The Preacher Trembles Sometimes

"Don't preach at me!"

How many times have you heard that used in a TV drama - in heard - even said it - in real life? Have you ever heard anyone say "Please preach to me."?

Didn't think so.

So preachers have been calling the act of preaching something else for many years. Call it a "message", "talk", or whatever you call it, fact is that when you step up in front of a bunch of people and present yourself as having a message for them involving the Scripture, it's preaching. But there's preaching and there's PREACHING.

My hope/intent/expectation when I prepare is that I will help people understand or discover what God has placed there in the text, in the context it was written, applied to the time we live in today. Yes it's one sided, but it's one half of a conversation with the other half hopefully between the hearer and the Holy Spirit. I use humor, illustrations from life in general and my own life, and sometimes video to help people bridge the gap between the Word and their lives.

I've studied preaching at two seminaries, continued studying it personally and in cohorts of other preachers, and read thousands of sermons. Yes, thousands. Most of the giants of the past and the present day preachers have been examined for fidelity to the text, construction of their messages, and means or method of delivery. Over the years I have changed to be more text based, because I felt it was where the Holy Spirit would have me work.

One of the things I wish I could change about myself is that I am super critical of my preaching. I never think I have enough preparation time (especially now that I teach fulltime +), and I am working on every Sunday's sermon up to the last minute. Once it's over, I think of things I could have said better, things I could have left out or put in, and wonder whether I did the best I could.

Most of the time it ends there, and life rushes in and the new week opens and Sunday is in the rear view mirror. But not this week. I preached on Saturday too. It was a memorial service for someone I had never known. As I prayed toward it, after talking with the family, I felt very strongly that I needed to present the Hope that is found in Jesus explicitly.

I did - you can read pretty much what I said in the post preceding this one. Since I was so pointed and let's face up to it - blunt - I worry that I turned people off rather than turning them toward Jesus. As I write this, I'm reminding myself that I had prayed for wisdom and wrote as I felt the Spirit directed me to. So I should be grateful that I delivered what I was given to do.

I guess I just don't want to be a reason for people to turn away. The gospel will do that sometimes, but I pray to make sure I don't.

One of the most interesting TED talks I've seen

Nancy Duarte's talk at TEDx East from Duarte Design on Vimeo.

She basically dissects what makes great speeches great. Really interesting when she does that to the "I Have A Dream" speech.

It's Percolating

percolatingpresent participle of per·co·late (Verb)

1. (of a liquid or gas) Filter gradually through a porous surface or substance.

2. (of information or an idea or feeling) Spread gradually through an area or group of people.

So it's Saturday morning, and we're slowly easing into the day. There are things to do later, and lots to do tomorrow. Right now though, in the background, the message for tomorrow's worship gathering is percolating. Earlier in the week I read the texts I'll use - several times from several sources. I spend some time reacquainting myself with their context. After jotting some notes down about my impressions of what they reveal and what they might say to people today, I move on.

What did others who have walked down the same road see? In their eyes, what was God doing?

What did He want us to know and to do?

While the Spirit speaks to me just as He did to them, I want to hear from their context - from their heart - too. Most of the time, they provide me with nuances of understanding, glimpses of another perspective that because my experiences and training differs from theirs in some way, I might not have seen. If I can find these across ages - even better. To read from the early church fathers, or rabbinical writings and then up through the years to today is to hear the Voice across the ages as God tells His Story and each person, in his time, repeats it.

By the end of the week, I often will have read hundreds of pages in that effort.

All the while I'm making notes, mental or otherwise, of those thoughts that tug at me, at my heart, or that open my mind to what is there from God. They come at odd times. I've had sermons open up while shopping with Bunny in fabric stores. I've had whole passages reveal themselves at the beach. I've heard from God while doing lots of things unrelated to my study or my office at home.

It's as if the whole idea of what the message is to be is percolating - through my soul.

I'm so very thankful for the honor of sharing what I've heard.

Fixin' To Get Ready

In a couple of hours or so, I'll be standing before the people at New Hope Baptist Church and opening the Word of God's message to their hearts and minds. After all these years, I still don't feel "ready" every Sunday to do that. This is after hour upon hour of reading the passage, examining the context, the content, and checking the word order and meanings of the text, as well as the "walking around time" I spend thinking about what it means and how best to communicate it. I'm in awe of God, but realistic about His servant David.

When I've been watching the Winter Olympics lately, I've been paying close attention to the athletes at the start. Each seems to go through some period of preparation immediately before their event begins. Some seem to visualize the course with eyes closed, even moving their hands and leaning their bodies as they do. Others appear to withdraw into themselves for a moment. There's a part of that going on right now in me.

