Religion

Why Do We Preach 4

/ Peter Mead / Leave a comment

why preach2Here are another pair of thoughts as we reflect on the why? behind the ministry.  Perhaps these two should give more pause for thought than the others already posted?

7. Because we can’t help but speak of Someone so wonderful.  This should be the case.  Sadly, over time, it can easily cease being the case.  We can end up in a role, in a ritual, in a rut.  We end up preaching because that is what we do, or that is how we pay bills, or that is how we get respect.  We feel we should.  We feel it is expected.  We know it is needed.  And somewhere along the way we fail to notice the fog gathering between our hearts and heaven.

A growing spiritual complacency is the proverbial frog in boiling water syndrome for preachers.  God can become familiar and distant at the same time.  He can become a concept, a set of truths, a source of identity for us, but somehow fade from being the captivating One who so fills our hearts and lives that we can’t help but speak of Him.  May we all have a constant stream of newly engaged folks in our churches – constant reminders of the simple reality that a captivated heart can’t help but spill out.

8. Because we care about the people to whom we preach.  Again, this should be the case.  Sadly, over time, our flesh can easily co-opt the other centredness of ministry and turn it to a self-serving project.  We can become preachers doing so to gain respect, to gain credibility, to gain attention, to gain a following, to gain influence.  The gain increases and the give becomes token.  Of course we can talk about giving – we can frame the ministry in self-sacrificial and spiritual terms.  But really?

Just as spiritual fog can go undetected for too long, so a growing self-absorption is hard to spot in the mirror.  Our flesh will always justify a subtle pursuit of godlike status.  So we must keep walking with the Lord and ask Him to search us and know us.  Ask Him to underline the motivations that drive what may look like a gloriously giving ministry.  The true biblical preacher is shaped by the Word they preach, and they join God in giving of themselves as they preach it to others.  The blessings are hard to quantify, but they must be the by-product, not the goal.

Why Do We Preach 2

/ Peter Mead / 1 Comment

why preach2As an end of year pause for reflection, we are considering why it is that we preach.  Yesterday we looked at the fact that God is a God who speaks, and that our preaching is not for our own sake, but as an act of service to others.  From a slightly different angle:

3. Because the Gospel is thrillingly good news.  The mission of the preacher is not merely to communicate ancient truths relevantly.  God has given us a message.  And that message is labelled as good news for a reason.  The great sweep of redemption history involves the intra-trinitarian mission to rescue fallen creatures and restore them to full glorious fellowship with a loving and giving God.

It is not some sort of heavenly plan B to make the best of a bad situation and try to restore some semblance of respectability to a God who is on the throne but attacked on every side.  When  time is wrapped up and we have the benefit of both hindsight and eternal perspective, we will be gasping at the multi-coloured and multi-faceted dazzling beauty of what God has done in Christ.

We get to proclaim that now!

4. Because people need to hear the Gospel.  There are only two types of people in the world.  Those who need to hear the gospel and be saved, and those who need to hear the gospel as they are being saved.  While we may get beyond simplistic and trite presentations of some scaled down version of the good news to some sort of legal loophole, we never move beyond the gospel in its glorious richness.

What God is like, what He has done for us in Christ, how much we need Him, redeclaration of total dependence – justification, regeneration, reconciliation, adoption, fellowship.  Preaching Christ so that people will trust in Him.  This is something our people can’t hear enough about.  They need the hope, the faith and the love that is only found in the gospel.  We are not called to give tips for successful independent living, or to offer life coaching team talks.  We are called to preach Christ and Him crucified, that all may trust in Him, know Him, enjoy Him.

Gospel preaching, why wouldn’t we want to do that?

Truth Through Personality 6

/ Peter Mead / 2 Comments

Personality Face2I have been blogging about the basic requirement that preachers should themselves evidence growing fruit of the Spirit in life and ministry.  It is a disaster when the truth of the gospel is undermined by a perceived lack of Christlike character in the preacher.

So we’ve gone through the fruit of the Spirit in pairs, but we skipped the first.  Or did we?  Perhaps the four pairs lay out what that first fruit looks like.

