The Ministry of Saying Less

September 1, 2026August 26, 2026 / Peter Mead / Leave a comment

In preaching, teaching, counselling, and leadership, there is something to be said for saying less. I am not suggesting that we become aloof and mysterious. But there is a danger that we can say so much that people start to miss what they most need to hear.

Saying too much is a danger for people who are new to their role. A young preacher will tend to feel insecure and assume that they have to prove the value and depth of their study by sharing everything they learned during preparation. A new leader can feel tempted to speak because they are the leader and hope the many words will prove their wisdom.

But this can also be a danger for experienced folks too. It takes work to evaluate material, cut content, and sharpen a presentation. Sometimes, as we get older, we can lose the energy and discipline needed to filter a good message into a better one.

Whether it is insecurity, laziness, or another reason, there is a danger that we say more than we should and the listeners miss the part they needed to hear.

Good preaching, teaching, leading, and counselling require not only knowing what to say, but knowing what not to say. Cutting material is not an admission of weakness; it can be an act of love toward the listeners and good stewardship before God.

Tempted to say everything

In ministry, you will often have a lot to say. A lot of accumulated knowledge, a lot of research for a message, a lot of ideas and stories that you could share. In fact, when you prepare to preach a sermon, you should have more material than can fit into the message – a good message never comes from working until you have enough to fill the time. To really study a passage will mean gaining contextual awareness, textual detail, geographical insight, theological connections, relevant cross-references, and a host of potential applications. It is tempting to try to say everything, in part, because everything you learned was a blessing to you.

Good things can be distracting

Perhaps you prepared prayerfully and studiously for a counselling meeting with a person in your church. In counselling, you have the added dimension of needing to listen and direct the conversation in a helpful direction. But still, you have a big stock of ideas, suggestions, stories, and teaching you might choose to share. Whether it is a sermon, a counselling session, or another ministry setting, you need to be selective in what you share. The hardest things to cut will be good things: a useful illustration, a memorable story, an interesting historical detail, a relevant theological insight, a surprising cross-reference. It is not enough to ask, ‘is it true?’ We need to ask, does this really serve the central goal of this ministry opportunity?

Saying less can make the main thing clearer

Let’s imagine having a hundred potential items to include. Every one of them, if included, will compete for attention. People cannot process a hundred thoughts, ideas, stories, and pieces of information. Think of the familiar bed-of-nails demonstration. A single nail can be dangerous, but spread the weight across hundreds of nails and the pressure is distributed. Something similar happens with communication: when we scatter people’s attention across a hundred thoughts, none of them receives much weight. So it is with our presentation: don’t press people with a hundred thoughts; penetrate with a sharpened point. If everything is said, nothing is particularly heard. If everything is emphasized, nothing is emphasized. Work to remove whatever does not belong, then subordinate some of your material so it supports and reinforces the main thing you want to make clear.

Cutting material requires humility, love, and effort

Sometimes we may be tempted to keep something because it demonstrates our preparation. But “I worked hard on this” is not a reason to make people hear it. Some of your best research will be left in your study. It takes humility not to prove your effort or knowledge. It takes love to prayerfully hone your material for the best impact on your listeners. It takes effort to go through the message again, sharpen it one more time, and work on individual points until they are as clear as they can be.

What should make it through the cutting process?

If a particular passage is the focus of this moment of ministry, then the main truth of that passage should make it through the cutting process. The unique impact of that passage may not be considered again for years, so you don’t want to miss the moment now. What helps people understand that truth? What helps them feel its weight? What helps them to respond appropriately? And even ministry that isn’t offered under the label of a single passage, such as a counselling session or a leadership presentation, will benefit from similar clarity and focus.

We are not called to prove our competence, show off our knowledge, or justify our efforts in preparation. We are called to serve. Put in the work to build up too much material, then put in the work to hone it down for maximum impact. The ministry of saying less isn’t about having less to say. It is about caring enough to decide what most needs to be said. We don’t need to sound like a mysterious guru. Let’s try to be as on target as we can be. Less noise, more impact. Because sometimes the most pastorally loving thing we can say is less than others might expect. After all, the goal is not for people to hear us, but by God’s grace, through us, to hear Him.

