Preacher’s Personal Life

A Patient Ministry

/ Peter Mead / Leave a comment

It is generally obvious that life transformation generally happens gradually.  While God might give a breakthrough epiphany moment from time to time, He does His patient work of building the church all the time.  This is true on multiple levels.

We need patience with the congregation. That’s not to suggest we preach without an edge of expectancy, encouragement and even exhortation.  It is to suggest that we pray for breakthroughs, but trust God to work out His plans in each life in His timing.

We need patience with ourselves. It’s easy to respond to a small bit of negative feedback, or a feeling of failure last time we preached, and suddenly have a list of personal weaknesses that need to be fixed.  We need to patiently serve faithfully.  Seeking to improve out of good stewardship of our ministry, but trusting God to continue working in our lives at His pace.

We need patience with key people. It could be a “well-intentioned dragon” – a constructive critic in the church.  It could be a person of influence with unclear motives.  It could be an individual that requires far more energy than we feel able to give.  We must pray for wisdom, for strength, for patience to not make rash moves at our speed that miss what God is doing at His.

I am by no means affirming ministry weakened by low expectation, unimproved by lack of personal growth or unnecessarily hindered by a motivation-drain unaddressed.  I am simply reminding myself and us all of something I was told fifteen years ago: “God walks at 3mph.”  Let’s keep our gaze on Him and serve, even live, with prayerful patience.

Pre-Preaching Fears

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New preachers my have fears concerning speaking to a crowd of listeners and similar nerves.  Those of us that have preached for a while don’t tend to have nervousness to the same extent in those areas, but that doesn’t mean there are no fears.  Here are some fears that may have risen in your heart in the lead up to today’s message:

Content Fears. What if I got it wrong?  What if I’ve missed the point?  Am I going to say something that is actually heretical?  Is this message simply too simple?  This can lead into…

Passage Fears. Should I switch passage?  The meeting is in a few hours, should I switch now?  The meeting is in a few minutes, should I switch now?

Listener Fears. He or she will be listening, what will they think?  What if so and so doesn’t approve?  I shouldn’t be the one preaching.

Personal Fears. Who am I to preach this?  Has this really been applied to me first?  Why do I suddenly feel so inadequate?

These and many more fears can creep up on a preacher before any or every message.  Pray about the fears, bring them to God.  Fear and faith fight a battle within.  Faith doesn’t require the total absence of fear, but they don’t cohabit well.  Allow fear to push your gaze back onto the Lord.  Consider whether this fear should be simply resisted and dismissed, or written down to be addressed later in more extended prayer.  Briefly consider whether change is needed to the message, but don’t undermine hours of prayerful work because of fear.

Perhaps as you shift your gaze back onto the Lord you will find renewed motivation to preach this message exactly as it is.  After all, if the fears are coming from a source beyond yourself, it is worth considering the motivation.  Perhaps there is fear of what your message might do, the light it might shine into darkness?

You’ve prayerfully prepared?  Step forward relying fully on Him, preach His Word.  Preach in the mighty strength of your own weakness – a contradictory paradox, unless, of course, we do not go to the pulpit alone!

Check Your Own Diet

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Many of us are rightly concerned about the diet of those in our churches today.  Of course, as preachers we try to feed good food on Sunday morning.  But the rest of the week is concerning.  People spend hours ingesting the values of Hollywood and HBO, chewing on the junk food of a tabloid culture, as well as the slightly sanctified fluff of some of what is labelled “christian” in magazine form or on TV.  Add to that the constant bombardment by advertizing, itself no less saturated in godless values than the most overt propaganda of strident atheism.  I could go on, but compared to all that, our preaching can feel like a mere healthy snack in a week-long binge of junk food.

But let us remember to check our own diet too.  It is critical.  Hear this timely exhortation from the mid-1600’s.  Richard Baxter in Watch Your Walk: Ministering from a Heart of Integrity, (pages 139-140) wrote:

When your mind is enjoying heavenly things, others will enjoy them, too.  Then your prayers, praises, and doctrines will be heavenly and sweet to your people.  They will feel when you have been much with God.

