Religion

The Preacher’s Heart – Part 2

/ Peter Mead / Leave a comment

Last time I introduced the first two categories in Reggie McNeal’s book, A Work of Heart.  These six “arenas” are the sub-plots of our lives through which God is shaping us as his followers, as preachers, as leaders.  How we respond to these initiatives will determine what we become.  Last time we considered briefly culture and call.

Arena 3: Community – We are, by nature, creatures of community.  Your family of origin, current family, relationships, friendships, all are shaping and sustaining you for leadership.  Issues here include love, forgiveness, identity, and purposeful relationships (mentoring).  Consider the influence of Moses’ families of origin, Jethro, Joshua.  Consider David’s family background, his mighty men, his Abigail.  Consider how Paul was shaped by Barnabas, Timothy and Silas, Luke, Epaphras, etc.

Arena 4: Communion – Your conscious cultivation of your own relationship with God – rest, conversation, devotion, worship.  It is so easy, with hindsight, to see the value of Paul’s time in obscurity, or David’s years on the run, or Moses’ decades in the desert and then the weeks on the mountain.  How much they fellowshipped with God, what sweet communion they enjoyed.  Yet at the time, without hindsight, so many would choose rather to dry up in the heart.

Any understanding of the Christian life that is not, at its core, about relationship with God and with others, is surely grossly inadequate.  Perhaps it would be a good idea to take some time to evaluate your own state of heart in respect to communion with God and community (how easy to fall into the trap of “lone rangering” in ministry…how dangerous!)

The Preacher’s Heart – Part 1

/ Peter Mead / 1 Comment

Whenever you teach a preaching course you are faced with the same challenge.  It is possible to teach skills and principles, but it is not possible to fully train a preacher.  There is that element that can only come from God’s work in a person’s life.  Partially it is a matter of spiritual formation and maturity.  Partially it involves gifting and even natural ability (also a gift).  I’d like to take a couple of posts to scratch the surface of this vast subject.

Reggie McNeal’s book, A Work of Heart: Understanding How God Shapes Spiritual Leaders is a first-rate volume.  I refer to it as my favorite book on leadership.  As preachers, we are leaders.  Whether or not the other trappings of leadership and organizational structure exist, when we preach, we lead.  McNeal rightly points out that leadership is ultimately a matter of the heart.  God is always at work, shaping the hearts of leaders.  Our privilege is to respond to God’s initiative in at least six arenas of life.  The choices we make in response to God’s initiative “are the story of your life.”

Arena 1: Culture – Moses was shaped by Egyptian, Hebrew and Midianite culture.  Paul drew on his Jewish and Roman cultural background.  We need to study our own culture, and other cultures.  No culture is neutral, each has positive and negative elements.  So how do we respond to where God has placed us culturally?  God calls us to engage with culture, and also transcend it or be distinct within it.

Arena 2: Call – A sense of destiny and purpose is important in ministry.  Though each story is different, there is usually both critical moments and an ongoing discovery process.  Moses had the burning bush, and a whole lot of process to work through.  David was anointed by Samuel, followed by much time for soul-searching.  Paul knew both the crisis and the process.  Why you are here on earth, now, wired as you are (gifts, talents, skills, personality), for what purpose?  What is your sense of destiny and direction, passion and purpose? 

The choices we make in response to these realities are critical in the shaping of our lives.

In the next two posts I will share two more pairs of “arenas of God’s heart-shaping initiative” in all our stories.

Does Stance Just Happen?

/ Peter Mead / Leave a comment

There are central issues in preaching – interpreting the Scriptures, applying with relevance, relationship with God and with listeners.  But there are plenty of other factors worthy of our consideration.  Not central, but worth considering since our goal is effective communication.  One of these is stance.

The visual presentation of a speaker is a complex series of issues – dress, body language, facial expression, proxemics, etc.  One element is stance.  How we stand communicates.  I am not advocating a one-size fits all approach.  There is no such solution.  Consider the following:

The setting – is the occasion for preaching more formal or informal.  A casual approach at a funeral tends to backfire!  What kind of church is it?  What is he tone of the service?  Who are the people in the congregation?  Since every preaching context is different, there is no one-size fits all approach.

The message – there needs to be consistency between what is being communicated and how.  A super-somber convicting moment presenting the most important thing they will ever hear generally does not work well with hands in pockets, leaning against the side of the pulpit.  On the other hand, perhaps in some settings, with some messages, having you sit on a high stool in a relaxed manner would work wonders.

