Showing posts with label Preaching. Show all posts

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Regular Attendee:  Either your preaching is getting much better or I'm listening much better.


Me:  Probably a little of both.

Actually, I think that's exactly right.  My preaching has "felt" really good as of late.  I've been engaged in series that have really had my interest and so I've felt personally invested in them.  The process of writing them has been good as well.  I'm thankful.  It's not every sermon that I get to the end of it and thank God for what I think is a really strong and faithful sermon.  But, lately it's been more frequent.

As for the regular attendee, I can't really say whether or not this person listening better but I can say that they are asking a lot more questions and following up afterwards.  My guess is that they, too, are more invested in the listening.

Perhaps we're both getting more out of it, then.

Constructive criticism is good.  It really is.  It's good to be challenged and taken to task because that's where growth can occur.

But, sometimes, it's nice just to get affirmation, to be told you are loved and that what you say is good.  It's sometimes nice to have your own personal choir to preach to.  Perhaps this cartoon by David Hayward goes to an unhealthy place.  But there are times when I've felt like I needed something like this.

(HT/NakedPastor)

Not sure if it would be Biblical.  But it sure would be inspiring.

photo © 2010 Joel Montes de Oca | more info (via: Wylio)
I feel like I've been on a roll lately with sermons.  Or, perhaps to say it more faithfully, God's been on a roll through my sermons.  I think there has been more dialogue about preaching with the congregation and I've been going out of my way to include more visual presentation material -- powerpoint slides, images, even movies.  It's been a challenge and the way our church is set up presently, it means that I'm manning the computer/projector along with the sermon.  But I've been getting good feedback and some constructive criticism.  It hasn't all been sugar-coated.


But yesterday was awesome.  I'm not sure the sermon text or my presentation was all that great, but the topic and the sermon as a whole seemed to really resonate with people.  It was on GRUDGES and was called "LIFE'S TOO SHORT TO HOLD A GRUDGE."  And so we talked about the fleeting nature of life and the abundant life that God intends for us.  Then we talked of how grudges keep us from being the people God wants us to be and how it accomplishes nothing but making us slaves to our past and how grudges keep us from any hope of reconciliation and, beyond that, even civility with those for whom we carry the grudge.

Three people told me that they thought I was preaching directly to them.  One person asked for a copy and proceeded to text portions of my sermon to their family members.  Another person emailed me and said that the sermon led them to have a heart to heart with someone who had wronged them and that they wanted further conversation about it.

I think I preach pretty well.  I think I've been blessed with a fairly good ability to communicate, although I would never classify myself as a "great preacher."  "Pretty good" seems fair.  But, I guess I wasn't prepared for God to work through today's sermon the way God did.  I'm humbled.  I'm awed.  I pray that God is able to work this way again...maybe next week.

I'm also kind of nervous that I might have "peaked."  What if next week is a dud and the pieces just don't come together?

I guess I better start praying now.

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Yup. Four of them.  This is from Chris Brauns and unpacked over at DashHouse.com:

I don’t know anyone who’s done a better job of expressing the fundamentals than Chris Brauns in his new book When the Word Leads Your Pastoral Search. According to Chris, “A sermon should be a biblical bullet fired at the life of the listener.” If you unpack this sentence you have four keys to good preaching:

• Preach biblically – Preach the text. Let it shape the content of your sermon and its purpose.
• Preach a bullet – Find the main idea or burden of the text and preach that.
• Preach with fire – Seek God until you have unction, boldness, and urgency.
• Preach to the listeners – Preach to the people in front of you. Apply the message to their lives.

I would say I might be weakest on the first point.  The whole, "biblically" point.  Now, I want to be clear that I try to generally have a passage as the root of the sermon and let that shape the larger text.  However, I do confess to prooftexting as well.  Even in the current series as we're talking about Jesus' life and ministry, it is really characteristics of Jesus' life (as evidenced in various scriptures) that is the springboard into the sermon.  So, instead of one text I have multiple texts.  And, while this may shortchange the individual texts some by losing the ability to get deeper with them, I think it coveys the overarching themes of scripture better as a teaching point.

Regardless, I think these four points are helpful.

I often need work with keeping just one main idea or burden.  This becomes more of a problem for me when I go off of the manuscript.  I have a tendency to wander when that's the case.

That's what ASBOJesus thinks they probably do.

                                       Image via WikipediaThis is from Chris Brauns' book When the Word Leads Your Pastoral Search: Biblical Principles and Practices to Guide Your Search.  (With a HT to DashHouse for the link and the quote)

Brauns argues, “A sermon should be a biblical bullet fired at the life of the listener.”

• bullet – a sermon should have a clear central thought or focus; it should be a bullet, not a buckshot

• biblical – the central thought of a sermon should flow out of the authoritative Word of God

• fired – a sermon should be preached with unction or Spirit-empowered boldness and clarity

• at the life of the listener – a sermon should be applied to the life of the listener

Now, I'm not sure "bullet" is the metaphor I'd use.  Too violent a concept for me right now with some reflection being done on language and violence.  Perhaps "arrow."  Perhaps a "fastball."  But I like the for bullet points.  For me, I know when I don't have a clear, central focus, I am all over the place.

I like this metaphor and will use it this week to assess how my sermon-writing is going.

photo © 2008 National Galleries of Scotland Commons | more info (via: Wylio)
I've been doing a lot of reading and looking at blogs.  I am humbled at the intellectual prowess I see.  I am awed at the sermon delivery.  All these young, evangelical, socially-minded pastors looks so hip and with it.  They seem immersed in the Gospel.  I feel like I can't hold a candle to them.  In short, I sometimes feel inadequate...here in my little (though now much bigger) church in my little mountain town in Alaska.

