Preacher’s Personal Life

Why Bible Reading is Down

/ Peter Mead / 1 Comment

BookI was interested to see an article by Peter Enns  exploring why Bible reading is down in churches today.  Biblica did some research and offered three conclusions.  Let me share their findings with my own thoughts here:

1. Bible reading is down because people read it in fragments

They point to the perennial problem of prooftexting.  The problem here goes both ways.  First, despite the proliferation of prooftexting in seemingly all types of Christian literature, as an approach it fails to live up to implicit promise.  People like to think that there are nuggets and bite-sized nibbles can satisfy the need for wisdom and instruction, but reality does not support this.  People need more than “a verse for this” and “a verse for that.”

Which leads to the second issue here.  Not only does prooftexting fall short, but it also steals the experience of seeing the bigger picture, the sweeping thoughts, the epic narratives and the heart-stirring poems of Scripture.  I often ponder the fact that the Bible men and women who I most aspire to be like are not those with a ready quiver full of pithy proof-texts, but those who know the God of the Bible because they are washed in the Bible as a whole, book by book.

2. Bible reading is down because people read it a-historically

The article points to Biblica’s approach to reordering the books in the canon.  This is interesting and I sometimes read through the Old Testament using the Jewish TNK order, or mix up the NT books into a different logical sequence.  I would push our thoughts in another direction than canon, however.  I think too many readers are reading Bible books looking for something to jump out to them today, as if the Bible were written as a relatively poor repository of ancient wisdom for future listeners to sift through and glean the lasting nuggets.

How much better the Bible becomes when we read it to find the God who revealed Himself to the original writers/readers, and who continues to reveal Himself through those books today, when understood in their own contexts.  Studying the historical setting of an epistle or a prophet can be a profound experience.  I remember reading the introduction to a weighty commentary on Isaiah – the introduction set me on fire for studying the Bible!  I would recommend reading something like Paul Maier’s “Flames of Rome” to enter into the historical context more, and then see if the epistles still feel so flat afterwards.

Tomorrow we will look at the third reason given . . .

Blog Review of 2013

/ Peter Mead / Leave a comment

DogBinoculars2It has been a quieter year on the blog as I have had to scale back the writing in recent months.  Launching a new church has certainly taken time and energy, but what a privilege it is to be involved in such a project.  Meanwhile, back at the blog:

Most popular posts, in reverse order:

Preaching Doxologies and also Preaching [Insert Word] Jesus, came in just behind  The Preacher’s Clock: Procrastination?  Preparation  & Anticipation.  Writing about Bible Reading usually gets a stir.

A single post about Reading and Preaching seemed to get a big reaction for a stand alone post.  The first in the Three Common Mistakes series proved the most provocative –  Genesis.  In second place came a mini-series called Dangerous Immunization  Part 2, along with a series on the dangers of Exemplar Preaching – Exemplar Christi, Exemplar Homo-Biblicas, Exemplar Persona Illustrations and Legitimate Exemplar Preaching.

The top series of 2013 was the Preaching Myths series back in the summer:  #1 – Pew Trust  #2 – Cool Preaching  #3 – Acid and Bleach    #4 – Non-Gospel Preaching  #5 – Short Talk Required  #6 – Evaluation Verboten  #7 – Sawn-Off Concordance  #8 – Delivery Equals Circus

Some of my favourites:

I enjoyed pondering and writing the following posts and want to mention them now – Why God Still Works Through Poor Preaching and Losing our Youth by Dangerous Superficiality, which is closely tied to Static vs Dynamic Position Principle.  I wish churches would use testimonies, but not without a guide along the lines of Ten Top Testimony Tips.  I enjoyed the work that went into the Repentance Word Study in Acts.

I think my favourite series was How to Preach Less than Christian – Part 1  Part 2  Part 3  Part 4

Highest Impact Books:

I was able to review some stunning books this year.  Here are four not to miss.  Probably the best biography I’ve read is Jonathan Edwards, A Life by George Marsden.  A must read for people preaching the Gospels is Pontius Pilate by Paul Maier.  I recently wrote on a great little book on the Apostle Paul’s writings – How to Like Paul Again, by Conrad Gempf.  And for anyone involved in church work, take a look at Deep and Wide, by Andy Stanley.  (I enjoyed writing a film review on Les Mis too Click here to go there.)

