Post-Preaching Stress Disorder

July 8, 2014 / Peter Mead / 3 Comments

Now and then you might preach a sermon and finish on a personal emotional high that lasts for days. Typically you won’t. William Willimon wrote that, “On any Sunday you can give it your all and still know that the Word deserves more.” Typically you may find yourself feeling vulnerable, weak, drained, self-critical and/or regretful. Post-preaching stress disorder: known by most preachers, not understood by most others.

People in your congregation probably don’t understand PPSD. They are quite happy to chat with you after you have preached. They might want to talk about other things (that can be tough – it feels like they ignored you completely). They might want to talk about your message (that can be tough – you may feel too vulnerable at this stage). They might want to discuss some detail in your message (that can be tough – your purpose and big idea related to major life change, but their discussion might revolve around some incidental element, or even be a misunderstanding of what you said).

It is not the fault of people in your congregation. After all, there are probably many jobs and tasks that have emotional fall-out that you do not grasp. Starting an education program in this area might just seem a little self-serving and self-promotional (look what I go through every week!). So what to do? Here are a few quick suggestions for those who struggle with PPSD:

1. Create a small team who do understand. Your spouse would be a wise place to start. After all, church requires up to an hour of complex interactions. Then you go home. It may not subside for another 36 hours! Also, bring it into the conversation with your preaching team. This could be other people who preach, or people who help discuss, plan, pray or feedback on the preaching ministry in the church. None of us should try to do a preaching ministry alone . . . you need a team and they need to understand PPSD.

2. Let PPSD push you up against God in post-preaching conversation. The danger is that we go it alone and end up crashing in some way. Some will struggle with discouragement or depression. Some will struggle with self-absorption and time-wasting. Some will struggle with temptation and specific sins. Some will struggle with a combination of these and more. Some will struggle sometimes. Some will struggle every time. We are not designed to go it alone! Let the PPSD push you up against God so that you take time to prayerfully reflect after preaching. Maybe a Sunday afternoon walk. Maybe a Monday morning prayer and reflection time. You cannot leave God out until Tuesday and then start the process again.

3. Make notes during PPSD and review later. It is not the time for massive ministry decisions, or self-critique, etc. Know that your thinking is cloudy at this point, so make some notes and then look at them later in the week. Learn, but keep it in context. Ideally talk it through with others who will be honest with you. It may be that your perspective is all skewed. Or it may be bang on. Either way, you will learn more in the context of a team.

Review – Acts: An Exegetical Commentary, vols 1&2

June 25, 2014June 25, 2014 / Peter Mead / Leave a comment

Craig Keener’s Acts: An Exegetical Commentary is a vast and incomplete piece of scholarship. It is vast because in print form it is over 2100 pages. It is incomplete because these two volumes only cover up to Acts 14:28. For the purpose of this review, I am looking at the digital version on my Logos software. I have not read every page, of course, so this is not a full scholarly review.

Keener is meticulous. Anyone who has used his previous commentaries on Matthew, John and Revelation will know that. This can be highly beneficial, or at times, frustrating. Almost two-thirds of the complete first volume is introductory material covering such issues as genre (zeroing in on Acts as a work of ancient historiography), historical interpretation of Acts, Acts and Paul, the speeches, the author, audience, Luke’s perspective on women and gender, etc.

Once you get into the commentary proper, you start to see the fruit of his socio-historical approach. The format and layout is relatively straightforward (i.e. no complicated internal structures that require skipping around to find what you need, but at the same time not much in the way of helpful textual layouts as some of the more modern commentaries are offering – such as Schnabel’s on Acts, for instance). As well as relatively straightforward, it is also long. Keener appears to have a meticulous tendency that leads to a massive project like this one. Every detail is engaged and discussed. Other scholarship is engaged and discussed. At times it feels like everything is engaged and discussed.

This is where my having the works on Logos makes a difference to me. Rather than flipping page after page and scanning tons of text, I can find what I want to access very quickly on Logos. For instance, I can right click on the commentary and then select “search this resource.” Then I can search in just this commentary with something as simple as “Stephen’s speech” and immediately have access to the 71 occasions Keener refers specifically to Stephen’s speech.