I'm visualizing what it might be like if people heard God's Word and acted on its truth. How their lives might change. What that might mean for their families - for the world. I'm trying to answer the hardest question ever posed after a sermon is completed - "So what?" And I'm doing that because I need to hear from God too. So I'm praying as I type this that I might be able to change and become more like Jesus.

Lord, may the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be pleasing to you today.

Can't See the Forest OR the Trees

"What did you learn today via the sermon?"

"That there's still a bishop of the church in Philadelphia."

arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrggggggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhh

Kindred Spirits

Evotional.com - Originality, Authenticity, Creativity

If I had to summarize my approach to preaching right now it'd be: let it rip. I feel like I'm speaking out of the overflow of what God is doing in my heart. That is when ministry is pure joy. I feel like part of maturing as a preacher is becoming less theoretical and more experiential. You're not preaching points. You're preaching convictions. Why? Because you haven't just studied it. You've experienced it.

Totally in sync with what Mark Batterson wrote above.

My goal now is to bring the meaning of the message straight from the Spirit using the Scriptures and the experiences I have.

B.B. King ain't the only one in Bluesville

"How do you know what to preach about?"

Had a few people ask me that down through the years.

Some sermons are driven by the calendar - Christmas, Easter, etc.

But most (for me) come out of prayer. I'm praying that God would show me a need, or direct me to a particular book, passage, or topic that will be what He wants spoken. Granted, as Philip Brooks so eloquently said "preaching is truth through personality." So I'm a part of God's work and my experiences and context enter into what's said. But at the end of the day, I am only satisfied if two criteria are met:

First, was I faithful to the idea/topic/passage's meaning and to God's direction?

Second, did I prepare and execute it as well as I could for that day?

Notice I did not say "And people responded like crazy."Or "and revival broke out."

That is God's work. I'm (as Mother Teresa pointed out) a pencil in God's hands. When He decides to write a masterpiece or when He's preparing cliffnotes for later - that's up to him.

After two weeks of walking around with the message this morning and believing it was exactly what God wanted said, I will go back and listen to it later and see if I spoke clearly - if I carried the message through development to the point of decision.

And I'll pray for God to use what I said to draw people closer.

You just get so "expectant", as you pray through the process that at times it takes a debriefing like this to reset your heart's calibration.

So move along, nothing to see here. It may be Sunday, but Monday's coming. :)

Is That What Comes To Mind?

So I'm reading a newsletter today online and happen to glance at an ad in the right frame of the webpage. It's for the website of a magazine that I actually used to subscribe to - "Preaching Today."

Is that what comes to your mind when you think of preaching today?

Lord help us if it is.

A Test

If you can figure out what the heck is going on in this picture, then perhaps you stood a better chance than most at grasping some of my train of thoughts in the sermon this morning.

Aaaarrrgghhh!

Never bothered me that much to go 0 for 4 in baseball. It's just a game.

But to waste the time that God had set aside for people to hear of His plan, His purposes, and His offer to them - aarrgghhh!!!

Mea culpa

The Power of Story

Have you ever had a thought that really gripped you, but you got pulled aside into other things and promptly forgot about it?

I have, but I picked up the trail again yesterday.

LOTR, Narnia, Star Trek, Star Wars,Harry Potter, Twilight, WOW

See anything there?

What do they have in common?

The power of Story.

If I call, tweet, IM, or email several people I know and ask an arcane question about any of those, I will get an answer to the question and probably far more than that.

Why?

The power of story. NOT the power of facts.

Now another list.

Creation. Fall. Exodus. Exile. Incarnation. Redemption. Resurrection. Mission. Return.

Why can't we communicate with more power the greatest story of all?

It is haunting me - driving me -forcing me to look at everything I do and everyone I lead in a different way. How can I help people hear and experience the Big Story in such a way that they are drawn in and compelled by the experience? How can we - through that - place the foundational facts into people - not just in their heads, but in their HEARTS?

When I began in ministry, an older pastor told me this, and not in a kind way.

"You are really good at telling stories and getting people to listen. I'm just waiting to see what you do when the stories run out."

He was referring to the illustrations I used to use so frequently within the sermons to try and get the message across. At the time I really thought that through doing that people would be drawn to the text and to God's story. Over the years though I think I have learned that more often they are going to remember that good illustration over what I had hoped they would remember from the text.

Now I really believe the Spirit is driving me to discover and to USE new ways of communication that everyone in the congregation can use to find their place in the Story and be captivated by God.

Pray for me in this quest.

Texting

There are some places in the Scriptures in which I just want to step back and say, "Thank you, God." It seems Eugene Peterson got there too.

