Preacher’s Worst Nightmare

/ Peter Mead / 2 Comments

There are all sorts of things that can go wrong for a preacher. What is your worst nightmare? Last week I was at an event at All Souls in London, where a preacher referred to arriving at a church and realizing the message he planned to preach there was one he had preached there before. Is that a nightmare? What about sitting in a service as the first part dragged longer and longer, leaving less and less time for the message? I haven’t enjoyed that experience when it has happened. Or the other extreme. A couple of years ago in the Caribbean I was asked to preach for twenty minutes, but when we arrived at the church I was told my message would be live on the radio and I had to finish on the dot at 10:05am . . . and I was introduced at 9:00am. A twenty minute message squeezed into sixty-five. I’m sure you could add to this list of preaching nightmares.

But the worst nightmare? That’s easy. Preaching a sermon that is all me and no God. That’s the worst nightmare.

Preaching Short – The Challenge

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When people are first asked to preach, their main concern is “how can I fill that time?”  Once preachers have some experience, they tend to want more time than they have.  If you are used to preaching for 30, 35, 45 minutes, then it is a real challenge to prepare a 10, 12 or 15 minute message.  It forces you to “think yourself clear” to a far greater extent.  It forces you to cut more diligently and preach lean.

Sometimes that is forced on you.  Today I am preaching in a series, but through a translator as we have a load of guests from France with us.  The blessing of preaching through an ‘interrupter’ is that I have had to think through the message to a greater level of clarity and simplicity.  I am not sure if I have succeeded yet.  But it is an interesting thought.  Why not deliberately preach short once in a while?  Why not preach a message half as long as you typically do?  It will challenge you as a preacher, it will shock your listeners and demonstrate that church form is not set in stone.  It will allow extra time for musical response, personal response or fellowship.  I am not advocating preaching shorter sermons all the time.  If you are in a church that allows and appreciates longer sermons, then praise the Lord.  But why not cut the length of a sermon periodically, for your sake and for theirs?  Is that a challenge worth taking?

First-Person: Beware of the Danger of Acting

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If you decide to preach a message “in character,”  then you are choosing to act as someone other than yourself.  People will know that you are acting and to a certain extent they will accept that.  However, there is good acting and bad acting.  Good acting looks real.  Bad acting looks like a performance.  Flamboyant movements and exaggerated speech do not work anymore.  People enjoy movies, tv shows, etc., that seem real.  There is something about “performance” that puts people off.

So when you decide to preach a first-person sermon, try to select a character that can come across naturally.  You may change your voice, your personality, your temperament, but every change puts you at greater risk of “performing.”  Natural communication is powerful, but performance can be counter-productive.  Know yourself, know your listeners and select your character carefully.  Remember, you don’t have to be a character in the story, you could be an observer unmentioned in the text.  For example, Don Sunukjian preached Esther from the perspective of an observer in the king’s court (I suspect he would have struggled to preach as Esther without seeming unnatural!)  Select your character so that you can present a compelling natural account, rather than a contrived and unnaturally flamboyant performance.

First-person preaching is not an excuse to perform, it is a choice to preach a message in the most effective way possible.

Perpetual Preaching Student?

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To be the best stewards of the ministry the Lord has entrusted us with, we need to keep stretching ourselves. There are many ways to do this.

Preaching Passages – Choosing to preach difficult passages or subjects is often helpful. For those who speak in a variety of churches, it is helpful to have them select the passage rather than choosing your own every time.

Preaching Books – It is good to read books related to the field of preaching and related fields like communication and hermeneutics. If you click on “Review” in the right-hand bar, you’ll find reviews of several very helpful books.

Preaching Exposure – Look for opportunities to hear preachers from outside your own church or circle of influence. Perhaps a respected preacher online, or better yet, a conference or event. It may be hard for pastors to get to other churches on a Sunday (of course), but there may be the odd opportunity to do so, or midweek events. Take the opportunity to listen to good preachers and evaluate what they do well.

Preaching Training – Look for opportunities to take seminars or courses designed for preachers. Perhaps in a local Bible school, or in other venues. There is much to be gained from any course in preaching, just remember that you will get out as much as you put in to the experience.

Preacher Fellowship – It is easy to miss this one, but perhaps this is the best of all. Look for ways to get together with other preachers. Perhaps for an evening every couple of months, or perhaps for a few days less frequently. Opportunities to discuss, to learn, to study together, to pray together, to stimulate each other in your ministry. I am planning for such a get together and cannot wait. I will report on the experience so others can benefit too.