Equally, with a work of this magnitude, I find it helpful to have the table of contents showing on the screen. Thus I can expand and contract sections to locate the specific section I want to see. I can also get a sense of how long the section is before I just start reading (very useful in such a long piece of work).

I suggest that if you are preaching through a Bible book, then you should have access to a couple of the better commentaries on that book. With Acts, I am putting Keener’s work into my top two or three resources to check (alongside Bock and Bruce, which are excellent and shorter!)

If you want to find out more, click here to go to the Logos page for this resource.

(Full disclosure: I am grateful to Logos Bible Software for providing the resource for this review.)

Amazing Grace

June 20, 2014July 25, 2014 / Peter Mead / 1 Comment

A few weeks ago I had a very encouraging conversation with a thrilled believer. She had read a book about God’s grace and it was a delight to see her so stirred by what she saw there. She described how amazing it is that even though she was so guilty, the judge has paid the full price of all her sins – every last one of them.

This young lady was obviously in the afterglow of her encounter with a clear presentation of God’s grace and the wonder of forgiveness. I could have celebrated with her and probably lived off her excitement for a few days myself, but I was slightly concerned.

After the amazing miracle of forgiveness, what comes next? Some would say that the new believer needs to be instructed in the code of conduct that comes with their new status – after all, privilege brings responsibility. Others would say that the new believer needs to get used to living in light of their new status. Which way is correct? One? Both? Neither?

The amazing grace of the sacrificially benevolent judge has a profound and life changing impact. But how deep does that impact actually go?

What if the afterglow of the great gift of grace fades? Then the new believer will surely drift back into increasing sin, only now with assurance of sins forgiven. This kind of ‘free ticket’ would be a dangerous situation. A gospel of grace that is purely focused on a change in status is dangerously incomplete.

Consequently, does the new believer need training in a new code of conduct to bolster the status of being forgiven and also to protect them from themselves? I don’t think we have to jump there so quickly.

As I enjoyed her excitement about the judge’s remarkable grace I shared another dimension of the gospel story. I said, “You know, it is even more amazing than that,” she looked at me quizzically, “the judge forgave you, and he also proposed to you.” Her eyes widened. She hadn’t thought about it that way.

We discussed the ongoing wonder of being the bride of Christ, the ongoing impact of having your heart enlivened to the delight of knowing and loving him, the ongoing intimacy of being united to him by the indwelling Spirit, and so on. The gospel gives us lots to ponder!

Let me put this in different words to make the same point. If the New Covenant is merely a status change, then it is not enough. The newly forgiven individual will need some kind of external control mechanism and freedom restriction because their natural inclination to sin will soon break through and take charge.

But if the New Covenant is not only about the legal record, but also about the love relationship, then maybe we have a different situation. What if the New Covenant included provision for transformation of the heart, an inside to out supernatural change? What if the New Covenant included provision for the restored presence of the Spirit forging an intimate marital union between the believer and Christ? If this were included then perhaps the newly forgiven individual should be set free to live life to the full in the responsive joy of their new relationship with Christ.

That is an exciting prospect, but surely there would still be an inclination to sin alongside that new inclination to please God? Indeed the flesh versus Spirit tension is a reality we all experience. That is why our understanding of sanctification is so important.

It is easy to see sanctification as our follow-up work, our responsibility in light of the blessing of salvation. But this shifts the new believer’s gaze right back onto themselves. The message easily becomes ‘trust Christ for salvation and then look to yourself as you strive for your sanctification.’ Paul was no fan of this idea, no matter how well it was couched in biblical language.

Walking in step with the Spirit is about living in the reality of the New Covenant – not only learning to live in light of our new legal status, but also growing in our new relationship. The ongoing mechanism for growth is not self-determination, but response to the Son as the Spirit reveals him to us and stirs our hearts to love.

However we phrase it, the bottom line is this: our understanding of sanctification needs to be as God-centred and Trinitarian as our understanding of salvation.