It shows in the joy that comes from resting in the goodness of God, and the peace of healthy ordered relationships with God and others.

It is patient in trusting God’s work in the lives of others who often need longer than we feel is necessary (just as we do too!), with a kindness that is giving for the good of those also still in process.

It has an inherent goodness that reflects the profound quality of God’s character, as well as the gentleness that is fitting for someone reflecting God’s manner of authority.

It has a faithfulness that speaks of both trusting and persisting for that which is good and right, while always retaining the appropriate self-control of a life lived in the desires of the Spirit rather than the impulses of the flesh.

We have had several interrupted nights in a row as a virus has worked through our family.  The loss of sleep does add a certain strain to daily life!  Under pressure, does the fruit of the Spirit show?  I’m sure I am not the only one who wishes it showed more.  But the solution isn’t to strain in my own effort to look good under pressure, the solution is to grow as one walking in step with the Spirit.  I hope that my preaching next week, next year, in twenty years time, will show a more Christlike personality than it does now.  I’m sure I’m not the only one.

Truth Through Personality 5

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Personality Face2The preacher preaches, and so the preacher matters.  A personality that doesn’t reflect the fruit of the Spirit, the character of Christ, is a personality undermining the truth being proclaimed.  So let’s finish the list…

Faithfulness – The issue with faith is always the object.  We can’t have faith in ourselves, our skills, our preparation, our training, our gifting, etc.  And we can’t place our faith in the audiences, whatever their size.  Our faith has to be in God.  This points back to patience, but it is more than that.  Not only do we keep pressing on over time, but we also need to demonstrate faithfulness in every circumstance.  We may be preaching to hundreds or thousands one day, and to a handful the next.  Our faithfulness should show in both situations.  We are trusting God and giving our best to the tiny gathering, and we are trusting God not the occasion with the larger gathering.

Faithfulness in preparation means we don’t offer shoddy sermons.  Faithfulness in accepting bookings means we follow through.  Faithfulness in delivery means we give ourselves fully, even if it does mean being wiped out at the end.

Self-Control – It is so easy to do damage with your words.  You can say too much, violate privacy, twist the truth, deceive, belittle others, etc.  And all before you pause for thought.  Self-control is a critical fruit of the Spirit for biblical preachers.  Keeping a tight rein on our tongues is so important.  I read somewhere about the ancient wisdom that the human tongue is like an arrow, not just a sword.  That is, if you unsheath your sword to kill your friend, he may plead with you, beg for mercy and you may return the sword to its sheath.  But once an arrow is shot, you simply cannot return it to the quiver, no matter how much you want to do so.

Joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness and self-control.  The fruit of the Spirit.  Required for preachers.  But one is missing . . . tomorrow.

Truth Through Personality 4

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Personality Face2Preaching involves a preacher.  It isn’t simply about the message, it is also about the messenger.  And one thing that matters, perhaps more than almost anything else, is that the preacher be a living, breathing, genuine fruit of spirit kind of a Christian.

So far we’ve looked at joy, peace, patience, kindness. . . let’s probe a bit more:

Goodness – Surely there should be an inherent goodness in our speech that reflects well on the Christ whom we claim to represent?  We are surrounded in our culture, and by choice through the media, by all sorts of degraded, obscene and morally bankrupt speech.  If we don’t consciously think about it, we may naturally default to a level that others will find offensive.

I’m not talking about the “easily offended” Pharisees that prowl around some churches looking for anyone active in ministry whom they can devour.  I’m talking about other believers who have chosen to filter the filth that feeds their thoughts and therefore have a cleaner grid through which to hear.  Preaching shouldn’t be a place where a lack of goodness in what is said should ever hinder people from hearing God’s Word proclaimed.

Last week we considered inappropriate ways to grab the attention of listeners.  Any hint of a lack of goodness springing forth from our hearts in our speech may well achieve attention, but not a healthy kind of attention.

Gentleness – There are times when we must forcefully persuade, of course.  But this can be done without discarding this fruit of the character of Christ in our lives.  Paul spoke of the “meekness and gentleness of Christ” in 2Corinthians 10.  Peter spoke of being ready to give an answer for the hope, but don’t forget his follow-up comment that this should be done with both gentleness and respect.  Being too bombastic, too loud, too “in your face,” too confrontational, too abrupt, etc., simply doesn’t help anything.

