Preacher’s Personal Life

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.

Preparation Place

/ Peter Mead / 7 Comments

A good sermon in the pulpit will reflect hours of work in the study.  Hours of prayerful reading, careful thinking and sometimes tearful wrestling through the process.  But no rule says preparation has to happen at the desk.  In fact, the desk can be a place of distraction!

Personally I tend to work either at home at my desk, or at a friend’s house (quieter).  However, there are times when I find I need to prepare somewhere else.  Not because I have to, but because it helps.  I sometimes think and preach through a sermon while driving (sorry for the carbon footprint!), or on a walk, or pacing around in my living room.  One time I had to answer questions from the police about what I was doing at such and such a time (“Uh, I was preaching a sermon while staring out of the window, officer!”) – I happened to fail to see anything suspicious as a crime took place down the street, but my bizarre excuse precluded further questioning!

Anyway, where do you find preparation works best for you?  Driving, walking, pacing, sitting in a Starbucks to see and sense the reality of people?  There are no rules here, but I am interested!

Let Agony Reassure You

/ Peter Mead / 2 Comments

Preaching is agonizing.  Giving birth to a sermon is a regular pain.  The effect is felt in our emotional, spiritual, mental and physical selves.  Rarely does a sermon fall together with ease, get delivered with nothing but joy and result in tangible spiritual fruit for all.  Typically the preaching experience is unlike any other.  It hurts.  It raises huge question marks on a regular rhythm.  It takes something out of you that leaves you vulnerable and broken.  You can shrug off a bad round of golf, or a poor session at the gym before your peers, or even am uncomfortable evening of hospitality that didn’t quite go to plan.  But a sermon is different.  You don’t shrug it off.  Even a good one leaves lingering doubts, feelings of failure and the gentle scars of sermonic ministry.

These things can be discouraging.  The interrupted preparation.  The blind side critique.  The barbed feedback.  The polite feedback.  The excessive hand-shaking response coupled with the pathetic life response.  It can all be discouraging, but let it encourage you today.  If it was easy, if there were no struggles, no emotions, no sense of inner turmoil and personal agony, then perhaps it would be nothing more than a hobby, a personal venture.  Preaching the Word of God is a spiritual battle of the first order.  Just like evangelism.  Just like missions.  It’s not meant to be easy.  It’s meant to be real.  Let the agony reassure you.  It’s real.  God is real.  So is the enemy.  So is the battle.  So will be the lasting fruit wrought through it all.

Preaching To Few

/ Peter Mead / 7 Comments

I’m just finishing RT Kendall’s book on his 25 years at Westminster Chapel.  He reflects several times on the low numbers he had at the chapel.  It seems that in a church that would hold 2000, his congregation was typically 150-300.  The only time the place was full was for his farewell.  He wrote candidly of his discouragement due to low numbers.

I preach in a variety of settings to crowds of all different sizes.  Since people are not attending due to my presence, it tends not to bother me at all.  However, to be pastor of a famous church, in a large building, but never to see numbers increase as you would desire, that has to be disheartening.

I remember reading of one man who preached with his eyes shut so that he would not be discouraged.  I wouldn’t encourage that for several reasons relating to the nature of expository preaching and also pulpit safety.  But what should you do?  If the circumstances conspire to make numbers an issue, then how should one respond?

I would be interested in any experiences of discouragement by numbers, or anecdotes from other preachers.

The Pressure of Infinite Resources

/ Peter Mead / Leave a comment

We live in a time when we have potential access to more study resources than ever before.  There are countless commentaries on every book of the Bible, including exegetical, technical, semi-technical, expositional, applicational, background, socio-cultural, devotional.  Then there are the Bible dictionaries, encyclopedias, literary guides, and so on.  And I shouldn’t forget the preaching helps – outlines, illustrations, series ideas, and so on.  All of this is in print, most of it is available as software, and then there is the bottomless pit of online material, ranging from helpful to truly pathetic.

What an incredible time to live in, but what a pressure it puts on us as preachers!  What if there is a resource that will unlock this passage for me and I haven’t got it or read it yet?  What if I am failing to preach as I should because I have failed to access the right preparation resource?

Learn to Discern. Discern which resources are worth owning on whatever budget you have.  Discern which ones duplicate other or earlier works.  Discern which are helpful for preaching and which are actually quagmires.  Discern how to use the web with skill rather than endless bunny trailing through cyber-space.

Remember this is God’s work and He knows. He knows what resources you actually have access to and time for.  He knows what level of training you’ve had.  He knows how pressured your preparation has been.  He knows.

In my case, I typically consult between four and ten (well-chosen and well-trusted) resources on a typical sermon.  We are blessed with more available, in more formats, than ever before.  But remember that our task is not to endlessly trawl through it all. Our task is to study God’s Word with His help, using only a small percentage of the available resources, according to our means and training, in order to preach the Word accurately and effectively to our listeners.

Big Words, Big Warnings

/ Peter Mead / 3 Comments

I recently listened to a few sessions from the last Evangelical Theological Society meetings. I’m a member and was planning to be there, but decided I’d rather teach a preaching course than attend the meetings. I have enjoyed the sessions I’ve listened to so far, but one thing stood out to me. In each of the papers that I listened to, it felt like the presenters were trying to pack the first few sentences with big words. Peer pressure, the desire to impress, the atmosphere of an intellectual atmosphere. Now as an academic I can relate to the word choices made, but as a preacher/communicator I felt very uncomfortable.

As preachers we can fall into the same trap. It is easy to choose big words when little ones would do the job. There may be the odd occasion where a big word is worth the extra effort and explanation required (such as key theological terms like justification). But often there is no real benefit to going big on the word front, and there may be real reasons not to:

Intellectual pride easily creeps in. The best sportsmen make their skill look easy, why don’t we take the same approach? Often the use of big words is partially driven by the desire to look intellectual and educated.

Communication is about communicating, not impressing. So what if people affirm the message after you’re done? So what if they take comfort from knowing that you know lots of theological stuff? The goal in preaching is not to indicate what you know, but to help them know and live out the Bible. If they don’t get the words, they won’t live the Word.

Big words can divide the church. What if some people understand the big words, while others do not? Surely a church divided along educational or class lines would undermine the very essence of the church as the New Testament presents it.

Generally speaking, when we’re tempted to use big words, let’s not.

Preacher Under Fire

/ Peter Mead / 1 Comment

People joke about having roast preacher for Sunday lunch.  In reality many of us face worse than sermonic critique from our listeners.  The experience of criticism, accusation, distrust and outright opposition is well known to many of us.  It is important to prayerfully consider things that are said against us since these difficult times are great times to learn and grow.

However, it is important not to fire back.  As a preacher it is tempting to use pulpit time to vindicate ourselves before our listeners.  As a preacher it is tempting to preach at our opposition.  Don’t and don’t.  Pulpit ministry is a sacred trust.  Preach the Word and leave any vindication to the One to whom it belongs.