Preacher’s Personal Life

Attitude Check from the Apostle Peter

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Peter wrote to a church facing difficult times.  In the last chapter of his first epistle, he gives some important advice for leaders in the church (1Peter 5:1-4).  His warnings and advice are critical for preachers:

Not under compulsion, but willingly – Remember that preaching, as well as all other elements of leadership, is a privilege.  It is easy when tired or over-busy to start feeling pressured rather than privileged.  Perhaps it’s time to pray this through?

Not for shameful gain, but eagerly – Just because you are a preacher, it does not make you exempt from the common temptations of humanity.  This includes materialism and greed.  Be careful.  This temptation can creep in insidiously and become a motivation in ministry choices.  At all costs, seek to have an eager attitude to ministry, rather than a grabby attitude to money.

Not domineering, but as an example – Perhaps you are not struggling with pressure or plunder, but be careful of the power (where did that alliteration come from?  Feel free to use it if you like that sort of thing!)  It is easy to wield excessive influence in the lives of your listeners.  Rather, seek to maintain a Christlike exemplary influence.

And after the willing, eager, exemplary service comes the thing that is designed to motivate – the crown of glory!  (Or prize, I suppose, if you’re following through on the P’s!)

Helpful warnings for leaders, including us preachers.  Feel free to ignore the alliteration, I usually do, but let’s take the passage to heart!

Check Your Dashboard

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I remember a few years ago hearing a message by Bill Hybels.  He spoke about the gauges on his personal dashboard.  If my memory serves me well, he said that his spiritual gauge was looking good, but something was wrong.  He was heading for burnout, but not because of spiritual issues.  He said that he learned there were more gauges than just spiritual.  If you remember the message, feel free to comment and correct my ten year memory.  But the point is a good one.

What is the reading on your spiritual gauge?  Are you walking in step with the Spirit, living close to Jesus and spending time in His presence through His Word?  What about your emotional gauge?  Are you taking time to rest, to laugh, to play, to wrestle with your children or enjoy a walk in creation?  What about your physical gauge?  Are you getting the sleep you need, ingesting healthy fuel and burning energy (and stress) through running, gym-time, judo or traditional native dance?  And let’s ask about the mental gauge too.  Are you being stimulated in your thinking through a variety of reading, some stretching, some relaxing, some outside your primary areas of focus, etc.  And what about stimulating conversation?  That may be hard to come by, but in the context of healthy relationships, it can work wonders on all four gauges!

Whatever gauges you have on your dashboard, take a reading from all of them.  It could be devastating to be looking at only one of them and find yourself burning out unawares.

They Make It Look Easy

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This year I was in the States when the Wimbledon tennis championships were taking place.  So I missed the annual spectacle.  I’ve watched it many times.  Not just the tennis on TV, but the resulting tennis in the local courts.  People watch their heroes on TV, the best tennis players in the world.  Then they are inspired to go to the local courts and have a go themselves.  Courts that sit empty for most of the year are always busy the first week of July!  Why?  Because the best make it look easy.  It’s true in tennis, in football, in every sport.

In some ways that is our challenge as preachers.  We have to be the best that we can be.  We have to study exegetical stuff that would never be a bestseller.  We have to wrestle with the complexities of current trends and the complex motivations that move people to think in certain ways.  We have to somehow interact with all levels of social, religious, spiritual and fashionable trends, sometimes at very high levels.  Yet in it all, we have to be careful not to come across as high academics.  It’s tempting to do that.  After all, it’s easier to not translate from erudite verbosity to normal speech.  It’s better for the ego to dazzle and impress our listeners.  But remember the great tennis players.  They make something immensely complex look so easy.

Let’s strive to do the same.  Replace the twelve letter word with a five letter word or a couple of them.  Speak like a compelling communicator rather than a dull lecturing “expert.”  Let’s do the extra work and put aside our egos in order to communicate effectively.  Perhaps then the gospel will be free to access lives with all practicality.  Perhaps then people will rush out to the tennis courts of their lives and apply God’s word for themselves!

Why Reject a Shortcut?

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If there were some technology that would help our preaching, surely we should consider it, right?  Sure.  I’d consider anything.  But some shortcuts are not worth the time they save.  I was contacted by a company that sells a technology for public speakers.  The technology is supposed to cut preparation by 90%, both the work and the stress.  I look past the hype and see a technology that I might support for business presenters and sales people, but not for preachers.  Why?

Because preparation is important.  Our process is as important, maybe more important, than our end “product.”  The technology in question allows a pre-recorded message to play into the ear of the speaker who then repeats what is heard.  Supposedly it creates a more natural presentation than a teleprompter.  I’m sure it would.  But more natural than genuinely natural?  I don’t think so.

