Stage 8 – Message Detail

Where to Place “The Reading”– Part 1

/ Peter Mead / Leave a comment

Traditionally there are two options for when to read the Bible passage for a sermon. One is earlier in the service, the other is at the start of the sermon. Either of these may be ideal. Neither of these is required. While starting with the reading may help with establishing the authority of the sermon, there are other ways to achieve this goal. Furthermore, there may be good reasons not to start with the reading. Today I will make suggestions for underlining the biblical authority in a sermon, then tomorrow I will give reasons for considering the placement of the reading more carefully.

Decide to communicate the authority of Scripture throughout your preaching. The reading at the start of the message may help, but is not the only ingredient. In fact, reading the passage up front does not guarantee that biblical authority is communicated. Many preachers read a passage and then bounce off it to their own thoughts and message. It is important to commit to, and reinforce, the authority of Scripture in your preaching.

First and foremost, commit to expository preaching. The commitment of the expository preacher is not to a certain form of sermon, but to a philosophy that places the Bible in the main role. The Bible determines sermon idea, sermon content, suggests possible sermon shape, sometimes even sermon illustrations. The message comes from a study of the Bible and is communicated through a study of the Bible using a literal, grammatical, historical, contextual hermeneutic. Without a commitment to preaching an expositional sermon, the following suggestions will be of only minimal help. It is possible to preach a topical-expository sermon, but more of that in a future post.

Reinforce the message of the authority of the Bible through your attitude. Demonstrate a submissive approach to the text, an inquisitive approach, an open to learning approach. Through your attitude and comments throughout the sermon, demonstrate that the Bible is the source of the authority.

Reinforce the authority of the Bible by letting your Bible show. Don’t read the passage, then put your Bible down and preach from notes. This can give the wrong impression. I think it is helpful and important to let people see that you are reading from the Bible (even if you’ve memorized the passage). Don’t let the podium hide the Bible. Don’t just cut and paste Bible text into your notes. Preaching without notes, but with Bible in hand can really help reinforce your view of the Bible. (See earlier posts on preaching without notes.)

Default Mode Preaching – Part Last

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Just three more areas to think about and push ourselves in:

3. Gestures – Are you naturally dependent on certain movements?  You may not know, but check a video or ask a friend.  Like the voice, overplanning will result in unnatural “performance.”   However, evaluation and forethought may raise subconscious repetition to conscious appropriate variation.  Your goal is not to perform or to impress, but to communicate.

4. Relationship to the Pulpit – Do you hold it?  Do you lean on it?  Are you conjoined with it?  Perhaps it would stretch you to remove it for a Sunday, or preach from a different location.  Try preaching with your Bible in your hands, or use a music stand off to one side.  The podium can be an immense crutch for some, and a communication block for listeners.  Hide less, communicate more.

5. Ending – It’s easy to always finish the same way.  Pause for thought, straight into a song (them not you), punchy last line, thoughtful prayer, etc.  Any of these could be good if chosen purposefully.  Take the time to plan the ending of your next sermon properly so you don’t default to a landing in autopilot.

Default Mode Preaching

/ Peter Mead / 1 Comment

Earlier this week I posted a couple of times about default preaching.  That is, the way we can easily settle into a routine structure or style of sermon.  For the sake of our listeners, it is good to try adding variation to our sermons.  Yet also for our own sake this is worthwhile.  Not only does pushing beyond default stimulate our growth as preachers, it also rekindles our sense of dependence on God.  How dangerous it is to settle into a pattern and risk preaching in our own strength!  Today and tomorrow I want to share a few more areas in which default can set in, and in which we can consciously stimulate our own “beyond default preaching” . . .

1. The Start – Do you always start with a funny story or interesting statistic?  Do you always begin with the thrilling phrase, “please turn with me . . .”?   What can you do differently to start your next message more effectively?  Remember to let your sermon purpose and the congregational need for the message loom large in your thinking.

2. Use of Voice – Basically the issue is appropriate variation.  Think through the message and recognize where emphasis should come from extra volume or power, and where it could better come from less.  What about rate of speech and tone?  Don’t get stuck in the default middle 20%, but consciously add appropriate variation.

Guarding the Authority of Application

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We may strive for objectivity and authority in our exegetical work (although it is tentative due to our limitations). However we tend to feel very tentative when it comes to application. How do we make sure our contemporary applications of the text are in line with the passage and its theological truth?