Conversely, when I am depressed in soul, my flock will sense my cold preaching.  When I am confused, my preaching is, too.  Then, the prayers of others will reflect my own state of preaching.  If we, therefore, feed on unwholesome food, either of errors or of fruitless controversies, then our hearers will likely fare the worse for it, whereas if we abound in faith, love, and zeal, how it will overflow to the refreshing of our congregations and to the increases in the same graces in others.

We are rightly concerned about the spiritual diet of our day.  But let’s be sure to be concerned about our own diet, and not just that of others.  If we feed on unwholesome food, they will suffer for it.

Preaching As History Making

/ Peter Mead / 1 Comment

The book of Acts is a fascinating study.  It is the only inspired account of the birth of the church and early church history.  Yet like all of inspired Scripture, it goes beyond mere history.  While some are quick to oversimplify their categorization of New Testament genre into stories of Jesus (gospels), instructions for the church (epistle) and history of the early church (Acts), plus the apparently troublesome apocalyptic book of Revelation (their view, not mine), this is too simplistic.

Acts, for example, is an inspired historical document, and it is also inspired theological writing.  We do Acts (and ourselves) a disservice if we too quickly dismiss Acts as being non-normative or applicable for the contemporary church.  Equally, we get into confusion if we too quickly apply every element we choose and claim it is normative for all situations (most who over-quickly apply Acts tend to be selective in this approach).  We need to carefully consider the book of Acts with appropriate hermeneutical skill and submit ourselves to appropriate application of the whole text.

In Acts we find historical narrative accounts, and we find recorded speeches (or better, inspired summaries of speeches).  In fact, Walter Liefeld helpfully points out that while quoted speech typically serves in ancient literature as introductory to action, in Acts the speeches are the action.  In my spare moments lately I’ve been enjoying a personal study of the speeches of Acts.  Apparently (I rely on the arithmetic of others), in the roughly 1000 verses of Acts, roughly 300-365 verses consist of speech material.  Some of this is preaching, some is leadership speech, some is legal speech (not mutually exclusive categories).

Ben Witherington asks why Luke includes proportionately so much more speech material in his history than ancient writers like Herodotus, Tacitus, Josephus, Polybius, or Thucydides, for example?  His answer is worth considering:

“This is because Luke is chronicling a historical movement that was carried forward in the main by evangelistic preaching.  This distinguishes his work from that of these other historians who are more interested in the macrohistorical events involving wars, political maneuvering, and the like.”

Before we even give ourselves to consideration of appropriate hermeneutical principles for interpreting and applying the book of Acts; before we engage in rhetorical analysis of the speech material; or before we enter the debate about whether the speeches are accurate representation of the original speaker, or Lukan theology placed in their mouths, etc.  Before any of that engages our attention, let’s not miss the obvious.  The history of the early church is carried forward by the planned and impromptu speech of preachers.  Much of it is evangelistic, some is primarily to believers, some is perhaps opportunistic.  But this much is clear – the history of the church, in the early years, down through the years, and in these years, is carried forward in the preaching of those to whom God gives opportunity. Let’s allow that truth to soak into our souls, fire our hearts and ignite our ministries!

Dealing With Deadened Motivation – II

/ Peter Mead / 2 Comments

What does it look like to address an issue of the affections by exposure to the attractiveness of our Lord, rather than by effort of the flesh?

Perhaps the marriage analogy can help here.  If I am growing cold in my affections toward my wife (which, if she reads this, I am not!), then the solution is not to “do the right thing.”  I can go and buy flowers and give them to her and even say “I love you” through clenched teeth.  That doesn’t do much for me, and does even less for her.  I am much better off simply being with her, allowing her attractiveness to draw my affections to her again. That is what I’m suggesting spiritually – allow the love of God to draw you to Him.

One last suggestion that has helped me was given to me by a good friend several years ago.  I pass it on to you gladly.  If I don’t feel like reading the Bible and being exposed to the attractive beauty of God’s grace, I don’t pretend otherwise and force myself, I tell him so.  “Lord, I don’t feel like reading your Word today.  Other things are far more interesting and attractive to me…”  Praying honestly (and out loud!) tends to bring conviction and brokenness as the Spirit of God works in my heart.  Before long I am broken at the foot of the cross, overwhelmed by the grace of God to a sinner like me.  Before long I want to be in His Word, not as an external duty, but with a captured heart, strangely warmed, but never proud of my own effort!

