My post today is not here, but you can get there from here. It’s a guest post on a blog I appreciate very much – spreadinggoodness.org. It is a blog by Dr Ron Frost. I commend the blog to you, and I’m not just saying that because Ron has kindly invited me to post on his site!
For today’s post, please click here.
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!)
I just listened to Max McLean’s performance of Jonathan Edwards’ sermon – “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.” It is considered the most famous sermon ever preached in US history. The sermon is available as a free download here. Actually it has been edited down to about 20 minutes of actual sermon (rather than 43), with extra comments before and after – think radio show. Nonetheless, it’s free and worth hearing.
It is worth hearing both as a listener to be ministered to, and as a preacher to notice a few things. First and foremost, listen as a listener. Get a sense of why people trembled and cried out for mercy. Listen, not for rhetorical power (although I’ll come to that), but for the strong truth of the gospel itself – that’s where “power” is. Listen to stir your appreciation for God’s favor. Listen to stir a passion for the lost, to light afresh a flame for evangelism.
And you can listen as a preacher too. Even this shortened version allows us to hear a classic example of the power of a controlling idea. You will appreciate powerful and vivid sensory imagery conveyed in well-chosen words. Surely, this will stir prayer for your own preaching and those that will hear it.
It’s an important question. As I talk to people about preaching, and read about preaching, and sometimes hear preaching too (although there are exceptions to what I will write in this post), there is a general sense that something is missing in contemporary preaching. I suppose it probably varies by culture, perhaps by denomination, certainly by individual preacher, but generally speaking, something seems to be missing.
The more I ponder this issue, the more I realize it is not a technical detail (although “technically” there may be many common failings). To use the analogy of a car (since mine is about to receive it’s annual “government test”) – it’s not a matter of a bolt here or a seal there. It’s more on the level of whether the engine is there or not. What I am saying is this – the weakness of much contemporary preaching is a core weakness, not a minor detail.
Perhaps it is that many preachers simply don’t know their Bible well enough. After all, in an age of constant e-communications and busy lifestyles, it seems to be increasingly difficult to find preachers who really dwell in the sacred text, rather than just visiting it during preparation. Perhaps it is that many preachers don’t know their God well enough? I ask it as a question, because I know that is a potentially inflammatory thought. But then again, that’s the beauty of blogging – I can prod to prompt pondering, even if you think I am wrong in what I write. As somebody wrote somewhere (sounds like a Hebrews quotation) – where have all the divines gone? Perhaps the communication of many preachers is too stilted, too inauthentic for this generation? That may seem like a leap into a different aspect of preaching, but I see real connections between the communication aspect of preaching and the previous matters of being a biblical preacher, being God’s preacher. Somehow I don’t think the prophets would have seemed inauthentic.
I’m just thinking out loud. What I’m thinking is that if there is a general weakness in preaching these days, it is less a matter of effective transitions or pithy wording of key statements in a message, and more a matter of the underlying connection with the Lord, deep knowledge of His Word, and authentic heart-to-heart connection between preacher and listeners. What do you think? Am I way off track? Am I missing something? Or, generally speaking, is something missing?
Just a thought to throw into the mix of life as a preacher. I just had a fairly busy weekend – preaching three times in two churches. That means not only preaching, but being mentally distracted in the lead up to the different meetings. As any preacher knows, it can be a draining experience. This is why many pastors take Monday as their day-off. I understand that.
However, it’s worth asking the question, who needs the day off? As hard as my weekend was, my wife’s was harder. She had to handle preparing four children for church, being aware of them at church, dealing with bedtimes without me home, etc. Busy time for me is busy time for her.
Maybe you have Monday off? Perhaps that is the perfect opportunity to look for ways to bless, serve and encourage others who work hard when you work hard. For many preachers, Monday can’t be a day off because preaching isn’t your primary source of income. Perhaps there are other ways to show appreciation to a spouse who lost part of their weekend because you were serving others during your weekend? For me, this morning will not be the usual relaxing admin catch-up that I almost enjoy on Mondays (brain dead work), it will be handling homeschool and lunch so my wife can enjoy a morning to herself. She deserves that after the weekend I just put her through!
Sunday’s coming and hopefully your message is not too far away now. Allow me to engage you in a brief conversation about your message. Perhaps this is the kind of conversation you have with your spouse or a staff member of your church. So we chat about the passage, the main idea as you see it, perhaps the tension you plan to build into the message. We go back and forth, all very cordial and maybe with some humor thrown in. Then I ask,
“How will you apply this message?”
What is your answer? If your answer is vague and fluffy, this says a lot about how you will preach the message (although the question might prompt some extra preparation in this area!) If your answer is specific, with concrete and tangible contemporary examples of the message applied, then things are looking good for Sunday.
