Preacher’s Personal Life

The Struggle for Reference Simplicity

/ Peter Mead / Leave a comment

Yesterday I was sharing about the issue of complexity in explanation.  Another aspect of complexity is that of over-cross-referencing.  I have addressed this issue before, but it is worth another take.  The danger is two-fold.  First, that too many cross-references will mean the preaching text is lost.  Second, that too many cross-references will mean the listeners are lost.

1. Lose the motivation to overwhelm.  That might seem strange, but some preachers really do seem to love cross-referencing.  For some, the practice was learned by observation and they have never seen any different.  For others, the practice is the fruit of a yearning to impress people (after all, more verses referenced means more kudos for me as a Bible person, right?)  But if asked outright, I suspect none would affirm the desire to overwhelm listeners, so for that reason alone, it is worth diminishing this desire.

2. Gain the motivation to preach your passage.  This is the other side of it.  We don’t want to negatively overwhelm folks, but do we really want to preach our passage?  Some preachers will cross-reference liberally to fill time since they feel like they have so little to say on the actual preaching text.  It is really hard to know what you don’t know, but take my word for it, it is possible to understand a passage better.  As a result, it is possible to preach without filler material.  More than that, it is possible to be in a text and the text to get into you in such a way as you can’t wait to preach this particular passage to the listeners.  Once your motivation is positively stirred by the passage, you’ll be less desirous of canonically wandering eyes.

3. As a default, stay put.  I suppose it is like saying that when you are riding a bike, as a default, look in front of you.  There will be times to do something else, but make it a standard practice to be where you are in the Bible.  Once you are more settled there, then you’ll be less likely to stray into safari mode without good reason.  Speaking of which…

4. Select cross-references hesitantly and carefully.  There are some good reasons to cross-reference, but not too many.  If your passage is relying on an earlier text either by quotation or by thematic development or by theological reliance, then maybe it is worth going there.  If your passage sets up a later development in the canon, then you might choose to take a sneak peak.  Or if your passage yields an idea that seems to be anti-biblical, then it might be time to wheel out the proof that other writers are saying the same thing.  Otherwise, more or less, stay where you are.

I believe these four steps would bring a helpful simplification to some sermons.  More than that, it would allow for some genuine profundity to flourish in place of the Bible sword drill!

The Clarity Journey

/ Peter Mead / 2 Comments

Bible study feels like a journey. Perhaps for others the terrain feels slightly different, but I can often discern three stages I go through in the process of studying a passage. I am not referring to exegetical method here, but rather to a sense of progress in my quest to understand the passage.

1. Apparent Clarity. Not in every text, but often the first reading seems relatively clear. Perhaps I recognize the characters, or note some rich preaching vocabulary or concepts. Whether or not I’m thinking about preaching it, the text seems initially clear. This stage does not last long. Once I start questioning the text, I soon move into the next stage:

2. Complexity and Lack of Clarity. As I seek to plumb the meaning of the passage, hunting for the author’s idea, it often becomes murky. There’s word study, lexical study, contextual analysis, wrestling with the flow of the text, alternating between synthesis and analysis, etc. At this point it is sometimes tempting to quit or go for a shortcut (like preaching multiple distinct ideas from the same text). If I prayerfully push on through, there is often the joy of arriving at the last stage:

3. Informed Clarity. This is where the relationship of the parts and the whole make sense. This is where the section is clear in its relationship to the flow of the book. This is a great place to get to in Bible study. This is the place I like to be before I think about preaching the text.

My fear for myself, and others seeking to be Biblical preachers, is that we will fail to preach out of a “stage 3” informed clarity. I see in myself the temptation to quit in stage two and preach some form of textual confusion (obviously we tend to paper over confusion to give apparent cohesion to the message). At times I hear messages where I wonder if the preacher even entered stage two at all. The presence of some “rich” preaching words seems to be enough to spark a whole message!

Let’s be sure to be diligent, to study and show ourselves approved, to push through to informed clarity for our own sakes, and for the sake of those who have to listen to our explanation of the text!

Sweetest Agony – 2

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Yesterday I considered the blessing of genuine encouragements received in preaching.  The best encouragement of all may not be the comments from others, but the observed life change in those fed by the Word.  But I also noted the need to record such encouragements, because there will be times when you encouragements drawer will offer much needed strength in the face of stone cold silence and apparent fruitlessness.

