Preacher’s Personal Life

Out of Our Depth

/ Peter Mead / Leave a comment

Charles Haddon Spurgeon once made this very true statement, “The best man here, if he knows what he is, knows that he is out of his depth in his sacred calling.”  How true that is.  Only with a keen awareness of that reality will we avoid a ministry empowered by the flesh.  Let me probe this issue briefly with some rhetorical questions:

Do I feel confident in my ministry based on previous experience, ministerial training or affirmation received? This is a dangerous confidence to lean on.  We need to lean on Him only when we step up to preach.

Do I feel stirred to worship, to confess, to pray, to focus on the Lord as I prepare to preach? If these responses and similar are missing in preparation, something is missing for the preaching too.

Do I concern myself more with what people will think of my message, than what God will think of it? Surely we preach to our listeners, but we ultimately answer only to One (consider 2Tim.4:1 in light of verse 2).

Let’s never allow ourselves to forget the simple fact that we are out of our depth when we stand to preach God’s Word.

Laughter and the Preacher

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The subject of humor in preaching can create tension.  Personally I think that natural humor appropriately used can be a great tool in preaching.  Obviously I agree that unnatural humor inappropriately used for the sake of entertainment in preaching is not good at all.  Satan loves to take something that is good and corrupt it, even in the church.  But I’m not wanting to write about humor in preaching, I’m thinking about laughter in the preacher.  Perhaps a preacher with a great laugh comes to mind, like Charles Swindoll, or a preacher with dry humor, or whatever, but I’m not thinking primarily about preaching today.

I just read the quote that laughter is an instant vacation.  Perhaps in the busy-ness of life and ministry, we need something akin to mini-sabbaths by laughter.  Before you start thinking that my view of sabbath is limited, hear me out.  I know that the biblical concept of Sabbath from Genesis 2 to the book of Hebrews is very rich theologically.  I also know that we of all people, hopefully understanding the Bible well, being experts in the struggles of contemporary life, carrying the pastoral burdens of deeply hurting folks, facing spiritual opposition at potentially elevated levels, etc., we of all people have reason to be sombre and serious.

Yet at the same time, if we know the Bible well, if we know God well, if we have a firm grasp of the theological truths in which we deal every day, the truths of a God who has grasped our hearts and poured out his love into them . . . we of all people should have laughter in our lives.  The Psalmist wrote about the return of the captives and spoke of how their mouths were filled with laughter.  Why?  Because they knew, indeed all the nations knew, that the LORD had done great things for them!  (see Psalm 126)  The book of Proverbs speaks of a joyful heart being good medicine (Pro.17:22).  They say the laughter of a Dad is critical to the psychological health of a child.  Laughter, by definition, seems to be a healthy ingredient in life.

I don’t deny the other side of the coin.  The need for seriousness in many aspects of life and ministry, the sadness that may overwhelm our hearts as they beat with His for this hurting rebellious world, the deep realities of mourning in this world that itself groans in travail.  I do not urge flippancy or silliness or folly.  I simply want to prod myself and perhaps you too . . . surely we of all people should have regular bouts of laughter.  God-inspired, clean, honest, “I’ve cast my cares on Him so the burdens are not on me” laughter.  God-given, grace-prompted, “God has given me so much to rejoice in that I am able to enjoy the little blessings” laughter.

Perhaps if we allow ourselves to laugh in private, it may even spill naturally and appropriately into the pulpit.  Maybe that wouldn’t be a bad thing sometimes.

Most Important Element in Introduction?

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We’ve considered the various elements of an introduction before. The need to grab attention, build communication rapport, surface a need, move listeners into the text and the message. I’d like to underline the one that is probably neglected more than the others, yet it is the one we should never forget.

Another way of thinking about the “surface need” element of the introduction is to call it relevance. In the introduction, as a listener, I want to know …

This speaker is relevant to me. I don’t want to listen to somebody that is out of touch with the real world. Please give me confidence that you are a relevant speaker.

This message is relevant to me. If I am a normal listener, I have not come to church excited for a historical lecture. Please give me confidence that this message will be relevant to my life. If you leave application and relevance until the end of the message (traditional approach) then I may well miss it (to be absent from the body may not mean being present with the Lord, if you see what I mean?)

This passage is relevant to me. I would be thrilled to open up my Bible with expectation and motivation, hungry to understand it and be changed by it. As the preacher you need to create that motivation during your introduction.

Relevance in the introduction really is a great ingredient!

Authority and Preaching

/ Peter Mead / 1 Comment

The issue of authority in preaching is important.  As preachers, you and I don’t have authority in ourselves.  Some may hold a position of authority in the local church polity, but that is not the same thing.  Certainly in most cultures the preacher is not perceived to have an inherent social authority as they may have in the past.  What’s more, we live in an age when authority is being undermined and challenged at every level.  Perhaps we stand to preach and authority is an issue from the past?  Perhaps today the only concern should be authenticity, relevance and connection?

