable may be the highlight of their week!

3. Watch and evaluate some great explainers – Watch a preacher who is especially effective at biblical exposition. What is it about their preaching that makes it effective? (You may find they are simpler than you at first imagined . . . our tendency is to think more info, higher vocab and greater complexity is the key to steaky preaching – not so.)

4. Make connections carefully – It doesn’t take any skill to string biblical proof-texts together. There is no licensing for tour guides in the “concordance safari” industry. It does take great biblical awareness to be able to make the links that are appropriate to a message. For instance, learn to look back in the canon and see what is feeding in to the passage (Kaiser’s “Informing Theology”). Learn to value other writing by the same author slightly higher than other writings. This is not as simple as a set of rules, it is an art form.

5. Devour your Bible as if God is worth knowing – To be able to help people make sense of biblical texts, there is no substitute for personal biblical saturation. I’d rather be fed by someone who really knows their Bible than someone who has crammed higher level commentary content in the last days of preparation. (This is not to deny the value of good commentary conversations.)

6. Well-cooked steak is seldom complex – I remember hearing radio ads for a steakhouse in Portland. I was in seminary so could never afford to go there, but it did sound good. What did I expect of a $75 steak? Not lots of extra ingredients and spice overload combined with complex cooking processes. I expected better quality content prepared simply. Same with preaching. When we think about preaching more steaky messages, we tend to crank up the jargon and lose sight of our message purpose. Don’t. Take the time to have better content, but don’t complicate, in fact, simplify sermon structure, etc.

7. The best “theology” is not on the cutting edge of speculation, it is pushing into the big and core questions – Don’t think that steaky biblical explanation comes from speculative originality, whether that be in sensational eschatology, or obscure theological novelty (save that for your PhD). The best steaky biblical explanation comes from showing how the biblical text drives us back to the core questions: who is God and what is He like? What does it mean to be human and made in His image? What is sin and how deep is the problem? What is grace and how does God solve the problem of sin in salvation and Christian growth? God, man, sin, grace and growth. Simple stuff, but if you can let the Bible probe these issues, your steak will be truly life changing.

Listener Levels

June 11, 2013 / Peter Mead / 1 Comment

Preaching involves explanation. That is, when we preach, we need to offer some explanation of the passage’s meaning. But it needs to be more than that. We need to offer explanation of the passage’s meaning at a level appropriate to those who are listening.

Imagine a scale of zero to one hundred representing the level of complexity. A class of three-year olds might need an explanation in the zero to five range, and would not do well with a doctoral seminar in the 80’s and 90’s. This range difference may seem obvious. However, it seems that sometimes we forget the range within a normal church service.

In a normal church service, there will be a range that must be considered for effective preaching. If we don’t consider to whom we are preaching, then we will probably settle into a range. Some of us may be naturally 30-40 explainers, while others of us may be 60-70 explainers. Which is the right range? Whichever range is before us.

We need to assume that there may be unsaved listeners present. Then the range of explanation needed by the believers may be 10-40 or 30-70.

A little exercise for us. Why not take a couple of minutes and pray for wisdom in evaluating the following:

1. Which range will I naturally settle into if I don’t consider my listeners?

2. What is the approximate explanation range of my usual congregation?

3. Where do the first two answers differ? That is to say, do I need to put some prayer and work into offering more accessible explanation, or into offering some richer meat?

Preaching Seen

May 30, 2013May 20, 2013 / Peter Mead / Leave a comment

When we preach, we must aim beyond mere comprehension. Making understandable truth statements is important, but it falls short of the ultimate goal.

Our goal in preaching is not to offer a verbal form of written commentary – principles and doctrines and truths. Our goal is to go beyond that to the level of helping listeners engage with the text and the God of the text. This requires various things beyond the reading of a commentary, including relevance and targeted communication for the specific listeners before you. And it requires our aiming beyond mere comprehension.

How do we preach so that listeners not only comprehend cognitively, but also engage affectively? After all, every encounter with a person goes deeper than understanding what is said to a heart-level response to the person themselves. We always know whether we are drawn to and repulsed by any individual we meet. We always have a “first-impression” that takes some work to overcome with comprehension and thought processes. And since preaching the Bible is not merely about transferring information, it follows that we need to preach for more than mere understanding.