But there is more sweetness to preaching than just seeing lives changed.

If the sweetness is changed lives, then don’t miss the one life that hears every time you preach.  I don’t mean your spouse, although any encouragements there are worth so much.  I mean you.  Every time you or I prepare a sermon we are involved.  We go through the times of prayer, the valleys, the highs, the wrestling with the text, the grappling with the big idea, the prayerful cutting of material, the sermon run throughs for an audience of two (the Lord, and yourself).

A lot of this process may be agonizing.  Much of it can seem like thankless toil.  But there are good times too.  Times of sweet fellowship with the Lord.  Times of clarity in the exegesis of the text.  Times of blessing and encouragement.  Sweet times.  When these occur, perhaps find a way to mark them just like the thank-you notes we mentioned yesterday.  Perhaps an entry in a journal, or a note on your notice board, a visual memorial on a shelf . . . something to remind you of how good it can be, and will be again.

Preaching is agony much of the time, it has to be.  But it is a sweet privilege to see God at work in your life, and through you, in the lives of others.

The Sweetest Agony

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Since we are in the midst of packing up and leaving the US to return to the UK (we being a family of seven!), I have decided to re-post an expanded piece from almost five years ago.  Apologies if you’ve recently read through the whole site, but I suspect most people haven’t joined you in this quest!

Somebody said that preaching is the sweetest agony.  It is sweet when lives are changed.  And it is agony all the rest of the time!

There is nothing as rewarding as seeing lives changed.  Sometimes this can occur through a one-off sermon.  Typically it occurs over the long haul.  Sometimes it is hard to measure.  Sometimes you receive a note that overtly expresses gratitude for the change that has occurred.  Often you hear nothing.

Since preaching is often more agony than sweetness, it is a good idea to keep some reminders of the sweetness of lives changed.  A drawer where those periodic notes or letters are dropped in, then sit there awaiting a time when you need a reminder of the sweetness of the preaching ministry.  A folder in your email entitled “Encouragements” that you can go back to when the inbox is overwhelming and discouraging.

I have written before of how we shouldn’t be overly encouraged by post-sermon politeness, but we should take note of feedback that comes after some time has passed.  After a sermon, people will usually be polite, and sometimes their politeness can stretch your confidence in their credibility!  I’ve seen genuinely poor preachers pressing on in the face of polite comments, as though these words are the very affirmation of gifting for which they had prayed.  But when someone comes to you months later with meaningful follow-up to a message, do take note.

In fact, make a note and stick it in your encouragements drawer.  There will be a time when you need it!

Tomorrow I’ll probe some of the other sweetnesses of the preaching ministry.

Neither Padded, Nor Dense – 4

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I don’t normally use the movie analogy, but perhaps I could linger with it slightly longer.  A good movie does not pad the main plot, nor does it make it impossibly dense.  In fact, every good movie can be boiled down to something more precise than a ten-minute plot.  It will have one main idea.  And that idea is driven home by the plot and every detail throughout.

I actually watched a movie in the cinema this week (I can’t remember the last time I did that!)  One crystal clear main idea, effectively communicated with every detail included to support it.

Robinson uses the analogy of the arrow and the target – the big idea and the sermon purpose.  I like that.  I add to that the strategy of the preacher.  How is the main idea  to be delivered?  Will it be up-front and repeated throughout?  Will it be built toward and revealed strategically?  There are several approaches.

However the bigger issue is not how it will be delivered, but whether it will be the control mechanism for the whole message.

If the biblical text determines the main idea, and if the main idea is the gatekeeper for every detail of the message, then the message should not be padded, nor dense.

It will not be a padded sermon because every element will be there on purpose.  The explanations will be there to help communicate the main idea.  The proofs will be there to reinforce and support the main idea.  The applications will be there to drive home the main idea.  There won’t be padding because padding makes no sense in a message designed to communicate a main idea.

And it will not be a dense sermon because over packing makes no sense when the goal is the effective applied communication of the main idea.  Over packing only makes sense if the goal is something else.  If we want to show off, we may over pack.  If we want to communicate multiple ideas, we will over pack.  But if our desire is to see the main idea do its job, then we won’t want anything to get in the way of that.

Narrative Lived

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Why did God give the majority of His Word in the form of narrative?  I suspect part of the answer lies in the incarnational nature of narrative.  It is theology fleshed out in concrete.  Real lives, real situations, real challenges, real responses.  Narrative engages us, and that is exactly the way God would have it.  Why?  Because He seeks to engage us.

