How to . . . ?

When Discourse Sits in Narrative

/ Peter Mead / Leave a comment

Discourse text often sits within a narrative.  Consider the teaching sections of the Gospels, how a Jesus sermon is set in the context of the story of His ministry or passion.  Consider the speeches in Acts as they move the story forward time and again.  Consider the direct communication of God to Joshua at the key transition point in Israel’s leadership, or the direct communication of the prophets as they address a specific issue at a specific point in Israel’s history.  Whatever form the book may take generally, these specific instances are essentially discourse Scripture.

When a discourse text sits in the midst of a broader narrative, what do we do?  We should analyze the broader plot to see the function of the discourse within it.  The narrative plot then serves as context for the details of the discourse.  Of course we could choose to preach the text in some kind of narrative form, but equally we can choose to keep that plot-work at the level of context and purpose analysis.  A discourse type text can yield clear and effective outlines through careful analysis.  By giving time in our study to the plot within which the discourse sits, we can add tension and interest to the preaching of the discourse.

This applies to epistles too, incidentally.  Just because an epistle may consist entirely of discourse, we should not lose sight of the broader narrative of history in which it sits.  An epistle is a point in time, a point on the plot line of the story of that particular church or individual.  At a key juncture in the story of the church at Rome, or in Colossae, Paul wrote to them.  We have his discourse, but we can also trace the tension of the church’s history to that point, and be left with the tension of how they would respond to his instruction in the letter.  Awareness of the broader narrative can always add tension and interest to the preaching of a discourse.

Discourse usually sits within a broader narrative framework.  Awareness of that helps our interpretation of the passage. It can also help our preaching by adding more life to the living words!

Warning! Danger Lurking Nearby!

/ Peter Mead / Leave a comment

All sin is dangerous.  We should never be complacent about any sin or the risk it poses.  But surely the sin of pride should be top of our danger list as preachers.  Pride, a sense of independence, not needing God or others, is a strangely familiar companion to pulpit ministry.  Perhaps it is something about the stepping out from the crowd in order to speak to the crowd.  Perhaps it is a fruit of the respect many show toward those with up-front ministry.  Perhaps it is the result of the higher level learning that is expected of those who speak.  Perhaps the enemy turns up the pressure looking for a high profile casualty.  There are many perhaps-es, but one certainty – pride is a serious danger for every preacher.

Watch out for the warning signs.  A lack of prayer in preparation or following ministry.  An attitude of complacency and a sense of being capable in your own strength.  A yearning to get the microphone, then a resistance to giving it up.  A yielding to the temptation to say what you know will receive praise from the hand-shakers after the meeting.  An excessive appreciation of positive comments from listeners, and maybe an over-reaction to any who would dare to question or critique.  A resistance to sharing the pulpit with appropriate others.

Pride is always lurking nearby.  At the slightest hint of its presence, let us be diligent to humble ourselves at the foot of the cross again.  In our brokenness, perhaps God will lift us up and use us as preachers again, but let’s lose the notion that this is guaranteed.  He doesn’t need us.  Yet He chooses to use us – a fact that borders on a miracle if we really look in the mirror!

Getting to Grips with the Genres: Poetry (2)

/ Mike Roth / Leave a comment

Yesterday’s post was concerned with how poetry works.  Now let’s consider the implications for our preaching.

Implications for Preaching Poetry

-If preaching narrative connects listeners to plot and discourse connects listeners to ideas, then poetry connects listeners to feelings attached to ideas.

-This means that preaching poetry is slow. It’s less like going on a run than it is like sitting before a painting in an art gallery. The preacher is to draw out colors, themes, nuance, and ideas, line by line, in a way that gives time and space for listeners to connect not just cognitively but affectively to the poem.

-Consider using music, paintings, pictures, movie clips, etc., to draw-out an idea.

-Consider allowing for testimony that affirms the points in poetry. Consider attaching biblical narrative to the points too.

-Poetry speaks to truths and feelings that we have felt, will feel, and need to feel. They are not fiction but fact. We need to be shaped by them. Allow your preaching of poetry the time, space, tone, posture, and space to accomplish this. It’s worth it!