The options – while many rightly resist the notion that anyone can prescribe the right stance for every preacher on every preaching occasion, we naturally fall into the inconsistent position of haing a default stance that we use whatever the situation (thereby functioning as if there is a one-size fits all after all!)  Take some time to think through your options.  Behind a podium/pulpit, coming out from behind it, removing it, leaning forward with more urgency, leaning back against something, sitting on a stool, moving to different areas of the platform, standing still, etc.  The deliberate move from behind a desk to standing in front and leaning on it helped to transform a president who was an ineffective communicator into a likeable and more effective leader. 

Sometimes small things do matter.  Anything that will remove a communication hindrance or inconsistency from our preaching of the gospel is worthy of some attention.  Take a few moments to think through stance, our communication is no less important than the president of a superpower!

Discourse: The Danger of Spiritualization

/ Peter Mead / Leave a comment

We’ve noted that there are discourse passages in almost every section of Scripture – history, wisdom, prophet, gospel, etc.  Awareness of the broader plot within which discourse is placed is helpful both in understanding the passage meaning and purpose, and also for preaching the passage with contextual understanding and tension.

So if we decide to preach a discourse in a typical analytical manner – for instance a deductive sermon – what should we be wary of?  Be wary of direct transference of relevance to a different audience.  Joshua 1 does not give direct promises to contemporary readers that wherever we place our feet, we can claim for God.  Equally it does not mandate military action on our part.  Yet the passage yields much that can be so relevant to us.

Be careful to work through the process of exegetical analysis (in that context), drawing out the abiding theological implications (in any context), and recontextualizing the principles (in this context).  Be careful not to then re-attach original phrasing in a careless manner that might imply direct transference of details by a spiritualization process (i.e. let it show that you are not simply reading the text and then telling people to “claim land” as God instructs us to “march” over what we should “conquer”).  By showing some process in our preaching, we can protect our people from bad practice in their own Bible study.  By showing awareness of audience (original and contemporary) and passage purpose (original and preached), we guard our people from inappropriate application.

What is Your Center?

/ Mike Roth / Leave a comment

Haddon Robinson says this of preaching:  “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.”

As you prepare to preach today, pray for God to work in power.  As you finish your pulpit ministry today and start to prepare for another week, prayerfully consider these words.  Perhaps you will find a renewed passion to make preaching central this week.  If preaching is your center, then you will find yourself doing just that.

When Discourse Sits in Narrative

/ Peter Mead / Leave a comment

Discourse text often sits within a narrative.  Consider the teaching sections of the Gospels, how a Jesus sermon is set in the context of the story of His ministry or passion.  Consider the speeches in Acts as they move the story forward time and again.  Consider the direct communication of God to Joshua at the key transition point in Israel’s leadership, or the direct communication of the prophets as they address a specific issue at a specific point in Israel’s history.  Whatever form the book may take generally, these specific instances are essentially discourse Scripture.

When a discourse text sits in the midst of a broader narrative, what do we do?  We should analyze the broader plot to see the function of the discourse within it.  The narrative plot then serves as context for the details of the discourse.  Of course we could choose to preach the text in some kind of narrative form, but equally we can choose to keep that plot-work at the level of context and purpose analysis.  A discourse type text can yield clear and effective outlines through careful analysis.  By giving time in our study to the plot within which the discourse sits, we can add tension and interest to the preaching of the discourse.

This applies to epistles too, incidentally.  Just because an epistle may consist entirely of discourse, we should not lose sight of the broader narrative of history in which it sits.  An epistle is a point in time, a point on the plot line of the story of that particular church or individual.  At a key juncture in the story of the church at Rome, or in Colossae, Paul wrote to them.  We have his discourse, but we can also trace the tension of the church’s history to that point, and be left with the tension of how they would respond to his instruction in the letter.  Awareness of the broader narrative can always add tension and interest to the preaching of a discourse.

Discourse usually sits within a broader narrative framework.  Awareness of that helps our interpretation of the passage. It can also help our preaching by adding more life to the living words!

Warning! Danger Lurking Nearby!