Timothy Warren, of Dallas Theological Seminary, suggests two guardrails that will help keep an application on track and protect the authority of the application. The expositional process moves from the text, through exegesis and theological abstraction to application (the exegetical idea, theological idea and homiletical idea, if you like). On each side of this path, Timothy Warren suggests a guardrail to keep the preacher on track:

Guardrail 1 – Audience. By considering the original referent and description of the passage’s intended audience, the preacher can be protected from an inappropriate application to his audience. For example, if the passage was originally written to scold Israel’s errant leadership (such as Ezekiel 34), it would be inconsistent to scold a church full of faithful followers. The audience is different, so the purpose of the sermon will differ from the purpose of the text. We move from original audience, to universal audience, to our contemporary audience.

Guardrail 2 – Purpose. By recognizing the original intention of the author, it is possible to consider whether the purpose will remain the same or differ for the contemporary listeners. So why did the author write it? Why did God make sure it was preserved for all? Why are you preaching this passage to your specific listeners?

Every time we study a passage and develop a sermon we are moving through these steps: contextualized, decontextualized, recontextualised. By keeping aware of the two guardrails – audience and purpose – we can be more certain that our applications of the text are legitimate and carry the necessary divine authority.

Sunukjian’s 5-Step Intro

/ Peter Mead / 2 Comments

Donald Sunukjian thinks through elements of the preaching process in fine detail. His book, An Invitation to Biblical Preaching, is full of real nuggets for the thoughtful preacher wishing to fine tune their methodology. For instance, consider his five step approach to an introduction:

1. Engage audience interest – develop a sense of need through use of humor, reference to personal or contemporary matters of concern.

2. Focus the message on either the Big Idea (deductive sermon) or the subject / question (inductive sermon).

3. Set the stage biblically – provide helpful background, context, setting, etc. If necessary review the sermon series. However, do not mention the chapter and verse yet. Once you mention it, they won’t be listening because they will be distracted by the hunt.

4. Preview the direction of the message as much as necessary – identify any major hunks or structural movements to come so the listener has a fair idea of what is to come.

5. Announce the passage – giving the chapter and verse, then allowing people to look it up before continuing. Wait quietly at this point, people aren’t listening to you anyway while they hunt, and your patience will motivate people to actually bring and open their Bibles.

    Beyond Default Introductions

    / Peter Mead / Leave a comment

    “Last week we looked at Exodus 3, please turn with me to Exodus 4.”  Such a statement may be technically accurate, but for listeners it is tedious and irrelevant.  As preachers we need to get the attention of the listeners rather than assuming we have it merely because they are still sitting there.

    Yet getting attention is an inexact science.  You could shout, dance, set fire to the floral arrangement or try to tear a phone book.  All would get attention, but most would achieve very little that is good for your sermon.  No matter how effective we are at gaining attention, that only gives us a brief window of opportunity before any gains are lost.  The introduction must go beyond attention.

    It seems to me that a decent introduction becomes a great introduction when it truly surfaces genuine need that will then be addressed by the passage.  Most sermons I hear (and preach), would be much stronger if more attention was given to this issue of raising need.  As Haddon Robinson has said, “the true test of an introduction is whether people want to hear the sermon once the introduction is over.”  Simple but true.  Strive to create a real hunger and thirst for what is to come, and then move people effectively into the message and text.

    Moving Your Preaching Beyond Default­ – Part 2

    / Peter Mead / 1 Comment

    There are many defaults that could be highlighted.  The fact presenter, exhorter and plodder are just three.  Perhaps you can give yourself another title to underline the tendency you see in your own preaching.  Then prayerfully consider how to push yourself beyond what is comfortable for you, or even what is affirmed by others. 

    The fact presenter needs to wrestle diligently with sermonic purpose and audience awareness.  The exhorter needs to purposefully engage with the full range of needs present in their congregation, as well as increase sensitivity to the intention of biblical writers.  The plodding passage guide needs to study not just for phrase-by-phrase understanding, but for a fuller understanding of the flow of thought and emphasis, not to mention creative means by which to structure the message.

    Here are a few more ways to stretch yourself beyond default, whatever your default may be: 

    • How can you preach so that people will not just know the passage, but also experience it?
    • How can the message itself be constructed as a plot to be experienced by the listeners?  As preachers we can easily dissect a biblical plot (narrative) and end up preaching an interesting but lifeless set of parts.  We should let story be story, but more than that, how can we take a didactic sermon and add features of plot to it?
    • How can the message maintain tension or intrigue throughout?  This means careful consideration of how each point works within itself, and how they work in relation to each other.
    • How can the transitions be worked for maximum effectiveness?  How can they be smooth rather than clunky, clear rather than random?

    Moving Your Preaching Beyond Default

    / Peter Mead / 2 Comments

    In every area of life we naturally have a default mode. It’s what comes naturally. It’s the way we function without adding thought and effort. This is true in any relationship, any hobby, and also in any preaching. If you are preaching for the first time, you are probably all thought and effort. You’re probably trying to fill the time, survive the experience and not make a fool of yourself. But for those of us who’ve preached a few times, perhaps its time to evaluate ourselves and push beyond default. In this post I will suggest some default modes I’ve observed in myself and others. In part two I will suggest some ways to crank it up a level.

