Transitions 2

February 28, 2013 / Peter Mead / 2 Comments

Transitions are disproportionately significant. They don’t convey the content of the message, but their critical role can significantly support, or significantly undermine the message as a whole.

Last time I looked at the introductory transitions (A on the image). What about a transition between two movements in a message? This is the purest form of transition.

Transitioning Effectively (B)

1. Slow down noticeably. The sermon is an unsafe vehicle. There are no seat belts or doors that guarantee your passengers will stay with you. When you take a turn, make sure they are right there or you’ll leave them in the aftermath of the previous movement. Slow down through the curves. Listeners can seem like they are with you at a certain pace of delivery, and they might be able to stay with you in a straight line, but when you go in a new direction they may be unable to keep track and they will be left in a heap with dust settling around them. Slow down. Change pace. Pause. Make the transition clear. Sometimes in our anxiety to press on and get through it all we can cut corners at this point (since it isn’t content at this point) and in doing so undermine the whole message. If you must speed up, do so within a movement, not between them.

2. Look both ways. That is to say, use the opportunity to provide both review and preview. Where have we been so far? Where are we going next? Just a couple of sentences can make the world of difference. It is the difference between an enjoyable ride in a nice car with a good driver, and an uncomfortable ride in an overpowered car with an overconfident teen at the wheel.

3. Mark physically. Slowing down the delivery and reflecting / previewing are helpful. But why not reinforce the shift in direction by a physical marker? You could physically switch from one side of the lectern to the other (assuming you don’t hide behind it all the time), you could gesture appropriately, change you orientation by a few degrees, etc. Subtle reinforcement in this way can communicate very effectively.

Notice that I haven’t suggested simply saying, “Now for my next point…” If you have to, fine, but consider that this may have a soporific effect if the listeners don’t have confidence in you. Good transitions should give a sense of momentum and progress. Bad or patronizing ones can either lose people, or reinforce the sense of boredom. Maybe a minute of your message will be taken up by this kind of transition . . . but this minute could be make or break!

Transitions

February 26, 2013 / Peter Mead / Leave a comment

The bulk of preparation effort usually goes into the main content of a message. We wrestle with the text, we allow it to shape our theology, we think through how that content marks our lives, we ponder all this in light of who will hear the message. This is all work on the points, or movements, in a message.

Then perhaps we ponder illustrative material to help make sense of those movements. We consider how to introduce the message. We might even give some thought to how we will conclude it.

But often there is too little thought given to the transitions between movements in a message. These are represented by A, B, C on the diagram. Too little attention given to these little moments will result in too great a negative effect on the whole message. Great messages bomb because of poor transitions.

Here are some nudges to help us better transition during our preaching:

Introducing Effectively (A)

1. Emphasize clearly. The listeners need to know that you are moving from whatever introductory material you have given into the first movement of the message. You can do a star jump, pause for two minutes and turn to look at a powerpoint slide. Or you can be less awkward. Vocal variation can serve to underline your shift effectively: perhaps a pause, a change of pace, a variation in pitch. You can say, “So for my first point…” but that is probably hinting at dullness already. But something along those lines could be helpful: “So let’s see how the passage launches . . .” could work, as long as people catch what you just said (so think through how to add emphasis).

2. Preview appropriately. What is appropriate depends on the type of movement that will follow. If you are presenting a declaration and then supporting it, as in a typical deductive message, then you might be able to simply offer a preview of the point by stating it and telling what will follow (i.e.explanation, application, etc.). By previewing and then re-stating the point as you progress, listeners will spot the entry into a section of the message. If the point is the development in a narrative, then you may not want to give it all away at the transition. You need to decide how to make sure people are with you as you enter in. Perhaps a question that will be answered – some variation on “so what happened next?” might work.

