Preaching

Stopping Matters

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Last week I wrote about the importance of stopping when you get to your sermonic destination.  I just want to add an important principle.  After an ideal landing is missed, extra minutes are not neutral, they are negative.  Once listeners sense that you are circling and extending the sermon, good work done will begin to be undone.

I hesitate to use a sales analogy, but it’s hard to avoid.  Before I get criticized for profaning the noble art of preaching with a business story, please just hear me out.  Preaching is certainly not sales, but there are certain similarities.

I worked in sales for several years.  I worked in retail sales, then in direct sales.  I was taught in training to never over-sell.  I learned in practice to never over-sell.  Once the deal can be closed, it should be closed.  Extra words, extra effort, extra attempts to justify the purchase are all counter-productive.  When someone is ready to close a deal, close it.  I still remember one sale in the freezing cold city center of Bristol, England.  Actually, it wasn’t a sale.  The lady had her credit card out and was ready to sign the contract, but I chose to say one more thing to reinforce her decision.  She walked away, I lost that chunk of income.  I over-sold.

Preaching is more complex than sales and involves a larger audience, has higher stakes and I would consider it a greater privilege.  But the same truth applies.  Preach the sermon, get to the destination and then stop.  Don’t over-preach.  Those extra minutes are not helpful, not even neutral, they are negative.  Stopping matters.

A Plea to the MC: Careful of Careless Closure

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Perhaps an MC will read this post.  Perhaps a worship leader.  Perhaps one Sunday you will not preach, but will “chair” the service (as they say in England), for a visiting speaker.  I have a plea.  Please, please, please be careful what you say after the sermon.  Most of the time, it might be best to say nothing.  There’s nothing worse than a good sermon well preached, then the moment trashed by a jovial comment or mood-breaking notice.  Actually, there is something worse.

It’s worse when someone stands up after a sermon and tries to add a helpful comment.  Perhaps a summary of what the speaker has said.  Perhaps even an attempted exhortation in light of what the speaker has said.  As someone involved in missions work I am afraid only one example is spinning in my head, but it is the example par excellence for missions speakers down through the years.  Let me quote from an email I received last week:

One of my early attempts to share my passion for unreached nations took place in a small country church some years ago. I gave them my best . . . The pastor then felt it necessary to mitigate my remarks and blunt my passion for the unreached by assuring his flock, “We’re all missionaries to our neighborhoods and workplaces!” I was thoroughly deflated.

I have experienced it and I have seen it.  A preacher makes a strong case for missions to the unreached from God’s Word, then all that work is undermined by a well-intentioned, but horribly misplaced comment in closing.

I’ve learned that, whenever possible, if I see a way my message could be undermined, I make plans to avoid it.  If possible I will ask if I can close the service.  Sometimes I’d rather not be the one to pray and wrap things up.  I’m certainly not the best at it.  But at least I won’t undermine the whole thing.

This happens regularly to missions messages.  What other kind of message have you seen undermined by careless closure?

Mythbusting – Experience Is Key?

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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

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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.

Review: The Moody Handbook of Preaching, edited by John Koessler

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It’s been a while since I added a book review to the site, so here’s a fresh book worthy of your consideration. This new work from Moody Press recently dropped through my door. I have not read it all, but I have read enough. I have read enough to recognize that this is a very helpful book for preachers.

It is written by faculty members and associates of Moody Bible Institute and Moody Graduate School. Each writer writes in their own area of expertise and this creates a collection of some quality. It is easy to think that only homiletics profs are seeking to produce preachers, thereby forgetting the specific skills and input of other members of a good Bible school faculty. This book redresses that balance.

The book’s 27 chapters are divided into four sections. The first section is Forming a Philosophy of Preaching, which includes chapters from the present and two former presidents of Moody. Section two is entitled, Mining the Text. This section addresses the interpretation of narrative, didactic, poetic and prophetic literature, as well as two chapters on the use of Hebrew and Greek in preparation and in preaching (amen and amen to some of the advice given in The Use and Abuse of Greek in Preaching).

The third section is entitled Illustrating Truth with chapters on the use of comparison, history, story, drama and technology. Finally the fourth section is entitled Developing Methodology. This final catch-all section includes chapters on audience analysis, sermon movement, delivery and the use of Bible software (not sure why this is not in section 2).