_____________________________________________

Great Movies & Great Sermons

February 11, 2021February 12, 2021 / Peter Mead / Leave a comment

Last night we had an impromptu discussion at the dinner table about movies. What makes a movie great? We probably weren’t at the level of discussing every aspect of script, characters, acting, timing, sound, visuals, etc. But it did strike me that there may be some elements of a good movie that might teach us a thing or two about good preaching. I know, a sermon and a movie have massive differences (budget, labour hours, purpose, etc.), but still, it might be worth chasing this a little.

For me, a good movie includes the following:

It is believable. I don’t mean the story has to be true to life, even though I tend to prefer those that are. But the visuals, the acting, the props, etc., should all reinforce the world created by the movie. If the acting is wooden, or the set wobbles, or the knight on horseback is wearing a watch, then I consciously know I am watching people trying to make a movie and it loses its impact. I wonder in what ways we might lose believability as we preach – lack of genuineness of preacher, lack of passion for content, excessive reliance on notes, unfortunate pauses and uncertainty?
It is engaging. A movie could be completely believable, but inherently dull. I have seen a few. Somehow the plot tension needs to combine with the character development to engage me. It is not enough to be well-made, it needs to make me care about the story. I think the same is true in preaching. We can present solid truth well, but it can still be dull to our listeners. As preachers we need to make sure we engage with our listeners both in content and delivery so that they care to listen.
It appropriately blends surprise with satisfaction. When a movie is predictable from the opening scene, it is going to struggle. There needs to be surprise. However, some predictable movies are still much loved. Everyone knows Rocky will win the final fight, so how does that kind of film succeed? (It came up in our conversation.) Along with sufficient plot twists and added challenges along the way, there is also something to be said for the satisfaction that comes when a plot’s tension resolves. That is what keeps children returning to the same bedtime story request night after night. They know what will happen, but they want to feel it again. Preaching is not dissimilar. If we are merely predictable, then our congregations will grow tired. But we can’t generate surprises at every turn in every sermon – after all, our listeners tend to have our passage open in front of them! Somehow good preaching blends some surprise with a more predictable, but satisfying, resolution to the tension. Preaching reminds people of truths they know they need to hear again.

This is all true, but then we also thought about one more aspect of the discussion. What takes a good movie and makes it a great movie?

4. Lingering Impact. A lot of movies are enjoyable escapism. They create a bubble for us to enter for a couple of hours. Then when the story ends, we move back into normal life. Great movies make more impact. There is a lingering affect on our lives. (This is why Hollywood is such a powerful political tool!) Some movies, although probably not as many as overly emotional actor interviews suggest – some movies actually shape the way people think and change the way they live. In a similar way it is possible for a sermon to be good, in itself. Maybe it engages its listeners for the time it is being delivered, and technically it ticks all the boxes. But when it ends, do the listeners just step back into “real life” again? Maybe they are grateful, but essentially unmoved? When we preach we should be praying for, and planning for, a lingering and life-changing impact. By God’s grace, sometimes it happens!

What would you add? Any more helpful links between movie-making and effective preaching?

_______________________________________________________

Please check out Cor Deo on YouTube for helpful resources – https://www.youtube.com/c/CorDeo

How Do You Pray for Fellow Believers?

February 28, 2015February 28, 2015 / Peter Mead / Leave a comment

There is a strange phenomena in the church when it comes to praying for people. Obviously this is a generalisation, but I have observed it enough to suggest that it may be a pattern.

When people become followers of Jesus our prayers for them seem to change. Before they are saved we pray for God to work in their lives and circumstances, for their hearts to be drawn to Christ, for the spiritual blindness to be taken away, etc. Once they trust Christ and are in the family, then what do we pray for? Often it seems to shift to the more mundane matters of health and career.

This is not just the case in church prayer meetings, but also among leaders too. I know that I am tempted to pray more fervently and more “spiritually” for those who are outside God’s family, or for those who are on the fringes. But for those who seem to be doing well in human terms? It is tempting to assume all is well.

Take a look at Paul’s prayer for the Ephesians in 1:15-23. He begins by referencing how thankful he is for their faith in Christ and love for the saints. These are healthy believers – they have a vertical relationship that is spilling into their horizontal relationships. These are the kind of people I am tempted to bypass as I pray. Not so for Paul!