    Default Mode – Bible Fact Presenter. It is easy to study a passage at length and then fill the preaching slot with facts you have gleaned in the process. Historical awareness and Bible trivia may impress people to a certain extent, but this approach will usually hide from questions about purpose. What is the sermon supposed to achieve? Just because your information comes from the Bible or is about the Bible, does not make it a truly biblical sermon. The passage has not been inspired, recorded, copied, canonized and translated just to be a source of trivia.

    Default Mode – Ethical Exhorter. It is easy to define a purpose, irrespective of the nuances of a passage, and then harangue the listeners. Some preachers never say anything strong, but others can’t seem to say anything but. Again, some people will be impressed by passionate finger pointing. Indeed, some people seem to have a strange theology that affirms the need to receive a verbal thrashing from the pulpit, somehow fulfilling a kind of personal penitence. The Bible does exhort us in many ways, but it does so much more, and listeners are also complex creatures. We must carefully consider our sermon purpose in light of the text’s purpose and the need of our listeners.

    Default Mode – Plodding Passage Guide. Given a biblical passage and a piece of time, it is easy to methodically plod through the passage trying to run out of passage and time at the same moment in the meeting. In this approach every phrase or sentence in the passage is considered equal, given equal explanation and roughly equal time. In reality time will often start to slip away and the last part of the passage will often be short-changed. All Scripture is inspired and every word counts, but not every word counts equally in a sentence or a section. Sometimes a significant proportion of a text may require very little explanation or development, while another part may require diligent focus in our presentation.

    Peter has responded to a comment on this post.

    Laughter In The Pews – Part 1

    / Peter Mead / Leave a comment

    There are differing views on the place of humor in the pulpit.  For some, the somber reality of the occasion precludes any place for humor.  For others, humor is considered one of the most effective tools in the preacher’s toolbox.  I naturally find many reasons to laugh throughout the day.  So naturally there will be some humor in some of my messages.  Filter these comments through your own theology of humor and laughter in the preaching event:

    Joke-telling is a very complex skill, assume you don’t have it.  Hershael York would go so far as to instruct his students not to tell jokes.  I tend to agree with him.  Most people are not effective joke-tellers.  The necessary combination of clarity, timing, demeanor and so on require very fine tuning.  Often a joke will be placed at the start of a message, which is actually a risky moment for something that needs such precision.  I am not a joke teller.  I’m thankful that I know that.  If you think you are, then it is probably worth getting the honest opinion of several others (preferably those gifted in bluntness  and tactlessness) before you exhibit your skill from the pulpit! 

    Humor does not have to come from jokes.  Often the most effective humor relates to subtle comments, passing observations, sometime bizarre comparisons.  If an element of a passage is funny, simply recognize that and help others to see it (most Christians need help not to read the Bible with a stained-glass voice!)  An attitude of delight in a passage, a message and a group of people will often result in quite natural and appropriate humor during delivery.

    The Holy Spirit and Your Preaching – Part 1

    / Peter Mead / Leave a comment

    When it comes to preaching, it is easy to refer to the Holy Spirit by way of excuse. How simple to bring in the Holy Spirit as an excuse not to do some difficult aspect of preparation, or to cover for a lack of attention to some aspect of the preparation process. This is very unfair. Preaching is a spiritual work, and so the Holy Spirit must be given His rightful place. Here are some thoughts that will probably stimulate other thoughts:

    Preaching is our work and God’s work, not one or the other. Our responsibility for the mechanics of sermon preparation in no way negates the Holy Spirit’s role in the dynamics of sermon preparation. Likewise, the Spirit’s role in bringing fruit from the preaching event does not remove our responsibility to participate fully.

    The foundational concern is the spiritual walk of the preacher. Everything that the Bible teaches in relation to the spiritual walk of a believer is also, and especially, true of the preacher. This relates to character, to life choices, to prayerful preparation for ministry and so on. This means walking in step with the Spirit, not grieving the Spirit, fanning into flame the gift of the Spirit, and living a life controlled by the Spirit.

    The preparation process involves the Spirit at every step. Every stage of the process could be prefixed with the term, “Prayerfully. . .” We must prayerfully select the passage, prayerfully study the passage, prayerfully determine the author’s idea and so on. We should not work in a personal vacuum and then merely ask for God’s stamp of approval just prior to delivery.

    (Ramesh Richard has a helpful appendix on the Holy Spirit and preaching in Preparing Expository Sermons which influenced this post.)