Or perhaps we should stir up some authority by means of our manner, hiding any hint of personal vulnerability, or pushing our church position or expertise?  Just as there is much non-authoritative preaching, so there is much pseudo-authoritative preaching, and even authoritarian preaching.  What we need is authoritative preaching.

A commitment to expository preaching involves being clear on this: to the extent that we accurately present, explain and apply the Scripture, our preaching has authority.  As a well-known theologian once wrote – when the Bible speaks, God speaks.

I’m not wanting to get into debates about what that means and how it might be abused by some.  I just want us to ponder this truth today as we contemplate preaching again.  To the extent that we accurately present, explain and apply the Scripture, we preach with authority.  The church, the world…we all need to hear from God.  Not our opinions, our advice, our suggestions.  From God.   As preachers let’s be sure we are not a part of the problem, but humble conduits for that authoritative Word.

Patient Expectation

/ Peter Mead / 2 Comments

Preaching ministry requires patience, not just passion.  It requires prayer, not just power.  It is about long-term faithfulness, not just fireworks.  As we head into another Sunday, let’s keep our thinking straight.  God is at work in the lives of His people, Christ is building His church, the Spirit is working all week in all manner of ways.  We stand to preach and we do so as part of God’s greater work in and through the church.

We should preach with prayer-fueled passion and faith-filled expectation.  Yet we must also preach with patient trust in God’s timing.  We preach for the small step forward unheralded during the handshakes and not just the dramatic outbreak of revival heralded in the Christian press.  We preach for small pieces of an invisible puzzle to move into place, for links to be added to a private chain, for unannounced questions to be answered in the quiet of a struggling heart.  Every Sunday cannot be earth-shaking, but every Sunday can be eternity-shaping.

We preach not for the glory of man, but for the glory of God.  So often His glory is tied to his loving patience and not just to His dramatic outpourings for the content of another bestselling paperback.  As we’ve said before, so we must say again this Sunday – we preach by faith.  By faith trusting that the God who is the same yesterday, today and forever, will as always be working out His purposes in far too many ways for us to realize.  We know the end of the story, so let’s not lose heart during the quieter chapters when so much is achieved behind the scenes, in the hearts, in private struggles, in personal journeys.  Let’s preach today with prayerful, faith-filled, passionate, and indeed, patient expectation.

Ingredients of Delivery: Biblical Narratives 3

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I just wanted to add one more important ingredient to the list.  We need to describe well and preach dynamically.  To effectively preach the story, we also need . . .

High Definition Imagination – To put it simply, if you can see it, they will see it.  Instead of just describing “about” the story, we need to describe the story.  We need to study well so that the image forms in our mind, then we need to describe what we can see as we tell the story.  We need to be careful to preach the inspired text, rather than the event itself.  However, in preaching the text, we do describe the event/story.  If that is merely facts, it will not communicate well.  If it is a foggy view through the mists of time, then people will only hear the fog.  But if we can study ourselves through to a point of clarity, then we have a chance of preaching so that the reality of the narrative forms in the minds and hearts of the listeners.

This certainly overlaps with description skill, but all the skill in the world will fall flat if we do not have a high definition imagination that is thoroughly informed by Scripture.  We have to see it, if they are to see it.

Getting Into the Christmas Spirit

/ Peter Mead / 1 Comment

Just a month to go until Christmas.  The shops are gearing up, children are more than ready, but are we focused on it yet?  I don’t mean that we should be thinking about what to buy wives for Christmas (although we should, Christmas Eve panic buying is never healthy).  I mean focused on it for preaching.  After all, there are only a handful of Sundays between now and the big day.

Perhaps you are preaching a series from Matthew or Luke, or maybe only one of a series.  Take a look at the passage now and turn on your amazement again.  Don’t worry about how to preach it, what sermon form to use, etc.  For now just read the text with a very open heart and get excited about the Incarnation again.  Tinsel, shopping, carols and dark evenings may excite some, but turn off others.  But if we are going to preach something of the reality of Christmas, then we need to be prepared.

Let’s not preach a tinsel Christmas this year, but a genuinely-excited-incarnation-wonder-season of sermons!

Learning About Introductions From Evangelists

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Last night I had the pleasure of sharing a session with a great group of God’s servants who work among the military in this country.  In conversation afterward I was again struck by how important our introductions are when preaching.