So as I am studying a couple of narratives for forthcoming messages, I am struck by how my life this week has been a sequence of micro-narratives, within the larger narrative of my year, within the macro-narrative of many lives intersecting, within the supra-narrative of God’s history.  Just like we see in the Bible, the world is a stage where lives live in response to each other and to God.  Some trust Him, others trust self.  Some live out love for God, others live out love for self.

I suppose most, if not all, of the story lived out this week will be consigned to unrequested history books in the annals of heaven’s library.  Most of each Bible character’s life was not the action snippet that we see in children’s bible story books.  I was talking with my children this week about how the Bible characters were full people, not just caricatures.  There was much more to Noah than a beard and a saw.  Full lives, full characters, full stories.  Most not getting into the book, but all of it mattering profoundly.

Which makes me stop and think as I head into another Sunday: what kind of character am I in God’s great story?  The Bible proves it isn’t about brains, or beauty, or brawn.  The Bible points to heart response to God’s Word, which then spills out in every aspect of life.

In the visual silence of an unseen God, how does my life live out its response to His Word?

People speak of the great tapestry of history.  My life is just a thread in that whole work of art.  This week is probably only a micro-fibre.  But it counts.  It is coloured.  And in all the complexity of biblical narrative we see every shade of colour, and yet everything seems to boil down to love or hate, trust or self-reliance, faith or fear.

Let’s be sure God’s Word is marking our lives as we seek to help others be marked by it in the coming weekend.

Where’s Your Drain?

/ Peter Mead / 1 Comment

This week I’ve written about things that make us tempted to half quit.  Some things make us want to totally quit.  Other things just drain energy away without us really noticing.  I have to be honest, I am kind of glad I am not preaching this week.

It is just a stubbed toe (swollen, painful, etc.)  But that is enough to be a distraction and make concentrating a challenge.  At the same time I am looking forward to preaching next week.  What is draining you?  It could be something physical, it could be a family relationship, or a soured friendship, or an ongoing challenge in the church, or, or, or…

There are any number of potential energy drains.  Maybe it is just me, but there’s this weird inconsistency.  Sometimes something is going on that drains energy and becomes the central focus of my prayer life.  Other times I seem to just try to cope.  What is that all about?  I haven’t really prayed much about the toe, I suppose it doesn’t seem important enough.  But what if my energy is sapped, my concentration is broken, perhaps my attitude is a bit more negative, etc.?

I suppose this isn’t too profound a thought, but I wonder if something is draining you, and I wonder if you are trying to cope in your own strength?  Let’s be sure to be fully abiding in the vine as we head into another Sunday, whether we’re preaching or not.

The Long Term Half Quit – pt.2

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What are some of the reasons that preacher’s lose the motivation and half quit over the years of ministry?  Yesterday I pondered the issues of church battle scars, spiritual warfare fatigue and emotional drain.  Let me finish the list now, although this is only intended to start us thinking.  What would you add?

4. Physical Weariness – A preaching ministry is not a natural vocation in which to be physically fit.  Sitting, reading, thinking, praying.  We would do well to be good stewards – watching what goes in, watching how much or how little we do, etc.  Over time there are also the challenges of physical ill health, not always related to fitness.  Preparing to preach with a tired body and foggy mind is hard, and we’ll be increasingly tempted to just do “enough.”

5. Seasons Without “Success” – There are seasons of ministry that just feel like a hard slog.  Every inch gained feels like it took it out of us.  People can seem unusually unresponsive.  Hearts can seem extremely hardened all around.  Somehow our ministry seems to be like a slog through mud, and we don’t know why.  These seasons can really take the wind out of our sails.

6. Seasons With “Success” – The opposite is also true.  Seasons of unusually responsive people can lead to us being drained and somehow weakened.  Like Elijah we can come from great success into great inner turmoil and struggle.  We need to watch out for the good times that we always pray for during the tough times – neither are easy to navigate well!

7. Distracted Heart – This could and should be a post on its own.  How easily our hearts get distracted!  The list of potential other loves that could draw us from our devotion to Christ is probably endless.  Hobbies.  Power.  Illicit fantasy.  Pursuit of fame.  The love of money.  The only One who can search and know the state of our heart is the One before whom we must keep our hearts forever open.

And…?