Land the Last Line

/ Peter Mead / Leave a comment

It’s true every time we preach, but especially on Easter Sunday. It’s great to land the last line. Some people regularly finish with a bang, a really pregnant final sentence that absolutely nails it. Others among us struggle for consistency with the finish. It’s always easy to fizzle to a close or to stick on a generic statement like, “So that’s why it’s an interesting passage.” But that last line can really hang in the air, linger in the memory and stick in the heart.

As I’ve written before, the best time to plan the end is before you preach. Trying to pull a stunning conclusion out of mid-air is almost always a wasted effort. Sunukjian makes the suggestion that the concluding statement should be positive rather than negative, and a statement rather than a question. Perhaps I’ll share more on his suggestions another time. If in doubt, it is usually a great place to restate the main idea one last time.

So before preaching the Easter Sunday message, try to take a couple of minutes and run through the final few lines. What a great day to land a last line really well!

Length of Rehearsal

/ Peter Mead / Leave a comment

I would strongly encourage preachers to run through their message, out loud, before preaching it. Call it a rehearsal if you like, or use a different term if that makes preaching sound too much like a performance. Preaching is primarily an oral and aural art form, so to restrict preparation to written and read forms makes little sense. A good outline should reflect the content and structure of the message. A good manuscript will reflect this plus the details and word choices. But running through the message verbally will help to clarify the flow, the efficacy of transitions, and so on.

New preachers tend to speed up. If you haven’t preached much, there is a good likelihood that your actual sermon will go quicker than the rehearsal. The story is told of Billy Graham, preaching for the first time and getting through his message so fast that he ended up preaching four messages in something like 10 minutes. (If you have a reference for the true story, please share it below.) Strong nerves tend to speed up delivery. Knowing this may help you to slow down delivery and time your practice appropriately.

Experienced preachers tend to take longer. Once the nervous reaction of putting the gas pedal to the floor and speeding through the delivery is overcome, the situation changes. Preaching through a message to an empty room is one thing. Preaching to dozens of faces, with all the feedback and distractions, is another. Unless you are a preacher with your head permanently stuck in your notes (search on “no notes” above!), you will subconsciously sense facial and fidgety feedback from your listeners. This will lead you to expand, restate, illustrate more, and so on as you go through the message. The result is usually that you need longer for delivery than you did in practice. If you need to preach 45 minutes, then practice aiming for 40. If the goal is 30 minutes, then practice towards 25-27.

Blessings and Responsibilities

/ Peter Mead / 1 Comment

We live in a time of unique blessings.  We have unmatched access to information on the internet.  We have more commentaries and Bible study resources than ever before (even online materials).  We have visual media unknown to previous generations.

I don’t think the best way to handle these changes is by ignoring them.  It may sound very pious to lock yourself in a study with just the Bible (especially an old translation), and live out a monastic sermon preparation process.  I think we should be grateful for whatever extra tools God has allowed us to access.  But with the blessing comes responsibility.

We may be able to do instant concordance searches and access lexical information at the touch of a mouse button.  So what do we do with the extra time no longer spent flicking through chunky tomes of fine print?  If the fruit of quicker access to information is cheaper exegesis, then the church will be all the poorer for these advances in technology. Let’s try to take the time our predecessors had to spend in page turning in prayerful interaction with the text and the sermon preparation process.

We are blessed by the visual media available to us.  When the Passion of the Christ was in the cinema I saw it with a group of men from our church.  Then I was preaching on the crucifixion and so went back to see it again, on my own.  It was very moving to watch through it again as part of my preparation.  Since many people were watching it, I wanted to make sure my sermon wouldn’t differ confusingly from the film.  But also, and more importantly, I had to make sure I preached the inspired text rather than Mel Gibson’s screenplay.  It was certainly a blessing to see.  Something previous generations never had.  But it added a responsibility, I had to check the passion narratives more.

We live in an age of many blessings, but we must not forget that with blessing there is usually responsibility too.

