Preaching & Application 3

November 14, 2012 / Peter Mead / 1 Comment

No clever introduction, let the list continue . . .

9. Be mature in your application. The immature preacher will hammer out simplistic advice. The mature preacher knows that Christianity isn’t about self-help advice and tips for better living. There is a place for clear guidelines, the Bible gives us such in certain areas. But a lot of life’s issues are not effectively addressed by simplistic “try harder” exhortations. We are designed to be empowered in responsiveness, not empowered for autonomous success. How does God’s promise and God’s presence change things? How does He change us? Don’t tell me to be a better man, but show me Christ and you’ll soon see a better me.

10. Be consistent with the worship. Too often the heart-stirring devotion of sung worship leads to whiplash when the whipping from the pulpit kicks into gear. The whole package should be consistent. If it doesn’t seem right to sing hymns of good living tips – “Raise up the bar so that we might try harder to be good,” or “Amazing Effort,” or “It’s All About Me, Jesus.” If that doesn’t seem right, then maybe it is the preaching that needs to be more consistent with the worship.

11. Be sermonically fresh. When sermons are predictable they tend to lose their impact. So if you are in a rhythm of explanation followed by three points of application in the final minutes, consider whether this tried and trusted method might well have become stale and predictable. Look for different ways to demonstrate the relevance of passages to your listeners.

12. Be consistently relevant. That is to say, instead of ending with application, consider how to demonstrate relevance and application throughout the message. The opening introductory comments are an ideal place to engage listeners and demonstrate your relevance, as well as the relevance of the message and the passage. Try stating your points in contemporary and applied terms. Use transitions for exploring developing application as the message progresses. Drop in hints of relevance, even if not fully developed applications, during the telling of biblical story (avoid trite applications that mishandle the text, but even hints of contemporary awareness can make a real difference to perception).

The Heidelberg Catechism on Powerpoint

November 10, 2012 / Peter Mead / 8 Comments

Question 130. What does God require of preachers tempted to rely on technology?

Answer: Ok, this was a provocative title, and technically Microsoft programmers were still in the early stages of development and they hadn’t yet released powerpoint in 1563. But the title may not be too far off. I was looking through the Heidelberg Catechism earlier this week in light of a discussion on some historical matters. Along with several other points that I really appreciated, I noticed one particularly relevant to preachers. Question 97 develops the issue of not making images of God with a broader question of the use of images in the church. Then comes question 98 . . .

Question 98. But may not images be tolerated in the churches, as books to the laity?

Answer: No, for we must not pretend to be wiser than God, who will have his people taught, not by dumb images, but by the lively preaching of his word.

Quick thoughts . . .

1. Do we fall into the trap of thinking that we know better than God in our age of sophistication? I wonder if previous generations had all the same comments about, “Well, you know, this generation now is different and so we need to . . . “

2. Do we think people can’t be engaged and drawn in and captivated by the teaching of the Word of God? I won’t get started on attention spans or this will become a long post!

3. Do we do our best to be alive, life-giving and lively in our preaching? No generation has ever thrived under the dull preaching of God’s Word.

Don’t Just Get the Idea!

November 9, 2012 / Peter Mead / Leave a comment

The Big Idea approach to preaching is birthed from an understanding of the nature of communication. That is, when we communicate, we are not just firing words out into nowhere. Rather, we are seeking to have the other party get the idea of what we are saying. Communication is about ideas. We want the other to say, “I see what you are saying.”

Ideas change lives. People give themselves to ideas. Christianity is a content-based faith. Which is why a very high view of Scripture tends to resonate with a commitment to expository preaching. That is, bringing out from the text the meaning that is there and seeking to effectively communicate that truth to others with an emphasis on why it matters to them.

But I don’t just want to extol the virtues of a “big idea” approach to preaching. I also want to highlight a couple of potential misapplications of it. Let’s use a very simple “communications” model:

WRITER > MESSAGE > RECIPIENTS

1. It is not just about the writer to the original recipients. It is possible to be committed to discovering what the writer meant by what he wrote to the original recipients, and then to preach that. Just that. This can come across as textually accurate, but distant and irrelevant. It can lose sight of the present and living nature of God’s Word. We can become lecturers in ancient manuscript interpretation, even if we add on application by extension. It is important to not lose the accuracy of original intent, setting, context, etc., but also to give a very clear sense that this is for us today.