After all, what have I got?

Well, maybe it's not quite that bad, but I'm guessing there are other preachers out there who have a little inferiority complex at times.  There's a lot of good preaching in the world and sometimes I'm not so sure it's coming from me.

So, it was with some relief I read Jared Wilson's blog post from way back in September...which seems like a lifetime ago now.   It's called "An Improvement-Proof Gospel" and it's a little reflection on Galatians 2:6 which says,  And from those who seemed to be influential (what they were makes no difference to me; God shows no partiality)—those, I say, who seemed influential added nothing to me.

Jared writes:

Oh, how I love Paul! He is hilarious. He is so cheeky. "Sure, sure. Peter, James, and John, those pillars, they seemed like somebodies, I guess." Love it!

But is he being as disparaging as he appears? Not really, but sort of. Here's Luther on this verse:

Paul disparages the authority and dignity of the true apostles. He says of them, "Which seemed to be somewhat." The authority of the apostles was indeed great in all the churches. Paul did not want to detract from their authority, but he had to speak disparagingly of their authority in order to conserve the truth of the Gospel . . .

What they say has no bearing on the argument. If the apostles were angels from heaven, that would not impress me. We are not now discussing the excellency of the apostles. We are talking about the Word of God now, and the truth of the Gospel. That Gospel is more excellent than all apostles.

"The gospel is more excellent than all apostles." Yes!

You know what? Mark Driscoll, Matt Chandler, John Piper, Mark Dever, Will Willimon, David Platt. These guys and more are (probably) better preachers than you and me. But if your gospel is the Bible's gospel, their gospel isn't better than yours. Same gospel. They can't improve on it any more than you can defuse it.

If you're a good preacher, you're probably a better speaker than Paul -- because Paul himself acknowledged he wasn't an impressive speaker -- but if your gospel is the Bible's gospel, it is not your speaking that wakens hearts, but the same power the "unimpressive" Paul set loose.

If you know and speak the gospel, you are a channel for God's destroying of strongholds and resurrecting of lives. Every Christian who can articulate the gospel has the launch code and access to the button.

If you preach the gospel, you wield the most powerful word in the universe. It's not the gnosis of the apostles. It's the resurrecting word entrusted to us all. 

So, all I got to do is preach the gospel.  Read it.  Pray it.  Preach it.  Teach it.  And that is not only sufficient, it is all that I have.

Sometimes I just have to remember, it's not up to me.

It's the Gospel, stupid.

How almost 4 year old Bethany described her Sunday morning worship experience last week when on the phone with one of her grandmothers:

I wonder how many adults think that as well.

Image by wallyg via Flickr D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones in Preaching & Preachers;

What is the chief end of preaching? I like to think it is this. It is to give men and women a sense of God and His presence…I can forgive a man for a bad sermon, I can forgive the preacher almost anything if he gives me a sense of God, if he gives me something for my soul, if he gives me the sense that, though he is inadequate himself, he is handling something which is very great and very glorious, if he gives me some dim glimpse of the majesty and glory of God, the love of Christ my Savior, and the magnificence of the Gospel. If he does that I am his debtor, and I am profoundly grateful to him. Preaching is the most amazing, and the most thrilling activity that one can ever be engaged in, because of all that it holds out for all of us in the present, and because of the glorious endless possibilities in an eternal future.

(From over at DashHouse.com)

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On why Steven Lamb quit going to church after growing up in a Fundamentalist Baptist Church in the South.

Frederick Buechner has said that the sermons that have the biggest impact on us are those that we preach to ourselves in between the lines of whatever is being said from the pulpit, and the consequence of being in church every time the doors opened for twenty-eight years meant that the number of bad sermons I’d heard, filled with poor logic and faulty reasoning – all purportedly straight from God – had added up.  The result being that the sermons I tried to hear “between the lines” were drowned out by other voices that were disagreeing with nearly everything being said.  Every sermon point given, every phrase uttered, brought to mind the echos of a thousand past sermons, bringing with them a scrutiny of each idea presented for consideration, every word weighted down with the complex history of their past usage and the implications of the resulting arguments, as given in the Fundamentalist world. 

Makes me wonder what voices are going on in the heads of my congregation as I preach.  I hope it's good.

Above quote was from a guest post of Steven Lamb over at Jesus Needs New PR.

A little cartoon from Naked Pastor

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Tony Campolo, on Sunday evening, used a version on the story below in his talk.  I had never heard it before but found some evidence that it was used by a younger Billy Graham years before.  It's a truly awesome illustration and would work well on Easter Sunday.  Please forgive me if it makes its way in to next year's sunrise service.

I tried to get one of my students to research this to see whether it was true and I couldn't find out. But I've heard the story that when the great movie, "The Seventh Seal," by Ingmar Bergman was shown in 1958 in New York, Bobby Fischer, who had just won the world championship in chess, was there in the audience. The movie is built around the story of a medieval knight who's playing a game of chess with the prince of darkness. All the way through the film, the prince of darkness is making moves on the knight, trying to trap him. And in the last scene, the prince of darkness makes a move on the chessboard, looks at the knight, and says, "Checkmate." The game is over. And the curtain comes down. Bobby Fischer is reported to have turned to his friend and said, "Why is that knight giving up? Doesn't he see it? Doesn't he see the pieces on the board? The king has one more move. He can win. The king has one more move!"

Now if you can't preach that, you can't preach.

I found this version over HERE in a sermon preached by Campolo earlier this year.