How do you stay fresh and stimulate your own growth as a preacher? It is easy to settle in to a pattern, but it is privilege to be a lifelong student of preaching.

Motion Detectors

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Preaching is not about performance.  It is not an act.  Our goal when we are preaching is to communicate in a natural manner, as ourselves, because “naturalness” is critical to trustworthiness.  The problem is that standing up and speaking before a crowd incites a certain level of nerves.  Nerves influence movement.  So while it is quite right to be somewhat nervous under the weight of the responsibility of preaching God’s Word, unnatural communication is not good stewardship of the opportunity.  We should be aware of our tendency when nervous – not too aware, for we are not performers, but aware enough to be ourselves when in front of a crowd.

Beware of perpetual motion.  At one end of the scale, some people react by moving constantly.  Shifting weight between feet, pacing, rocking, etc.  This can come across as twitchy and shifty.  

Beware of frozen motion.  At the other extreme there is frozen motion.  This could be stance, where your feet become rooted to the spot.  This is natural for a while, but not forever.  Or perhaps a body part.  Maybe a dead arm in the pocket, or resting on the podium.  Or facial expressions.  A forced grin or a perma-frown.  Or eyes.  Always looking at limited focal points – one or two faces, or worse, a clock, or your notes.  

A significant proportion of communication comes through non-verbals.  All your listeners are experts in it (they are observing and interpreting body language every day).  Their motion detectors are permanently on, evaluating whether someone is moving normally and naturally or not.  This all goes on subconsciously.  Somehow you need to also deal with your own body language subconsciously.  Too much awareness and you may start to perform.  Too little awareness and you may be undermining your ministry.  There are far more important things in preaching than your body language, but unfortunately those important things may get lost if unnatural motion detectors are buzzing in your listeners.

Preach To The Heart, Then Put Feet On It

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It is a constant temptation for preachers. In fact, it is a feature of some streams of preaching. To preach at the level of behavioral change. You take a biblical story, draw out a moral (or several) from it, usually at the level of the characters’ ethics. Then preach a moralized version of the passage. The Bible is more than a book of moral case studies. Preaching should go to the level of God (theocentric) rather than just humanity (anthropocentric). Yet the message must also be relevantly addressed to a human audience.

People are heart driven creatures, so preach deeper than the mind and will. Of course we are called to inform peoples’ minds and exhort the will. Yet our preaching will always fall short if we don’t address the heart, the values, the desires, the passions, the feelings and the attitudes of our listeners. Whenever possible, target your message at the hearts of your listeners.

Heart level preaching is not merely conceptual, put some feet on it too. It is easy to preach at the level of attitudes or values and end up with a very conceptual and abstract message. It is important to try and earth that preaching in the every day world of your listeners. What does that mean when they watch the news on the TV? What will that look like when that person starts to flirt with them? What should they do when the temptation comes? Preach to the heart, but then help them visualize successful application of that preaching. They may agree with you and desire to change, so help them see what that will involve by putting feet on your heart-level preaching.

Images in Preaching, Not Always a Challenge

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One thing we all want to avoid is preaching in a way that resembles a lecture more than a living, vivid, full color message.  Somehow we want our preaching to fizz and bubble, rather than lying soggy and lifeless in the pulpit.  One thing we need to give attention to is vivid imagery.

When preaching a poetic passage . . .  such as a psalm, the writer will usually give us some very helpful images.  Why go hunting for new images when the psalm provides a resting child, restless hours fretting in bed, climbing the mountain toward Jerusalem, entering the city gates in procession, etc.  We need to work on relevance and be sure to handle the imagery appropriately, but handle it, it is right in the passage.  It would be a shame to waste the head-start we are given.

When preaching a narrative passage . . .  such as a parable or event, then the passage itself is an image.  Too often I’ve heard preachers at pains to explain the story, but the preaching lacks zing because they forget to actually tell the story.  Don’t dissect a story to death, allow it to live in front of people and let them observe its power.  Be sure to explain and apply, of course, but don’t fail to let the vividness slip by in your preparation.

