10 Pointers for Seminary Trained Preachers

March 23, 2015March 25, 2015 / Peter Mead / 1 Comment

The periodic 10 Pointers series is going to add two more posts this week. Previously we’ve considered younger preachers, older preachers, and preaching teams. Here’s a set of 10 pointers for those of us who have had the privilege of studying in a Bible College or Seminary. Next time we will offer 10 pointers for those without formal training.

Disclaimer – I get frustrated with articles written about “all the things I never learned in seminary.” I really praise God for the time I got to spend at two great seminaries and feel they prepared me very well for ministry. This post is not intended to critique formal training, I believe in its value, but I also want to be honest about its dangers.

1. Graduation is not the end of learning – I am so thankful for the years I was able to spend in seminary, but I have learned a lot since. Seminary equipped you to some degree for ministry (some institutions do better than others at this), but most of all, it equipped you to keep on reading, studying, learning and growing. You cannot have a fresh and vibrant ministry today based on how good your Romans lecturer was back in the day.

2. Don’t treat your pulpit as a surrogate classroom – Academia has a habit of stirring a desire in some, though not all, to pursue further degrees and to aspire to teach in the classroom. I am probably right in stating that you didn’t yet get hired by the seminary of your dreams to join the faculty. Please don’t impose that aspiration on your church by turning your preaching ministry into pulpit lecturing. Create venues to train, accept invitations to lecture, but when Sunday comes, be sure to preach the Word!

3. Seminary is a glory environment, but ministry is done in the trenches – I loved my years in seminary, but it is clear that academia has the poison of human glory in its very DNA. There’s the prestige of the institution, regular praise from feedback on projects, peer competition via grades, ego stroking through certification and awards. Everyone in seminary should ponder the last verses of John 5 at least twice each day. If you are now out of seminary and in church ministry, welcome to the trenches. Ministry tends to keep its servants wounded and humble. This is probably healthier than the intoxicating glory chase of academia.

4. Education can undermine authentic spirituality – Having left the institution of learning, you probably need to detox. I am being provocative, even though I loved my seminary years. However, the human glory DNA can really undermine a close daily walk with Jesus. Our spirituality can grow sophisticated, our theology can grow heady, and our Lord can seem to grow distant. Beware of plastic spirituality. Your church needs you walking closely with Jesus more than they need your great learning.

5. Pray for God to develop a loud pride radar – You may have thrived in studying languages, or theology, or whatever. Perhaps, post-Seminary, God needs to help your character catch up with your learning. One helpful tool would be a loud radar that beeps whenever your fleshly inclination toward pride rears its head. Pray for this. And speaking of pride – don’t name drop. You may have learned Romans from Professor Doctor Exegenius, but people probably don’t need to know that. Just give them Romans!

6. The Bible says more about the heart than a lot of academia does – Due to a potent combination of emphasising the intellectual, mixed with some philosophical assumptions, and buried in dubious exegesis, many in academia turn the biblical emphasis on the heart into a matter of cognitive processing. Good preaching, good counselling, and good living, all requires a spirituality that is hearty, not just heady.

7. Make sure your learning closes the gap through clarity, rather than extending it through impressiveness – Watch you vocabulary as well as your attitude. Technical terminology is typically unnecessary. Grammatical and original language references are almost always unhelpful. The best athletes make their sport look easy. The best preachers don’t obfuscate.

8. Good classrooms include robust discussion, but good ministry requires Christlike love – So perhaps you formulated a watertight theological position on divorce or whatever. In church world you need to be able to lovingly shepherd real people with real pasts and real struggles. You will need the biblical basis, and you will need a heart of love and compassion.

9. Incidentally, your listeners are typically not as interested in your Bible school experiences as you are interested in telling the stories – They need to know that the Gospel works in real life, so don’t keep talking about how good it was when you were in seminary. That can seem like a bubble to those who’ve not experienced it. Instead, talk about how good God is in the midst of the life experiences you share now.

10. Own what you preach, and be owned by the One you preach about – Don’t regurgitate your class notes. People can tell. Instead preach out of the overflow of a present day walk with Christ that is vibrant and vital. Be thankful for your seminary years, but never despise where you are now. God has brought you to this point to know Him now and spill that goodness onto others as you preach.

