Yesterday I blogged about the danger of the “half quit” – that way in which our heart pulls back as we go through the motions. We can do it in passage study, in message planning, I’ve seen it done in delivery, I know the regular temptation in post-sermon reflection, then there’s seasons of criticism, or lack of response, etc. While we may be unwilling, for a variety of reasons, to fully quit, the half quit is an ever present temptation.

So how do we overcome the half-quit? I suppose there are several approaches, some better than others:

1. The inner self flesh effort. Look within, steel yourself, determine to be diligent, be your own drill sergeant, do the right thing! Lots of ways to say it. Typically only one ultimate outcome. It is easy to feel like we are rousing ourselves to great commitment under the hype of a presentation on the need for personal discipline (even our listeners might get stirred if we preach that way, but don’t be fooled into thinking it will still be “working” come Thursday!) The problem here is that self-stirring to great devotion in ministry is exactly what we’re talking about – what do we do when we come to times where that is absent. It makes no sense to rely on the very mechanism whose absence is the problem.

2. The outer appearance self-elevating effort. Here’s a real danger. What will people think? We can be stirred to press on due to keeping up appearances. In one sense there is value here. We don’t want to stumble others. We don’t want to crash and burn because we love those who would be caught in our wake. But there is a real danger here. Doing the right thing in ministry in order to look good creates an ever-increasing divide between reality and appearance. Eventually this show becomes as paper thin as the performance of a stand-up comedian who performs outwardly, but is utterly broken within.

3. The energy from genuine relationship. There is little in life that is as motivating as good genuine fellowship other’s captured by Christ. Looking to Christ together with others who are not performing somehow will stimulate motivation to press on like very little else. We need to be genuinely conversing with our Lord in every circumstance. He is the One who we press on to know more, who puts the fire in our bones like the prophets of old, who is the real treasure at work within these breaking vessels!

Any solution to the half quit that is about looking to myself, or about how I look to others, will be self-defeating and only make matters worse. We need to be responding to the life giver Himself, for fellowship with Him is life itself. Maybe the temptation to half-quit is a warning that the conversation has gone quiet, that your heart has grown distant and distracted. Let the warning nudge you back toward Him.

I’ve been pondering the issue of preaching the person. The person of Christ. The personal Triune God. If we aren’t captivated by the personal God that we know personally, then our preaching can too easily slip into instructional education and moralistic tirades. It is the person that captivates and draws listeners.

Let’s ponder a simple scale of personal encounter:

1. The moment of meeting – The truth is that as humans made in the image of a relational God, we are well attuned to each encounter we have with other persons. Within seconds we will determine subconsciously whether we like somebody. They might be a waitress, an airline check-in clerk, a salesman. It really doesn’t take long to determine our feelings about someone we meet. And those initial feelings can take a while to be reversed by further interaction. (Incidentally, as preachers we need to understand the power of our opening moments, those first seconds of encounter and introduction. But that is to get side-tracked.)

2. The power of love – Then there is the ongoing relational encounter. After the first impressions come the ongoing interaction, communication, sharing of life experiences and so on, all building a relationship so that we go beyond liking or disliking to deeply trusting (or distrusting), to loving (or the opposite). The follow-up relational interaction can be so powerful.

(Again, to get sidetracked for a second, we mustn’t be naive about the power of inappropriate interaction with members of the opposite sex – the magnetic power of interpersonal attraction has led many to compromise everything and discover the regret of the stealing power of sin. Preachers, we are susceptible!)

Getting back on track, what am I saying with all this? Well, I can, if I’m honest, express whether I like someone after moments of meeting. And those that I’ve known and developed a relationship with, mutually loving and caring and sharing life together . . . these are people I can talk about at some length, with my heart showing for them.

What does all this have to do with preaching? The second level of enthused personal connection is missing with some. Even the initial encounter response is apparently absent in some preaching. It is hard to tell with some preachers if they really like God at all. What are we to say to this?

If the God in our sights is benign, our preaching will be the same.

Rather than putting this in the negative, let me state this positively. Read God’s Word and get to know our personal and wonderful God. Then preach His Word. What a privilege.

And when we preach the Person, our preaching won’t feel like a pressure project, but will have a captivating and gripping power beyond words!

This week I’ve been pondering the grains that run through all biblical literature.  Recurring themes in the poetic books, traceable motifs in narrative books and unifying melodies in the discourse sections.  Some of these are limited to a section, others to a particular writer, and in a broader sense they can be traced across the canon as a whole.

So here’s the point for today.  How do we get to know these themes, motifs and melodies?  Some commentaries and books will prove helpful.  Seminary notes might be worth looking at again.  But the bottom line is kind of simple – we need to be reading the Bible.

That seems like too obvious a thought to be worthy of a post, doesn’t it?  Well, sadly I suspect there are many preachers who may study slices to preach them, but don’t have an appetite for the Word as a whole.  Everyone is impoverished as a result.

Personal spirituality becomes ritualistic or moralistic, study becomes burdensome, ministry becomes draining, sermons become shallow and often anthropocentric (person focused – what to do, how to live, instructions, commands, guilt…)

Our preaching should come from the overflow of a personal delight in the God who reveals Himself in His Word.  It may be a bit simplistic, but I’ll stand by the statement – unless we get into the Word the church will be gasping for “divines,” people who know God and speak out of the overflow of a heart filled.  A church wanting for true spirituality will ultimately be shrivelled to the core, no matter how many programs, no matter how practical the teaching may be.

Let me invite you back into God’s Word.