Preacher’s Personal Life

Why Preaching is Ailing – Part Me

/ Peter Mead / 1 Comment

In the last two posts we’ve considered Greg Haslam’s list of eight reasons why preaching is ailing.  I’d like to add a couple more to the list, from my perspective.  Feel free to add your thoughts.

Some don’t know how to interpret the Bible. Some preachers have the best intentions, and even good presentation skills, but are lacking in the core ability to wrestle with a biblical text and grasp its intended meaning.  It’s easy to search a text for launch pads to spiritual thoughts, but it takes some prayerful skill to grasp the point as intended by the author.  Hermeneutics is not a luxury for the preacher, it’s foundational.

Some don’t understand the biblical bigger picture. We live in a day of ready access to biblical information, but it takes more than a big virtual library to make a preacher.  Quick access to info on a passage is one thing, holding together the big picture of the whole Bible is quite another.  We need more preachers who are really people of the Book as a whole.

Some don’t know what preaching is. It’s easy to think of preaching as a form of communication, a religious pattern to be repeated each week.  But what of the core elements of true preaching: the true meaning of the text, effectively communicated through the preacher’s words and life, with an emphasis on the applicational relevance to the particular listeners present, all in full reliance on the Spirit of God.  Miss out one of these elements and preaching ails fast.

Some don’t care about their listeners. They say that church too easily reflects its culture.  Well we live in cultures often bereft of others-centered motivation.  It’s too easy to build a ministry around a core motivation of “whatever is best for me.”  Preaching withers when listeners don’t matter.

There we go . . . four more things to watch for in our own ministries.  Tomorrow I want to turn the tone so we don’t get discouraged!  And if this list doesn’t discourage you, then be careful of pride!

Why Preaching is Ailing – Part 2

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Continuing Greg Haslam’s list of reasons why preaching is ailing (first chapter of Preach the Word):

5. Some are too polite and too politically correct. It is easy for the message to be so diluted that it fails to rattle or challenge listeners.  Preaching is not for cowards, but political correctness tends to foster them.

6. Some are too distracted. Things that have their place, but are not the priority.  Social life, spectator sports, hobbies and interests.

7. Some are too hard of hearing. “Waxy deposits have formed in their spiritual ears.”  Deafened by the noise of man’s opinions, some are unable to respond to the Spirit of God in the situations they face.

8. Some are disillusioned. Under-developed preaching skills, combined with little helpful feedback and the weary slog of ministry, all combine to make many discouraged ministers, desperate for personal renewal.

That’s a great list, well worth pondering.  Make sure the finger points more toward yourself than others.  This series of posts is not about condemning others, but spotting areas of potential weakness in ourselves that might be strengthened with God’s help.

Why Preaching is Ailing

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In his opening chapter for the book he edited, Preach the Word, Greg Haslam lists eight reason why preaching is ailing.  Here are the first four with a summary of his point for your consideration:

1. Some are too busy. The busy schedule of hectic ministry and social life is simply keeping some people out of the study.

2. Some are too lazy. Stott is quoted as giving a minimum preparation time of one hour for every five minutes of message.  For those that aren’t willing to give at least that time, their preaching will suffer.

3. Some are too ambitious. By this he refers to climbing an ecclesiastical ladder of success (one which demands much in the way of networking, but at the expense of direct preparation).  This ladder, it may turn out, leans against the wrong wall, because of how God defines success.

4. Some are too nervous. These are too afraid to speak the truth because they might be disliked or alienated by their congregation (or, I might add, by some key individuals in the congregation).

Schedule check time.  Heart check time.  Is your preaching ailing because of factors such as these?  Tomorrow, four more.

The Wrong Kind of Uncomfortable

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You’ve probably heard it said that good preaching comforts the disturbed and disturbs the comfortable (or something similar).  While this may be true, it is also possible to make listeners uncomfortable in the wrong way.  Here are a couple of examples:

1. Pushing naturally unresponsive people to verbally respond your way, rather than theirs. For example, I’ve been in congregations when the preacher has asked, “do I hear an amen?”  Upon hearing nothing more than a murmur, the question has then been repeated with greater zeal.  Eventually one person overcomes all personal angst and shouts an amen (essentially delivering all from the tension of the moment).  Some people reading this are wondering how any group could be so unresponsive.  Don’t condemn them without knowing them.  And don’t worry about it (unless you end up preaching to this kind of culture, denomination, age range, etc.)  A good preacher will be sensitive to those listening and not force them to behave in a way that may fit the preacher’s personality, but doesn’t fit theirs.  (Also, I’ve been in situations where the people may be willing to respond, but only the speaker knows what was just said that deserves a verbal response – don’t ask for response if you are not a clear communicator…they might feel dishonest if they give what you’re looking for!)