I am sure there are many points that could be added. I probably should have written that you should wear your learning like your underwear: It is important that you have it on, but don’t let it show. Maybe I should have nudged you to pray about paying off any education debts. But, I ran out of points. What do you think should be included here?

3 Ways Preachers Fear Listeners

March 17, 2015 / Peter Mead / Leave a comment

Preachers can fear listeners. When they do, the ministry suffers. Here are three ways preachers fear listeners:

1. I am scared because you are there! This “deer in the headlights fear” is typically an issue for the beginner preacher. Actually, the fear is usually of public speaking. Seeing all the faces looking toward them, the preacher freezes and goes into a restricted function coping mechanism. Vocal range becomes limited, pauses disappear, body language gets stuck, the mind struggles to think clearly. This can occur for more experienced preachers under specific circumstances (perhaps a special event, preaching in a new venue, preaching after illness), but typically preachers who have moved past the deer in the headlights fear will be able to adjust fairly easily to new circumstances.

2. I am scared of what you might do! The itchy-ear-scratching fear can occur for a variety of reasons. Perhaps the preacher wants to keep listeners happy rather than stirring any controversy. Maybe the preacher feels their position or even salary is being threatened (after all, churches can become hideously political environments). The result of getting the gaze fixed on the listeners evaluations will be preaching that is stripped of its potential. Sometimes God wants to stir up listeners, or challenge them, or change them. Itchy-ear-scratching preachers are dull tools for divine purposes.

3. I am scared of what you will think! This need to impress is closely related to the itchy-ear-scratching fear. The preacher’s insecurity is more about self than about what the listeners want. This is about what the listeners think. Are they impressed? Do they think I am clever? Spiritual? A good leader? Because if they think that, then maybe I am. All fears are forms of insecurity, and this one is certainly a matter of insecurity. This is a preacher whose identity is found in what others think rather than in what God says to be true.

There are other fears too. The fear of consequences if we preach certain things will probably only grow as culture “progresses.” What fears would you add to the list? What fears do you sense in your own heart when you preach?

What Are You Giving Away?

March 12, 2015March 12, 2015 / Peter Mead / 2 Comments

“The value of a life is always measured by how much of it is given away.” – Andy Stanley

Any preaching ministry involves giving. You give of yourself in preparation. You give of yourself in delivery. And often you feel spent when you are done. But the relationship between visible ministry and giving is a complex one.

Public ministry is certainly demanding, but it can also come with its own rewards. People see you. People may respect and appreciate you. People may even pay you. Once there is reimbursement in the equation, then the giving nature of ministry can become murky.

This is why I think Andy Stanley’s quote is so important for those of us who are involved in visible ministries – whether that is preaching, or teaching, or leadership, etc.

What are you giving in secret?

Please don’t comment and answer that question!

Here are some quick thoughts to ponder:

1. If all your giving in ministry is public, then your giving is not secret. There is something about giving of ourselves without attention that is so important.

2. If all your giving in ministry is public, then your giving is being rewarded. There is something about rewarded giving that somehow undermines the reality of the giving.

3. Even if you ministry is public, there is plenty you could give that is not. Obviously there is financial giving, but there is a lot more too. What about mentoring other preachers and leaders? What about leveraging your contacts and resources for the sake of others in ministry? What about strategizing together with others about their ministry? What about dreaming together with an individual and believing in them as they launch something you aren’t associated with? What about encouraging folks by private message, personal phone calls, etc.? What about praying – and not just for your own ministry and its multiplication?

The value of your life is not measured by the profile you achieve in ministry, but by the reality of how much of it is given away.

Who Turned Preaching Into a Solo Sport?

March 6, 2015March 6, 2015 / Peter Mead / 10 Comments

The vast majority of churches rely almost exclusively on a solo preacher. The vast majority of preachers prepare in isolation. Who turned preaching into a solo sport?

Here are six factors that have influenced this situation. None of them make a good case for going solo!

1. Tradition! – it is hard to overstate the impact of what you have always seen and experienced. Pastors protect their pulpits and prepare alone. It is what our fathers and forefathers before them have always done. So it must be right!