/ Peter Mead / Leave a comment

All sin is dangerous.  We should never be complacent about any sin or the risk it poses.  But surely the sin of pride should be top of our danger list as preachers.  Pride, a sense of independence, not needing God or others, is a strangely familiar companion to pulpit ministry.  Perhaps it is something about the stepping out from the crowd in order to speak to the crowd.  Perhaps it is a fruit of the respect many show toward those with up-front ministry.  Perhaps it is the result of the higher level learning that is expected of those who speak.  Perhaps the enemy turns up the pressure looking for a high profile casualty.  There are many perhaps-es, but one certainty – pride is a serious danger for every preacher.

Watch out for the warning signs.  A lack of prayer in preparation or following ministry.  An attitude of complacency and a sense of being capable in your own strength.  A yearning to get the microphone, then a resistance to giving it up.  A yielding to the temptation to say what you know will receive praise from the hand-shakers after the meeting.  An excessive appreciation of positive comments from listeners, and maybe an over-reaction to any who would dare to question or critique.  A resistance to sharing the pulpit with appropriate others.

Pride is always lurking nearby.  At the slightest hint of its presence, let us be diligent to humble ourselves at the foot of the cross again.  In our brokenness, perhaps God will lift us up and use us as preachers again, but let’s lose the notion that this is guaranteed.  He doesn’t need us.  Yet He chooses to use us – a fact that borders on a miracle if we really look in the mirror!

Getting to Grips with the Genres: Poetry (2)

/ Mike Roth / Leave a comment

Yesterday’s post was concerned with how poetry works.  Now let’s consider the implications for our preaching.

Implications for Preaching Poetry

-If preaching narrative connects listeners to plot and discourse connects listeners to ideas, then poetry connects listeners to feelings attached to ideas.

-This means that preaching poetry is slow. It’s less like going on a run than it is like sitting before a painting in an art gallery. The preacher is to draw out colors, themes, nuance, and ideas, line by line, in a way that gives time and space for listeners to connect not just cognitively but affectively to the poem.

-Consider using music, paintings, pictures, movie clips, etc., to draw-out an idea.

-Consider allowing for testimony that affirms the points in poetry. Consider attaching biblical narrative to the points too.

-Poetry speaks to truths and feelings that we have felt, will feel, and need to feel. They are not fiction but fact. We need to be shaped by them. Allow your preaching of poetry the time, space, tone, posture, and space to accomplish this. It’s worth it!

Getting to Grips with the Genres: Poetry (1)

/ Mike Roth / Leave a comment

Poetry is different from narrative and it is very different from discourse. How though is our preaching of poetry different from our preaching of narrative and discourse? To answer this question, today we will consider how poetry works and functions. Then tomorrow we’ll consider some implications for preaching poetry.

How Poetry Works – Besides employing literary devices such as imagery, metaphor, allegory, simile, wordplay, irony, hyperbole, etc., the prevalent literary device in Hebrew poetry is parallelism. There are many ways to describe parallelism. One common way is to discern between four kinds of parallelism – antithetical parallelism, synonymous parallelism, synthetic parallelism, and emblematic parallelism. In antithetical parallelism, the first line of a sentence is in contrast to the second line (Ps 34:19). In synonymous parallelism, the first line of a sentence is similar to the second line (Ps 49:3). In synthetic parallelism, the second line of a sentence builds upon the idea of the first line (Ps. 49:5). In emblematic parallelism, the two parts of a sentence connect through simile or metaphor (Ps 49:20).

How Poetry Functions – Parallelism insists that the reader slow down, mull over, and consider how each sentence functions. More than that, because each sentence is laced with metaphor, allegory, simile, wordplay, irony, hyperbole, etc., poetry insists that its content be felt. Rhetorically, poetry connects affect to ideas.

Land the Last Line

/ Peter Mead / Leave a comment

It’s true every time we preach, but especially on Easter Sunday. It’s great to land the last line. Some people regularly finish with a bang, a really pregnant final sentence that absolutely nails it. Others among us struggle for consistency with the finish. It’s always easy to fizzle to a close or to stick on a generic statement like, “So that’s why it’s an interesting passage.” But that last line can really hang in the air, linger in the memory and stick in the heart.

As I’ve written before, the best time to plan the end is before you preach. Trying to pull a stunning conclusion out of mid-air is almost always a wasted effort. Sunukjian makes the suggestion that the concluding statement should be positive rather than negative, and a statement rather than a question. Perhaps I’ll share more on his suggestions another time. If in doubt, it is usually a great place to restate the main idea one last time.

So before preaching the Easter Sunday message, try to take a couple of minutes and run through the final few lines. What a great day to land a last line really well!