An evangelist can’t take the introduction to a conversation for granted.  It is critical to have a point of connection, an entry into the conversation.  I am always impressed when I meet evangelists who are skilled in this area!  You simply can’t launch into the gospel without finding some starting point, some reason for the hearer to hear what you are saying.  That’s not to suggest that we simply respond to felt needs with the gospel – it is far more glorious a message than that!  But we do need to start somewhere, and somewhere relevant is a great place to start.

Likewise a preacher can’t take the introduction to a sermon for granted.  Generally our listeners are not as antagonistic as a group of soldiers in the barracks may be, but this should not lull us into introductory complacency.  People are living real lives with real issues.  When we launch into our message by simply stating a reference and reading the text, we give no real reason for hearers to hear.  We should presume distraction and fight for their focus.  Find a way to connect, demonstrate early on that what you are going to say is relevant to their real lives and people will lean forward to listen.  Choose to default to a non-introduction and people will settle back in the pew and let their minds wander elsewhere.

Whether we are sharing the gospel in a conversation, or preaching the Word in a church, we need to give thought to connecting early and engaging our listeners with the message.  Unengaged listeners may be many things, but they are not truly hearers.

Preaching Sermons on Sermons

/ Peter Mead / 1 Comment

I don’t mean preaching your sermon based on another contemporary preacher’s sermon.  I mean preaching a sermon based on a Scriptural sermon.  There’s lots of them.  It can be fascinating to wrestle with a sermon in its context since you would expect to find a sense of context, purpose, application, explanation, etc.  If you haven’t given this any thought before, here are some places to go:

The Sermons of Acts – Acts is a book of action, but interestingly, the sermons are not introductory to the action, they are the action!  Obviously the sermons in Acts are summaries of the original message, but studying them in their context and looking for what specifically the preacher was saying can be very satisfying.  Paul has at least three sermons (not counting defense speeches).  Peter also preaches in Acts (very slightly harder to understand and apply directly since things were shifting pretty rapidly in those first months, but still worth studying!)

The Sermons of Jesus – Matthew, for example, alternates between discourse (sermons) and narrative (action).  So you have great blocks of teaching – the sermon on the mount, instructions to the disciples, parables of the kingdom, olivet discourse, etc.  Since some of these are distilled surveys of teaching, it can be hard to define a specific sermon text, but it is so worth the effort.  Who was he preaching to?  Why did he preach it?

The only complete sermon – I see only one complete sermon in the Bible.  It takes about 50-55 minutes, and it is absolute dynamite.  The book of Hebrews is a sermon written down.  The more I study it, the more I see it as a sermon.  So many features of orality, so much application, so careful in its exposition, so powerful in its relevance to the first hearers.

Other sermons – then you’ve also got snippets of sermons throughout the Old Testament prophets.  What a treasure so often neglected.

A case can be made for the oral nature of much of Scripture.  With diligent prayerful study, you will find preaching sermons on the Bible’s sermons is immensely satisfying for you, and powerful in the lives of your listeners.

Do We Preach a Distant God?

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Yesterday I made a passing reference to the fact that our God is not the deity of the deists.  That is to say that He didn’t wind things up and then sit back disinterested with His arms folded.  Before we start pointing the finger at famous deists like Thomas Edison, Albert Einstein or even Antony Flew, let’s check our preaching.  Is it possible that we inadvertently preach deism?

We are right to both study and present the author’s meaning in a passage.  The first stage of effective Bible study has to look at the inspired text “back then.”  Once we have understood the author’s idea in the passage, then we can consider how to legitimately apply that idea in our world today.  However, there is a potential danger in solid exegetical methodology.  The danger is that we present God’s work as “back then” but not “today.”  There is a real risk that we imply a God at work in the days of Moses, Matthew or the preacher to the Hebrews, but today we have only the reflected benefit of careful application.

The truth is that God is at work today.  He is as intimately concerned about each life as He ever has been.  Some err by emphasizing the direct revelation of God today to the neglect of His Word which He inspired long ago.  Likewise, some of us may err by emphasizing the act of inspiration long ago to the neglect of His present concern, sovereignty and involvement in the world today.  I appreciate Don Sunukjian’s shorthand definition of preaching for this particular reason.  He states that preaching is “Listen to what God is saying . . . to us!”  An absolute commitment to sound exegesis.  A clear commitment to a divine involvement in the act of preaching.

We must get both the “back then” and the “today” aspects of our preaching on target, otherwise we risk preaching a diminished deity.  An emphasis on “today” at the expense of “back then” leads to a subjectively defined experiential deity.  An emphasis on “back then” at the expense of “today” might lead to a distant deity.  God inspired the Word back then, and His Word still speaks with force today.  We preach an ancient text . . . relevantly.  Let’s beware that we neither preach an overly imminent experiential God, nor an excessively distant historical God.  Let’s be sure to preach the God who inspired the Bible, the God who still speaks through His Word today!