2. Showing emotion inconsistent with your words. In a similar vein, it can be very uncomfortable to listen to a preacher who does not match personal emotional expression to sermon content.  Don’t have a silly grin when talking about hell – even if you are uncomfortable for whatever reason.  Don’t be dead-pan if you are preaching on joy.  Don’t be slouching and uninterested when declaring the greatest news ever.  As I heard Piper say recenty in an interview – preachers need affectional breadth.  (In fact, I forget his exact words, but essentially he said that preachers who are restricted or limited in their affections – that is, breadth of heart response to God and people, rather than the ability to contrive emotional expression – such people should not be preaching.)

Preach in such a way that your emotional expression fits who you are and what you are saying.  Preach in such a way that your listeners can be themselves as listeners, rather than having to mimic you.

Any further thoughts related to this?

Consider a Growth Prompt

/ Peter Mead / 2 Comments

Many preachers never receive any training in their preaching.  Sadly, for some, that is due to a lack of available resources.  For others, perhaps it is simply habit or an unawareness of their need.  By training I am referring to everything from taking a full degree, a complete preaching course, an introductory seminar, a workshop, to studying through a book on the subject, etc.

I was pondering the fact that there are many preachers who only learn to preach by observing others.  While this can be a great source of instruction, it is lacking in several key ways.  Learning by observing does not provide the learner with feedback, critique and help as they preach.  But there is another concern that I’d like to point out today:

Preachers who only learn by observing others preach are limited by the standard of preaching they observe.  If the pool of preachers is a relatively closed group (as in most churches or denominations), then this will typically result in progressively degenerating standards.

What can you do to prompt growth in your preaching and help avoid a mass degeneration of standards in your church circles?

What Are the Best Echoes?

/ Peter Mead / 1 Comment

Echoes of heaven.  When believers listen to a preacher, they don’t want to hear the echoing sound of plagiarized preaching.  However, echoes of heaven are a different matter.  It’s that sense that the preacher hasn’t just written a message packed with information and illustration, but has been before the throne of God above.  That sense that this message is an accurate explanation of the passage, but not a cold academic explanation of the passage.  That sense that the preacher knows the Book, and also the Author of the Book.  They want to also hear relevant application of the passage, but not a relevance born out of the worldliness of the preacher’s own life, but the incisive relevance of a “prophet” who speaks forth into this world, yet somehow is anchored in that world.

You can’t fake it.  I suppose we could try.  But faked heavenly echoes will surely clang just like when people drop famous names to try to impress us in conversation.  Genuine echoes of the glories of heaven’s throne room, of angel voices singing, of intimacy with God; these genuine echoes will not clang.  They will usually be faint, even subtle, but resonating with reality if, in fact, they are real.

For the best of echoes we must genuinely spend time in the presence of a God who invites us to boldly come.

Are There Good Echoes?

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Yesterday I echoed the terminology used in Fred Lybrand’s book as we considered whether it is possible to steal your own sermon.  If it is, then there would be a hollow echo in our preaching.  Today I want to ask whether there might be a good echo in our preaching?  I think there is.

It is the good echo of a genuinely influenced life.  It’s not the stealing of a sermon, but the marking of a life that makes for a good echo of others.  Consider those who have taught you, mentored you, influenced you and marked you.  Surely in your preaching their influence will resonate for all to hear.

People do not have to recognize it in order to hear it. You don’t have to speak like them, sound like them, gesture like them.  Mimicry may be flattery for them, but it probably falls into the category of “hollow echo” for you!

Unless you point it out, others may not know how your enthusiasm for the Bible was caught from that Bible survey teacher, or how your passion for accuracy has resonated from the call of that other prof at seminary, or how your theology was forever shaped by encounters with another who remains a good friend, or how your longing to know God was inspired by the genuine example of one close to retirement as you had just begun.  (I could go on describing those who I hope echo in my ministry; Bruce, John, Ron, David respectively.)