14 My response is to get down on my knees before the Father, 15 this magnificent Father who parcels out all heaven and earth. 16 I ask him to strengthen you by his Spirit—not a brute strength but a glorious inner strength— 17 that Christ will live in you as you open the door and invite him in. And I ask him that with both feet planted firmly on love, 18 you'll be able to take in with all Christians the extravagant dimensions of Christ's love. Reach out and experience the breadth! Test its length! Plumb the depths! Rise to the heights! 19 Live full lives, full in the fullness of God.
20 God can do anything, you know—far more than you could ever imagine or guess or request in your wildest dreams! He does it not by pushing us around but by working within us, his Spirit deeply and gently within us.

21 Glory to God in the church!

Glory to God in the Messiah, in Jesus!

Glory down all the generations!

Glory through all millennia! Oh, yes!
Eph 3:14-21 (MSG)

I'm going to be working through that text tomorrow from the personal to the corporate or church point of view.

So many of us - so many people and so many churches, need to humble ourselves and admit that if we are to succeed in expanding the kingdom of God - it will be through the power of the Holy Spirit, not the next big thing.

We need to focus on growing - growing deeper in Christ and doing everything we can to bring others deeper into Him.

We need to live lives of extravagant grace and generosity, all the while pointing back to the source of our power and giving Him the glory for everything.

Glory!

We Have Met the Enemy, And He Is Us

When I was entering into this calling as a pastor, one of my pastors told me that one of the main maxims he had always heard about that role was this:

"A Pastor's job is to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable."

Opportunities to comfort seem to abound. People in the hospital, teens going through something, people who just need to talk to someone always seem to be coming along one behind the other. In those times the pastor can not only exercise the ministry of presence - just being there, but we get the opportunity to encourage people with the Word and with prayer. In today's world, we get even more opportunities to do that through technology. I'll send out requests for prayer almost every day, and receive a couple a week from someone he just dashes off a note that says "please pray for me or for us."

The chances to "afflict the comfortable" are fewer and farther between.

And yet, pastor/preachers probably get more of those than most other professions do. The person sitting out in front of us on Sunday has made a choice to be in the presence of the Holy Spirit and under the ministry of the Word of God. So they really shouldn't be surprised when God uses that Word to bring the light of conviction on them.

I've lost track of how many times someone told me after a sermon "I felt like you were preaching just for me." Every preacher hears that. People wonder if we've listened at their window, or been a fly on the wall in their home. No, we've prayed and asked the Holy Spirit to use our pitiful words for His glory. People's lives can be changed in an instant and stay changed forever as the Lord moves into their heart and makes them a new creation.

But apathy... sigh


It is like nailing jello to the wall.

Personally, I'd much rather deal with someone who denies God, who lives as if there is no God than face off against an apathetic Christian. A functional atheist, the apathetic Christian carries their "faith" like a woman might wear a charm bracelet. It's an ornament to be "worn" at certain times and at certain places. This type of Christianity is cultural at best. And the epicenter of it seems to be in the South.

I remember years ago talking to a man on a search team from California. He had called out of the blue and wanted to talk to me about becoming their pastor. In his explanation about the church, he told me about their prison ministry, about their community ministry, and then said "You know pastor, we're all first generation Christians. Every single one of us needed saving bad."

If we're not careful, we can allow the churches we love to become centers of apathy. It's easy. In those cases, it is definitely the pastor's role to upset the status quo and break the church out of its rut. Maybe that means beginning the worship gathering with the sermon instead of with music, or being more interactive in the way you preach. Maybe it is working through a series directly tied to areas in people's lives that they struggle with. Maybe if you are a topical preacher, it might mean preaching expository sermons through a book.

DO WHATEVER IT TAKES

The first sign of leprosy is the absence of pain.

The first sign a dying church presents is apathy.

Pray, pray, pray, pray, pray for the FIRE to be a part of regeneration.

And don't let them...

change you.

It's Really Important To Remember Your Part

From Steve Brown's blog today:

I have a friend (you would know his name…he's a famous Bible teacher) who was introduced at a Bible convention this way:

You're very fortunate to be here. I've been asked to give an introduction and the man I'm introducing to you has spoken to audiences the world over. His message has changed millions of lives and his presence has brought peace, repentance and love to very difficult situations throughout the church. He is profound, wise and compassionate, touching people everywhere with his message.

His name is Jesus.

And here is _______________ to tell you about him.

That's my job.

That's your job if you are a follower of Jesus.