Thanks for visiting the blog this year.  I hope that 2014 will be a good year for the blog, and an even better year for all our preaching!

Read Your Bible in 2014? Part 2

/ Peter Mead / 7 Comments

BookIt has been a couple of years since I suggested that the famous reading plan of a certain famous Christian was not a good idea.  (If you want to see that post, click here.)  That plan, and many that have copied it, involves reading a small handful of chapters each day.  The chapters are from different places in the canon.  I know some people swear by this approach, but I am unconvinced.  Here’s why:

1. Why treat the Bible chapters as vitamin pills rather than part of a coherent feast?  Why pursue “balance” with a passion, but sacrifice the divine design?  God gave us books, not an assortment of random chapters.

2. Why choose to not read chapters in their context?  Esther is hard to put down, so is Ephesians, and Hebrews always grips me, and there are over 60 other books, most of which are an awesome read in flow.  Why take a bit of one meal and then a bite of another?

3. Why miss out on the delight of noise-free reading?  For the first minutes of our Bible reading, perhaps 10-15, we have a mental noise in the background: things to do, don’t forget this, remember that, what about…  Once that clears, we zero in and enjoy what we are reading.  Read for ten minutes and you will be ready to stop.  Read for 30-40 and you will struggle to put it down.  Most reading plans cater to 10-12 minute reading loads.  So you could struggle year after year with these disciplined approaches, but absolutely thrive on the simple approach of reading a decent chunk in flow.  Really?  People who struggle to read the Bible through in a year may find it easier and more enjoyable to read it 2 or 3 times in a year?  Yes.

4. Why take a checklist approach to the most important relationship?  I don’t have to force myself to read sports news, or eat three meals a day, and certainly don’t require a checklist to remember to interact with my wife each day.  I don’t tend to be impressed with reticent disciplined Bible readers.  But those who delight in God tend to be people who devour the Bible.  That may look like discipline, love usually does, but discipline is not the way to get there.

Perhaps it is worth pondering how to encourage people by enthusiastic invitation, rather than by affirming the “difficulty” and “trudgery” of “getting through the Bible” in a year or three.  Here is a link to my friend Ron’s article on Bible reading – as “Bible presenters” lets be sure to be genuine Bible enthusiasts that do more than try to fire up the so-called disciplined wills of our listeners!

Read Your Bible in 2014?

/ Peter Mead / 2 Comments

BookTwo years ago I wrote a post that seemed to polarize readers.  I suggested that the famous reading plan of a certain famous Christian was not a good idea.  If you want to see that post, click here.  Let me offer some thoughts on this as we head toward a new year and probably a fair few resolutions for preachers and non-preachers alike.

I am a huge fan of getting people to read the Bible.  While there are numerous ways to walk devotionally with our God, every other option surely must be undergirded and shot through with exposure to the Bible – God’s primary means of self-revelation and input into our lives.

If a reading plan is the only way to motivate someone, fine, so be it.  But I am concerned whenever I sense a lack of motivation in myself or in others.  I think that too often we treat a lack of motivation as a normal emotional problem to be overcome by diligence, accountability and determination.

I would suggest that we treat a lack of motivation as a flashing light on the dashboard of our lives.  When the oil light flashes I don’t obey it and choose not to drive the car.  Equally I don’t disregard it and press on.  I address the issue.  Same with a lack of motivation for Bible reading . . . don’t simply obey it, nor ignore it, but address it.  The best way I have found is to talk to God about that lack of motivation.  Be honest.  Out loud.  Tell him what is more attractive to you than His self-revelation.  That should prove to be convicting and bring us back in humility with a brokenness and renewed, albeit weak, hunger to hear from Him that we might respond as we should.

The best motivation for Bible reading is a hunger to know God more.  Therefore the best motivator for stirring others to read their Bibles is to know God more and be infectious with it.  When you are captured by a person, others will want to know Him too.  This is a far cry from language of diligence and discipline and so on.

I don’t ask my friends to hold me accountable to pretend to love my wife and listen to her.  I may ask them to point out if they see me rationalizing a drift from healthy relationships though.  Same with the Bible reading.  I don’t need someone to crack the whip to make me do it, but I am wide open to hearing from a friend that I seem touchy or less excited about God than is normal.