How do we do this? There are many factors, but let me share one:

Preach so that images form on the screen in the hearts of the listeners. When preaching narrative, do a good job at describing the characters and the action so that listeners can be drawn in and identify with the characters in their encounter with God. When preaching poetry, do a good job at describing the imagery and emotion of the writer so that listeners can be drawn into the situation of the poet and engage with them and their God. When preaching discourse, do a good job at describing the situation and the tension so that listeners can be drawn in and feel the force of the communication from the person presenting God.

Adequate preaching presents truths like a teleprompter. Great preaching makes the truth felt as it becomes clear, lucid and vivid on the screen in the listeners’ hearts.

Bibles Open

May 29, 2013May 20, 2013 / Peter Mead / Leave a comment

When you preach, how long do Bibles stay open?

1. Open until right after the reading. Perhaps your listeners know from experience that once the reading is over, the message will fly every which way and the text that was read will become a distant memory. They may open their Bibles for the reading, but once that is done, the Bibles are shut. So what are you preaching?

2. Open until disconnect is evident. Perhaps they will be looking at the passage and listening for a while. But after a while it will become evident that your message has no real connection to the passage. At some point some will close their Bibles in an act of quiet pew-level frustration and sit listening in anticipation of the closing hymn. Or . . .

3. Open as alternative to listening. Perhaps some will stay open so that the listener can occupy themselves while your message continues. For whatever reason, they have struggled to stay engaged and have decided that rather than being frustrated, they will read some Bible and make best use of the time!

4. Open until fingers grow tired. Here’s another possibility. Perhaps after the fourteenth cross reference, they get tired of searching for 2nd Hesitations and decide they’d be better off just listening rather than trying to keep up in the grown up sword drill for the initiated Bible handlers (or the folks with the indented pages for cheating in sword drills!)

5. Open until end of message. Perhaps people keep their Bibles open right the way through, frequently checking that what you are saying fits with the text. It is both textually accurate and personally compelling. When the message ends, the Bibles are closed by grateful hearts and helped lives.

6. “Open” even on the way home. Perhaps people close their Bibles with a finger in the text, because subconsciously they can’t wait to get back into that passage and pray through it some more at home. This would be a good sign of effective preaching!

7. Open all week. Perhaps you preach in such a way that listeners are motivated and stirred to keep their Bibles open all week. They want to read on, read around, read more. They discovered that the Bible was accessible, enjoyable and relevant to their lives. They can’t imagine not wanting to pursue the God you introduced on Sunday. Good preaching!

Good News and Good News

May 28, 2013May 20, 2013 / Peter Mead / Leave a comment

Biblical preachers have the best job on earth: we get to announce good news! So here’s a thought to ponder . . . do we preach good news and good news?

There is a danger that we will separate gospel proclamation from instruction for the Christian life. If we do, we will have problems. Consider the case of the two-sermon Sunday. Let me describe the downside of separating gospel proclamation from Christian life instruction:

Sermon 1: Gospel Proclamation. The preacher preaches the gospel. Good. Problem is, the vast majority of those present are already believers. He keeps telling us how much we need to be saved and how we cannot get there without God doing the saving. Fair enough, we agree. He preaches a message that would fit in a tent meeting, but seems entirely irrelevant to the congregation sitting before him. Everyone hopes that someone is present who is not yet a believer. It would be appropriate for them. The sermon ends and a significant number of people leave the church without being fed or helped in any direct way.

Sermon 2: Christian Life Instruction. The preacher preaches instruction for the Christian life. Good. Problem is, a significant number of those present in the morning sermon (Gospel) are not there in the evening. But for those who are, surely this is helpful? In some ways, yes. But the separation is problematic. Now we are told what our duties are and how we should handle the difficulties of life and what our thoughts and actions should be if trained by Scripture. The separation means that the preacher does not apply the gospel to the believer, but gives instructions to the insider.

There are problems with both of these sermons. Technically the preacher may be right in most of what he says. But the problem with the Gospel message in the morning is that he seems unaware of his audience. Most are already believers and the presentation treats them as “already in.” Consequently they can only hope someone is present who needs to hear the message. Yet the gospel should be relevant to believers too. In the gospel message the believers could and should be engaged by what is presented. In the Christian Life Instruction message, the gospel could and should be a defining feature. Do we think that having believed and entered in by faith, that we now will grow to maturity by our own diligent obedience? Check Paul’s thoughts on that approach in Galatians 3:1-3. No, the gospel is relevant to all and it is by faith from first to last.

Perhaps we need to grasp our privilege of proclaiming good news and proclaiming good news: gospel proclamation and gospel-shaped Christian life instruction!