2. Solitary Spirituality – the preacher is, after all, the anointed individual that climbs the stairs to the study and meets with God, alone. We are much more into Moses on the mountain in Exodus 33/34 than we are into the Moses + Joshua in the tent with the LORD earlier in Exodus 33, or Moses and all the elders together meeting with God in Exodus 24! Actually, if truth be told, we aren’t Moses. We are members of the Body of Christ – and the New Testament description of spirituality is far more communal and shared than it is isolationist and solitary.

3. Clergy-Laity – the church has been a big promoter of a gulf between clergy and laity for centuries, but it is difficult to make a case from the New Testament for the distance that has been created. A priestly class feels threatened by the invitation to share ministry with others, and a comfortable laity feels intimidated by the idea of joining in. Perhaps we need to revisit the Bible regarding this assumption about the people of God.

4. Single Salary – since many churches only pay one person to be the pastor, there will be a pressure for that pastor to be the preacher. Unless something is done about it, the default assumption of both congregation and pastor will be that the pastor should preach. What are we paying for? (Actually, much more than just preaching!)

5. Fallen Nature – preachers are human and suffer the same weaknesses others do. This means they are likely to self-protect, both in terms of sharing the pulpit, and in terms of sharing preparation. Human nature wants to be at the top of a pyramid, not sharing credit with others. Human nature is such that I will assume my ideas are better than your ideas, so why should I hear your ideas anyway?

6. Insecurity – this one is massive. How much spirituality is actually a mask for personal insecurity? We don’t want to share our sermon thoughts with others until we roll out the finished article on Sunday, no matter how much it might help us to do so. Insecurity will always seek to undermine ministry in team. What if someone is better than me? What if their input improves my message? What if they are? Praise God if it does!

On Monday I will post 10 Pointers for Preaching Teams. This preparatory post is intended to stir our thinking. Why do we prepare alone? Why do we resist sharing our pulpits?

How Do You Pray for Fellow Believers?

February 28, 2015February 28, 2015 / Peter Mead / Leave a comment

There is a strange phenomena in the church when it comes to praying for people. Obviously this is a generalisation, but I have observed it enough to suggest that it may be a pattern.

When people become followers of Jesus our prayers for them seem to change. Before they are saved we pray for God to work in their lives and circumstances, for their hearts to be drawn to Christ, for the spiritual blindness to be taken away, etc. Once they trust Christ and are in the family, then what do we pray for? Often it seems to shift to the more mundane matters of health and career.

This is not just the case in church prayer meetings, but also among leaders too. I know that I am tempted to pray more fervently and more “spiritually” for those who are outside God’s family, or for those who are on the fringes. But for those who seem to be doing well in human terms? It is tempting to assume all is well.

Take a look at Paul’s prayer for the Ephesians in 1:15-23. He begins by referencing how thankful he is for their faith in Christ and love for the saints. These are healthy believers – they have a vertical relationship that is spilling into their horizontal relationships. These are the kind of people I am tempted to bypass as I pray. Not so for Paul!

The One Thing – He goes on to make clear the one thing that he prays for them: that the Father might give them the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him! That is, Paul prays for these believers to know God. Simple. Or is it profound?

Clearly he doesn’t mean that he wants them to “come to know” God, but to grow in their knowing Him. He wants their relationship with God to go deeper, that the union they have with Christ should become more vibrant and developed. (Remember that “in Christ” occurs almost forty times in Ephesians – union with Christ is a massive theme in the letter.)

I suspect many of us who have a passion to see the lost brought to salvation may fall into the trap of then missing the growth potential that exists for a believer. There is so much more than just getting saved and then telling others, there is massive potential for spiritual growth and maturity.

The Three Things – Paul spells out this one prayer request with three specifics. He wants God to enlighten the eyes of their hearts to know three things.

First, he wants them to know the absolute certainty of their calling in Christ. We have churches filled with people who carry the label of Christian, and yet have all manner of uncertainty and confusion over God’s calling on their lives.

Second, he wants them to know that they are God’s inheritance – an inheritance He considers to be gloriously rich! This is not something new believers readily grasp. Just as it takes a wife many years to truly believe that her husband really loves her, so it is with God’s people.

Third, he wants them to know how much power there is toward them as they trust God for it. That is, is there enough power for a life like mine to be truly transformed by the gospel? Is there enough power for me to be raised from my sinful state of death to do the works God has prepared for me to do? There is if that power is the same power that raised Christ from the dead, seated him in glory, put all enemies under his feet and made him head over the church!