3. Introduce confidently. Whatever you are about to say, convey confidence in how you introduce it. Don’t apologise. Don’t downplay in some supposed act of humility. “Oh, I guess I should probably say a few words about . . . ” Uh, no. “Just a disconnected story first before we get into . . .” Again, no. “I wasn’t sure where to start, so. . .” No.

Biblical Girders 4

January 18, 2013 / Peter Mead / 2 Comments

Where does each girder go? The Bible has a superstructure that holds it all together. So the thematic element of the promised seed in Genesis 3:15 will work its way through multiple books and become overt in places like Galatians 3 at the other end of the canon. But this poses a challenge. How much should we be preaching Galatians 3 when we are supposed to be preaching Genesis 3?

Many preachers would see no problem with springing from Genesis to Galatians since that is the fulfillment and the clarification of what is first stated in the Garden of Eden. I am certainly not going to criticize the impulse to preach Christ and it would be strange to leave listeners wondering who that seed might be (unless such suspense were part of a bigger teaching strategy).

On the other hand, I do wonder if we can collapse themes forward too easily and lose some of the strength of the steel at that point in the biblical story? If the Bible were a building, then Genesis would be the foundation. Steel starting there does go through the whole structure and holds the whole together. Themes of creation, of relationship, of fellowship lost, of divine grace and rescue, of divine promise, etc. all work their way from Genesis on through the Bible. That steel girder seen in Genesis 3:15 later on turns out to be the spire at the top of the whole structure, the pinnacle of it all. It makes sense to let folks know the significance of that, but at the same time it makes sense to help people see the importance of the foundation.

That is to say, instead of immediately looking up to the spire that caps off the whole building, when we are preaching in Genesis lets be sure to help people see how the foundation fits together, how the hope offered by God’s grace in the seed of the woman is such a striking promise in the context of a spurned relationship in that first senseless human rebellion. That passage is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training, etc. So let’s preach Genesis 3, not just bounce off it to go straight to the spire. At the same time let’s not get our noses in the foundations and let people miss the grandeur of the whole.

It isn’t either/or, it surely needs to be both/and. And with that both/and, I think it needs to be honouring to the earlier text in its own right, not just a token glance.

Biblical Girders 3

January 17, 2013January 17, 2013 / Peter Mead / 2 Comments

I have been writing about Biblical Girders: those superstructure passages that form the skeleton that holds the Bible together. As well as key passages, we could well add a list of key themes that weave through the canon like ribbons. I did this earlier last year with the 10 Biggest Big Ideas series (click here to go to the first of those posts).

So what do we do if we recognize that people in our churches are foggy on the biblical superstructure? How can we help folk without turning the church into a lecture hall and losing the devotional and spiritual emphasis in our preaching? Some ideas:

1. Periodically Be Overtly Educational – Perhaps a seminar or evening class or group session where you trace through the superstructure. You will find that there are people in every church that have a genuine appetite to know the Bible better and will want to attend this kind of training if it is done well. You will also find that a false dichotomy between education and devotional spirituality need not be imposed. Take every opportunity, even in a “lecture” to woo people by the gracious work of God in biblical history.

2. Be Alert to the Girders – If you are preaching Genesis 22, Abraham offering up Isaac, be alert to the place of that story in the flow of the narrative. Take the opportunity to help people see it not as a stand-alone incident, but as the culmination of a journey over many decades for Abraham. Include and highlight the importance of Genesis 15 as you preach Genesis 22. When you preach about David and Bathsheba, don’t just look ahead to the fallout in his family life, but also look back to 2Samuel 7 and the amazing covenant God had made with him – highlight the importance of that to your listeners.

3. Preach the Girders – Take a miniseries and help people see the big picture of the Bible. Too many Christians make too many “surprised and helped” comments when they hear a Bible overview. This implies that it is not being offered enough.

4. Preach through Books Without Being “Flat” – When we preach through a book, it is easy to flatten it out into so many segments of equal length and apparently equal value. Instead, look for ways to point toward and back to passages in the book that have a “superstructure status” for the book and the Bible as a whole. Preaching through Habakkuk, don’t let 2:4 get lost in the mix.

