Preacher’s Personal Life

The Discouraged Preacher – Part 4

/ Peter Mead / Leave a comment

We have looked at feedback, both immediate and long-term.  We have considered ministry drain and unhelpful comparisons.  Here are three more sources of discouragement:

8. Lack of Dream Schedule. Many preachers wish they had a better preparation schedule.  Many preachers work another job through the week and are restricted to time grabbed in the early morning, late at night, minutes snatched here and there.  If only I had more time to fully prepare!  But then “full-time” preachers have their time restricted too: pastoral emergencies, family crises, hospital visits, counseling appointments, committee meetings, etc.  We can all plan our schedule, and perhaps many of us could plan a little bit better than we do, but some things will mess with the best of plans.  Consider starting preparation earlier, tweak your time management skills, but remember that we preach to people in a less than ideal world.  We preach from experience, for our preparation is done in a less than ideal world too!

9. Spiritual Attack. We can’t blame the enemy for everything, but it would be naïve to not recognize a spiritual warfare element in any ministry.  The enemy would much rather have a discouraged preacher than a faith-filled, praying, passionate preacher!  Surely every category should drive us to prayer, but surely this one calls us to our knees so that we can stand firm and resist the devil.

10. Non-Preaching Issues. Perhaps work is tough, parenting is a struggle, marriage is tense, other ministry is hurting, health issues have emerged.  Non-preaching issues may improve your preaching in terms of empathy, relevance, vulnerability etc.  But non-preaching issues may add to discouragement in preaching – a time when you give of yourself and personal vulnerability comes to the surface.

Another post to come . . . all in honor of the discouraged preacher.

The Discouraged Preacher – Part 3

/ Peter Mead / Leave a comment

We’ve considered unhelpful “pseudo-feedback,” and lack of the best feedback of all (life change).  Here are a couple more categories to consider:

6. Ministry drain. This can sneak up on a preacher.  Preaching takes a lot out of you.  It uses up stores of energy.  Not only physically, but spiritually, mentally, emotionally and relationally too.  Many preachers point to the post-preaching lethargy they experience.  Most non-preachers are unaware of this phenomenon.  The danger is that we forget it and then misread the drained feeling for discouragement through failure or whatever.  Answers are as common as paperbacks in a bookstore – rest more, exercise more, eat better, drink water, pray longer, pray earlier, have dates with God, have dates with your spouse, wrestle with your children, take Mondays off, etc.  No easy answer, but don’t misread the source of the discouragement.

7. Unhelpful Comparison. Number 1 was comparing your preaching to what you imagined it would be like ahead of time.  This time it is comparing your preaching to others.  It’s good to learn from others.  But don’t beat yourself up because you are not Robinson, MacArthur, Piper, Stanley, Miller, Craddock, Swindoll, Kaiser or whoever your personal favorite might be.  Super-preachers are a blessing to many, perhaps even to us as we listen to them on the radio or at mega-events.  But the people that hear you on Sunday morning need you on Sunday morning.  You may not be super-smooth or super-polished or super-funny or even a super-scholar, but you are a super-blessing as you faithfully preach the Word out of love for God and for them!  Be careful not to get down through unhelpful comparison.

I don’t want to make a post too long, so instead I’ll extend the series.  Another post to follow.

The Discouraged Preacher – Part 2

/ Peter Mead / 1 Comment

In part 1 we saw how feedback can discourage us.  Typically this is not the carefully pursued constructive feedback – that is almost always helpful, and usually very encouraging (either reviewing your own preaching, or getting deliberate input from others).  It is the self-talk in the emotional aftermath of preaching, or the comments from others who perhaps haven’t fully thought through their criticism.  But discouragement can come from other feedback too:

3. Inanely positive feedback. While a critical comment not given carefully can steal joy and motivation, so can a wave of inane niceties.  How many handshakes and smiling “nice message!” comments does it take before discouragement sets in?  Hours of prayerful preparation, pleading at the throne of grace for life change and church renewal, personal sacrifices along the way and all you get is “nice message.”  We’re not entertainers!  Perhaps it is best to hold onto post-message comments very lightly.  Excessive criticism or excessive praise is best left at the throne of God.  The polite comments in between are not necessarily indicators of much at all, other than the listeners’ desire to be polite and appreciative.  You struggle with wording in the sermon, many listeners struggle with the wording of appreciation!

