Preaching

The Weeks After Guest Events

/ Peter Mead / 1 Comment

I am always encouraged to be around churches that put a lot of effort into guest events, or services where non-regulars are likely to be in attendance.  Let me encourage you to let that energy move further through the Sunday schedule:

1. Recognizing that certain Sundays are key Sundays. I know of some churches that press on with series without any concern for what Sunday it is.  You may value the next installment of that Old Testament epic, but I suspect the friends, neighbours and family visitors won’t though when it is the Sunday before Christmas (in fact, your people probably won’t invite them!)  So recognize that some Sundays are key Sundays – Christmas, easter, Mother’s day perhaps, other holidays that may be big in your part of the church world.

2. Put your best foot forward on key Sundays. I know of some churches that think it is a good idea to use once-a-year speakers on these stand alone days since they will have months to prepare and won’t need to coordinate with a series.  Oops.  Extra visitors coming in seems like the time to put forward the best speakers, best music, etc.

3. Don’t lose your gains by not thinking of the subsequent Sundays. What if some visitors come and really enjoy the welcome, the interaction, the service, the teaching.  And then they come back the next week and it is, well, it isn’t accessible and warm anymore?  Seems like you will have only achieved the inoculation of more people to hinder their return.  Think about the weeks after guest services and how they can also be accessible, warm, etc.

4. Why not have a consistency so you win the trust of the inviters? It is worth thinking about whether every Sunday morning could be accessible and warm for first-time visitors.  This way you will not miss golden opportunities when folks come to church for the first time, and you will build the confidence of the people in the church (how many are harangued about bringing folks, but will never budge because they don’t trust the church to handle their friends and neighbours properly?)

Expository Preaching – Showcasing What?

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I am strongly committed to expository preaching.  But a lot of what is called expository seems to fall short.  For many it seems to have become an exegetical showcase, or a structural/creativity showcase, or a prideful showcase of arrogant orthopraxy.

Exegetical Showcase. For many, expository preaching is essentially to be equated with effective outlining of a text to demonstrate the skill of the preacher in accurate exegesis.  Actually, I hesitate to say skill in accurate exegesis, because often outlining of texts seems to lead to a message other than the text’s message – perhaps a show of doctrinal orthodoxy, or an exercise in structural balancing.  Nevertheless, for many, expository preaching has become an opportunity to show the fruit of their exegetical labour as if that were an end in itself.  Be accurate, please, but don’t think that accurate presentation of a text is expository preaching.

Structural / Creativity Showcase. I hinted at this above.  This is where the sermon is an opportunity to demonstrate the ability of the speaker to create a balanced, parallel, aurally or visually appealing and supposedly memorable outline based on a text.  There tends to be a value placed on tripartite structuring and balanced insertions of “illustrative” materials.  The connections to expository sermonic expectations are clear on many levels, but the connections to the text can be strenuous at times.  This isn’t what expository preaching is about – this is a culturally defined expectation trained into listeners (and yielding very affirming feedback!)

Arrogant Orthopraxy Showcase. I suppose this is tied to the previous point.  This is where the preacher is concerned, perhaps subconsciously, to demonstrate that their preaching is in line with their heroes (usually in the current generation, sometimes historical figures).  The concern seems to be to declare that “I am a true expository preacher!”  It is amazing how much insecurity we see in the church as people seem desperate to play the association game, name drop, seek approval, etc.

Expository preaching is not about displaying the preacher’s skill in exegesis, or craft in sermon construction, or association with a certain camp of evangelical Christianity.  Expository preaching should come from an accurate understanding of the nature of Scripture, not a commitment to sermonic form or fashion.  Expository preaching should come from a passion for God’s inspired and relevant Word to be communicated clearly to specific people that they might respond to Him.

Preaching Proverbs

/ Peter Mead / 2 Comments

I’m pondering the possibility of preaching a few messages from Proverbs (very early days, it won’t be until the summer at the earliest).  Since this is a very unique genre and even sub-genre, I need to start thinking well ahead.  Here are some very early incomplete thoughts:

1. It is important to understand them in their historical context. These were sayings written in the context of a covenant that tied direct results to obedience or disobedience.  While we continue to reap what we sow, we don’t live under the same conditions as ancient Israel.  Somehow the preacher has to navigate this without making the text feel irrelevant.