So to tweak the model:

WRITER > MESSAGE > RECIPIENTS

including the message to Us

2. It is not just about the human writer, it is part of God’s self-revelation in the Word. This is where I’ve seen Big Idea preaching misapplied and fall short. Understanding, distilling and effectively communicating the main idea of a passage is not the whole deal. We are not trading in brilliant information transfer, back then or today. We are handling the inspired Word of God, given to us to reveal His heart to us. When the text becomes opaque, when the personal nature of the Trinity grows distant, then all our meticulous accuracy and sermonic craft is wasted. We don’t just preach the written word, we preach Christ. Our preaching must be theocentric, for the Bible is all about God.

Final tweak?

The Revelation of God, who inspired the .

WRITER > MESSAGE > RECIPIENTS

including His message to Us

True preaching happens in the present. As Donald Sunukjian puts it, in his shortened definition of biblical preaching: “Listen to what God is saying . . . to us!” Let’s preach so that our listeners can meet the God who still speaks through His Word today.

Get the Idea!?

November 6, 2012 / Peter Mead / Leave a comment

As a child I would ask my Dad for help with various projects – fixing the brakes on my bike, getting the scalextric set up, getting the lawnmower to work. Invariably he would show me and then say, “do you get the idea?” I usually did and that was that.

Then I studied preaching at seminary. All of my teachers (thankfully) were proponents of “Big Idea” preaching. So now, as I prepare to preach, I am haunted by the question from years ago – do I get the idea? If I don’t, I’m not ready to preach. However, finding the main idea in a passage is usually not as easy as fixing the brakes on my bike.

It seems like a disproportionate amount of time can be spent trying to formulate a single sentence in the preparation process. But this single sentence is so important that it is always time worth investing. The payout is always sermon-wide. And the fallout should be church-wide and beyond. So let’s spend some days chasing the issue of the main idea, or as Haddon Robinson would put it, the Big Idea.

1. Ideas are the building blocks of communication. We communicate in ideas. Not words. Ideas. It is possible to get across a message without speaking a word – just think of advertising on the television or a billboard that uses imagery rather than words, just think of your mother when you came up with a creative activity as a guest in somebody else’s home. Words matter, but ideas communicate. So with any biblical passage – it consists of a set of ideas, some bigger, some smaller, all interrelated, and ultimately, all serving the main idea that drives the whole passage. Our job as communicators is not to parrot words, but to grasp and give out the main idea of a passage.

2. Ideas are made up of two parts. I tend to call it the single sentence summary. Somehow that feels easier to grasp than the full explanation of an idea. But let’s go to the full explanation, it isn’t that bad. What is the passage about? This is the subject. What is the passage saying about that? That is the complement. Put them together and you have the idea. Sounds easy. Sometimes it helps to ask, “what question is this passage answering?” (subject-question), and “what answer does it give?” (complement-answer). Or just summarize the whole passage in a single sentence.

Whatever it takes, let’s be sure we get the idea!

Faint Not: The Discouraged Preacher

October 30, 2012 / Peter Mead / Leave a comment

Charles Spurgeon wrote about the minister’s “fainting fits” in his first series of lectures to his students. He wrote, “Good men are promised tribulation in this world, and ministers may expect a larger share than others, that they may learn sympathy with the Lord’s suffering people, and so may be fitting shepherds for an ailing flock.”

The ministry of preaching seems to be fertile ground for discouragement. It is so easy to feel deterred, disheartened or hindered in some way. Sometimes it is only a feeling, but this doesn’t change its influence on us.

The New Testament has a lot to say about not fainting, growing weary or losing heart. Paul writes of the perishing state of our outward man, while at the same time the inward man is being renewed. But what about times when that doesn’t feel like the reality we are living in?

Tomorrow I’d like to ponder several factors that may be leading to discouragement. Then by the end of the week we’ll ponder some pathways forward.

According to John Stott, “Discouragement is the occupational hazard of Christian ministry.”

Let’s throw in a bit of Luther too, who apparently stated, “If I should write of the heavy burden of a godly preacher, which he must carry and endure, as I know from my own experience, I would scare every man from the office of preaching.”

Our experience agrees that these great preachers knew what they were talking about. Let’s ponder together what the contributing factors may be, and what might be done about it.

And let’s pray for others too. Perhaps you know a preacher who is facing discouragement in some form. Maybe one who is unwell, or who’s context is particularly challenging. Why not pray for their hearts to be encouraged this week? Maybe link to this post and tell them you prayed for them? The battle we are in is too much for any of us to go on alone.

Spaces: Noise and Prayer

October 24, 2012 / Peter Mead / 1 Comment

Yesterday we thought about the spaces in which we work – both office and study. One of the key issues that I think we need to face in this generation, even more than ever before, is the issue of noise. In a world filled with productivity gurus, we as preachers need to be more than productive.