Paul’s prayer for the Ephesians is incredibly encouraging for us to read. More than that, it is deeply challenging to recognize that this prayer was prayed for those who were already faithful and loving. Let’s not bypass those that seem healthy and established in our churches and in our ministry spheres. Let’s pray for them, and for ourselves too, to be growing in our relationship with God, knowing more profoundly the reality of our hope, his inheritance and the abundance of power available!

10 Pointers for Older Preachers

February 18, 2015 / Peter Mead / 7 Comments

I offered 10 pointers to young preachers without being old enough to be a sage. There will certainly be better advice out there, but I am going to take the risk of offering some thoughts to older preachers before I fully arrive in that category:

1. Keep getting to know God. You may know more than others, but you never know God enough. Keep your life ambition to really know and love Him, and the impact of your life and ministry will keep growing!

2. Doggedly maintain a teachable spirit. This will allow you to keep teaching others. If you stop learning and growing we can tell, but we can’t tell you.

3. Never trade a goal of gospel transformation for behavioral conformity. As energy for leadership and ministry wane, so pushing for conformity in others will become more attractive. Hold out the gospel always!

4. Embrace the transition from king to sage. Too many leaders have undone their good work by resisting this transition and clinging to power. As we age, “strategic ministry” shifts from a position and office to an attitude and role. We need sages freed from leadership responsibilities, who have a fresh passion for the gospel, and enthusiasm for the next generation of leaders!

5. Become a champion, not a liability. You have seen older folks become crotchety/awkward/negative and others age with dignity/delight/enthusiasm. You already know what I’m asking.

6. Always be a Bible person, not an issue person. It is tempting to let issues define your ministry, and these will shift over the years. Instead of heralding a personal pet peeve, keep growing an infectious passion for the Bible.

7. Please stay humble. Even with all your experience and insight, God still doesn’t need you. But He really loves you. The kingdom of self is ugly at any age. Those of us who are younger need the humble you. Your experience and insight, salted with humility, is priceless to us.

8. Don’t try to be cool, but do stay up-to-date. This applies both to wider culture and to theological content. The greatest examples of older preachers have always been refreshingly aware, rather than defensively resistant, to a changing context.

9. Discriminate feedback. People will praise any public speaker. Just as people automatically encourage a young preacher, so the polite thing to do is thank an older preacher. Don’t maintain a ministry on a diet of ambiguous politeness. Get genuine and honest feedback.

10. Past ministry glories don’t shine from your face, but a close walk with Jesus does. There are lots of older preachers feeling frustrated as their energy and opportunities for ministry fade. The few who love Jesus more than ever are one of God’s greatest gifts to the church.

Biggest Mistakes Preachers Make – pt 4

February 17, 2015 / Peter Mead / Leave a comment

This is a series of big adjustments rather than fine tweaks. We’ve thought about content and audience, but here is another big issue:

Mistake 4 – Starting Too Late

There is all sorts of mythology around about the hundreds of hours some preachers invest into a single sermon, and even about some who only prepare minimally. Perhaps the bigger issue is not simply the total time invested, but the spread of the time invested. Here is a simple and healthy guideline:

Before God, give as many hours as you can, over as long a period as you can, to prepare the best sermon you can.

1. Before God … that is, you answer to Him. Don’t make decisions based on what others think (although people telling you your sermon seemed unprepared is a red flag to take onboard!) Our ministry is ultimately a stewardship and God knows the balance that makes sense for us. I could sacrifice the health of my marriage, my family, and other aspects of church life, as well as personal health and hygiene in order to give every conceivable moment to preparing a sermon. I doubt God would be impressed. It is before God that we make the value judgments on time. Equally, if emergencies crowd lots of allotted preparation time, or if we step in at the last minute, then God knows that. So before God…

2. Give as many hours as you can … that is, it takes time to do the work of preparing to preach. It takes time to study a passage. It takes time to properly pray for the people. It takes time to wrestle with the wording of the main idea. It takes time to thrash out the best sermon strategy. It takes time to work out the best support material. It takes time to get past logjams in our preparation. It takes time to preach a message through out loud and make adjustments. It takes time. Wider reading, targeted reading, related research. It takes time. Don’t try to impress people by minimalist preparation. And don’t appease your own conscience in some twisted way by giving minimal time and then saying you did the best you could.