Dealing With Deadened Motivation

/ Peter Mead / 2 Comments

How are we to deal with a cold heart when we find one sitting in our own chest?  How should we respond to a lack of spiritual motivation?  I believe we need to think biblically and theologically about this very real challenge in our lives.

Effort of the flesh does not work. It is common advice.  Do the right thing and don’t worry about your feelings.  Your feelings must not drive you, choose by determination of the will to do what is right.  This is all very well, but it doesn’t hold up theologically.  The will is not an independent faculty of the soul that can switch on and take charge when our hearts are cold.  The will is in bondage to the affections, so what are we to do when there is a problem in our affections, a coldness of heart?  Forcing ourselves to do the right thing with a wrong heart is unwise.  Effort of the flesh leads either to sin (the fruit of the flesh in Galatians 5), or pseudo-success (external righteousness with a dead heart is the hypocrisy of Pharisaism).  Paul argues strongly in Galatians 3:1-3 against the notion that we can mature or increase in sanctification by the power of the flesh.

Deadened motivation is an issue of the affections. What does Paul contrast with flesh effort?  It is response to the Spirit, a faith response.  Our affections cannot be fixed by an effort of the will, that is getting it backwards.  Affection is only overcome by affection.  To put it another way, why do we love God?  We love God because He first loved us.  So when I sense the temperature dropping in my heart, my response cannot be to look to myself (flesh effort).  I have to look to Him (faith response).  I need response, not greater responsibility.  I need to delight again, not diligently stir up duty within.  So how do I address motivational issues in my own heart?  I simply lay myself open to the attractive power of the love of God.  What does that look like practically?  Well, typically it means spending time in His Word, perhaps listening to worship music, pondering creation or praying.  Isn’t that just “doing the right thing and letting feelings follow?”  Not really.  It may look similar on the outside, but it’s about being responsive to the love of God, not responsible to achieve my own spiritual motivation.

Tomorrow I will add a couple of thoughts to further clarify what I’ve described here.

Pondering the Cycles of Motivation

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Is it me, or is motivation cyclical?  I’ll use the term motivation, but it overlaps with issues of spiritual dryness, struggles with temptation, seasons of spiritual attack and so on.

The One-Week Cycle – Most of us recognize this one.  We build toward Sunday and then crash on Monday.  Some take Monday off.  Others use Monday for brain-dead admin catch-up.  Few preachers I know are at their best emotionally or spiritually on a Monday.

The One-Year Cycle – This is easy to spot too.  Something about January seems to reinvigorate and stir resolutions.  Perhaps December is so busy for you that it takes until February before the new year energy kicks in for you.  Nonetheless, there seems to be an injection of energy at the start of the new year for many of us.

The Six-Week Cycle – This is the one that is perhaps most significant for me.  Perhaps its just me, but I’ve noticed a roughly six-week cycle in my own motivation.  It could be 4-8 weeks, but I’ll call it 6 (I won’t call it 40 days in case it sounds like I have, or am making up, a biblical case for it).  It seems like I can trace a dip in motivation, or an increase in temptation, or a dip into dryness, roughly every six weeks.

You may be perpetually up, or unceasingly low, or you may notice some cyclical nature to your spiritual, emotional, ministerial motivation.  I think it is good to know our own patterns, to be aware of our own weaknesses, and to seek to deal with these things not through the effort of the flesh, but in an appropriate spiritual manner.  I’ll give my thoughts on that tomorrow.

What is Preaching Primarily About?

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Just a short teaser of a post today, then a break tomorrow (because you really shouldn’t be reading about preaching on Christmas day!)  I’ve just been writing a longer article for another blog.  I’ll link to it once it is posted there.  But in it I address the real foundation of homiletics. While some may consider the field of homiletics to be all about communication techniques – “mere rhetoric” if you like, this is missing the point.

Preaching is a complex subject with many vital tributaries.  I would suggest that the technical stuff has to be built on a solid foundation of the hermeneutics and the spirituality of the preacher.  There are other critical foundational elements too . . . but the article is already too long!