When preaching a discourse passage . . . such as an epistolary paragraph, then you may have extra work on your hands.  Often the passage will be very effective and logical explanation, or even direct application.  But it may be so direct that it lacks imagery.  This will not be the case in most of James, but is often true in parts of Paul.  Just because it is prose and perhaps plain in presentation, do not fail to look for images that will help the truth stick in the hearts and minds of your listeners.  If the images aren’t in the text, then find them elsewhere.  But don’t preach image-free, that’s a real waste of an opportunity.

How to End the Sermon Series

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You are preaching through a book, perhaps an epistle, and you come toward the end.  How will you finish the series?  There are several options available, none of which is always the best route to take:

1. Summarize the “end matter” in a sermon.  You preach the last obvious preaching section and include a summary of the final verses in the book.  So for example, in 2nd Timothy, you might preach 4:6-8, but then summarize the content of verses 9 and following.  The strength of this approach is that it avoids dragging out a series unnecessarily.  The weakness is that you may miss the richness of those final verses, including verses 16-18.

2. Preach the “end matter” as the final sermon.  There are two reasons to always consider this.  First because of a conviction that all Scripture is God-breathed and useful.  Second because it will stretch you as a preacher to wrestle with how to preach sometimes seemingly miscellaneous verses (although whether any are truly “miscellaneous” is open to debate).  If a sermon would truly feel like a stretch, then it is probably better to not pursue this option.  However, it would be a shame to miss such passages and verses as Romans 16:17-27; 1Cor.16:22; 2Cor.13:11-14; Gal.6:11-18, etc.

3. Preach a review sermon at the end of the series.  Instead of finishing with a small part of a book, take the opportunity to review the whole book in one messages. We would be naïve to assume that listeners pull all the pieces together during a series.  Consider preaching the whole thing, making sure to show how those final verses bring the book to a point of closure.  Consider creative preaching options for such a sermon, with first-person being an obvious candidate.

Change Takes Time

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Perhaps you are one preacher among several in a church.  Perhaps other ministers in the church hold a different view of preaching.  Maybe the congregation has differing expectations.  What can you do if others don’t share your commitment to expository preaching?

Accept that change takes time.  Take stock of the situation and thank God for the influence you do have.  If you ever preach, then use that opportunity to be an example.  Be an example by inviting input in response to your preaching, so that others may ask for your input in respect to theirs.  Share books and resources that will point others to the importance of expository preaching.  9 Marks by Mark Dever is a helpful book because it is not so pointed; as well as preaching he addresses eight other marks of a healthy church.

There are lots of things that can be done, but the process is usually slow.  Above all else there are two things to remember.  First of all, grace should season your attitude, your speech, your interactions.  Second, and last only for emphasis.  Pray.  Churches and people change, but not due to our cleverness.  We leave a mark on a situation as we pray fervently for God to work His will.  May all our churches increase in their commitment and responsiveness to true expository preaching – not because we are fans of any particular form of preaching, but because God is our goal, and expository preaching is the best approach to His Word.

Review: Public Speaking: A Handbook for Christians, 2d ed., by Duane Litfin

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litfin.jpg

This is a college text focusing on speech communication, rather than homiletics. The main reason it may be worth reading is because it is built on the Haddon Robinson “Big Idea” preaching model. Robinson’s influence is evident throughout, not only conceptually, but also in specifics.

Since Litfin’s work is not primarily focused on preaching, he is able to challenge the reader to produce latently Christian communication in a variety of fields, a challenge perhaps we in ministry need to hear. Litfin does well to show what an audience centered communication approach looks like, including the factors that make for easier listening (such as concrete, familiar, suspenseful, interesting, humorous and life-related elements). The introduction of other elements of communication such as proxemics, paralanguage and so on add a dimension perhaps weak or lacking in many preaching texts.

Litfin’s emphasis on the importance and function of the idea reinforce Robinson’s work, but the text also goes beyond Robinson to mention other approaches to speech formulation.

Litfin’s final chapter addresses the issue of preparing a Bible message. This chapter provides a helpful and relatively succinct summary of the process of homiletics (at least in reference to preparation). Litfin’s seven steps largely parallel Robinson’s, except for introducing audience need earlier in the process. Introducing audience need prior to writing the speech idea – the same stance taken on this site, seems like the correct order if the Big Idea is to be stated with relevance to the audience.

This book is a useful book for reinforcing and amplifying some aspects of Robinson’s work. For a speech com class, this is a great text. For preachers? It is helpful if you feel the need for help to fully grasp Robinson’s work. Not a preaching text, but not a bad source of supplemental reading.