Preaching

Where’s Your Drain?

/ Peter Mead / 1 Comment

This week I’ve written about things that make us tempted to half quit.  Some things make us want to totally quit.  Other things just drain energy away without us really noticing.  I have to be honest, I am kind of glad I am not preaching this week.

It is just a stubbed toe (swollen, painful, etc.)  But that is enough to be a distraction and make concentrating a challenge.  At the same time I am looking forward to preaching next week.  What is draining you?  It could be something physical, it could be a family relationship, or a soured friendship, or an ongoing challenge in the church, or, or, or…

There are any number of potential energy drains.  Maybe it is just me, but there’s this weird inconsistency.  Sometimes something is going on that drains energy and becomes the central focus of my prayer life.  Other times I seem to just try to cope.  What is that all about?  I haven’t really prayed much about the toe, I suppose it doesn’t seem important enough.  But what if my energy is sapped, my concentration is broken, perhaps my attitude is a bit more negative, etc.?

I suppose this isn’t too profound a thought, but I wonder if something is draining you, and I wonder if you are trying to cope in your own strength?  Let’s be sure to be fully abiding in the vine as we head into another Sunday, whether we’re preaching or not.

The Long Term Half Quit – pt.2

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What are some of the reasons that preacher’s lose the motivation and half quit over the years of ministry?  Yesterday I pondered the issues of church battle scars, spiritual warfare fatigue and emotional drain.  Let me finish the list now, although this is only intended to start us thinking.  What would you add?

4. Physical Weariness – A preaching ministry is not a natural vocation in which to be physically fit.  Sitting, reading, thinking, praying.  We would do well to be good stewards – watching what goes in, watching how much or how little we do, etc.  Over time there are also the challenges of physical ill health, not always related to fitness.  Preparing to preach with a tired body and foggy mind is hard, and we’ll be increasingly tempted to just do “enough.”

5. Seasons Without “Success” – There are seasons of ministry that just feel like a hard slog.  Every inch gained feels like it took it out of us.  People can seem unusually unresponsive.  Hearts can seem extremely hardened all around.  Somehow our ministry seems to be like a slog through mud, and we don’t know why.  These seasons can really take the wind out of our sails.

6. Seasons With “Success” – The opposite is also true.  Seasons of unusually responsive people can lead to us being drained and somehow weakened.  Like Elijah we can come from great success into great inner turmoil and struggle.  We need to watch out for the good times that we always pray for during the tough times – neither are easy to navigate well!

7. Distracted Heart – This could and should be a post on its own.  How easily our hearts get distracted!  The list of potential other loves that could draw us from our devotion to Christ is probably endless.  Hobbies.  Power.  Illicit fantasy.  Pursuit of fame.  The love of money.  The only One who can search and know the state of our heart is the One before whom we must keep our hearts forever open.

And…?

The Long Term Half Quit

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There are ups and downs in ministry, often from week to week and even day to day.  But there is another danger too.  It is the long term half quit over the years or decades.

Ministry is not automatically rejuvenating.  Over the years we can find our motivation and attitudes wearing down.  What can cause this?  Here are some factors to get us started, a list of seven:

1. Church Battle Scars – Church ministry can be a real battle ground, sometimes out in the open, often under the surface.  For some reason people seem to choose the church as their venue for political significance and they can really go after those who have any up-front ministry.  Gossip, slander, attack, critique, and so much more.  It shouldn’t be, but it too often is.

2. Spiritual Warfare Fatigue – There is a spiritual warfare dimension in ministry.  The enemy loves to attack those with any prominence.  We should not be unaware of his attacks, and over time we may well feel worn by the experience.  There are times when stepping out of the ministry feels genuinely tempting.  The half-quit is the more acceptable option that too many fall into.

3. Emotional Drain – Someone said that preaching is the closest thing men come to giving birth.  I’ve been at a few births and I wouldn’t want to push the analogy, but there is something to it.  We give of ourselves in preaching, and then again, and then again.  It can be emotionally draining to pray so intently, hope so absurdly, preach so intensely and then go at it again.  Over time the drain can leave us functioning in second gear through the whole process.