The One Thing – He goes on to make clear the one thing that he prays for them: that the Father might give them the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him! That is, Paul prays for these believers to know God. Simple. Or is it profound?

Clearly he doesn’t mean that he wants them to “come to know” God, but to grow in their knowing Him. He wants their relationship with God to go deeper, that the union they have with Christ should become more vibrant and developed. (Remember that “in Christ” occurs almost forty times in Ephesians – union with Christ is a massive theme in the letter.)

I suspect many of us who have a passion to see the lost brought to salvation may fall into the trap of then missing the growth potential that exists for a believer. There is so much more than just getting saved and then telling others, there is massive potential for spiritual growth and maturity.

The Three Things – Paul spells out this one prayer request with three specifics. He wants God to enlighten the eyes of their hearts to know three things.

First, he wants them to know the absolute certainty of their calling in Christ. We have churches filled with people who carry the label of Christian, and yet have all manner of uncertainty and confusion over God’s calling on their lives.

Second, he wants them to know that they are God’s inheritance – an inheritance He considers to be gloriously rich! This is not something new believers readily grasp. Just as it takes a wife many years to truly believe that her husband really loves her, so it is with God’s people.

Third, he wants them to know how much power there is toward them as they trust God for it. That is, is there enough power for a life like mine to be truly transformed by the gospel? Is there enough power for me to be raised from my sinful state of death to do the works God has prepared for me to do? There is if that power is the same power that raised Christ from the dead, seated him in glory, put all enemies under his feet and made him head over the church!

Paul’s prayer for the Ephesians is incredibly encouraging for us to read. More than that, it is deeply challenging to recognize that this prayer was prayed for those who were already faithful and loving. Let’s not bypass those that seem healthy and established in our churches and in our ministry spheres. Let’s pray for them, and for ourselves too, to be growing in our relationship with God, knowing more profoundly the reality of our hope, his inheritance and the abundance of power available!

Biggest Mistakes Preachers Make – pt 3

February 12, 2015 / Peter Mead / Leave a comment

In this series we aren’t looking to tweak at the fringes of preaching, but rather to get a big wrench to the major parts of the ministry. We’ve thought about “harvesting imperatives” and “not preaching the passage.” Here’s another:

Mistake 3 – Not Preaching to the People Present

Preaching is a pastoral role. We are not being called to perform, but to shepherd. We can, and must, do the role of a shepherd as we preach. A shepherd feeds, leads, cares and protects his sheep. In order to pastor through preaching, we need to know and love the people we are preaching to each Sunday.

Obviously if you are visiting a church, or speaking at a special event, then you may only have half an hour to get to know the specific group of people present. Do what you can. It is also important to know people in general, so that you can preach to people in particular, but always seek to preach to those who are present.

Here are some alternative listener profiles to root out of our preaching.

Don’t preach to people who are missing. Some preachers seem to have allowed the richness of the gospel to evaporate into a duty of church attendance. These preachers are then liable to preach frustration toward those who “should” be present, but aren’t.

Don’t preach to an audience your favourite preacher attracts. You might have a favourite preacher who preaches to a cool crowd in some other city in America or somewhere, but if your listeners are from rural Somerset, they aren’t a “Seattle” crowd.

Don’t preach to a culture that isn’t in your church. The culture may be increasingly postmodern, but lots of church congregations aren’t. Don’t seek to overcome issues that your listeners aren’t facing in any meaningful way.

Don’t preach to land another job. I hate to say it, but there are some preachers who are preaching so that their sermon is attractive to a “better” church they’d like to get a call from. Be faithful to your congregation and God will help you adapt if you need to move church for some reason.

Don’t preach to spar with foes. It is very possible to preach targeted comments toward people acting likes foes in your congregation, so technically they are present, but still this isn’t wise. But don’t waste energy preaching to foes not present. Having a go at a high profile atheist doesn’t achieve much. By all means equip your listeners to handle what they are hearing in the media, but that would mean preaching to them. Taking pot shots at people not present isn’t impressive.

Get to know and pray for the people you are preaching to each Sunday. Then your preaching can pastor their souls. If you don’t care about them, don’t preach to them.