Perhaps it would be worthwhile thinking prayerfully through those who have left an impression on you through the years.  What was it about them that made a difference to you?  Perhaps you will have reason to rejoice and express gratitude for good echoes still resonating from your life and ministry.  Perhaps you will have reason to pray and ask God to make more clear in you what you heard so genuinely from them.  (Perhaps their vulnerability was so powerful, yet it is somehow limited in your ministry.  Their precision in wording so effective, yet of a level rarely reached in your preaching.)  What might be found lacking as you look back to others and listen for the echoes in your own ministry?

I think there can be good echoes in our preaching.  The difference is that these echoes don’t bounce around an empty space and come out as feeble hollow echoes.  Somehow these good echoes come from the very fiber of our being, from a life marked rather than a good thing mimicked.

Plagiarism and Echoes

/ Peter Mead / 2 Comments

At some point I will write a review of Preaching on Your Feet by Fred Lybrand.  I need to finish it first.  Today I’d just like to raise an interesting thought.  Is there a connection between plagiarism and the way most preachers preach?  To put it another way, is it possible to steal your own sermon?

Stealing sermons isn’t good.  Maybe you’ve tried it.  Maybe you’ve heard it.  (Maybe you do it every week – and sing private praise songs about the internet!)  No matter how good the original, no matter how well-crafted the wording, no matter how inspiring the passion, or amusing the anecdotes, somehow a stolen sermon can only be, as Phillips Brooks described it, a “feeble echo” of the original power.  It seems to bounce around in the second preacher’s head and come out as an echo.  It doesn’t resonate from every fiber of his being, it pings out with all the added noise and cavernous emptiness of  a poor recording from a low quality cassette player.

Lybrand raises the possibility that preachers of integrity (ie. not verbatim sermon stealers) might still preach with the same kind of echo.  It’s easy to preach on Sunday morning, referring to notes that prompt your thinking back to your preparation on Thursday.  It’s easy to be preaching trying to recall exactly how you had it before.  It’s not as hollow an echo as a sermon that has bounced through cyberspace (or even through history!) and landed in your memory.  But there is still a hollow-ness.  Still an echo.  Somehow we can fall into preaching the sermon of another preacher – that is, the sermon of you three or four days ago (and God has changed you since then).

I won’t offer Lybrand’s solution today.  I’ll just leave this as a point to ponder as we wrestle with how to really preach, how to really connect with real people at a real moment in time.

Prayer Beyond the Pressing

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It should go without saying that a preacher should be a pray-er.  It doesn’t.  We are living in a day when much noise has drowned much prayer, not only for the typical churchgoer, but sadly for the typical church preacher.  If the preacher is employed by the church, the job description has grown exponentially in terms of what is expected (being dedicated to the Word and to prayer seems a long way off for many).  If the preacher is employed in “normal” work and preaches in spare time, it goes without saying that life is also very busy.

While I don’t want to paint a picture that is unfair in gross generalizations, it does seem that many are falling short in their prayer life.  Some may have lost prayer life altogether.  Many are possibly reduced to prayer for the pressing.  Do you find yourself squeezed into that pattern?  Prayer for next Sunday.  Prayer for current crises in the congregation.  Prayer for pressing matters of ministry and “church vision.”  The next project, the next event, the next weekend.

Perhaps it would be helpful to take a walk with God today.  Take time away from the desk, from the PC, from the phone, leave your mobile/cell, your PDA, or any other contemporary contraption (I’m tempted to say pager – just in case anyone still has one!)  Take some time and space, then pray.  Ask God to lift your eyes and your heart beyond the pressing concerns.  Certainly cast those cares on Him, but look beyond Sunday, beyond the current project.  Try to look longer term and pray accordingly.  Get a sense of where you are going.  That could mean praying in terms of five or ten years.  It could mean praying in terms of eternity.  Both are healthy.  This kind of prayer, combined with the dreaming of faith, lifts us from the pressing to have a heart stirred by this God who holds the future, this God who keeps His promises over the very long haul, this God who can wrap up history and move us into an eternity we don’t deserve despite the forces of hell being arrayed against Him.

Prayer beyond the pressing is important.  It’s important in our ministry.  It’s important in our personal walk with Christ.  It’s important.  Don’t let the pressing press away the delight of a longer-term gaze.  (Not that this is the most important thing, but I’m sure your preaching this Sunday will only be strengthened by a heart lifted to heaven, a bigger picture view of life and ministry, and a fresh reliance on our great God!)