1. It takes more than productivity to produce a profound ministry. It is great to have such quick and easy access to information. We can access so much online, some of it worth the minimal effort we put in. We can order books and have them delivered next day (at least some of us can). We can use software on our computers that instantly parses verbs, searches for the lexical root and finds all instances of whatever in wherever. We are so blessed. But profound ministry is not just about access to information. It isn’t even just about knowing what to do with it. We have educational opportunities like never before. But it takes more than that. Profound ministry also requires something that has become ever more difficult to find. You can’t buy it online and you can’t use software to get there. It is that old fashioned notion of spending time with the Lord, away from all the noise.

2. Noise may be the biggest threat to a substantial ministry. Noise takes many forms. It can be the ping of arriving emails, the tyranny of the urgent text message, the variable usefulness of social media updates streaming our way, the fascination of online bunny trails, the old fashioned but ever present junk mail, not to mention the important stuff of family life, church needs and a far more connected realm of extended friendships. Some of this is good. Too much of all this and you have a recipe for living in permanent noise. I suspect it is worse now than when sunset meant reading by candlelight, conversation with those immediately present and hours of quiet to spend with God.

3. A noisy world means we must be proactive in pursing “sunset.” The old idea of a prayer closet, an undistracted place for meeting with the Lord, shouldn’t be an old idea. I have had some great times of prayer while driving, but also easily fill that time with noise. I always find I pray better walking or pacing, but so easily fail to make the most of such simple insight. How can you be proactive in pursuing “sunset” – a time when the noise grows distant and you can pursue and enjoy intimacy with the Almighty? I fear that if we don’t do something, the profound ministry of those truly close to God might become a relic of history.

Making Truth Understood

October 18, 2012 / Peter Mead / Leave a comment

So we’ve thought about making biblical truth memorable, and making it known, but what about making it understood. Is that what preaching is? Yes. And no.

1. Contemporary listeners need help understanding the Bible.

There is a significant distance between today’s world and the world of the Bible. As the preacher, you have a key role in helping to bridge that divide. This means overcoming differences in culture, in language, in politics, in religion, in worldview, in geography, in customs, in perspectives, etc. When you preach the Bible you need to help make sense of a very different world for the sake of those in yours.

This means we can’t just read the text and then apply it. We have to make sense of what is going on. This means plumbing not only the historical setting and context, but also the literary setting and context. We have to help people make sense of not only a strangely different world, but also an unusual collection of texts. People need to understand the canonical structure, the development of thought, the informing theology feeding into a passage, the shape of the story beyond the passage, the nature of the genre of the passage, the forms of literary design within the passage, etc.

And all this means that as preachers we have to make value judgments. We can’t just dump all the information we know and learn into a message. This would make it overwhelming and too long. So we must decide what needs to be said, this time, to make sense of this passage.

2. Your listeners need more than just understanding, but not less.

Just to make matters worse, understanding is not the only goal. It is the foundational step. That is, without understanding, then we cannot build effective application, and we cannot expect genuine transformation. It is no shortcut to bypass understanding and go straight to application, pressing for compliance or hoping for transformation. Application and transformation must be built squarely on clear understanding of the text. God is not into radically new revelation. He has given us His Word to transform lives. He invites us to engage Him there, and as we do so, He also encounters us to change us now. God hasn’t appointed us to simply explain the truth of His Word, nor to simply seek transformed lives by means of pointed application. He has appointed us to put it all together – explain, apply, pursue transformation.

Interactive Bible Observation Preaching

October 4, 2012 / Peter Mead / 6 Comments

Last month I decided to try something a little different in our church. I used the Sunday evening service (we have two services on a Sunday), for a study through the book of Ruth. Each person attending was given a handout with the plain text of the passage for the evening with headings removed, but plenty of margin space allowed. At various points I had them marking the text and then interacted with them as we observed the passage together. I still preached, but it wasn’t a tightly controlled sermon. I determined when there would be interaction, and overall I think it worked well.

Upon reflection, here are some of the advantages of this approach (not saying it should replace normal preaching, but I think it has a place).

1. It shows people that they can read and think about the passage, they don’t need to be spoon fed. It is easy to get into the habit of only getting Bible input from “experts” – either at church, or for some, on MP3 downloads during the week. But this approach subtly reminds people that they can look at and think about the text themselves.