I will finish the list tomorrow…

Overcoming the Half Quit

/ Peter Mead / 1 Comment

Yesterday I blogged about the danger of the “half quit” – that way in which our heart pulls back as we go through the motions. We can do it in passage study, in message planning, I’ve seen it done in delivery, I know the regular temptation in post-sermon reflection, then there’s seasons of criticism, or lack of response, etc. While we may be unwilling, for a variety of reasons, to fully quit, the half quit is an ever present temptation.

So how do we overcome the half-quit? I suppose there are several approaches, some better than others:

1. The inner self flesh effort. Look within, steel yourself, determine to be diligent, be your own drill sergeant, do the right thing! Lots of ways to say it. Typically only one ultimate outcome. It is easy to feel like we are rousing ourselves to great commitment under the hype of a presentation on the need for personal discipline (even our listeners might get stirred if we preach that way, but don’t be fooled into thinking it will still be “working” come Thursday!) The problem here is that self-stirring to great devotion in ministry is exactly what we’re talking about – what do we do when we come to times where that is absent. It makes no sense to rely on the very mechanism whose absence is the problem.

2. The outer appearance self-elevating effort. Here’s a real danger. What will people think? We can be stirred to press on due to keeping up appearances. In one sense there is value here. We don’t want to stumble others. We don’t want to crash and burn because we love those who would be caught in our wake. But there is a real danger here. Doing the right thing in ministry in order to look good creates an ever-increasing divide between reality and appearance. Eventually this show becomes as paper thin as the performance of a stand-up comedian who performs outwardly, but is utterly broken within.

3. The energy from genuine relationship. There is little in life that is as motivating as good genuine fellowship other’s captured by Christ. Looking to Christ together with others who are not performing somehow will stimulate motivation to press on like very little else. We need to be genuinely conversing with our Lord in every circumstance. He is the One who we press on to know more, who puts the fire in our bones like the prophets of old, who is the real treasure at work within these breaking vessels!

Any solution to the half quit that is about looking to myself, or about how I look to others, will be self-defeating and only make matters worse. We need to be responding to the life giver Himself, for fellowship with Him is life itself. Maybe the temptation to half-quit is a warning that the conversation has gone quiet, that your heart has grown distant and distracted. Let the warning nudge you back toward Him.

The Dangerous Half Quit

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A post on this theme from five years ago caught my eye, so I thought I’d offer a re-write.

There are always reasons to quit. This is true in anything you might pursue. Sport, music, hobby, fitness, work, ministry, marriage. Anyone who has ever been successful at anything has had to overcome numerous opportunities to quit. How true is that in preaching?

There are few things that can compare with preaching – how important it is, how much people need it, how much you give both in preparation and presentation, how emotionally and physically draining it can be, how open to criticism you become, how relentless the schedule can feel, how exacting the standards are in peoples’ minds for every other area of your life. To give the Lord our best as preachers we must exhibit a tenacious relentlessness.

The temptation to quit may always be lingering in the background, but for various reasons, good and bad, many of us would not simply quit. Perhaps it’s a little like marriage among some Christians a couple of generations back. A marriage could go very sour, but divorce was considered so inappropriate that couples would live out a “Christian divorce” – two separate lives lived under one roof for the sake of appearance. That’s a danger for us as preachers. When the pressures build, as they do so regularly, so do the temptations. Temptations to quit may be rejected. But temptations to half quit are an ever present danger!

When the schedule is tight and you are drained emotionally and physically, pulled in numerous directions, don’t half quit on your preparation. It may seem tempting to not really study the text, to short-circuit all exegesis.

When Sunday is rapidly approaching and your energy is low, don’t half quit on sermon shaping. Don’t just go with your study notes, but try to think through your audience and their needs, think through the best way to communicate this passage to them.

When you go through the post-sermon emotional roller-coaster that many preachers feel so often, don’t half quit.  Don’t make decisions that will undermine your subsequent ministry because of how you feel at that moment.