Multiply Ministry Beyond the Pulpit 3

June 16, 2014June 13, 2014 / Peter Mead / 5 Comments

Yesterday I began a list of ministry that compliments the platform given us as preachers. The first five stood out to me as I observed a Christian leader at close quarters and was impressed by the impact he had when not preaching. We thought last time about intercessory prayer, deliberate networking and being a funding conduit. Here are two more from my list of observations of one leader (then I may add some more nudges):

4. Generous Distributor – Books, CDs, DVDs, etc. Sometimes a targeted gift can make a massive impact. I can think of four or five life changing books that every Christian should read. I can think of more that not-yet-Christians could benefit from. Here’s the challenging question . . . why don’t I have a stock of these books to give away to contacts?

5. Multiplicational Mentor – Get someone close and pour into them. It could be knowledge and training, but it could also be networking and ministry exposure. If, by God’s grace, you are living a life of ministry impact, it will only multiply by letting others get close. If you aren’t, why are you preaching?

– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –

6. Ministry Champion – If there is a ministry you believe in, champion it. It doesn’t take much to offer genuine support and encouragement to the ministry of another. Endorse, pray, champion, network, encourage, text, fund. What ministry beyond your own church do you cheer for?

7. Community Involvement – If your church is part of a community, it makes sense to have some involvement in that community. Being on the board of a local school, or having some sort of presence with the local council, or . . . find a creative opportunity in your locale. This is not just about evangelistic influence, although it should never be less than that.

8. Book Reviewer – If you read books, which sadly seems to be optional these days, why not write reviews so that others can benefit? Put them online, in a journal, on amazon, etc.

There must be so much more, please share any ideas and let’s see what can be multiplied.

Multiply Ministry Beyond the Pulpit 2

June 14, 2014June 13, 2014 / Peter Mead / 2 Comments

Some years ago I had the privilege of living next door to a well known Christian leader and communicator. Watching him close up made clear to me how he had had such a significant impact on the world. It was not just his preaching (although he did lots of that). There were five noticeable areas of complementary ministry that are open to all of us. If only more of us would invest our energies in these five areas, it is hard to imagine what could be achieved:

1. Intercessory Prayer – I would hope we all pray for those we minister to, but what about others who God brings across our paths? We could quickly compile a large connection collection – people we can bring to God in prayer on a regular basis. My friend is highly purposeful in this ministry . . . photos on the phone for when he loses a signal on the train (allowing him to pray for people), photo albums, lists. How can the impact of this loving ministry be measured?

2. Deliberate Networking – You may have the same reaction to “professional networkers” that I do, but “humble Kingdom building networkers” . . . that is altogether different. Person X has a passion for a certain area of ministry. Person Y might be the ideal resource person or connection for person X. If you know both, shouldn’t you be introducing them? Like the ingredients of fireworks, sometimes it is about bring certain folks together for explosive impact. I suspect a lot of us preachers have largely untapped networks. Maybe we are not imagining the possibilities? Maybe we want everything to revolve around us? Maybe the greatest ministry impact you will have this year will come from introducing X to Y, or Saul to the believers . . .

3. Funding Conduit – We easily get caught up in the financial needs of our own family and our own church. But there is so much that could happen if funds were released. What if we all wanted to be used in this area? Choose to live on so much, and be diligent in recycling everything else. Hard to imagine how much could be moved on with this approach!

Two more to finish my list next time. Maybe you have more ideas to add . . .

Multiply Ministry Beyond the Pulpit

June 13, 2014June 13, 2014 / Peter Mead / 1 Comment

I was just pondering the extensive opportunities for ministry beyond the pulpit. This may not seem relevant to a preaching blog, but I think it is. As a preacher, you have many opportunities to serve God and others beyond the ministry that you give in preaching. Let’s chase some ideas together and maybe one or two will spark something for you.

First, what about ministry directly linked to your preaching:

1. Written – The days of simply transcribing and publishing sermons are probably long gone for most, and yet there could be some scope for producing written materials that flow out of our preaching ministry. Getting published is not the easiest challenge, but perhaps there is a venue for carefully written synopses. (And I would imagine that if you have a good editing PA you might be able to churn out as many books as your favourite preacher/writer . . . but you need to think about what your theological message is.)