There certainly have been some feisty characters in the history of the church.  Remember that the fruit of the spirit is not always recorded in the caricatures of selective church history.  Recognize that while some feistier folk have had great impact, history has not recorded the detrimental effect of the many more who left no positive legacy.

Next time we’ll wrap up the list, and perhaps answer the question why I missed one too . . .

Truth Through Personality

/ Peter Mead / 1 Comment

Personality Face2Phillips Brooks’ was considered one of the great “princes of the pulpit” in the nineteenth century.  Perhaps his most lasting legacy were his Yale lectures on preaching in which he defined preaching as the “communication of truth through personality.”

Brooks was no pulpit performer.  He was a shy man who spoke rapidly, had a stiff delivery style and poor eye contact.  Yet he drew the crowds.  He was meticulous in his study of the biblical text.  He spoke conversationally and had a distinct sincerity and intensity, despite his evident shyness.  He cared about his listeners and developed relational bonds with them.

So he was no pulpit performer.  He wasn’t trying to sanctify his own style of preaching with a definition when in reality he simply wanted to affirm his own personality.  Rather, he was convinced that preaching is a communication act in which a person is involved.

I do wonder whether we all grasp this simple reality.  I am not saying that anyone needs to perform or be something they are not.  What I am saying is that if the personality of the preacher does not offer something of the gospel, then maybe they should reconsider their passion to preach.  That is, you can be shy or extraverted, humourous or serious, loud or quiet, demonstrative or reserved.  Be yourself, however…

However, none of these elements of a preacher’s style are what I am concerned with.  It is those preachers who preach as if only their declaration of truth matters.  They seem not to care if their manner is bombastic, or arrogant, or sarcastic, or sharp-edged, or ungracious, or dour, or harsh.  I believe we should all care.  These are not issues of personal style.  These are issues of personal character.  And if the gospel has not marked our character and personality, why are we stepping into the pulpit to preach the gospel to others?

This week I would like to probe some of these issues of character and personality.  I am not suggesting we perform, that would be bordering on deceitful.  I am suggesting that we have personal and personality integrity.  Where we don’t, we undermine the very message we claim to be called to declare.

Attention! Strategy…

/ Peter Mead / 6 Comments

If you haven’t got the attention of your listeners, then they aren’t really listeners, and you’re not really preaching to them.  I know there are all sorts of factors influencing the preaching event, and we’ll probe some of those later in the week.  But to be super simple, here’s a principle we should all take on board:

People listen if they want to, so make them want to . . . 

How can we do this?

1. Relevance.  I think the preacher needs to prove as early as possible that the preacher, the message and the passage is relevant to the listeners.  Introduction is critical here.  But then there needs to be a continual re-proving of relevance throughout.  Don’t leave “application” until the last few minutes, they probably won’t be with you by then.  Demonstrate relevance all the way through.  This includes lots of factors, but the content is critical.  Historical lecture, theological diatribe, rant against them out there, etc., are all felt to be irrelevant to listeners in the church setting.  Speak to us.

2. Interest.  When the content is interesting, people are more likely to pay attention.  Never bore people with the Bible.  Be interesting.  Does that mean we rush to our illustration sources?  Hang on.  The Bible is interesting.  Too many preachers preach dull Bible enlivened by interesting anecdotes and stories.  This may be less dull preaching, but it is not interesting biblical preaching.  Communicate the content well, and use explanations, proofs, applications, when they are genuinely helpful.  Make sure the core of the content is interesting.

3. Accessibility.  If it is completely over their heads, they won’t listen.  If it is patronizing and trite, they will get annoyed and also stop listening.  Make it appropriately accessible for the level of those present.

4. Energy.  Getting attention has a lot to do with delivery as well as content.  Your energy matters.  When we stand in front of a crowd, our natural instinct is to become limited.  Seek to break out of that monotonous box and be yourself with appropriate energy for the occasion and your personality.  This means eye contact, facial expression, vocal variety, movement and gestures.  If you are enthused and have an appetite for it, they have a chance of catching it.  If you don’t have the disease, you’ll struggle to be contagious.

