Stage 4 – Passage Idea

The Very Words of God

/ Peter Mead / 1 Comment

Monday’s a good time to pause for thought.  Perhaps you preached yesterday.  Perhaps you’re preaching again next Sunday.  Let’s always remember that God, in His grace, has given gifts to every believer.  To some of us He has given “speaking” gifts.  In 1Peter 4:10-11, Peter urges everyone to invest their lives in each other through the gifts they’ve been given.  Some gifts are “up-front” while others are “behind the scenes” – my understanding of the two terms he uses, “speaking” and “serving.”  None of us have a right to boast in our gift, but all of us have a responsibility.

We have a responsibility to study God’s Word to the very best of our ability, wrestling with the text and allowing the text to wrestle with us.  Thus the first half of the sermon preparation process is so important.  Then, with the humble confidence that we have something to share from God’s Word, then we move on to the second half of the process – formulating the sermon.  The whole process really matters.  The church is a community that may currently or soon be called on to suffer for their faith.  One critical resource for enduring such struggle is the earnest love for one another within the community of believers, and one example of such love is the effective stewardship of our spiritual gifting.  After all, when we speak, we are to speak as one who speaks the very words of God!

Stage 4 – Passage Idea

/ Peter Mead / Leave a comment

Having studied the content of a passage, focusing on the structure, outline and flow of thought (stage 2), and the intent of the author (stage 3), it is important to arrive at the goal of your study. The goal is the passage idea, a distillation of the author’s thought in one sentence. This sentence should convey the true and exact meaning of the author. This sentence is critical for the building of the sermon. To bypass this stage is to miss the central link between passage and sermon.

Many people study a passage and never feel that the task is done. Details lead to more details, bunny trails, etc. The more they study, the more they feel they need to study and the task (even if enjoyable) is never over. Understanding the importance of finding the idea helps to bring closure to the first half of the preparation process. Once the idea is determined, further study will either clarify the idea, or simply affirm the idea. Once our study starts to affirm what we have determined, it is time to move on to preparing a sermon (so many new preachers get so excited or overwhelmed by the study of the passage that they don’t give enough time to actually formulating the sermon, even though Sunday is looming).

Previously – Here is an important reminder of the importance of the idea. Working on the idea will improve your preaching, as long as you are saying the text’s something. Passage selection will influence this stage too, since a bigger passage has a broader idea.

Remember you can click on “Stage 4 – Passage Idea” for a full list of posts on this important stage of the process.

Who’s The Boss?

/ Peter Mead / Leave a comment

It is so easy to get things turned around.  Sunday is rapidly approaching and you are not yet ready to preach.  You have to preach, your name is on the bulletin.  You probably have to preach a specific passage too, that’s on the bulletin as well.  But time marches on, life happens and you’re not ready.  It’s easy to forget who the boss is for this sermon.

It is tempting to take charge.  After all, you are the one who has to stand and deliver.  You are the one people will critique over their Sunday lunch.  You are the one people might be paying to preach.  So it is tempting to take charge, to make the text fit the sermon shape or idea you have in mind.  It is tempting to make the text your servant, looking in it for interesting points from which you can jump off and preach something or other.

Remember who is in charge. Preaching is God’s work.  They are His people.  This is His church.  You are empowered by His Spirit.  You are preaching His book.  So, no matter how tight the schedule may be.  No matter how distracted or tired you may feel.  No matter how daunting the text may be.  Prayerfully wrestle with the text.  According to most good definitions of expository preaching, the text is necessarily boss over the central concept, the main idea of the sermon.

As you pray your dependence to God and submit your urgings to take over to the superior inspiration of His Word, you will remain an expository preacher.  You may not be the best ever.  You may not have taken enough time to craft a masterpiece.  But if the meaning of the text is in charge and you prayerfully strive for relevance, you will be an expository preacher.  The church needs that.  Not necessarily the best or the brightest, but just little old me and you, presenting the best and the brightest Word of God to those He chooses to put before us.