4. No feedback either way! It’s as if the preaching is just an expected element of the service, like notices or the start time.  This feels horrible for the preacher who has given so much.  It would probably be worth asking for feedback from certain people in order to show that you want to preach well, and to guarantee at least a few are listening purposefully!

5. Lack of real change. This is a biggie!  It’s the ultimate feedback on your preaching.  You pour yourself into ministry, believing God uses preaching to transform lives.  Over time you see the same old problems, the same old lack of motivation, the same old squabbles.  The church seems to be standing still or moving backwards.  Many experience this.  Perhaps it points to the need for reinforcement ministry outside the pulpit (discussion groups, Q&A times, personal mentoring, training sessions, etc.)  Perhaps it points to the need for more direct and specific application in the preaching.  Perhaps it simply points to the need to trust God and hang in there . . . sometimes it can take a lot of chipping away before the first cracks in the dam appear.  Preaching is a critical ministry, but it is not the complete answer to the needs of individuals or the church as a whole.  Nevertheless, we preach by faith!

That’s three more.  I’ll add more in part 3.  Feel free to pre-empt that post, or to suggest other categories of discouragement.

The Discouraged Preacher – Part 1

/ Peter Mead / Leave a comment

When you step into the pulpit to preach, certain things come with the territory.  When you preach, you will be discouraged.  Not every time, hopefully, but fairly regularly.  In this series of posts I want to list sources of that discouragement.  Perhaps there are ways to overcome each one, but I don’t claim to have the answers here.  It is helpful, however, to be able to distinguish between types of discouragement.  In this series I want to recognize and honor the discouraged preachers.  Perhaps the discussion stimulated by this will help us all, whether we are discouraged now or not yet!

1. Falling short of personal expectation. Often the flowing power-packed sermon you knew in the study feels like a stuttering limp effort in delivery.  We can be our own worse critics and it is worth remembering that we spot flaws in our preaching that others don’t see (vice versa is also true, of course!)  You know you missed that illustration, they don’t.  Sometimes it is worth getting feedback either from listeners or by reviewing the CD or video to see for yourself whether it was as bad as you thought.  Typically it wasn’t.

2. Negative feedback. Sometimes we receive feedback that pours cold water on any embers of motivation left after preaching.  It could be a “constructively helpful critic” who feels it is their ministry to spot a hole and point it out (a “well-intentioned dragon!”)  It could be a negatively wired individual whose general demeanor is cloudy and who speaks in a moan – they don’t have to comment on the sermon, just interacting with them steals any joy you may have.  Right after preaching, negative comments don’t have to be about the sermon to make us feel bad about our preaching!  Perhaps a persistent offender could be carefully encouraged to submit feedback later in the week when the emotions aren’t so raw and vulnerable.  Perhaps a persistent moaner will require a different strategy!

In part 2 I will list more sources of discouragement for the preacher.

Doubt Is No Cul-De-Sac

/ Peter Mead / 1 Comment

Do we allow people permission to doubt?  Doubt is natural.  But many Christians seem to fear it.  It’s as if doubting might open the door to serious enquiry that might undermine their faith.  So doubt is rejected as somehow unchristian.  I had a good conversation with my seven-year-old who expressed that sometimes she doubts her faith.  I asked what she felt she should do when she doubts.  “Stop doubting” seemed the right thing to say, but wrong.  I encouraged her to engage with any doubts that come.  If Christianity is true, if the Bible is true, then it can stand the test of some tough questions.  Good questions won’t harm truth.

Many Christians feel guilty for doubting.  They feel that they should immediately cut it out and get back on track.  Metaphorically the doubt is seen as a dead end road that should be reversed out of as quickly as possible.  I would encourage people to engage the doubt, to study the truth, to follow through.  Doubt is a pathway to a tested and evidentially undergirded faith.

As we preach we regularly have opportunities to address doubts.  Doubts about God, about the Bible, about suffering, about faith, about the future, about all aspects of Christianity.  Let’s be sure to not reinforce the typical response – to hit reverse and get out quickly.  Instead let’s encourage an informed, researched, understood Christianity.  Let’s encourage people to prayerfully wrestle with the Word.  Let’s model in our preaching a healthy response to doubts.