3. Over as long a period as you can … here is the crux of the matter for this post. If you start on Friday or Saturday, you might be able to technically do what is necessary, but only just, and probably not at all. That is, only just in terms of reading, study and research. Having longer allows you to stew on research, ask others and develop ideas in conversation, read commentaries and articles in a more considered way. And secondly, you probably can’t do what is necessary at all in the sense of letting the passage do its work in your heart and life. Deep appreciation of a biblical passage on a Saturday night may lead to a special moment of worship, but it doesn’t forge true conviction in the inner matrix of your heart and soul.

There are benefits to planning series months ahead to allow for drip feed study, prayer and research. There are benefits to starting 10 days before a Sunday, rather than 5 days before on the Tuesday. Starting unnecessarily late may be undermining the potential for God to work in you, and through you.

Overflow Leadership: 2 Vital Ingredients

January 31, 2015January 28, 2015 / Peter Mead / Leave a comment

The great temptation in any leadership is to think that my leadership is about me. It isn’t. True leadership will be more concerned with those that I lead than me as the leader. And true leadership will always recognize that I can only give what I have first received.

As I write this we are about to start into the fifth year of the Cor Deo full-time training program here in England. It is a small ministry focused on mentoring and training participants to multiply ministry that will make a profound impact. What can we give to these participants that we did not first receive? Nothing.

The best leadership, the best mentoring, and the best teaching, will always be overflow leadership, overflow mentoring, overflow teaching. That is, as I have received, so I can overflow to others. The great danger for any leader, mentor, or teacher, is to start to think that our ministry comes from our own capacity, our own ability, or our own accumulated knowledge.

How can we avoid the subtle shift from overflow ministry to stagnant self-absorbed ministry? Here are two vital ingredients to protect us from this dangerous (and natural) shift:

1. Personal Gratitude. It is not enough to be grateful when nudged to be grateful. We need to continually return to a place of gratitude as we give ourselves away in ministry. Let’s be thankful for all the training we have received, conferences we have attended, books we have read, and mentors we have been blessed to spend time with. Thankfulness reorients our hearts to God’s kindness toward us.

Actually, it is not just the obviously good gifts that have brought us to this place in our ministry. Great ministry is typically forged in the crucible of significant challenges. But without thankfulness, challenges typically bring only bitterness. Let’s be thankful for all the difficult situations, setbacks, apparently unanswered prayers, opposition and disappointments.

Good ministry comes from overflow, not personal capacity (where I have learned, and I have accumulated, and I have become . . . the gravitational pull of our flesh will always reorient our hearts to self-praise). Gratitude is a vital ingredient to maintaining healthy overflow ministry.

2. Spiritual Integrity. God has invested a lot into each one of us over the past years. The obvious blessings, the careful character sculpting, etc. Gratitude protects us from believing that we have made ourselves somebody significant. But there is another issue that I hinted at already – the danger of stagnancy. Past blessings can quickly grow stagnant if there is not a present reality to my spiritual walk.

I cannot dispense teaching or leadership from a reservoir that was filled twenty years ago, or even last month. For all of that to be fresh today, it must be stirred by the present reality of a personal walk with Christ. The Bible uses language of God pouring out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit (Rom.5:5). Elsewhere Paul uses the present tense to speak of being filled with the Spirit (Eph.5:18).

God pours out His love into my heart and consequently I can love in leadership, in mentoring, in teaching . . . but if the gaze of my heart shifts from Him to myself, then my reservoir starts to drain down and grow stagnant. Without the present reality, all the past investment loses its present value.

As I head into another season of ministry, I want to be grateful for all I have received, and make sure there is a present dynamic reality of abiding in Christ’s love so that I can overflow to others. We cannot give anything of value that we did not first receive. Not just what we received in the past, but also what God wants to give us today.

Help! My Listeners Aren’t Satisfied! #4

January 30, 2015January 28, 2015 / Peter Mead / 1 Comment

So we are coming to the end of this series on processing listener dissatisfaction. It is not an easy subject, but so important. Here’s a thought that needs to be thrown into the mix:

7. Know there is more than one way to serve! I have written this series of thoughts from the perspective that you should be preaching. Maybe you shouldn’t. There is no shame in that. Perhaps the hassle of critique undermines too much and indicates a lack of gifting. We have made this option very difficult by uniting vocational ministry with Sunday preaching and salaries, resulting in people feeling like there is no way out, no way to stop preaching without resigning from church leadership. Recognizing the complexity of that, the truth still remains, there are other ministries to serve in apart from preaching. I have known some wonderful church leaders who had lifelong effective ministry, but weren’t preachers.