Genuine Preparation Matters – The time we spend wrestling with the text, exegeting to the best of our ability, prayerfully developing, growing and crafting a sermon is good time.  It’s time with God.  It’s time for Him to work on us and in us so that when we preach it is not information transfer, but genuine preaching.  I’m glad I don’t have to spend hours turning pages in concordances, lexicons and commentaries.  Technology has allowed more time for genuine preparation, prayerful thought and wrestling with the text and sermon.  But I don’t want to cut preparation by 90% because when it comes to preaching God’s Word, genuine preparation matters.

Genuine Delivery Matters – Speaking with your head in your notes is not the most effective way to preach.  It is disconnected and can seem like a canned presentation lacking in the authenticity people crave.  But the solution is not to fake a natural delivery.  Pretending to speak naturally by some trick of memorization, the skill of an actor learning a monologue, painting eyes on your glasses that allow you to “look up” while really looking down at notes, or hidden technology . . . it’s all somehow a pretense.  If integrity matters anywhere, it matters in preaching.  Natural is good, but genuine is critical.  Get as natural as you can, but don’t compromise your integrity.  When it comes to preaching, genuine delivery matters.

So, my apologies to the company involved.  I wish them well in their business.  But for preaching, sometimes I feel the need to reject a shortcut.

Personal Presentation

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When I teach preaching I make only a passing reference to personal presentation. What you wear, how you look, it matters, but it’s kind of a simple issue for me. For one, I don’t think it is an issue worth fighting over or dying for. If a church expects me to wear a tie, I’ll do it. If they prefer casual presentation, I’ll do it. Some may choose to fight for change (usually in the casual direction), I’d rather fight for other issues in pulpit ministry!

Here’s my simple summary of what matters:

Don’t let how you look distract your listeners. Your clothes should match. They should be appropriate for the setting (a tuxedo can be as distracting as shorts in the wrong context!) Be appropriately well-groomed. Don’t wear a dark shirt if you raise your arms while preaching and are likely to sweat. If you happen to be attractive to the opposite gender, don’t dress in a way that might be considered provocative!

Don’t let how you look undermine your credibility. Sloppy clothes or grooming don’t convey a sense of credibility. As much as it depends on you, demonstrate some discipline in regards to what is inside your clothing too.

(Oh, and since we’re getting a bit personal, I try to have breath mints in my pocket too, for the sake of those I chat with afterwards!)

Any tips to add?

Mythbusting – Experience Is Key?

/ Peter Mead / 2 Comments

Howard Hendricks has a habit of getting at the heart of an issue. I was just reading a book he co-authored on teaching and he nails a key issue for us as preachers. How are we to know that we are being as effective as possible in our ministry?

Experience is not the key! People automatically assume that the longer they are doing something, the better they get at it. So the longer a person teaches, the better the teacher they become. The longer the person preaches, the better the preacher they become. Wrong. Hendricks calls this idea nonsense. He points out that ripping through wood dulls the teeth of a carpenter’s saw, and so also experience tends to wear away any edge in a person’s skill.

Evaluated experience is key! Over time poor methods and poor practice become ingrained poor habits. Complacency easily sets in. It is possible to lose touch with the listeners. And time will generally exaggerate personal idiosyncrasies. In short, over time we easily get sloppy.

So what does Hendricks advise? He advises pastors as well as teachers to follow his example. To evaluate every session you teach. To invite others to critique in various ways. Be like a carpenter who painstakingly files each tooth on his crosscut saw.

Experience alone does not make you better, only evaluated experience does that. In the same way as experience alone does not make you mature, but only experience evaluated and handled with the right attitude. Let us all have the attitude of the master carpenter, painstakingly sharpening each tooth on the saw of our ministry. Perhaps it would be good to carefully evaluate your last sermon, and make specific plans to get feedback on your next.

Preach First and Last Sermons

/ Peter Mead / 2 Comments

I don’t know if you count.  My temperament tends to count.  I keep track of what I’ve preached, when, to whom, etc.  I keep records partially out of necessity and partially out of interest.  Whether or not you count sermons, take a guess, which one is today’s?  Is it number 15, or 100, or 1250, or 3500?

Let me encourage you today to preach as if it is your first. Preach with all the naivety of a new preacher.  Remember?  Back when you expected lives to be changed immediately by the sermon you preached.  Back when the spring in your step conveyed an excitement about what God is doing in your life and what He wants to do in their lives.  Forget the nerves, the mistakes, the unrefined skill, and so on.  But remember the enthusiastic expectation of that first sermon.  Preach like that today.

And preach as if it is your last. Imagine that today’s sermon had to count because there would be no more.  Imagine that all the weight of God’s work in your life had to be transferred with urgency today to those sitting before you.  Forget the slowness of mind that may come, or the feeble frame that you may have to carry up those steps.  But imagine how powerful the weight of matured passion and perspective will be in your last ever sermon.  Preach like that today.