Christmas Sundays

December 15, 2012 / Peter Mead / Leave a comment

Apologies for the blog-silence . . . illness over, it is time to post again. The next couple of Sundays are prime “visitor” days in church world. It is easy to talk as if we just need to preach the gospel well and we’ll see a massive amount of life change. Realistically this is not the trend most years. Without denying the possibility of immediate and radical life change, here are a few brief thoughts:

1. Visitors have some expectations of the message that should be met. They are almost certainly coming to church because it is Christmas season. Make sure the message is relevant to the reasonable expectation that Christians celebrate Christmas.

2. Visitors have some expectations of the message that should be shattered. They may well expect the message to be antiquated, almost fairy-tale like and safe. What an opportunity for them to be surprised that the Bible is actually interesting, and profoundly relevant, and disarmingly engaging.

3. Visitors should feel lovingly pulled by something spiritual, not pestered by desperate church people and “retention strategies.” Of course it is wise to think through greeting procedures in the church venue, from the front, etc. It would be strange for visitors not to feel warmly welcome to return beyond Christmas. It might be sensible to have a follow-up plan in place (a bit late if this hasn’t been considered before now, so don’t do an emergency version now). But if people feel like everything is tailored to win their attendance (too many comments, excessive announcements to that end, perceived manipulation or pressure in the preaching, etc.), well, how would you feel if you were visiting?

The next two Sundays are weighty ones for preachers. Extra busy in church and for family (including our own). Perhaps a strain on creativity when you’ve been preaching Christmas in the same church for years and feel the pressure of a limited number of passages and “angles” left to take.

But let’s not lose sight of the great opportunity here. People don’t expect uniqueness. In fact, if you are genuinely excited by the coming of Christ, gripped by the engaging Word of God, and effective in communicating both its meaning and relevance to all our lives today . . . then many people will be genuinely, and positively, surprised!

Attention! Unseen Forces

November 30, 2012November 30, 2012 / Peter Mead / Leave a comment

To finish off this series on attention, there is one more thing we need to consider. We’ve looked at the importance of having the listener’s attention if you want them to hear your message. We’ve considered appropriate ways to pursue attention for the message, and some inappropriate ways to undermine your preaching while pursuing attention. But is it really just about you and the listeners? Or are there other forces at work?

In one sense it doesn’t matter what else is going on, you need to take responsibility for preaching well in order to engage the listeners effectively. At the same time, it would be naive to ignore some of these factors:

1. Life Circumstances of Listeners. You probably don’t know a fraction of what is going on in their lives. Have they been struggling to sleep? Do they have a medical condition that is weighing on them, or even influencing their focus without them even knowing it? Are they in the midst of great inner turmoil? Hopefully the message will engage and offer the hope of Christ in the worst of circumstances. But it is feasible that you may struggle to grab attention, no matter what.

2. Environmental Factors. Seating designed by a someone shaped like a cardboard box. A distracting draft of cold air. Oppressive and tiring heat. A wasp. A stationary police siren outside. A light aircraft crashing into the church building. An earthquake. Some things are hard to overcome.

3. Spiritual Warfare. Have you ever noticed that often at a very crucial point in a message, right when the crux of the gospel is going to be declared, a baby will start to cry, a fight will break out, a siren will drive past, etc.? Sometimes we need to be reminded that our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but unseen forces. We don’t need to dwell on them, but recognize that the enemy knows a distracted listener is not really a listener at all.

Attention Seeking Behaviour

November 29, 2012November 29, 2012 / Peter Mead / 1 Comment

Without the attention of the listeners, our preaching is going into thin air. God may recognize faithfulness, but He can’t be delighted by ineffective preaching when He is so concerned to get the attention of the listeners. So there are lots of ways to pursue attention. Yesterday we considered some of the important and helpful approaches. Today I’d like to offer some approaches of which we should be wary. There may be occasion for some of these in some manner, but typically let’s treat these as suspicious short-cuts.