If, in your honest moments, you recognize that repeated critique is lovingly offered and actually on target, then prayerfully consider swallowing your pride and serving in an area of strength. You will be a better steward of your life, God will be pleased, and the church will be strengthened. Maybe cut and paste this point to start the conversation with a trusted friend in your church.

8. Know your own inner landscape. We all have emotional baggage buried inside us. Criticism has a unique ability to slip through, stir up a deep wound and create inner turmoil. It is good to prayerfully ask God to help you evaluate and understand your own inner workings so that you don’t face a never ending attack from external and internal foes. What does criticism do inside you? Why?

9. Pursue helpful feedback and support. We cannot have a growing and effective preaching ministry alone. We need to find those who will give honest, gracious, constructive input, and who will encourage us when we feel discouraged in our ministry. This may be a friend or two within the church. It may be a fellow leader from another church. It may also be (although not exclusively) a hero from the past – biblical heroes and church history heroes typically all endured incredible misunderstanding, devastating personal circumstances, a torrent of abuse and even martyrdom as they served God. Spending time with the Apostle Paul or Martin Luther or Jonathan Edwards or whoever will be a real help.

10. Whatever the justification for criticism, be sure it improves your preaching! While it may not have been stated well, or perhaps it was more of an attack on you than a piece of constructive criticism, there may well be a kernel of truth in there that can help you! If you shrug off all criticism then your imperviousness will undermine your ability to minister with any sensitivity. A cast iron shell is not what you need for ministry. What you need is a tender heart, but with a life-giving God who can pick you up and keep you pressing on to growth and effectiveness. By all means think through how to protect yourself from an enemy that will work through people in your church to wipe you out, but know that God doesn’t typically call us to be the reverend Rambo.

That’s it for this series, but please comment freely and add your thoughts (here or on Twitter – @PeterMead, #ListenerSatisfaction)

Help! My Listeners Aren’t Satisfied! #3

January 29, 2015January 29, 2015 / Peter Mead / Leave a comment

There is “over-blurt” and “misdirected fire,” and we need to bring God right into the centre of this whole discussion. But there is more to consider. What if we see listener satisfaction incorrectly, or make mistakes in how we receive it?

5. Remember that the “Happy Test” is flawed. Happy listeners may make your Sunday afternoon easier, but it may not be the best indicator of church health. Our goal is not to make listeners happy with us. Our goal is to faithfully introduce the heart of God through careful, engaging and relevant presentation of the biblical text and its implication for their lives.

What if the text convicts, prods, pokes, and makes them uncomfortable? What if encountering God shines a light in protected dark places and they don’t like what shows up? What if their dissatisfaction toward you and your preaching is a sign that the Word of God is getting through? (Please be careful here, your flesh will want this to be true in every case and it may not be!)

Churches often create an atmosphere where the preacher feels like they are supposed to be popular (this is true with potential pastor dating – “preaching with a view,” but it also continues since many churches tend to dismiss the unpopular pastors too . . . does this reflect the dating and divorce culture we now live in? Maybe just a bit?)

6. Know that “anonymous” feedback is often useless. People in churches like to blast away from under the cover of anonymity. This may come from a feedback collection survey (these do have value and I am not dismissing the possibility of doing these anonymously, but be prepared to filter overt attacks from under the cover this generates – perhaps have a couple of mature co-leaders filter out anything that smells of vendetta rather than constructive input?)

The more dangerous mortar attacks tend to come through, “I know someone who said…”, or worse, “a lot of people are saying…” Again, there may be a place for this if a co-leader is guarding your heart by filtering slightly. However, as a general rule, anonymous critique should be resisted. People should be able to express critique and have follow up conversation. If they are scared of you, then you shouldn’t be in ministry. If they are scared of being identified, maybe their critique is illegitimately motivated?

More to come, but comment freely (here or on Twitter – @PeterMead, #ListenerSatisfaction)