2. It shows some people that they don’t automatically know everything. This is in contrast to number 1, I suppose. Some people are over confident in their view on everything. This approach allows them to discover that they missed something and should look closer. “I never saw that before” isn’t such a scary phrase from the preacher’s perspective, when they are actually observing the text with other people and it is plainly before them (rather than a homiletical invention).

3. It gives people experience of observing, then interpreting, then applying. Some never really observe, some skip straight to application, etc. This is a good group exposure to inductive Bible study.

4. It slows the pace of experiencing the text. In this instance, it was Ruth, a narrative. Good preaching can also slow the pace of experiencing the text, but this approach certainly did. People felt the tension and it built nicely, both during the message and over the weeks.

5. The preaching element is proven. That is, if done well, the preaching element should not get the “I wouldn’t have seen that in the text” kind of response. They are seeing it, the preacher is just building and reinforcing what has already come through. I found the more traditional preaching element in this series felt very gritty and real: it was the explanation and reinforcement of the main theme in each passage, tied into the bigger picture of the book.

There are other advantages, so feel free to add by comment…

Who Are You Preaching To?

October 2, 2012 / Peter Mead / Leave a comment

Preaching is not just about communicating the message of the Bible, it is about communicating that message to people. Specifically, certain people. Today I’d like to share some thoughts on preaching to those who are present, then we can move on to those who aren’t!

1. Know your listeners as much as possible. Seems almost too obvious to state, but it is important. We have to know who is listening when we preach. If we are a visiting speaker, then we need to go into overdrive before the meeting to find out what we can. If it is our home church, then we should be engaged in the lives of those who are listening. It will influence how we pitch the message, the vocabulary used, the applications chosen, the background information given, etc. Not to mention the difference it will make if you love the people to whom you preach!

2. Be as relevant as possible. This is true on so many levels. We need to be relevant in our vocabulary, in our illustrative material, in our applications of biblical truth, etc. Relevance is the natural next step on from knowing the listeners. Our task is not to make the Bible relevant, but to show how relevant it is to these specific people.

3. But beware of unhelpful target practice. There is a danger that the first two points can lead to an unhealthy third one – target practice. That is, you know your listeners, including the issues, including the tensions, including the squabbles and the politics and so on. And then you want to be relevant. And without thinking you can find yourself preaching a sermon to a congregation that is pointed right at one person, or one situation, or one clique, or one faction, or whatever. It is so easy to either bare someone’s dirty laundry, or to take political potshots. You can do it in your vocabulary, in your illustrations, in your applications, etc. This is both an abuse of the preaching privilege, and a flawed approach to addressing issues. Whether it is a situation you are seeking to help, or a skirmish you’ve been dragged into, the pulpit is not the place to address it directly. Certainly the Word will speak to life’s real issues, but don’t be the filter through which the Bible gets redirected.

Tomorrow we’ll ponder the audience issue some more, specifically in reference to people who are not present.

The Two Keys in the Simplicity Struggle

September 13, 2012September 13, 2012 / Peter Mead / 2 Comments

I’ve been writing about struggling to simplify messages. There are numerous potential issues, but I want to keep this post really simple. I think that when all is said and done, there are two key things to keep in mind:

1. Big idea preaching promotes unity, order and progress. The big idea school of preaching is not about having a pithy grabber at some point in the message. It is about recognizing the inherent unity in a unit of Scripture and letting that be the boss of the message. That means that you will let it determine whether a detail makes it into the message. And it will determine the best order of the details included. And it will determine the best way to convey forward movement in the flow of the message. The main idea is like the arrow, the sermon purpose is like the target, and the shape of the message is like the strategy for accurately planting that arrow deep in its intended target.

S0 an illustration may be a good one, but if it doesn’t help communicate the main idea, bye for now. An exegetical insight may be impressive, powerful, moving, or whatever, but if it doesn’t help in the strategy for delivering the main idea, save for another time. Every detail, every statement, every explanation, every proof, every application, every word in the message has to be there because the main idea is helped by its presence. Like a commanding team captain, the main idea determines who gets to play on a given Sunday and who doesn’t.

2. Pray about it. Simplifying your message in order to communicate more effectively is not a selfish pursuit. You aren’t trying to be clear for your sake. It is for the sake of the listeners. It is that they might be gripped by the passage, transformed by the truth and marked by an encounter with the God who reveals himself in the Word. Consequently, don’t be bashful about praying for your next message, and for your preaching in general, to become more consistently clear. Ask for wisdom in terms of what to cut out. Ask for a mentor. Ask for understanding. Ask for your preaching to be clear because your passion is for God’s Word to be heard and followed and felt and applied.