2. There is more structure to the book than people tend to think. I have been impressed to see some explanations of structure in the apparently random sequences of proverbs (yet unless it really adds something, I don’t want my listeners to get bogged down in my inadequate explanation of that).  I also think it is vital to understand the book as a whole and the role of personified wisdom and folly.  I can’t just jump in and preach a verse here or there without taking time to consider the whole book properly.

3. Wisdom is a rare commodity today. The Proverbs call to pursue wisdom seems as necessary as ever.  There is an amazing level of spiritual lethargy and applicational dumbness in the church today.  Somehow I need to preach in such a way as to motivate the listeners to pursue the God of wisdom and to live out the wise teaching of His Word.  Yet at the same time I mustn’t simply pile rules on rules and create a gospel-less sense of adding burdens to guilt-prone fleshly spirituality.

4. The pithy nature of the genre is powerful. So as a preacher who may often preach much longer chunks of text, I must resist the urge to pack information into the sermon, flatten the point and dissipate the punch.  As a convinced believer in big idea preaching (a spoken communication commitment, as well as a recognition of the nature of inspired revelation), what more could I ask for than a powerful and memorable main idea already packaged and perhaps ready to preach?  Yet it is so tempting to pack in information rather than pursue application and transformation.  One truth driven deeper is better than multiplied truth scattered liberally.

That’s my thinking for now . . . gradually over the next months I will return to Proverbs and build toward a series.

Christmas Wonder

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I imagine a lot of Christmas messages were preached yesterday, but I’ll post on it today anyway.  I preached from Luke 2 in the morning and from Matthew 1 in the evening – what a delight to explain the significance of Christ’s coming to earth to a lot of visitors!  Let’s pray for the influx of non-regulars to be more than a temporary boost to numbers this year.

Today I’m linking to my post over on the Cor Deo site – Heading Home for Christmas.  Please click here to read the post . . .

(And if you comment you also have a chance of winning one of three copies of A Praying Life – see this link for details.)

7 Dangers of Fanciful Interpretations – part 2

/ Peter Mead / 3 Comments

Continuing yesterday’s list of 7 dangers of fanciful interpretations:

4. Fanciful interpretation may lead to preacher puffery. If you get lots of empty praise, which you probably will if you preach the equivalent of donuts and cupcakes, there is a very real danger that you may believe the hype and get puffed up.  You may get far less feedback from people who are deeply convicted, or who need time to be with the Lord because of what they’ve heard from His Word.  So actually the fanciful approach is a short-cut to puffery (unless you learn to discern the value of feedback and praise!)

5. Fanciful interpretation may lead to unnecessary division between believers. On the one hand there are those who will be deeply troubled by what they hear from you.  On the other hand there will be noise from the less discerning who get very hyped up by your sugary fare.  Chances are that these two groups will have some difficult conversations when the latter look to the former to celebrate the teaching they’ve enjoyed so much!

6. Fanciful interpretation may put off thinking unbelievers. Some people do think and may sit there looking at a Bible as you talk.  What if they evaluate Christianity and decide that we’re all apparently unthinking or fanciful in what we believe? Some people are able to see through the lack of intellectual credibility of some Christian communicators.  Then we all get tarred with the same brush.  More importantly, Christ is rejected based on the false assumption that the Christian faith is intellectually deficient or inconsistent.

7. Fanciful interpretation disappoints God. It doesn’t honour God to treat His Word as if what He inspired isn’t good enough, or interesting enough, or relevant enough.

And other dangers?

7 Dangers of Fanciful Interpretations

/ Peter Mead / 3 Comments

Fanciful interpretations get great feedback, but they do great damage.  Fanciful interpretations get some people very excited, but those who know their Bibles, or have been to Bible school tend to look glum in the midst of the hysteria. Is this because all who have training are killjoys?  Or is it perhaps because they see through the hype like a parent watching children getting excited about excessive amounts of sugar?

You can usually spot the indications of fanciful interpretation.  One big red flag is when people are saying, “I would never have got that from that passage, wow!”  Or even, “That was so rich, deep, original, (you choose the description)!”