Preaching Easter (Pt4): Resurrection Implications

/ Peter Mead / Leave a comment

NT Wright made an interesting comment this week. He suggested that the New Testament presents many implications that come from the resurrection. However, the one that most preachers tend to emphasize is not really presented in the New Testament. Namely, “Because Jesus rose from the dead, we can go to heaven when we die.” I mention this not to affirm the comment, but to prompt our thinking and Bible study.

Before preaching the resurrection this Sunday, check your text for the implications that are present. For instance, in 1st Corinthians 15 we read that His resurrection gives us hope of our own (v16-20), the fear of death is removed (v26, 54-57), there are ethical implications (v32-34), motivation for ministry (v58), and even prompting to practical help for the poor (16:1, note Galatians 2:7-10).

Let’s preach the truth of the resurrection, let’s even allow our excitement to show, but let’s also try to be specifically clear in presenting the implications. It is easy in our excitement about the event to fall short in our relevance and application. Truly, everything is changed because Jesus rose from the dead. Part of our task is to help people see how that is true.

Preaching Easter (Pt3): Harmonization and the Gospels

/ Peter Mead / Leave a comment

Whenever we preach from the gospels we need to be aware that there may be up to four accounts of the story before us. In the past a great deal of emphasis was placed on harmonizing the gospel accounts. That is to say, placing all four side by side and seeking to combine them in order to have the “full” story. There is certainly a place for this practice, but how much of this should we concern ourselves with as preachers?

There are many elements in the Gospels that only appear in one gospel. In this case the issue of harmonization is largely irrelevant. But then there are events found in all of the gospels. The passion narrative, obviously, is found in all four.

Check all four gospels for accuracy in your preaching. If you are preaching from, say, Luke’s account, then it is helpful to check the other three. You wouldn’t want to undermine your preaching by telling the story in such a way that you make errors because you forgot to check the other gospels.

Preach the text rather than the event. Having checked the other gospels to make sure you are not presenting an error in your sermon, be sure to actually preach Luke’s account (or whichever you have as your preaching text). The gospel writers did not simply recount a transcript of a video taken the first Easter. They selectively chose the details to include in order to write an historically accurate theological presentation. Seek to preach the emphasis of the text you are in.

Struggling With Your Spouse?

/ Mike Roth / 1 Comment

Sunday morning is often an easy time to get into conflict with your spouse.  Somewhere between waking up and pulling up to the church parking lot, sparks can fly.

Haddon Robinson was asked by a seminary student, “How do you preach following a blow-out with your spouse?” Haddon answered, “Everyone wants to know you struggle, they just don’t want to smell the gun smoke. You have to make things right before you preach.”

Preaching Easter (Pt2): Shock and Awe

/ Peter Mead / 1 Comment

I expect we would agree that the typical crucifixion image that comes to mind is probably a little too “hygienic.” The traditional pictures seen in old churches with the Lord serene and clean, hanging on the cross with a minimal element of humiliation are so far from the brutal reality of the event. Those pictures, combined with the regularity with which we refer to the cross, lead many believers to have an unrealistic mental picture of Calvary.

As we preach the Easter story in the next days, we have the opportunity to tell the story well. We can give enough description, and take enough time, so that the image is able to form in peoples’ minds. We can give enough description so that the image forming is more accurate, less “clean” and closer to what actually happened. Historical and biblical accuracy should permeate our preaching of this great event.

However, this does not mean we should automatically “go all out.” It may be that overly graphic detail is unhelpful to some. I’ve heard some very effective presentations of the crucifixion that went into the medical details and the sickening truth of the event. I’ve also heard some where the “shock and awe” tactic backfired significantly. We must be aware of who will be listening and what will be most effective for them. Our goal is to present the biblical truth and call for response, not to repulse people with images that obscure the message. Remember that people will be drawn and convicted by the Holy Spirit, not by our skill in story telling that can stir the emotions into a frenzy.

Let’s try to find the right balance for our listeners this Easter. We need to tell the story well, we need to help people see and feel the reality of Calvary. But we also need to be careful to allow the Holy Spirit to stir the heart, rather than merely stirring the stomach by excessive shock and awe tactics.