2. Online – Full sermon manuscripts will get very little traffic, since sermons are not written to be read. Perhaps blog length summaries could serve a purpose? Perhaps tweet length big ideas would be of benefit to others?

3. Recorded – It is easier than ever to record, lightly edit and upload your messages to the internet. Don’t do it just because you can, but if there are people that want to hear them, why not let the same sermon do its work again?

4. Taught – Why not gather one or two interested parties to talk through your message and make it into a training exercise? Could be potential preachers. Could be people learning to handle the Bible for themselves? In fact, get some feedback and you will benefit too.

5. Further Preached – Sometimes we leave a set of exegetical notes too soon. Maybe a further sermon building on the message and developing the application, or maybe a discussion, a Q&A, or a small group Bible study? There are no medals to be won for multiplying work unnecessarily. If you put hours into a message, it may well have further work to do before you lay it to rest.

Next time, I want to ponder five ministry multiplication options that complement a preaching ministry . . .

Book Notice for Twitter-ers

June 7, 2014 / Peter Mead / Leave a comment

There will be more information coming soon, but I want to announce that my first book, Pleased To Dwell, is scheduled for release in the next few months. It is an engaging introduction to the biblical teaching on the Incarnation. For those of you on Twitter, be sure to follow @PleasedToDwell for tweeted snippets!

Satan Hates the Holy Spirit

June 5, 2014July 25, 2014 / Peter Mead / Leave a comment

I think this might just be a blind spot in contemporary theology. We know that Satan hates God and marriage and evangelism and even church planting. But I have never heard anyone reference his hatred for the Holy Spirit.

As I ponder this idea I see more and more evidence to support the statement used as a title for this post. Sure, there is the obvious logical agreement: Satan hates God, the Holy Spirit is God, thus Satan must hate the Holy Spirit. However, affirming the logic of a statement is not the same as pondering the implications. So why does Satan hate the Holy Spirit and how is this seen in everyday life?

You can see the work of the enemy as you consider both the cults and secular society. In the cults there is always an undermining of the biblical doctrine of the Trinity – God is twisted from a gloriously loving tri-unity into a monadic power-broker (often seen as a devilish antagonist). In secular society the idea of God is also twisted into a perversion and caricature of reality and the convicting work of the Spirit is undermined by persistent indoctrination in the lie of autonomy and guiltless existence.

Now, what about in the church? Surely once people become believers the enemy’s attack on the Spirit becomes fruitless, doesn’t it? I don’t think that is the case. Does the enemy stop attacking marriage once we are saved, or does the antagonism increase? Are we not tempted to sin once we are believers? Of course not, so I suspect there is a consistency here.

So how does the role of the Holy Spirit suffer in respect to spiritual warfare? What is the enemy’s strategy to undermine the Holy Spirit’s work in our lives?

It seems to me that Christians tend to feel a pull in one of two directions, both of which are away from the reality of the Spirit’s work. Both pulls negate the fact that the Holy Spirit is a person rather than a force, and both distract believers from a wonderful and central element of the Christian life.

The first pull is to turn the Holy Spirit into a power-focused force. The Spirit becomes the fuel for Christian living and sometimes the fuel for spectacular displays of personal anointing. Undoubtedly there is truth in the mix here, but the corruption seems to come in respect to the emphasis and direction of focus. The power, or lack of it, tends to become the emphasis in Christian life and ministry. People caught up with a power-caricature of the Spirit tend to focus either on the Spirit, or on themselves.

The second pull is to turn the Holy Spirit into a silent and benign figure. The Spirit is assumed to be at work in the normal things of church life by means of, well, various means. Undoubtedly there is truth in the mix here as He is surely at work as we read the Bible, hear preaching, etc., but the corruption seems to come in respect to the emphasis and direction of focus. The emphasis in Christian life and ministry seems to shift to habits and personal commitments. People buying into a means-caricature of the Spirit might tend to be focused on themselves and their diligence.

The pre-eminent role of the Spirit is that of a communicator, specifically, relational communication between the Father and the Son, between God and us, and between us in the body of Christ. The Holy Spirit is primarily concerned with the power of love, not some sort of love of power. He pours out God’s love into our hearts and baptises us into Christ. The fruit of the Spirit is profoundly Christlike. He gifts us to build up the body of Christ that we might point each other to the head, who is Christ.