So next time I will come back to the reading plan issue and share some thoughts.  None of this is intended to stir up the hornets nest again, just to stir our thinking as we head toward a New Year and probably a lot of renewed motivation to be consistent in Bible reading . . .

One Step Closer

/ Peter Mead / 4 Comments

SteppingForward2Sometimes taking one step forward can make a huge difference.  Instead of remaining at arms length, one step can cross numerous boundaries of personal space and move you into a zone of great importance – this is true in romance, in fighting, in conversation, and in preaching.

Beginning preachers, and some that have preached for years, tend to preach their message at arms length. Some do so by some sort of conviction, others more unawares.  They study and prepare, but it is all about the notes.  From the Bible to the notes to the people.  Arms length. Somehow there is a nervousness about this thing out there called the message.  The preacher is anxious about saying the right words and that anxiety sometimes shows.  Even without showing overtly, it does leave the message somewhat flat, just about the words.

But one step forward can make such a difference.  If the entire process of Bible study, message preparation and delivery can all be brought inside the personal space, the preaching is very different.  Instead of something the preacher is straining to not forget, now the message comes from the heart.  Instead of preaching being truth preached by a personality (often a stilted personality trying to remember the message), now the message can be truth through personality.  Instead of a message being handled at arms length from the Bible text to the listeners, via the notes of the preacher, now the message comes through the preacher with the force of the life transforming power of the Word – clear and unhindered.

I am not really writing about notes.  More about whether the Bible is a curiosity and data source, a professional tool, or a personal treasure from a God who moves intimately into our personal space to wreck our self-absorbed worlds, bring about massive transformation and a deep intimacy.  I am suggesting our message preparation should be a unique experience for each of us, rather than following the checklist of someone else’s model.  I am saying that our delivery should come from the totality of a gripped heart and life in transformation, rather than being a mere transfer of information from notes to listeners.

It’s hard to pin down exactly how one message can be preached at arms length, while another comes through the heart of the preacher.  Yet as a listener it is usually not so hard to tell the difference.

50 Summer Preaching Tweaks: 46-50

/ Peter Mead / 1 Comment

Summer50bHere we are, the final five of the big summer fifty.

46. Read some descriptive writing.  If all you ever read is biblical commentary and theological textbooks, it will show in your preaching.  Find someone who can write effectively and spend some time with them.  We need to be able to paint pictures with our words, not just offer precise abstractions.

47. Pray about improving your preaching.  I too easily treat this as a given, so I’ll mention it again.  If you are a preacher, you should be praying.  Apart from me you can do nothing.  So why not pray specifically for God to show you areas to improve and to help make those improvements happen?

48. Nail a landing.  I’m always impressed when a preacher knows where he is going, gets there, and stops effectively the first time around.  Why not make that the goal next time you preach?  Even if you don’t write the whole sermon, at least write out the last couple of paragraphs and then nail it!

49. Schedule a break.  Summer is coming to an end and it is probably all systems go, but why not plan now for a break?  Find a couple of Sundays and book them off.  Make an appointment with a B&B or with a church visit somewhere else and just go sit.  If you always give out, you will not be serving your congregation well.

50. Prioritize a prayer list of preaching concerns.  Just to reinforce the earlier point, maybe it is time to make an actual list of preaching prayer points.  Maybe you track illustrations, maybe you have a preaching schedule.  But why not have a page of specific prayer points related to your preaching – include matters of preparation, of delivery, of growth, of longed for goals, etc.

Thanks for thinking through these.  Have any stood out as new?  Helpful? Relevant to you?

50 Summer Preaching Tweaks: 26-30

/ Peter Mead / Leave a comment

Summer50bFive more suggestions that may or may not be helpful as you ponder moving your preaching to the next level:

26. Go on an illustration hunt for a week.  Take a week when you are not preaching, carry a notebook and try to fill it with material for messages.  It could be traditional anecdotes, quotes, etc., but also look for normal life observations that people will resonate with . . . an illustration does not need to sound like it comes from an anthology of illustrations (please).

27. Evaluate a masterful communicator.  Pick someone you think is a great communicator and watch them as if they are preaching in your classroom.  What are they doing well?  Why does it work?  What can you learn?  Perhaps take a traditional and a contemporary communicator, maybe even one from another culture . . . watch and learn.