Don’t pretend doubt is not a reality for many believers, even if you don’t struggle.  Certainly don’t hide personal struggles as if you would lose all credibility if you were found out to be a real person!  Instead seize the moment to model healthy response to doubt and provide the quality of information people need for the struggles they face.

If We Believe In Preaching

/ Peter Mead / Leave a comment

If we believe in preaching then we will give our best to preaching.  We will gladly give the hours and the effort needed to preach the Word of God clearly, accurately, engagingly and hopefully effectively.  We will spend money on helpful resources.  We will look to grow as a preacher, be open to constructive feedback and looking for helpful input.  If we believe in preaching then we will give our best to preaching.  But there is something else to mention.

If we believe in preaching we will not only give the best we can to others, but we will submit ourselves to healthy preaching too.  Not as an exercise to learn preaching skills.  Not as an academic endeavor to learn about a new area of Scripture or theology.  Not for our sake as preachers, but for our sake as believers.  If we believe in preaching then we will sit under good preaching for the health of our souls.

Perhaps you only preach periodically, so most weeks you sit as a listener.  Great.  But what if you preach regularly?  It is easy to let the schedule fill and rely only on our sermon preparation for our spiritual benefit.  Certainly when we preach we probably get more from the message than our listeners do.  That’s only natural if the process is good.  But somehow it just seems healthy to carve out half an hour or so to sit as a listener to the end result of another’s preparatory work.

We live in a day of unprecedented opportunity.  I am currently choosing to sit under the preaching of a friend.  It is a series in a church you probably never heard of, but it is healthy, helpful, solid biblical preaching.  I need it.  We all do.  If we believe in preaching, we will not only give, but also look to receive.

We Preach By Faith

/ Peter Mead / 1 Comment

Life is often hard.  Life is often deeply disappointing.  Despite what some may claim, life is not one great victory march of pain-free delight through this fallen world.  Living by faith is not a great party free of trouble and hardship.  And preaching is a lot like life.

We prepare to the best of our ability and saturate our lives and ministry in prayer.  Yet so often it falls short.  We get tired and frustrated, saddened by the lack of change in others, or even in ourselves.  We give of ourselves to people who then somehow turn and tear out our hearts.  We find ourselves seething deep inside at great failure or simply at the persistent polite feedback.  And then typically we find ourselves praying stained glass prayers about our next sermon, the kind we feel we’re supposed to pray.

But look to the examples in the Bible of the brutal honesty of God’s men in prayer.  Consider Job chapter three, David in numerous psalms, Jeremiah in chapter twenty, or Paul with his thorn in the flesh.  They poured out their emotion, their hurt, their anger to God.  They didn’t sugar-coat their prayers in sanctified clichés.  They were real, and they knew God could take it.  Yet when all their energy was spent, when all the feelings were out, when they lay totally wiped out before God . . . there was still a trust in God’s Word, still a burning in the bones, still a faith though weak and smoldering.  My grace is sufficient for you.  Will you take my hand and press on?  Do you trust me?

Real faith is not all about grand and glorious certainty.  Often it is found in the midst of total inadequacy, absolute weakness and apparently overwhelming failure and hurt.

We live by faith.  Let us also preach by faith.  Be brutally honest with God about ministry, about preaching, about the preparation that takes so much out of you, the delivery that leaves you deeply vulnerable, about the sometimes sweet agony of it all . . . and about the feelings of failure, inadequacy, discouraging results, the backhanded slap of polite platitudes with no hint of life change, the deep questions, the temptation to settle for less, or to quit altogether.  Pour it out, pour it out until there is nothing left.  Then remember that whisper from above, “my grace is sufficient for you.”  That hand outstretched to take yours and lead you on.  To prepare another sermon, to preach another sermon, to give everything you’ve got to the best of your ability, and to do it all by faith.