So. How will you apply the message? There . . . I asked. Now it’s over to you. The answer that matters is not one you give me, but what you give them on Sunday. (Thinking about it, perhaps I should ask me that question too . . . )
Martyn Lloyd-Jones wrote that “Preaching is theology coming through a man who is on fire.” In fact, allow me to quote further (from 97-98 of Preaching and Preachers):
What is the chief end of preaching? I like to think it is this. It is to give men and women a sense of God and his presence. . . . I can forgive the preacher almost anything if he gives me a sense of God, if he gives me something for my soul . . . if he gives me some dim glimpse of the majesty and the glory of God, the love of Christ my Saviour, and the magnificence of the gospel.
That’s a great thought to ponder as we prepare for the next message. In reality, it may take longer than from now til Sunday. Let’s face it, the title for this post is patently ridiculous. The kind of divinity and spirituality implied by Lloyd-Jones’ reference to a man on fire is not the kind that comes by “spontaneous” combustion. It comes through the long slow warming of the soul in the warmth of God’s embrace, through slow-cooked spirituality as the preacher is consistently exposed to the burning truths of God’s Word, through the patient grace of One who does not put out a dying ember, but gently fans it into flame over time. Don’t expect miraculous fire if you are not spending extended time in the presence of God. Only if we are much at home with God are we likely to give listeners a real sense of God. Spontaneous? No. Fire? Let’s hope so.
John MacArthur writes about the clarity of the Bible in his chapter in Preach the Word. Let me quote him here – not new information (I hope), but important information well worthy of our pondering:
The student of Scripture need not fear that its message is unknowable. Rather, he can rejoice in knowing that God revealed himself and his plan of salvation in a way that men can understand. Not only does the Scripture repeatedly claim that God revealed what is written within its pages (over 2,000 times in fact), it also describes itself as that which gives light (Ps. 119:105; 2Pet. 1:19a), is profitable (2Tim. 3:16-17), explains salvation (2Tim. 3:15b), addresses common people (cf. Deut. 6:4; Mark 12:37; Eph. 1:1; 1Cor. 1:2), can be understood by children (Deut. 6:6-7; Eph. 6:4; 2Tim. 3:14-15), and should be used to test the validity of religious ideas (Acts 17:11; cf. 2Cor. 10:5; 1Thess. 5:21-22). It is the truth (John 17:17) that sets men free (John 8:31-36). Thus, to deny the clarity of Scripture is to call into question not only the Bible’s own self-claims, but also God’s ability to communicate clearly.
Let’s make sure these truths are fresh in our hearts. It’s easy to begin with strong confidence in the Word, only for it to fade over time. Is it time to refresh and renew our understanding of and commitment to the clarity and power of God’s Word?
Let’s also make sure we don’t undermine our listeners’ confidence in the Bible. There are certainly parts that are harder to understand, the Bible itself acknowledges that (2Pet. 3:16). But the main message of the Bible is clear for any who will read it . . . so let’s encourage them to do just that!
I like this term, “smooth preaching.” I was just reading about it and resonating with the thought. Peter Jensen uses the term in his chapter on the role of the seminary in the training of the preacher. (Preach the Word, p216.) He writes, “There is a variety of smooth preaching that replicates what it sees as the main theme of a text but does not bring to the surface anything in the text that surprises, contradicts, creates tension.” It is the kind of preaching that rushes too easily to conclusions or fails to spot the points of stress in a text. It is dull preaching that dulls the Word of God.
I suppose some might wish that someone would publish a book, perhaps a New International Textual Stress Points Commentary, or a Passage-By-Passage Jagged Edge Guide. But in reality, there is simple no better way to avoid such smooth preaching than this – spend significant time dwelling in a text, wrestling with the text, allowing the text to wrestle with you, opening your own heart to the text, leaning so close to it that it can draw blood. Close and personal encounters with God’s Word will bring the Bible into real conflict with sin in our lives. It will expose and challenge our pride, anger, doubts, motivations, attitudes, habits, tendencies. If we keep texts at arms length, then we will preach smooth sermons. If we handle texts only briefly before preaching the obvious, then we will preach smooth sermons. If we really prayerfully vulnerably wrestle with a text, and lose, then we will be in a better position to preach sermons with the textual edge bared to make its mark. The Word of God does cut, but smooth preaching will only conceal that edge. Smooth preaching doesn’t mark.
Yesterday I quoted from JI Packer’s chapter on Charles Simeon in Preach the Word. I wanted to finish quoting the paragraph since it is provocative and perhaps helpful:
The motive behind his almost obsessive outbursts against Calvinistic and Arminian “system-Christians,” as he called them, was his belief that, through reading Scripture in light of their systems, both sides would be kept from doing justice to all the texts that were there. Be “Bible-Christians” rather than slaves to a system, he argued, and so let the whole Bible have its way with you all the time. Whether or not we agree that such speaking is the wise way to make that point, we must at least endorse Simeon’s “invariable rule . . . to endeavour to give to every portion of the word of God its full and proper force.” (Packer, in Preach the Word, 147-148.)
Perhaps you might substitute a different theological label into his quote, but still I think the point is helpful. It is naive to think that we can simply preach the Bible in a theology-neutral way. However, there is a great difference between reading every text in light of your system and constantly adjusting your system in light of the biblical text. In that sense, let’s preach as, and let’s preach to motivate, “Bible-Christians.”
Biblical Preaching 