We do our part by living the love of Jesus out loud through our lives - our words, our actions, and what we value.

iHurt

This week's "iLife" sermon could have come right off the pages of our local newspaper. "iHurt" This is a small community. Six degrees of separation narrows to two blocks. In the space of five days we've lost a deputy sheriff and the man the officer went into a home to apprehend after the man's family had him sent to be mentally helped. The deputy was the son of a woman who works as an aide in the school across the street we volunteer at. His best friend also lost a coworker and fishing buddy the next day.

For a friend, it was the anniversary of the day six years ago that her husband's airplane crashed.

For another family, their little girl who has been fighting disease is back in the hospital, her mom is sick as well now, and the dad in the family is running out of paid leave as he tries to cope with all the... pain.

Everybody hurts.

I cannot hope to explain why any of the above happened in a sermon Sunday.

But I have to explain how God's love can transcend it and redeem it.

I have to.

Pray for me. That God in His infinite wisdom and mercy will so fill me with His Holy Spirit that whether the words I speak hit their mark or not, people's hearts will be turned toward the author of comfort and the Prince of Peace.

After Sermon Thoughts

It's late Sunday evening, and I'm about to follow my wife to bed and call it a day. It's been a full one. But like most of the people called "preacher-creatures" by my friend Ian Anderson, I keep thinking about this morning's sermon and wondering - did I do it? Did I give them what God wanted them to hear? If I did, did I do it well? Who heard it? Who responded to it, even though I may not know?

It's funny, because today I was preaching out of Acts and one of the parts I touched on was Peter's first sermon.

3000 people - hostile people - the people who put Jesus to death - get SAVED!

It's your first sermon. You're not a preacher, you're a fisherman. But it happens.

Can you imagine what Peter thought? "That went better than I expected."

I can so see him turning around and asking the other guys...

"Is it going to be this way every time?"

One of the things you learn to do - if you're willing and capable of learning from what you do - good or bad - is to analyze your part in the process, make sure you did the best you can do, change if you didn't, and leave the rest to God.

There's no way Peter was able to do what God did through him that day. God can use anyone, anytime.

And fellow preacher-creatures, regardless of how you did today, God can use it.

So let him.

Now, about next week's sermon. :)

Blind Spots

Tomorrow morning I'll be kicking off another series called "Blind Spots."

The idea is to get at some of those places in our walk with Christ that we just don't see as a problem, even though God's Word is clear. There are so many I could go after. I'm using John 9, and Jesus' healing of the blind man and the subsequent dust up with the Pharisees to set the tone for the series.

Bunny and I were talking today about areas we feel like we need to change within our lives in order to grow. In every case, our present situation wasn't as a result of any outside forces acting against us. We couldn't blame the government, the economy or anyone else. And we couldn't claim that we were unable to affect changes that we saw were necessary.

As that sage from Waycross, Georgia so aptly quipped, "We have met the enemy, and he is us."

My hope is that we'll hold a spiritual mirror up to the way we live and see as Jesus sees, not as we do - behind our "blind spots."

Worship @ New Hope 04/20/08

Great day together began with worship this morning. We debuted a new song that really fit with the overall theme. I was tackling the "problem of evil and suffering" as it is called, or "Why?" as I've referred to it - as in, "why God? Why did this happen?"

So songs that focused on the presence and power - the love and mercy of God - were especially needed.

Here's how worship was laid out.

Still - praise team only

Here are the lyrics to this great psalm of praise.

Hide me now, under Your wings.
Cover me within Your mighty hand.

Chorus:
When the oceans rise
and thunders roar.
I will soar with You, above the storm
Father You are king over the flood,
I will be still and know You are God.

II
Find rest my soul in Christ alone,
Know his power, in quietness and trust.

***
When the oceans rise
and thunders roar.
I will soar with You, above the storm
Father You are king over the flood,
I will be still and know You are God.

Find rest my soul in Christ alone,
Know his power, in quietness and trust.

***
When the oceans rise
and thunders roar.
I will soar with You, above the storm
Father You are king over the flood,
I will be still and know You are God.

***
When the oceans rise
and thunders roar.
I will soar with You, above the storm
Father You are king over the flood,
I will be still and know You are God.

by Reuben Morgan

So you can see why it fit so well as did these.

Your Name - "strong and mighty tower"
Made Me Glad "Your are my strength, my shield, my fortress..."

Amazed (Lord I'm Amazed By You) ' How deep, how wide, how great, is you love for me"
Still - everyone sang it together

Change My Heart O God

My job was to help people think through the problem of suffering and evil in a way that opened them to both the holiness and the mercy of God.



