Stage 5 – Message Purpose

Preach As If You Know The End From The Beginning

/ Peter Mead / Leave a comment

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

/ Peter Mead / Leave a comment

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.

Careful of Clips – Part 1

/ Peter Mead / Leave a comment

Yesterday I made a passing reference to the use of movie clips in preaching.  I love movies.  I love preaching.  So I should combine the two whenever possible?  Actually no, I rarely use clips in preaching (although I do in interactive seminars – totally different dynamic).

Movie clips can be very powerful and very effective.  But they can also be too powerful and too effective.  For example, if you build your sermon toward the climax, then use a powerful clip (all the senses, all the emotion, etc.), then it stops and people have to listen to you again . . . no music in the background, no make-up, no camera angles . . . well, it can be quite a let down!  So it is typically better to use the clip earlier rather than later in the message.

However, if the clip is too powerful, then you’ll touch people too deeply too early and the whole message will fall flat.  Somehow the preacher and the message have to touch people more powerfully than the clip.  It’s a hard balance to find.  You should only use the clip if it is the best way to get the point across, but you don’t want it to be too powerful or it will overwhelm the message.  Support material has to be proportionate to the import of the particular point being communicated at that stage of the sermon.

Tomorrow I’ll mention more reasons to be careful rather than cavalier in the use of movie clips.

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 to Real Ordinary People

/ Peter Mead / 2 Comments

Remember that you are not preaching to some kind of super-saintly collection of elite spiritual warriors. You are preaching to ordinary people. Ordinary people have doubts that they don’t think they’re supposed to have. Ordinary people generally feel tired and short on motivation. Ordinary people often have fears that may be unfounded but still feel ever so real when they lie awake at night. Ordinary people think they struggle, but everyone else has it all together in life. Ordinary people sin. Ordinary people, even after responding to the gospel of grace, still feel that their standing before God depends on their own effort and spiritual “success.” Ordinary people already feel guilty about several things, not least their lack of proactive witnessing. Ordinary people are very ordinary. This has implications in how you present yourself, how you present the message, and how it is supposed to intersect with their lives. We preach to very real and very ordinary people.

Great Expectations

/ Peter Mead / Leave a comment

Perhaps you have experienced it.  Great times of prayer.  Real passionate prayer and even a sense of spiritual breakthrough, all in the context of a forthcoming sermon.  I remember times when I would preach through a message ahead of time, then pray for the people and the event at which it would be preached.  I remember times of great excitement, great expectation.  Maybe you’ve had those times too?  Maybe you’ve also had that let down feeling when the real event happened and the sermon and the response and the atmosphere was all so normal.

It is easy to let the normal-ness of ministry diminish our sense of expectation.  It is as if we don’t really expect people to be transformed or the Spirit of God to be at work.  It is understandable, but it is wrong.  As Haddon Robinson has put it, “we’re handling dynamite, and we didn’t expect it to explode!”  The Spirit of God is at work, the Word of God is powerful, and whether we see it or not, we should prepare and pray with great expectation.  (What about the disappointments and struggles that come internally after we preach?  We pour them out to God and then press on, daring to dream again, daring to pray big and preach big for a big God!)

Don’t Get Stung By the Be’s

/ Peter Mead / 1 Comment

I made a passing reference the other day to Bryan Chappell’s list of three “be’s.” These are worthy of our consideration since he raises a crucial point. It is easy to fall into the trap of being biblically based, but biblically incomplete in our preaching. By focusing on the narrow slice of text we are preaching, and not taking into account the broader teaching of Scripture, we can end up implying (or even stating), that we need to “be” something in order to be loved by God. (See Christ-Centered Preaching, page 289ff).

Be Like – This is where a character is presented, then the congregation are urged to be like them in respect to the chararcteristics highlighted. Chappell acknowledges that biblical writers intended for certain characters to model certain characteristics for the readers to emulate. However, the writers also are honest in presentation of weakness, failure and sin. We must beware of preaching a “be like” message that lacks in awareness of the grace and enablement of God, lest we leave room for boasting and inadvertently preach a works righteousness.

Be Good – While again there is clear biblical instruction to be good or be holy, a message focusing on behavior is dangerous if key elements are lacking. God does not command us to behave well in our own strength. Moralistic harangues are easy to preach and often hard to take, but impossible to justify. Our message cannot be “try-harder-be-better-this-week” and biblical at the same time. Chappell rightly points out that it is wrong to preach that we are saved by grace and kept by our obedience.

Be Disciplined – Very similar to the behavior focus above, this type of message focuses on spiritual disciplines as the means to pleasing God. Many believers fall into the trap of thinking that their identity is tied to their observance of religious practices. Disciplines preached in isolation from the grace of God present a God so easily vexed, a God of “brownie points” spirituality.

It is good to emulate biblical characters in some respects, to be good in behavior and even disciplined in spirituality, but there are dangers in all of these areas. How easily we paint a false portrait of God, a dark shadow of guilt in the place of grace and a false image of true Christianity. As Chappell carefully states it, “‘Be’ messages are not wrong in themselves; they are wrong messages by themselves.”

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.

Definitions Without Jesus – Christian Preaching?

/ Peter Mead / 5 Comments

John raised an important question in response to the post on key elements of an expository preaching definition.  Should it not include some reference to Jesus?  Some say yes, others say not necessarily.  Interestingly, of the six definitions I have used in my preaching course, only one includes a reference to Christ (J.I.Packer uses the term, “Christ-related”).  Anyway, two positions to ponder:

Christocentric preaching – Bryan Chappell, influenced by Edmund Clowney, teaches and models a form of preaching wherein the fallen-condition focus of the passage is resolved by moving to the person and work of Christ.  People in this line of thought have made comments that a sermon which could be preached in a synagogue, or one in which Christ is not mentioned, is essentially a non-Christian sermon.  (Interestingly, Chappell’s definition of an expository sermon, on p132 of Christ-Centered Preaching does not make any reference to Christ – “An expository sermon . . . expounds Scriptures by deriving from a specific text main points and subpoints that disclose the thought of the author, cover the scope of the passage, and are applied to the lives of listeners.”)

Theocentric preaching – I’ve heard Haddon Robinson reject the charge that a message without Christ is essentially a non-Christian sermon by stating that he preaches theocentrically, and if God plays a key role in the message, then he knows no other God but the Trinitarian God of Scripture.  In practice, Robinson does move from an Old Testament passage to Christ when it works to do so, but he does not feel obliged to do so every time.

People who question the “always bring it round to Jesus” approach are not automatically advocating anthropocentric, “seven secrets for success,” or self-help sermons.  Chappell is right to critique sub-Christian preaching of the “be like,” “be good,” or “be disciplined” variety.  However, must every sermon include Jesus in order to be considered expository?  Certainly many sermons will naturally move to Jesus, but must every sermon?  I would say not, what would you say?