Complicated Passage, Clear Preaching

/ Peter Mead / 1 Comment

I’m scheduled to preach on of those tricky ones.  You know, one of the crux interpretum of the New Testament.  There’s the end of 1st Timothy 2, the end of 1st Peter 3, the end of James, the end of 1st John, Hebrews 6, etc.  A passage that begs every exegetical skill you possess, or if you’re rushing, a passage that just checking two or three commentaries doesn’t resolve.

It is important not to avoid the complexity as we preach.  If your listeners can see the verses, but are confused by them.  Just avoiding them in your sermon is not the solution (tempting as it may be!)  You have to address them if you’re preaching through the book, or if they’re in your preaching passage.

It is helpful to acknowledge the difficulty. Just giving a simplistic explanation may satisfy a few, but many will be left wondering what the passage really means (and they will be left with less respect for your ability to handle and explain the Word to them!)  If it is hard to interpret, don’t pretend otherwise.  Nobody should expect you to find everything super simple.

It is important not to let the complexity overwhelm the main idea. Often the main idea of a passage is still clear, even with the complicated element present.  Be sure that your main idea is clear so that the sermon is a preaching of the text with applied relevance, rather than a pulpit lecture in theological method (a lived out excursus in the pulpit section of daily life).

Pray for me as I preach one of these tricky passages.  Pray not that I’ll stun people with my brilliance, but that I’ll handle the Word well and be sure to preach the Word, not merely lecture or present an exegetical curio for their passing interest.  Let’s pray for each other to always preach the Word with accuracy and applied relevance.

Don’t Say Too Much

/ Peter Mead / Leave a comment

My post last Sunday concerned preaching like it is your first message and your last.  I meant something specific under both of these points, and was not referring to the negative elements of each.  In reality your last sermon might be foggy with deteriorated thinking faculties, bitter with built up hurts, disconnected through losing touch, etc.  Your first sermon might have been messy through lack of training, stumbling through excessive nerves, etc.  But one of the comments on last Sunday’s post makes a very worthy point.

Most of us, in our first sermon, tried to say too much.  We tried to cram in all we knew on that subject.  We tried to miss nothing, preached dense and probably missed everyone listening.  Keep that in mind today.  Don’t try and say so much that you end up effectively saying nothing.  Don’t feel the need to prove how many hours of exegetical work you put in, or what exegetical bunny trails you pursued to no avail.  Say one thing, and say it well.  Say it clear.  Say it more than once.  But don’t say too much!

Remember the Main Thing

/ Peter Mead / Leave a comment

It’s easy to be overwhelmed as a preacher.  So many things to keep in mind.  The different aspects of delivery, built on the different elements of a sermon, not to mention the multiple facets of biblical study.  You pour in whatever hours you can find in order to try to understand the passage, then to shape a sermon that will accurately and effectively communicate the meaning of that passage to your listeners with some degree of relevance to their lives.  And maybe the many details feel overwhelming.

It’s easy to get caught up in the introduction, the conclusion, the illustrations, the support materials, the elements of style, effective delivery and so on.  These all matter.  These are all important, but they are all details.  The best delivery you can conjure is hypocrisy without a solid message to preach.  The best message flesh in the world doesn’t look good unless it is on a well-formed skeleton.  And the best bones in the world only make sense as an outline when there is a master design involved.  And that master notion needs to be worthy of all the work.

Delivery makes the most of a good sermon.  The flesh of the sermon makes a skeleton of an outline into an attractive and compelling being. But the skeleton only makes sense if it is serving the main idea of the message – each bone supporting the unity of the message, each detail moving the message forward toward a goal.