28. Preach through a prayerful rehearsal.  If you think it is unspiritual to run through a message out loud, perhaps the time has come.  Pray, and go for it.  Some things will only become evident when you hear them with your own ears!  If you can preach where you will preach, all the better!

29. Pray for the people in their places.  You know where certain people sit.  Pray for them and the effect of the forthcoming ministry on their hearts and lives. It will help them, and it will help your preaching to invest in them in this way.  Bless the church is a bit more vague than any prayer you will find in the Bible! Take a deep gulp of Colossians 1:9ff and then pray for people in your church.

30. Preach a grain instead of a slice.  We can get very stuck in the pattern of preaching a chunk of text.  Consider preaching a grain instead – that is, a theme as it develops through a book or section.  You could even do this beyond the borders of a book and give a biblical theology of something.  Don’t over reach, but variation can be so healthy for listeners as well as preachers!

50 Summer Preaching Tweaks: 1-5

/ Peter Mead / Leave a comment

Summer50bAs we are all about to head into a new (school) year of preaching, how about a big collection of little tweaks for effective preaching?  In no particular order, here come the fifty summer tweaks to sift through and prayerfully consider:

1. Be mastered by a book.  Whether you regularly preach through whole books or not, make sure you spend enough time soaking in a book that it can truly grip you.  Be saturated so that when squeezed, you ooze the content of that book.  Then prepare a series to invite others into that blessing.

2. Invite others into the preparation process.  We all tend to go solo on preaching preparation.  Invite some folks to join you.  Perhaps in a group,  perhaps a series of conversations, perhaps ask for help on facebook or twitter.  Perhaps talk through the message, perhaps ask for help on support material, perhaps find out where others think the points of tension lie.  It will probably be better together.

3. Lean less on your notes.  If you are a manuscript reader, take only an outline. If you are a notes user, experiment with note-less.  Be as prepared as you can, but make the message simpler in structure, stick in a passage and run through it several times.  Going noteless is not as hard as you think, and the benefits might mean you never go back!

4. Stay put, dig deeper.  If you are a concordance freestyler, try preaching a message where you stay put.  You will find that you will tend to dig deeper in the passage and apply more fully in the present.  Both are good things!  Only cross-reference if there is a genuine need to do so.

5. Craft the main idea a little bit more.  Take an hour at some point and work on the main idea of the message for an hour more than you normally would.  How can it be more precise, more memorable, more relevant, more text specific, more encouraging, less wordy, less historic, less theologically phrased?

Preaching Myths #8 – Delivery Equals Circus

/ Peter Mead / 1 Comment

myth2How about a pair of myths?

 “As long as the content of a sermon is true, that is good preaching.”

“Delivery doesn’t matter, the church is not a circus.”

According to the dictionary a circus is “a frenetic disorganized disturbance” or “a performance given by a travelling company of clowns and animals.”  I should probably leave that alone and affirm the notion that the church is not supposed to be a circus.

However, to reject any effort regarding the delivery of preaching because that may turn into a performance of entertainment is like refusing to exercise in case you turn into Mr Olympia.

Preaching is not about performance, and neither is it about a set of words.  It is about communication.  This is crucial to grasp.  The prophets, Jesus, the apostles – they were effective communicators!  Good communication is always concerned with what the recipient hears and understands.

Take a solid biblical sermon and preach it without any thought as to the delivery, what might be understood?

1. This is not important.  Why?  Because the preacher’s body language, posture and energy levels indicate a lack of conviction.

2. This is not relevant.  Why?  Because the preacher’s dress sense and lack of eye contact made the message feel distant and aloof.

3. This is not true.  Why?  Because the preacher never looks at us and is decidedly shifty in mannerisms.

4. This is not good news.  Why?  Because the preacher never smiles and gives off an aggressive I-don’t-like-you vibe.

5. This is not comprehensible.  Why?  Because the preacher gives no thought to annunciation, and the delivery is not engaging, so the bored listeners perceive the message to make no sense.

Delivery can never substitute for content, but bad delivery will always sabotage good content.

If preaching were just the content, we could mail a manuscript and save time from our Sunday mornings.  Preaching is content appropriately clad in the clothing of relationship, communication and connection.