1. Shock and Uh? If you want to get the attention of the listeners, say something outrageous, perhaps even offensive. They may be shocked, look up and say, “uh?” You’ll have their attention. But you may also have their backs up, their radar going into overdrive and their distaste for you as a person profoundly stirred. Some preachers seem to take no small delight in “breaking the rules” (whatever that means) by being inappropriate in the pulpit. It gets attention, and it will get feedback (and that which comes to your face may be positive: sometimes out of politeness, sometimes delight from an immature listener excited to see an apparently immature person in a position of influence.) But this short-cut also undermines your preaching on multiple levels.

2. SHOUT! Vocal variation is a good thing. But shouting does come across as a bit desperate in most situations. There are moments where shouting may be thoroughly appropriate. But when shouting doesn’t fit the content, but is simply a means of waking up the old sleeping gent in row four or the distracted youths at the back, then it probably doesn’t achieve enough to warrant the negative reactions some will feel when shouted at without warning.

3. Sensational Content. I’ve already referred to the sensational shocking stuff of tabloid preaching above. But sometimes people seem to try to combine doctoral level original thought with shoddy journalism to come up with something nobody has ever said before about a passage. Don’t.

4. Silly Gimmicks. I remember watching in perplexed confusion as a preacher decided to throw packets of ketchup around the platform. It did rouse me from my semi-slumber, but the benefit was greatly outweighed by the perplexity generated by a gimmicky move gone flat.

5. Demanded Attention. Insisting in an authoritarian tone that people should listen does come across as totally desperate. Win their attention, don’t change the rules of life and demand that they listen. Asking people not to distract others may be appropriate. Telling them they are obligated to listen to you isn’t.

Anything you’ve seen and would add?

Attention! Strategy…

November 28, 2012 / Peter Mead / 6 Comments

If you haven’t got the attention of your listeners, then they aren’t really listeners, and you’re not really preaching to them. I know there are all sorts of factors influencing the preaching event, and we’ll probe some of those later in the week. But to be super simple, here’s a principle we should all take on board:

People listen if they want to, so make them want to . . .

How can we do this?

1. Relevance. I think the preacher needs to prove as early as possible that the preacher, the message and the passage is relevant to the listeners. Introduction is critical here. But then there needs to be a continual re-proving of relevance throughout. Don’t leave “application” until the last few minutes, they probably won’t be with you by then. Demonstrate relevance all the way through. This includes lots of factors, but the content is critical. Historical lecture, theological diatribe, rant against them out there, etc., are all felt to be irrelevant to listeners in the church setting. Speak to us.

2. Interest. When the content is interesting, people are more likely to pay attention. Never bore people with the Bible. Be interesting. Does that mean we rush to our illustration sources? Hang on. The Bible is interesting. Too many preachers preach dull Bible enlivened by interesting anecdotes and stories. This may be less dull preaching, but it is not interesting biblical preaching. Communicate the content well, and use explanations, proofs, applications, when they are genuinely helpful. Make sure the core of the content is interesting.

3. Accessibility. If it is completely over their heads, they won’t listen. If it is patronizing and trite, they will get annoyed and also stop listening. Make it appropriately accessible for the level of those present.

4. Energy. Getting attention has a lot to do with delivery as well as content. Your energy matters. When we stand in front of a crowd, our natural instinct is to become limited. Seek to break out of that monotonous box and be yourself with appropriate energy for the occasion and your personality. This means eye contact, facial expression, vocal variety, movement and gestures. If you are enthused and have an appetite for it, they have a chance of catching it. If you don’t have the disease, you’ll struggle to be contagious.