I’m not undermining the importance of any sermonic detail.  Details of the sermon and details of delivery, are important, but they are details.  Unless there is a core concept, a big idea, a central proposition, whatever you want to call it.  Unless there is that main idea derived from effective study of the passage to the best of your ability, all pursued in dependence on the Spirit of God.  Unless there is that, there are only details.  Random details.  Remember the main thing.  The main idea is your goal in Bible study.  Then that main idea is boss of the message.  The main idea is the main thing.  Let’s remember that.

Preparation Place

/ Peter Mead / 7 Comments

A good sermon in the pulpit will reflect hours of work in the study.  Hours of prayerful reading, careful thinking and sometimes tearful wrestling through the process.  But no rule says preparation has to happen at the desk.  In fact, the desk can be a place of distraction!

Personally I tend to work either at home at my desk, or at a friend’s house (quieter).  However, there are times when I find I need to prepare somewhere else.  Not because I have to, but because it helps.  I sometimes think and preach through a sermon while driving (sorry for the carbon footprint!), or on a walk, or pacing around in my living room.  One time I had to answer questions from the police about what I was doing at such and such a time (“Uh, I was preaching a sermon while staring out of the window, officer!”) – I happened to fail to see anything suspicious as a crime took place down the street, but my bizarre excuse precluded further questioning!

Anyway, where do you find preparation works best for you?  Driving, walking, pacing, sitting in a Starbucks to see and sense the reality of people?  There are no rules here, but I am interested!

For Improvement Just Do This

/ Peter Mead / 5 Comments

It is easy to feel pressure to preach better. We put the pressure on ourselves. Others put the pressure on us, often unwittingly. Perhaps a lack of apparent response in recent months. Perhaps comments about other preachers. Perhaps the big shots on the radio. Perhaps a renewed passion to preach well that has stirred within.

When the pressure to improve is felt, things can often seem overwhelming. After all, there are so many books, so many ideas, so many aspects of effective preaching to consider, indeed, so many preaching traditions to learn from. Maybe you skim through previous posts on this site, or other sites, or magazines, or podcasts, etc. Perhaps you let your mind go back to seminary and you recall all the instructions you received there. It can all be so overwhelming.

This may sound overly simplistic, but just do this: prayerfully endeavor to do the basics well. Try to study the passage effectively so that you are clear on the structure, the author’s main idea and purpose in writing. Try to think through your sermon purpose in light of both the passage and the congregation. Try to determine a clear main idea (doesn’t have to be an all-time great one), a clear and simple structure, a way to start that will make listeners want to hear the rest of the sermon and a way to finish so that the impact of the text will be felt in a specific area of their life. Do the basics well. You’ll probably find the pressure lifts because your preaching is much closer to what you want it to be!

Preaching Longer Narratives

/ Peter Mead / 1 Comment

Nathan asked about preaching longer narratives, such as the narratives of Daniel.  Last week I preached Daniel chapter 2 and the book of Esther (10 chapters!), so I’ve been thinking about this recently.  Here are my thoughts, I’d love to hear anything you would add:

Even if it is long, preach a literary unit. Longer narratives can stretch through many verses and multiple scenes.  Unless the scenes are really sub-plots that can stand on their own, I would suggest trying to preach the whole narrative.  While this may create some challenges, it is still better to deal with an entire narrative than risk misunderstanding and misapplying a part-narrative.

Tell the whole story, but perhaps read selectively. In the case of the Daniel 2 message, the leader of the service had a major chunk of the passage read before I got up to preach.  In the case of Esther, I read certain paragraphs and verses as I told the story.  While we want to honor the text and certainly encourage people to read it through later, the weakness in extended reading is actually our reading rather than the text itself.

The challenge is actually the same as for any passage. The challenge we face in preaching a longer narrative is, in one respect, no different than any other passage.  Which details will receive in-depth attention, and which elements or sections can be summarized to maintain flow and unity?  A longer narrative calls on our skill in big picture exegesis and compelling story-telling, but in many ways the process remains the same – study the passage, determine the main idea and purpose, define purpose and main idea for the sermon and shape it strategically, etc.

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.