The Tone of the Shepherd

/ Peter Mead / 1 Comment

One of the central roles of a church leader is to protect the flock from false teaching.  It is a responsibility to take seriously.  However, without very deliberate thought it is easy to fall into one of two extremes.

Extreme 1 – Just Really Nice Shepherd. Your desire to be liked drives you to avoid any controversy and confrontation, leaving your preaching as a parade of niceness.  I’ve heard plenty of this in my time.  It is the kind of preaching that seems to skirt any issue that might offend.  The desire is unity at all costs.  I sense that where this kind of preaching prevails, it reflects a situation where Evangelical Christians are perceived to be irrelevant, unaware and standing for nothing.  Let us not set that tone from the pulpit.

Extreme 2 – Angry Bashing Shepherd. Your desire to be right drives you to bash freely at every person, idea or stream of Christianity you disagree with.  I remember sitting through a very painful retreat where the famous speaker seemed to take every opportunity to have a go at top Christian evangelists and ministry leaders.  It was unhelpful for the immature believers confused by it all and would have been offensive to any unbelievers present.  We must be aware of how we are perceived.  Non-christians see us as very angry people who just can’t get along with each other.  Let us not reinforce that from the pulpit.

Why do we fall into one extreme or the other?  I think our personality will influence it.  I think our culture will influence it (in my experience I see the English church often falling into the former extreme, whereas the North American church often tends toward the latter extreme – obviously there are exceptions in both cultures).  I think fear drives both extremes – fear of any confrontation or discord on the one hand, and fear of not having all the answers in our personal theology and philosophy of ministry on the other.  I think a lack of thought leaves us at one extreme or the other.

As preachers we must think carefully about our role as shepherds.  Sheep want neither a nice shepherd too polite to offend the prowling mountain lion, nor an angry shepherd lashing out at every bush, shepherd or other sheep that crosses their path.

Preachers Employed Elsewhere

/ Peter Mead / 1 Comment

Recently Mike quoted Haddon Robinson concerning preaching being your center:

“If preaching is not your center, then you will not preach. You will give all of your time, all of your energy, and all of your heart to other areas of ministry. However, if you are called by God to preach, if you burn to preach, if preaching is your center, then you will do whatever is necessary to make preaching central to your week of ministry.”

The target for this statement is evidently the full-time minister.  But what about the thousands of preachers who earn their living in “secular” employment?  Andrea in Italy wrote and asked, “How can preaching be my center, when I have a secular job?  Is there anyone in a situation like mine?”

Globally there are many more preachers earning their living from other employment than there are those privileged with a paycheck for preaching.  Of these preachers who earn their living outside of preaching, there are two categories.  First, there are those, like Andrea, with a passion and burden to preach.  Second, there are those who preach occasionally, but preaching is not primarily “their thing.”

So if you have a passion and burden to preach the Word, but by choice or circumstance are paid for other work, can preaching still be your center?  I believe it can.  First, God knows your situation and the time you are able to sacrificially devote to preaching (reading, studying, preparing, etc.)  Second, the fire can still burn in your heart as you work (analyzing culture, learning about people, experiencing life in all its complexity, practicing the presence of God through conversational prayer, reading a preaching book during lunch, etc.)  Third, whether it is our job or not, we all have to continually choose whether preaching is really central to our reason for existence!

The Bible does affirm the reimbursement of some who are devoted to preaching and teaching.  But the Bible does not require a preacher to be “full-time” in order to serve God in such a ministry.  A preacher with other paid employment may have some disadvantages (less time to study the text and prepare), but also has some definite advantages (more opportunity to study the listeners, potentially greater credibility, and typically higher income !)

If a preacher has other employment and still tries to preach three-plus times each week, then I feel for their predicament.  But if they preach slightly less frequently than paid preachers, perhaps there is little difference overall!

I remember a conversation with a missionary in Africa who felt discouraged because he often had to work 18 hours per day on the land in order to sustain his family.  He felt like he should quit the ministry since he didn’t have more time, or “full-time” to give.  I asked if he’d seen any fruit in his ministry.  He had.  Through this brother God had planted six churches among an unreached nomadic tribe.  He knew of no other evangelical missionary working among this people group.  So, my profound advice to him?  Don’t quit.

Pay is a privilege for some of us.  Ministry is a privilege for all of us.  If preaching is the central passion of your ministry, then whatever your life circumstances, it will show!

Love it, Hate it

/ Peter Mead / 2 Comments

I just spent some time together with Mike Roth.  We were discussing a couple of passages and some teaching preaching related issues.  Interesting comment that lingered in my mind and heart.  We both said essentially the same thing, “I love it when I don’t preach on a weekend . . . and I hate it when I don’t preach on a weekend.”

Preaching stirs something very deep.  It stirs up all sorts of emotion and tension.  It stirs up all sorts of passion.  If you are a regular preacher, enjoy the next break you get.  Be thankful for the rest.  But be thankful for the privilege of getting back to it too.