5. Warmth. Energy in delivery is not about a show or a performance. It is about the real you communicating with them. One key ingredient is your personal warmth. If you come across as cold, they won’t lean in to what you are saying. Simple. Represent the gospel in your manner and tone, as well as in the precision of your content.

6. Spirituality. People can sense when you have the spiritual gravitas that comes from being with Jesus.

More to add, but I’ll leave it there. Tomorrow we’ll consider some of the illegitimate approaches people take to get attention.

Providence and Preaching 3

November 22, 2012 / Peter Mead / Leave a comment

Last time we thought about the potential value of unsolicited information. Perhaps we shouldn’t be so “in the zone” that we become blind to God’s providence at work. Let’s take another example:

Unknown perspective on the passage may be critical – This probably shouldn’t come through lack of good exegesis and study, although it might. So let’s think about that first, then come at it from another angle.

Good preparation should involve not only good accurate study, but probing study that comes at the passage from multiple angles. It is good to think through how people may misinterpret it, or mis-hear you. It is good to ponder the various theological and philosophical positions in your group of listeners (even if they don’t know what their theological and philosophical presuppositions may be, you should have a fair idea!) So while it may take only so long to grasp the meaning of a passage, let’s study for so long plus a bit to ponder the potential alternative perspectives, even if the alternative is built on a flawed approach or biblical background.

Another approach is to proactively pursue varied input from others before preaching. Having grasped the main idea of the passage, offer that to others and see what they do with it. Hear the perspective of others. You can do this with commentaries, of course, but why not go for real humans too. A friend who knows the Word can be a real blessing, but don’t overlook interaction with someone who seems to be less informed. The interaction with one or with a purposely-formed group can be so significant. Better to hear that you are off target, or shallow, or misfiring, before you stand and deliver.

So the issue may be one of exegesis, but as we’ve already hinted, it could be with reception too. You may fully grasp the import of a passage and get the meaning very accurately. But how will people misunderstand the message? This is why we cannot prepare a perfect message in the solitude of a study. We need some interaction in general, and it wouldn’t hurt before this next message. It isn’t just accurate exegesis that you pursue, but effective communication to others. Their preconceived notions can be massively significant – if you know them ahead of time.

Providence and Preaching 2

November 21, 2012November 22, 2012 / Peter Mead / Leave a comment

In my last post I wrote about the issue of interrupted “zone-ish-ness” – that is, what happens when we are in the zone for a sermon and something comes out of nowhere and knocks us so that we wobble? I say let’s learn to trust God’s providence and become better preachers.

Here are some thoughts to probe the notion further:

Unsolicited information may be pure gold – One of my most creative sermons was never preached. Probably a good thing, too. I had this great idea to preach Ezekiel 16 from another room. That is, it would just be a voice speaking out to the gathered people, perhaps in low lighting. The idea was developing nicely, and then the chap giving the church announcements made the suggestion that people might like to bring their friends along to that particular event. Uh? No! Oh wait, perhaps the creativity was a little off target anyway. I’m glad I didn’t preach that without thinking through the very real possibility that guests would be present (announcement or no announcement).

Hearing just before standing up to preach that such and such a person is present, and is struggling with this or that harsh reality . . . this can be pure gold information. Suddenly a message that was true and good can become targeted and precise. It does involve prayer and a bit of thinking in the final minutes before preaching, but perhaps that is exactly what the message needed? I know I was planning a message recently and it was a bit flat. A comment from my wife about a conversation she’d had could have sent me spinning, but instead I thank God for that piece of information – it reshaped the message for good.

I remember finding out as I stood up to preach a 20-25 minute message that it had to last exactly 65 minutes. Not sure I did so well there, but maybe someone listening needed the extra repetition and reinforcement that they got as a result!

There are many times when we find out information a bit later than we might have preferred. It could be about the listeners. It could be about the church. It could be about the passage (hopefully not). Whatever it is, let’s be leaning on God and trusting Him to be providentially in charge, since, after all, He is.