When you are on the receiving end of unfair criticism or unjustifiable sniping, don’t half quit. Don’t steel your heart against the people you minister to so that by not loving them they can’t hurt you. When you love you get hurt, but love anyway.

I’m not saying anything about rest, responsibilities with family, etc. I’m not saying sacrifice yourself to the point of burnout in an attempt to be spiritual. There are all sorts of appropriate balances to wisely employ in ministry. But those are for another post. All I’m suggesting here is that preaching is no easier than most other things you might pursue in life, and in many ways it is harder. To be the best you can be, to give the best you can give, you must be doggedly relentless. Don’t quit. And maybe more importantly, keep leaning on our good God and don’t half quit.

Table Fellowship

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A couple of weeks ago I pondered the grains that work their way through Bible books.  Today’s post considers the rich theme of table fellowship in Luke’s Gospel.  Perhaps we need to take stock if our lives are so packed we are choosing fast food on our own.  Let’s instead choose to never eat alone, but enjoy the richness of fellowship with others and with our Lord!  Click here for the post.

Watch the Whiplash

/ Peter Mead / 3 Comments

I have been writing about how preaching is the communication of the revelation of a Person or three. It isn’t something less than that. When the preacher steps up following a time of worship and  communicates only some sort of code for living, or peer pressure, or socialization program, then there is a whiplash effect that is felt by listeners. Let me probe that a little:

1. Whiplash from the worship tone to the message tone. This is common. The worship time focused in on the amazing grace and wonderful person of Christ. Then the preacher gets up and changes the tone completely. This can happen as the reflective, focused and prepared listeners suddenly get hit with an insensitive introductory joke. It can happen with a shift from the worship emphasis on being pleased by Christ to the message tone of pressure in the name of Christ.

2. Whiplash from the worship focus to the message focus. This is similar. The worship time typically will focus hearts and minds toward heaven, fixing the gaze on God in Christ. Then the message too easily shifts that focus in one of three ways. Either it can be the heart-jerking whiplash of focusing on how bad society is, or it can throw us toward focusing on the preacher (with his attention seeking behaviour, or his showing off, or whatever), or it can suddenly shift the gaze onto the navels of the faithful – you got saved by God’s grace, but now let me help you understand the burden you live under!

3. Whiplash from worship content to the message content. Okay, this is slightly repetitive, but unashamedly so. I am not hankering after a three point outline. I am trying hard to hammer the point that our hearts shouldn’t suffer whiplash when the Word is preached. We tend to sing of how wonderful God is, his grace, our love response to His, our hearts captivated, our lives stirred. Then the preaching can so easily swing over to how we must try harder to be better, be good, be disciplined, etc.

This kind of whiplash will always be present when preaching doesn’t preach the Person, but offers a program, a pressure, a commentary on societal ills, etc.

Preaching the Power of the Person

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I’ve been pondering the issue of preaching the person. The person of Christ. The personal Triune God. If we aren’t captivated by the personal God that we know personally, then our preaching can too easily slip into instructional education and moralistic tirades. It is the person that captivates and draws listeners.

Let’s ponder a simple scale of personal encounter:

1. The moment of meeting – The truth is that as humans made in the image of a relational God, we are well attuned to each encounter we have with other persons. Within seconds we will determine subconsciously whether we like somebody. They might be a waitress, an airline check-in clerk, a salesman. It really doesn’t take long to determine our feelings about someone we meet. And those initial feelings can take a while to be reversed by further interaction. (Incidentally, as preachers we need to understand the power of our opening moments, those first seconds of encounter and introduction. But that is to get side-tracked.)

2. The power of love – Then there is the ongoing relational encounter. After the first impressions come the ongoing interaction, communication, sharing of life experiences and so on, all building a relationship so that we go beyond liking or disliking to deeply trusting (or distrusting), to loving (or the opposite). The follow-up relational interaction can be so powerful.