Although I see no formal endorsement by Haddon Robinson, his name is blazoned across the back cover under a quote that has driven the editor of the book, John Koessler, to compile this book. The quote is typical Robinson, “Why is it that some can preach for an hour and it seems like five minutes, while others preach for only five minutes and it seems like an hour?” Good question. And this book is a worthy addition to the many books that seek to answer it.

Be You

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There are many elements of style that can be studied and worked on.  But one thing that is really important is to be you.  Philips Brooks’ famous definition of preaching as “truth through personality” is important to remember.  It is truth through your personality!

Preaching, like much of Christian ministry, is incarnational in nature.  And the flesh the truth takes on is yours.  That means your strengths and your weaknesses.  Your personality.  Your humor.  Your mannerisms.  Your temperament.  You.

AJ Gordon referred to preachers taking on someone else’s personality as moral plagiarism.  The temptation is always there, but we must resist.  We can learn from others and even take onboard aspects of the style of others, but there is a fine line between that and taking on a personality that is not yours.

This is no excuse for poor communication.  There are aspects of our personal style that each of us could strive to improve for the sake of effective communication.  However, to merely introduce the personal style of another is not the solution.  It will not be you, and therefore, it will not be effective.

The Tone of the Shepherd

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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.

At The End – Stop

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Yesterday I wrote about knowing the end from the beginning.  Preach as if you’re going somewhere and when you get there, stop preaching.  It seems obvious, but it is important to note that good sermons end.

As a preacher, once you get to the end, stop.  Don’t add extra exhortation (that should come in earlier), stop.  Don’t keeping talking to fill time (people never mind an early end), stop.  Preach, then stop.

As I’ve written before, so now I quote Haddon Robinson on the same point.  Once you stop, don’t allow a song leader to sabotage the moment by switching peoples’ hearts and minds off.  Often people need some quiet.  Let the sermon do its work.  This is the best time for people to respond, or to write down their notes, so give them space to do so.  A poorly placed song is unhelpful, but so is the preacher overtalking the message.  Conclusions are simple really.  You just need to stop.

Preach As If You Know The End From The Beginning

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Last week I wrote about the issue of concentration and sermon length.  Haddon Robinson taught me that when it comes to sermon length the real issue is not minutes, but perception.

A good sermon is going somewhere and the listeners know it.  Apparently, there was a study of some 2500 people with the question, “How long should a sermon be?”  Preachers would answer in minutes, but listeners would answer along the lines of, “As long as it takes to get to the end.”  By this measure, a sermon that is too long is one that takes too long to get to the end.

Haddon Robinson may not be a perfect preacher, but he is a good model of this principle – when he’s through with the message he finishes.  While I often fall into the trap of several false landings, he seems to nail that ending, and often does it a couple of sentences before the listeners expect it.

A good sermon does not have several stopping places, it has an end.  A good preacher knows the end and goes straight there.

Careful of Clips – Part 2

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Yesterday I raised what is probably the main reason for caution in the use of movie clips – they can so easily overwhelm and therefore undermine the message.

But then there are other issues. Here are five more to ponder.

1. Transitions. The transition from you to the clip and back to you needs to be seamless (picture, sound and lighting). A five second pause in a message is no problem, but a five second pause before a movie clip is about four seconds too long!

2. Necessary explanation. How much explanation needs to be given to contextualize the clip for those that have not seen the movie (and would you use a spoken illustration that needs minutes of context in order to make sense?)

3. Time consuming. Finding an appropriate clip can be very time consuming (I’m sure I’m not the only one who has searched for a clip only to be thwarted by one inappropriate word or image in every possible clip).

4. A better option? Is showing it the best option or would it be equally or more effective to verbally describe the scene yourself? (I once used an illustration and quote from Gladiator that worked well, but the clip was unusable due to gory content.)

5. Movie content issues. Finally there is the ever-present issue of movie content – are you condoning everything in that movie for everyone present?

A movie clip can be an effective enhancement device in a sermon. But for it to work many things have to line up – idea of clip, placement in sermon, composition of audience, content of movie, length of explanation required, emotional power of clip, expertise of tech-crew, etc. When these things all line up, go for it. Otherwise, be careful of clips.