But if people are so obviously blessed and encouraged, what is wrong with it?  Let me offer seven problems with fanciful interpretation:

1. Fanciful interpretation teaches listeners bad Bible study. You may have convinced yourself that that particular reference to a boat has a deeper meaning relating to postmodernism, or that the name of the valley is an anagram of a suburb of Manchester, or whatever.  But let’s say, for argument’s sake, that your clever interpretation doesn’t seem to do any harm and is motivating for the listeners on a spiritual level (perhaps a spiritual theology of David’s brothers’ names, or the significance of a geographical feature for the Christian life).  Surely no harm is done?  It is if the listeners then copy your way of handling Scripture and come up with an application you find objectionable (the cults do this all the time).

2. Fanciful interpretation offers nutritionally empty fare. Perhaps you’ve come across the notion of empty calories?  Something made with highly processed sugar and white flour and unnatural ingredients.  These things tend to taste good (temporarily), but have no nutritional value.  In fact, over time and in excess, they can do great harm to you.  The same is true of overly sweet, overly processed Bible fancies that stir excitement but offer no nutritional value.

3. Fanciful interpretation may cause listeners to give up on their Bibles. After all, if they can’t see how you got there, maybe instead of copying your approach, perhaps they’ll just feel inadequate and give up on their Bibles.  They may look forward to hearing you again (which is the motivation for some speakers), but their Bibles will gain dust in the meantime.

The rest of the list tomorrow . . .

Wilberforce on Apathy

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Yesterday I quoted from Peter Sanlon’s article in Anvil, focusing on Jonathan Edwards.  After looking at Augustine, Richard Sibbes and Edwards, Sanlon finally turns to William Wilberforce.  I have to admit this wouldn’t have been the next figure in church history I would have expected in this tracing of engaging the emotions in ministry.  Nevertheless, it is very helpful indeed.

He notes Wilberforce’s book title, “A Practical View of the prevailing religious system of professed Christians in the higher and middle classes in this country contrasted with real Christianity.”  Let me quote from the article, including a quotation from Wilberforce.

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“Wilberforce saw that the main reason for his difficulty in abolishing slavery lay in the apathy of people to others’ suffering.  He perceived that the only solution lay in genuine Christianity which engaged the emotions in their God-designed role of making a person feel as he or she ought to feel.  Only if approached in this way could people be moved to action.

“Wilberforce’s critique of unemotional and apathetic Christianity remains penetrating.  He noted that a ‘hot zeal for orthodoxy’ was not the same thing as genuine internalised acceptance of the gospel.  He warned that what people paraded externally as ‘charity’ could often be ‘nothing other than indifference.’ Wilberforce suggested that in the case of many who had been ‘converted’:

Their hearts are no more than before supremely set on the great work of their salvation, but are chiefly bent upon increasing their fortunes, or raising their families.  Meanwhile they content themselves on having amended from vices, which they are no longer strongly tempted to commit.

“In all of this searching critique, Wilberforce laid the majority of the blame at the door of ministers who failed to engage with people at the level of their emotions, claiming that most Christian preaching spoke of ‘general Christianity’ rather than bringing to the surface ‘the workings of the heart.’

. . . “Much of the preaching which Wilberforce heard and rejected as less than full-orbed evangelical proclamation could be summed up in the phrase, ‘accurate, but apathetic.'”

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I suspect that Sanlon’s comments, built on Wilberforce’s significant ministry (not as a minister of the gospel, but as a politician), might be highly relevant to us today.  How much do we see a zealous orthodoxy shot through with a reprehensible apathy today?  Let’s examine our own hearts on this, and then preach to the hearts of others.

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From Peter Sanlon’s article, “Bringing Emotions to the Surface in Ministry,” in Anvil, vol.26, nos. 3&4, 2009, p239-240.

Edwards on Evangelism

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I very much enjoyed an article in the Anvil journal by Peter Sanlon.  Let me quote three paragraphs, where the middle one is a quote from Jonathan Edwards –

The primacy of the affections has implications for our ministries.  We should see that prayer, sacraments, singing and preaching are all given by God ‘to excite and express religious affections.’ Perhaps one of the areas of ministry where we understandably, but erroneously, fail to appreciate the primacy of the affections, is evangelism.  It makes sense intellectually that an unbeliever needs to understand that of which they were previously ignorant.  This is indeed necessary (Rom.10:14) but Edwards would affirm that the main point of spiritual work in conversion is in the affections.  To engage in mission which takes seriously the primacy of the affections would involve a radical overhaul of our present day reliance on programmes, courses and rational explanations:

There is a difference between having an opinion that God is holy and gracious, and having a sense of that holiness and grace.  There is a difference between have a rational judgment that honey is sweet, and having a sense of its sweetness.  A man may have the former, that knows not how honey tastes.

