Preacher’s Personal Life

Internal Chaos? Be Encouraged.

/ Mike Roth / 3 Comments

In R.E.C. Browne’s classic work on homiletics The Ministry of the Word, he writes, “Creative work always brings creative workers to the edge of an abyss. It is there that the most creative work is done and it is there that conditions exist which may be the undoing of the worker: passionate faith gives rise to profound doubt; love of truth dreads error, bringing one to the verge of falsehood; depth of love increases ability to hate in the name of love; zeal drives the zealous towards fanaticism; desire to influence others brings one into the danger of being enslaved by those whom he would free. Great preaching, like great art, cannot be the work of those who know no chaos within them and it cannot be the work of those who are unable to master the chaos within them (p. 17).”

For those who preach regularly, this place of chaos is known all too well – and it can be paralyzing. I pray the Lord strengthens you to continue His work proclaiming this Word that brings life. May the apostle Peter’s words be of encouragement to you today: “Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God’s grace in its various forms. If anyone speaks, he should do it as one speaking the very words of God. If anyone serves, he should do it with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. To him be the glory and the power for ever and ever. Amen (1 Peter 4:10-11).”

Mike and Peter have responded to a comment on this post.

How Being a Preacher Can Kill Your Bible Study

/ Peter Mead / 1 Comment

The stages of sermon preparation are not a hard and fast series of steps. It is possible to have a useful thought for the introduction, conclusion, illustrations, and so on, very early in the process. Yet these are all stage 7 elements – message details. So even though it is possible to have thoughts at any time, it is usually better to note them and leave them until later. This is especially important in stage 2 – passage study. A commitment to expository preaching requires that we keep stage 2 unpolluted by stages 5-7.

1. As you are studying your passage you are not looking for a sermon. If you collapse stage 6 – sermon shape, into stage 2 – passage study, you will undermine the whole process. It is critical to study the passage first, to understand it, rather than to form it into a sermon.

2. If your mind creeps ahead, make a note and get back to stage 2. We’re all tempted to see our points as we study. Write them down and put them aside. That is not yet. We easily look for our sermon structure, will there be two points, or three? Inductive or deductive? Don’t. Write down any thoughts and then put that aside.

3. Be clear on your goal in studying a passage. What is the goal of studying the passage? It is not to find the sermon. It is not to determine the points of the sermon. It is not to utilize our Greek or Hebrew until we feel we have fulfilled some sense of duty. It is not to parse verbs endlessly, or do word study after word study. The goal of studying the passage is to find, with some degree of confidence, the passage idea. The goal of stage 2 is stage 3 (and part of stage 4). The goal of studying the passage is to know what the author’s idea was, and why he wrote it. Seems obvious, but we easily forget. In fact, many of us have never been told that. I don’t recall my seminary profs training me to exegete a passage so that I grasp the author’s main idea. But that is the goal. All the Bible study skills we have are there to work towards that.

Determine the main idea of the passage, with as much confidence as you can achieve in the time you have. Then you are ready to start considering the purpose of your sermon, your sermon idea and your sermon outline. Do these things too soon and you may abort your Bible study.

The Preacher & Prayer

/ Peter Mead / 1 Comment

Sometimes the obvious needs stating. Preachers should be pray-ers. While it may be possible to follow a procedure and produce a sermon, we must never lose sight of the fact that it is not possible to achieve life transformation unless God is at work. Thus, we need to be on our knees. I could leave it at that, but let me give some examples of how I stimulate my own prayer life regarding ministry (although I know I could do so much more):

1. Pre-prep prayer. Before planning the preaching calendar, and then before preparing a series or a specific message, pray. For example, while driving I will sometimes mentally survey through forthcoming ministry in my mind and pray for each meeting. I might cover three to six months worth of varied ministry in a decent length car journey.

2. Pew and pulpit prayer. Before moving into the role I have now, I was in a more normal local church situation. This meant I could go to the church and run through my message on the platform. I know some preachers who like to pray through their notes as preparation, which is a good option. For me it works well to actually preach through the message and then pray about it. So after preaching it through I would spend time pacing the platform, praying for the meeting, then sitting in the pews and praying for the people who would be there. It is easy to be specific in the prayer when you can see in your mind the people who will be sitting there. (It is not so easy to do this when you preach in different churches, or your church meets in a rented facility. To be honest, I miss these times.)

3. Pre-preaching prayer. Before the sermon, if possible, I like to be near the back of the room. That way I can be thinking through the message and praying for the specific people who are present. Unfortunately some churches expect the speaker to sit on the front pew, or even worse, to run the whole meeting.

Just three of many many possibilities. I’d love to read what other preachers do, please comment. Whatever you do, may you be like James the brother of Jesus, aka camel knees.