Technique and Skill Alone Are Not Enough

/ Peter Mead / Leave a comment

I believe in being a good steward of the privilege of preaching.  It is a privilege to have opportunity to preach.  And it is a privilege to do the best you can.  I believe in being trained to handle the Bible and well trained in homiletics.  I believe in continuing to study hermeneutics and homiletics, not to mention contemporary culture, your listeners, and other related fields.  It is good to hone your technique using feedback, perhaps watching yourself on video and so on.  It is appropriate to put effort into effective communication skills.  All this and so much more, it’s all about being a good steward of your ministry opportunity.

But preaching takes more than that.  Preaching to change lives goes beyond technique and skill.  There is also the entirety of your life – what you stand for, give yourself to, how you walk the walk and not just talk the talk.  But preaching takes more than that.

Ultimately preaching to change lives has a dimension that goes beyond any skill or technique, beyond anything to do with you.  Ultimately there is a divine dimension that cannot be forced.  No preparation on our part, or specifically phrased prayer, can twist God’s arm to do what only He can do.  Nothing on our part is the key to God’s involvement in today’s sermon.  Just as the prophet Joel could only point to character of God in the hope that repentant Judah would be delivered (see Joel 2:12-17), just like our salvation springs from the gracious, compassionate, abounding love of God’s character, so the ultimate and most critical element in our preaching His Word springs purely from who He is, as He chooses.

Prepare well, pray fully.  Perhaps He will move in His grace among your listeners today.  Let’s be sure we are good stewards, but good stewards that lean fully on His grace alone.

Tomorrow Will You Preach, or Just Report?

/ Peter Mead / 1 Comment

One reason that a lot of preaching in churches seems to fall short is that there is a lack of engagement with the people present.  I’ve heard numerous messages that fall into the category of relatively dispassionate lecturing.  The speaker stands as a reporter of the facts of their research.  They study a text, then that information is presented.  Then maybe there is an attempt at application.  But it falls short.

The preacher is not a reporter of facts found during their research.  The preacher is called to speak to the listeners from God’s Word.  The Bible is not exhibit A.  It is the source of the message for us, today.  The Bible doesn’t sit off to one side and get pointed at during the presentation, it sits in the hand of the preacher as the source and driver of the message for us.

So often the problem is a lack of engagement.  First, a lack of engagement with the life of the preacher during preparation.  If the Word of God does not speak into the life of the preacher, then the Bible will be presented at arms length, as an exhibit.  Second, a lack of deliberate engagement with the lives of the listeners.  Tomorrow, be sure to preach the Word to them, don’t just talk about the Word in their hearing.  Today, make sure you’ve opened yourself up to the text you’re planning to preach.

If you are a preacher, your role is more than merely reporting.

Exegesis Homiletics

/ Peter Mead / 4 Comments

I am currently preparing a course that I will be teaching at the end of October – Hermeneutics for Preaching.  I came across this very important reminder in Grant Osborne’s Hermeneutical Spiral (p343):

“The hermeneutical process culminates not in the results of exegesis (centering on the original meaning of the text) but in the homiletical process (centering on the significance of the Word for the life of the Christian today).”

To some of us it is obvious that there must be a direct link between exegesis and homiletics, but we all need the reminder.  C.R.Wells, in Interpreting the New Testament (edited by Black and Dockery, pp506-523), writes the final chapter on interpretation and its connection to preaching.  He warns of some critical approaches that will produce “tempting” content for sermons, but content that should not be included.  However, critical methods that deal with the “text-as-is” have great potential as tools of the preacher.  According to Wells, “Every preacher should and must be a critic, but no preacher should ever forget that critical study serves homiletics.”

Accurate interpretation governs expository preaching.  So two simple implications:

1. Don’t allow interpretation and exegesis to be an end in itself. Study in God’s Word must run its course, not only to personal application, but to communication for corporate application.  If you have opportunity and ability to preach the Word, do it.  If you don’t, then find another way to share the truth and its implications with others.

2. If you ever preach, then be an ever-improving interpreter and exegete of God’s Word. Don’t try to preach without the foundation of biblical interpretation under your efforts.  Preaching is more than sharing the fruit of exegetical work out loud, but it cannot be less.  Skill in communication, relevance in content, personal spirituality and prayerful preparation are all important, but without effective biblical interpretation undergirding your messages, don’t call it preaching.