A compelling case could be made that much evangelical ministry today is geared at giving people an opinion and rational judgment about God which falls far short of the sense of sweetness Edwards encouraged people to taste.  In a time when people are starving for lack of the pleasure of tasting the sweetness of God, we should not denigrate emotions but rather seek to stir up any emotion which tends towards inculcating the emotional heart-felt plea, ‘Jesus, Master, have mercy on us’ (Luke 17:13). We must do this in evangelism, because, ‘the way to draw men and women into Christ’s kingdom, Edwards believed, was through his listeners’ affections.’

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From Peter Sanlon’s article, “Bringing Emotions to the Surface in Ministry,” in Anvil, vol.26, nos. 3&4, 2009, p238.

Chrysostom on Applause

/ Peter Mead / 2 Comments

Way way back many centuries ago, not long after the Bible ended, there was a famous preacher called Chrysostom.  I thought I’d share a bit of his thinking today.  He’s reflecting on the tension created by the applause that was culturally part of the public speaking event, and had come into the church too:

There are many preachers who make long sermons: if they are well applauded, they are as glad as if they had obtained a kingdom: if they bring their sermon to an end in silence, their despondency is worse, I may almost say, than hell.  It is this that ruins churches, that you do not seek to hear sermons that touch the heart, but sermons that will delight your ears with their intonation and the structure of their phrases, just as if you were listening to singers and lute-players.

Then he offers a helpful simile to show the dangerous temptations facing preachers (still today, I would say):

We act like a father who gives a sick child a cake or an ice, or something else that is merely nice to eat – just because he asks for it; and takes no pains to give him what is good for him; and then when the doctors blame him says, ‘I could not bear to hear my child cry.’ . . . . That is what we do when we elaborate beautiful sentences, fine combinations and harmonies, to please and not to profit, to be admired and not to instruct, to delight and not to touch you, to go away with your applause in our ears, and not to better your conduct.

Finally, he gives a vulnerable and honest insight into the inner struggle he faced as a preacher.  Let’s face it, the flesh is a potent feature in every preacher’s experience.

Believe me, I am not speaking at random: when you applaud me as I speak, I feel at the moment as it is natural for a man to feel.  I will make a clean breast of it.  Why should I not?  I am delighted and overjoyed.  And then when I go home and reflect that the people who have been applauding me have received no benefit, and indeed that whatever benefit they might have had has been killed by the applause and praises, I am sore at heart, and I lament and fall to tears, and I feel as though I had spoken altogether in vain, and I say to myself, What is the good of all your labours, seeing that your hearers don’t want to reap any fruit out of all that you say? And I have often thought of laying down a rule absolutely prohibiting all applause, and urging you to listen in silence.

Most of our churches don’t have applause breaking out mid-sermon.  But we still have the flesh!

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This quote taken from S. Chrys. Hom. xxx. In Act. Apost. c. 3, vol.ix. 238., quoted by Edwin Hatch in The influence of Greek Ideas and Usages upon the Christian Church, 1897, p111.

How Would You Preach If

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If you knew that God was with you and intended to capture hearts and transform lives?  I know you probably respond by saying you already know that.  Me too.  But I’m asking what if you really knew that?  What if you were able to know for certain God’s character and purposes and desire for the lives of your hearers?  What then?

It seems to me that often we know these kinds of truths, but they seem to have minimal impact on our preaching.  I’m not criticizing that, just acknowledging it.  God calls us to minister not by sight, but by faith.  By sight we may see eager and open hearts, but often we won’t.  But by faith we are called to present Christ so that hearts melt and are drawn to him.  By faith we are called to preach truth so that darkness flees from the penetration of light.  By faith we are called to care for souls by feeding them God’s Word and participating in their encounter with him that their souls and hearts and lives might be filled full of the life only available as we all lean closer into Christ.

The thing is, there is no way to muster the knowledge of God’s with-us-ness in respect to our preaching.  Just like the listeners we urge to trust in His Word, we too have to believe what is taught and live in light of it.  By faith.  Not sight.  Not guarantees.  Not mechanism.  Not training.  Not anything we can generate in us.  By faith.

So, time to prepare to preach, let’s do it.