Have a great Christmas!

Dealing With Personal Inadequacies in Preaching

/ Peter Mead / Leave a comment

Yesterday I made a passing comment about inadequacy in preaching.  We all feel inadequate in some area.  Perhaps it relates to our lack of training.  Or our lack of understanding the many elements of the expository preaching process.  Or perhaps we feel lightweight in the arena of theology.  Or maybe our delivery lacks that certain something.  Or maybe we feel inadequate in the area of pastoral awareness and connection with our listeners.  The list could go on.  Here are some thoughts on this matter:

1. Feelings of inadequacy are appropriate. As I wrote the other day, we are out of our depth.  We should be feeling inadequate as we handle God’s Word, as we prepare to present the Word of God to people who need it so desperately, as we participate in a ministry with such eternal ramifications.  Inadequacy should be the name of the game on one level.

2. Feelings of inadequacy should not be avoided. There are ways to hide from our feelings of inadequacy.  For instance, rationalizing approaches that circumvent our areas of weakness.  One example was presented yesterday – just waiting on God to give us what to say rather than facing the challenge of studying the text to see what God has said there.  We naturally find ways to avoid inadequacy and protect ourselves.  This is not a faith approach.

3. Feelings of inadequacy should not undermine faith. When we stand to preach, we stand in faith.  We have to trust God.  We have to trust in His Word.  We have to trust in the power of His Spirit.  So feelings of inadequacy may be a prompt to doubt, which we should address by prayer-fueled faith.

4. Feelings of inadequacy might be a prompt to faith-filled action. I deliberately didn’t put this first, but it does belong on the list.  That is to say, perhaps our feelings of inadequacy should prompt us to prayerfully strengthen in those areas of weakness.  Is it time to take a course of study, attend a training day, read a book, work through a systematic theology text or whatever?  We should not try to strengthen weakness as a means of fleshly self-reliance, but rather as good stewards of the ministry God has entrusted to us.  Let us prove to be faithful stewards, rather than fearful stewards.

Feelings of inadequacy – not all good, not all bad, not the end of the story.

Beware Special Revelation Preaching

/ Peter Mead / Leave a comment

I need to be careful how I phrase this post.  Depending on our theology, we all have slightly differing views of how much God directly communicates with us.  Some are very hesitant to hint that God “spoke” to them, while others freely assign such labels that give the impression of a hotline from heaven.  I don’t intend to weigh in on the issues of guidance or prophecy, etc.  My concern is with biblical preaching.

We need to be careful that we don’t undermine our approach to preaching by means of a “special revelation” approach to sermon preparation.  The process is fairly simple to explain: you spend time prayerfully considering the text and the occasion until you sense that God has “given you something to say.”  Then you preach that.  I am not dismissing this approach out of hand, but I do want to raise some warning flags.  First though, let me affirm the intent in this approach:

Affirmed – The desire to say what God is saying. This should be the desire of every true preacher.  We want to say what God wants us to say, nothing else.

Affirmed – The reliance on God through prayer. May we never advocate or practice prayerless preaching.

Affirmed – The desire for contemporary relevance.

However . . .

Warning Flag – There is an inherent risk that the text God inspired will be abused as merely a point of departure for other thoughts, which may or may not be from Him.

Warning Flag – The process can be a shortcut taken to avoid the prayerful work of understanding the passage and planning how to best present the truth found there.  (Perhaps also a safety measure to avoid feeling personal inadequacy in the area of Bible study, preaching, etc.  It is better to bring our inadequacy to God, rather than finding ways to avoid the issue.)

Warning Flag – This approach can undermine the congregation’s view of the Bible. It fails to demonstrate that when the Bible is understood properly, God is speaking.  It gives the impression that we need something new and fresh, rather than the “old stuff” in the Bible.  A truly dangerous impression to give.

The reality is that we can and must commit to prayerful study of the Bible in order to understand its meaning and then present that meaning emphasizing its relevance for our listeners on a particular occasion.  Perhaps Don Sunukjian’s simple definition of expository preaching is a good place to end – “Listen to what God is saying . . . to us!”