Here's a link to the audio. New Hope Sermons

The Night Before for the preacher

I've been fussing with the message for tomorrow morning for a while now tonight, and I think I'm calling it a day. This "Big Questions" series has been good for at least one New Hope member - me. Tackling such huge issues has put me on my knees and in the study so much that I wonder if it's not time to pull an all nighter. Just kidding - you wouldn't like me when I'm sleepy.

I've read books this week by C.S. Lewis, Timothy Keller, Jerry Falwell, Chuck Swindoll, and countless articles and blog posts. I've queried some other pastors to see how they've approached the same topic. And I've read lots of Scripture.

The problem of suffering, of pain, of evil isn't anything I'm going to solve tomorrow. And I'm pretty sure Ravi Zacharias won't have to quit his day job. But it is something I've seen up close, something I deal with in my role as a pastor, and something I have to run to Jesus' arms to handle.

I can vividly remember the first tremor it gave my faith. Our nephew Wes was just a little older (or younger, can't recall) than our oldest son Adam. A couple of months difference I think. They played together all the time when we visited my Mother in law's house. One day we got a call that he was sick. Then we heard he was at the hospital. When I called to check on him, his doctor told me "as a matter of fact, he has just expired." Boom.

We were shocked, scared, stunned, numb. How? Why? Why?

There've been others since then. So I'm praying hard tonight that the Holy Spirit will use whatever I do for God's glory to help people see Jesus as the answer to the problems. I'm taking Vance Havner's advice and making a beeline for the cross tomorrow.

"Behold, I make all things new." Yes Lord, Maranatha.

Everyone is a writer

It's a rainy Saturday here. That cuts short any plans on a "surge" against the grass and weeds for now, and colors any ideas about getting out and about. The "grayness" descends, the street begins to dapple, then darken, and looking out the window objects seem to lose sharp focus as the rain inserts itself between the observer and the scene.

When I am really "into" a sermon preparation mindset, though, rain comes as a blessing. And today, as I'm continually popping in and out of that mode, I am especially grateful. Tomorrow, I tackle one of the "Big Questions" everyone will deal with - "What Happens When I Die?"

It's been a week of praying. Of searching the Scriptures. Of reading everything I can find on the subject, even if I've read it several times. Billy Graham's "Death and the Life After" has been a help. Eugene Peterson, N.T. Wright, Chuck Swindoll, Charles Stanley, C.S. Lewis, and many others have weighed in. And I've plumbed the depths of my own experiences with loved ones, with people I've served as pastor - in my hope of having those who hear the message not only know what God has said through His Word, but experience the Holy Spirit's stirring toward change - at whatever point they are on their journey.

The mortality rate is, after all, 100%. Almost everyone will have their moment of publicity in their local newspaper and increasingly online. At that point what the world has gathered of the record of their days here will be open for public review. In a sense then, each and every person is writing that obituary as they live every day.

I'm debating whether to have an insert tomorrow with a layout of an obit and offer people that opportunity.

Crossing Cultures and Building Bridges

This term at Rockbridge is winding up, and the course I'm taking "Understanding Cultures" is beginning to come together for me. We've been learning how our cultural view affects how we perceive our world and how it colors our relationships. We're also acquiring some anthropology chops to enable us to study and understand cultures and people groups.

Going in, I had probably the lowest expectations of any course I have ever taken at Rockbridge. With two weeks to go, I can say I've learned a great deal that I believe I can use. Kudos to Dr. Jeff Ginn and Rockbridge as well as my classmates.

My role in the Kingdom is that of pastor/communicator, not anthropologist. I'm learning how to "read" cultures and people groups for one purpose - to better proclaim the Word of God and give testimony to God's greatness. So tonight, when I read this quote in the lecture notes, I just had to share it

Communicating God's Word is a deeply spiritual event involving the Holy Spirit. Gospel presentation is a missionary act.

Communicators of the Gospel are intimately and personally involved as participants in this process. And the best communicators do it in deep, deep prayer and listening to the Holy Spirit.

There is something mysterious about the infinite communicability of the Bible.

There is nothing else like it in the world that is proclaimed and then transforms people.

True, the Bible by itself does not do this either. The community, the church, works through the text and brings their understanding to what they receive.

R. Daniel Shaw and Charles E. Van Engen, Communicating God’s Word in a Complex World (Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2003):29-30

It is through the Holy Spirit, through a prepared communicator in awe of the power and majesty of God's revealed Word, and to a community prepared by the Holy Spirit to receive it - that God can do amazing things.

He can change the course of a life and through that life the course of history.
He can bring the Words written down thousands of years ago to bear on the problems of today.
He can lead a person across the "bridge" of the gospel into newness of life.

Too cool! And I get to do it every week!