That’s the key issue with the Spirit – he wants to lift the eyes of our hearts to Christ. And that is why Satan so despises the role of the Spirit. By forcing the focus onto ourselves, or even onto the Spirit himself, the enemy seeks to undermine the Christ-ward gaze of true Holy Spirituality.

Perhaps this a factor in the strange phenomena of otherwise great Christian writers offering solid and helpful books, yet somehow many of them seem to remain blind to the importance of the Spirit in their discussions of living the Christian life, pursuing sanctification, living out Christian marriage, parenting or church ministry.

The Spirit seems to be a blind spot for many. And where the Spirit is relegated or twisted in some way, then the bottom line will always be a drift towards an autonomous and self-driven “spirituality” (which was The Lie back in Genesis 3, of course).

Perhaps we would do well to ponder the spiritual attack against the Holy Spirit. I suspect that if we were to ponder this, then we would find our hearts drawn to Christ. This is the goal of the Spirit, as well as the great fear of the enemy!

Gospel Preaching – Link

May 31, 2014 / Peter Mead / 3 Comments

I have really enjoyed the interactions sparked by this last series on the gospel and our view of sanctification. To wrap up the series, here is a great article by Dane Ortlund on Jonathan Edwards’ doctrine of sanctification. I commend it to you, as well as the site it is hosted on. UnionTheology.org is a newly launched site that you will want to browse around and bookmark. You will find some items from me on there, along with some great articles, audio and video from others that will be well worth your attention.

Here is the article by Dane Ortlund on sanctification, and here is the link to the front page of the site.

Gospel Preaching – 5

May 26, 2014May 21, 2014 / Peter Mead / 2 Comments

In the debates over the nature of the gospel and life transformation, it seems that there is a missing third option. There is a Car C that actually has a motor, but nobody seems to be mentioning it. There is a Married Approach C that actually has an ongoing dynamic power, but it seems absent.

Let me ask the question in reference to your preaching of the gospel:

Where is the union?

Do you preach a pressure message that constantly urges people to do the work of growth? Do you preach a momentum message that simply looks back to the wonder of their identity change at conversion – a message proclaiming what God has done in Christ that does stir gratitude and does stir life change and doesn’t promote sinfulness, but, maybe, does still lack something?

If the gospel doesn’t transform a life, do you balance grace with effort? Do you preach grace more boldly? Or do you make sure your preaching of the gospel of grace goes beyond gratitude to the dynamic relational and spiritual union of being one with Christ?

The gospel is not that God forgives guilt and then expects us to stir ourselves to obey with newfound ability to behave well. He does forgive guilt, but it goes further than that. Does God simply expect our gratitude to be the engine of transformation over the course of many years and many challenges? Surely that momentum alone will not take us up the hills and mountains that sometimes stand before us in this life.

The gospel is wonderful news. Not only are our sins forgiven so that we can be justified before God, we are also reconciled and made one with Christ by the Spirit (*are we allowed to mention the role of the Spirit in sanctification?) We are united to Christ so that we don’t need to look at a list of expected marital behaviours, and while we certainly do remember and celebrate what he did to win our hearts and pay the price for us, we don’t live purely by remembrance . . . we live in a present relational union with him, we look to him, and we travel with him through all the challenges of life, growing closer and growing to be like him as we keep our eyes on him.

Too much of the sanctification debate seems to be about looking to self versus looking back to conversion. Given the choice between the two I know which way I’d lean, but I know the critiques ring true if that is all we have.

God’s grace does truly transform. God’s grace truly is enough. But God’s grace is not just gratitude for a status change. God’s grace is about the Spirit of the Father and the Son, purchased for us by the Son, so that we can be truly united with him and join him in his present, dynamic, delighted relationship with his/our Father. We don’t just have the status of being married. We are married to someone so wonderful that if you want to encourage me in my Christian life, then don’t bother pressuring me to perform, just do your best to preach Christ to me and you’ll probably be amazed by the “performance” that results, but I won’t even be aware of that, because my eyes will be on him.