5. Warmth. Energy in delivery is not about a show or a performance.  It is about the real you communicating with them.  One key ingredient is your personal warmth.  If you come across as cold, they won’t lean in to what you are saying.  Simple.  Represent the gospel in your manner and tone, as well as in the precision of your content.

6. Spirituality.  People can sense when you have the spiritual gravitas that comes from being with Jesus.

More to add, but I’ll leave it there.  Tomorrow we’ll consider some of the illegitimate approaches people take to get attention.

 

Preaching & Application 5

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Here’s the end of the list.  Probably the most important post of the series . . .

17. Be wary since not every application is biblically legitimate. That is to say, a potential application in a passage may not be the intended application of that passage. For example, to make a big point out of the problem of grumbling from Luke 19:7 is to entirely miss why the reference to the grumbling crowd is included in the story of Zaccheus. You might point to the verse as support, but you don’t have the support of the passage standing with you.

18. Be careful that an application from here may not be consistent with the rest of Scripture. We are quick to talk about the value of comparing Scripture with Scripture in our exegetical phase of bible study. I think there is massive value in this principle coming to bear at the level of application. Stay where you are during your study (for the majority of your study), but be careful to check your application is consistent with the whole of Scripture. Be a shame to start sacrificing animals in obedience to Leviticus, right? We can fall into less obvious mis-applications too for the same reason.

19. Be wary of biblical application that is sub-biblical in its goal. Let me give one, probably the most common, sub-biblical application. “In light of this passage you need to . . . ” or “let us . . . ” Any application that focuses on listeners becoming self-starting or independently successful individuals should set off alarm bells all over our theology. Remember where the “you can be an independent self-starter” came from? Let the spiritual radar hiss when you hear this serpent-like implication, even when you are quoting Scripture to support your point (I suspect you won’t be quoting it accurately in its broader context!)

20. Be an on purpose “match-maker” in your application. Maybe this isn’t the best phrase for what I mean here, but it is a vital point. If your goal isn’t independent self-moved successful individuals, then your goal must involve some relational connection. The gospel changes lives. God changes lives. When you preach, please don’t beat us up and tell us to try harder. Instead, offer us the Father revealed in the Son by the Spirit and watch our hearts melt, our motivations stir, and our lives change.

Preaching & Application 4

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Part four of this series on application . . .

13. Be servant-hearted, not the model of perfection. It is so easy to come across as if you have already been mastered by and have already mastered the text. It isn’t about understanding. Be better at that every time you preach. But it is about whether you stand with the listeners as one who is also receiving from God’s Word, or are you just a dispenser of instruction, always? The servant-hearted part comes in when we realize our task is to serve others, not to impress them. Look to equip and enthuse, don’t look to show off so they feel obligated to you.

14. Be accountable to the text, not a red phone to heaven. Sometimes preachers come across as having a unique and Moses-like access to God. They seem to have spent the week face to face with the angel of the presence of the Lord, but it doesn’t stir the heart like Moses might have. Somehow it can instead be a bit intimidating. A bit of a spiritual superiority vibe that leaves others feeling spiritually inadequate. Don’t couch everything in terms of direct revelation if you actually prayerfully considered what to say and this felt right. That is very different than the red phone flashing on your desk and Gabriel passing on a direct message. Let your authority come from the Bible well-handled, rather than from an implied super-spirituality that may over-imply in places.

15. Be willing to describe the application. Don’t just preach truths and then leave them hanging in the air for people to grab and apply personally. They won’t. They will affirm you, but they won’t be touched themselves. Instead seek to spell out the difference this biblical truth might make in a life. They will translate that application to their own situation, but only after they see that you are offering more than just a nice spiritual thought.

16. Be specifically descriptive in applications. As you describe what it might look like to live in light of the passage, be specific. What does the truth of the Incarnation mean when I am struggling with my boss’s attitude tomorrow at work? What does it look like to trust God’s providence when everything seems to be conspiring against my marriage? What would be different if the peace of God gripped the ethos of our church with its grapevines and back-biting festivals?