(Again, to get sidetracked for a second, we mustn’t be naive about the power of inappropriate interaction with members of the opposite sex – the magnetic power of interpersonal attraction has led many to compromise everything and discover the regret of the stealing power of sin. Preachers, we are susceptible!)

Getting back on track, what am I saying with all this? Well, I can, if I’m honest, express whether I like someone after moments of meeting. And those that I’ve known and developed a relationship with, mutually loving and caring and sharing life together . . . these are people I can talk about at some length, with my heart showing for them.

What does all this have to do with preaching? The second level of enthused personal connection is missing with some. Even the initial encounter response is apparently absent in some preaching. It is hard to tell with some preachers if they really like God at all. What are we to say to this?

If the God in our sights is benign, our preaching will be the same.

Rather than putting this in the negative, let me state this positively. Read God’s Word and get to know our personal and wonderful God. Then preach His Word. What a privilege.

And when we preach the Person, our preaching won’t feel like a pressure project, but will have a captivating and gripping power beyond words!

Preaching the Person in the Old Testament cont.

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As well as Christophanies and explicit predictions, there are other ways in which the person of Christ is to be found in the Old Testament. Jesus told the Pharisees that the Scriptures speak of Him. He showed the two on the road to Emmaus. To what else did he perhaps point?

3. Thematic fulfillment – There are legitimate themes working their way through the Old Testament. We need to go beyond a children’s story with moral morales and see how the Hebrew Scriptures are woven together to build a gripping revelation of God and His plan. His Son is central to that thematic design.

4. Legitimate types – There are some legitimate types of Christ in the Old Testament. It is hard to miss, if our hearts are sensitive and tuned to the full story, when we read of the sacrifices, the feasts, etc. We need to be careful not to become fanciful or appear to abuse the communicative intent of the original authors.

5. The macro story goal – Sometimes people abuse the text by making every sentence speak of Christ no matter what it originally said. It is healthier to grow attuned to the goal of the whole, the Christo-telic intent of the Hebrew Scriptures. We don’t have to make things say what they could not have been understood to say. Instead let’s be clearer on how the whole fits together with the goal of God’s promise plan fulfilled in Christ.

With these five aspects of Christ in the Old Testament, we should have plenty to be going on with (probably more than could be communicated in a seven mile walk to Emmaus!) And this means we don’t need to fall into a common error:

X. The subsumed or twisted biblical character – There are hundreds of characters in the Old Testament plot lines. Many of them were not intended to be either a type of Christ, nor a foil for Christ. Let’s not miss the many characters in the grand narrative responding to God. Let’s not twist their stories to tell a different story. Let’s trust God’s communication and not try to be cleverer than the God who inspired a wonderful canon! If the text doesn’t push us to directly tie the character to Christ, let’s do the work of understanding how the text in its context communicates specifically and relevantly. Sometimes the Christ-leap that is made undermines any sense that God is an effective communicator in His Word.

Preaching the Person in the Old Testament

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The Old Testament reveals the same God as the New Testament. Sometimes the focus is on the Father, sometimes even the Spirit. Let’s be sure to preach the triune God of the Bible as clearly and effectively as possible.

Now what about preaching Christ in the Old Testament? This is an important subject. I think there are many ways to preach Christ in the Old Testament. But not as many ways as some seem to think.

1. Christophanies – Ok, don’t worry about the technical term, but when we see the LORD walking on two legs, what we have is a pre-incarnate appearance of Christ. I think Moses on the Mount of Transfiguration knew Christ not simply because he’d been with the Lord after death, but because they had met face to face in the tent of meeting. Others encountered the LORD in similar ways. Abraham, Jacob, Manoah, Isaiah, and others.

2. Explicit predictions – There is a lot of prediction in the Old Testament from the very beginning. The seed of the woman, right the way down the line to the great promise to David, and so many generations in between. When we preach the Old Testament we should be stirring our listeners to anticipate the One who has already come! The already come-ness of Jesus should not dull our delight at the divine plan as seen in the Old Testament.

Tomorrow I will complete this list, and offer one way that we should be wary of preaching the personal God in the Old Testament.