Randal Pelton, Ph.D., D.Min., Th.M.
Senior Pastor, Professor
Paying Attention To How Books Begin And End
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Preaching on Fathers’ Day Can Be Hazardous!
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Thankfully, I was on vacation on Fathers’ Day Sunday. Not that I especially like being on vacation, but because I didn’t have to twist a text to apply it to fathers. How did you manage that Sunday? I worshiped in a church in Maine. The pastor selected Luke 15’s parable of the Prodigal Son. I appreciated his emphasis on the father portrayed in the parable, though some of the principles he developed for us to follow may have been stretching the truth. It shows how difficult it is to preach with greater accuracy if we are too focused on being relevant. Often the occasion of the sermon takes precedence over the occasion of the Scripture. Or, our purpose for choosing a sermon on Luke 15 for Fathers’ Day overrides the purpose for which that Scripture was given by God. God help us for the sake of your reputation!
The Relationship Factor in Pastoral Preaching
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Which do you love more, the preaching or the people? Yesterday Michele and I enjoyed the rare opportunity to worship with another faith-family. The pastor, Lanny Kilgore, is a good friend of mine and a very good shepherd. What struck me about seeing him preach was how much he enjoyed the parishioners during the sermon. I could tell that he loved them as much as he loved preaching. In his book, Preaching & Preachers, Lloyd-Jones quotes Anglican preacher, Richard Cecil: “To love to preach is one thing, to love those to whom we preach quite another” (p. 105). Sometimes when I hear sermons, I get the impression that the sermon would sound the same and the preacher would preach the same even if nobody was listening. The people really didn’t matter to the preacher, but only the sermon mattered. Ask yourself how much the presence of listeners affects your delivery. May our Lord give us a heart that loves His people as much as we love the proclamation of His Word.
What Keeps Your Sermon From Fragmenting?
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I recently returned from a wonderful week with doctoral students enrolled in Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary’s Doctor of Ministry track, Preaching the Literary Forms of the Bible. We met on GCTS’s Charlotte, NC campus. One of the things we talked about was keeping our sermons from fragmenting. Fragmentation happens when I (1) fail to follow the flow of thought created by the Author/author or (2) I choose to replace the existing flow of thought with my own deficient presentation. We noticed a tendency of not clearly stating the logical connections between moves or thought-blocks in the sermon. What is clear in the mind of the preacher is unclear to the listener. While you’re developing your sermon double-check all your transitions as you move from major clause to major clause. Ask if you are carrying the logic forward. As you know, theology is conveyed more through the logical flow of thought than in the isolated content.
Too Much Exegesis, Not Enough Theology
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Wasting Precious Time During The Sermon?
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I recently had the privilege of evaluating a young pastor-in-training who preached in two venues in our faith-family. One thing that discouraged him was that he ran out of time and couldn’t preach some of the more important sections of his preaching portion. Do you ever get to the end of your allotted teaching time and feel you don’t have sufficient time for key theological insights and application? One thing I’ve noticed is that we don’t always economize time like we should. For instance, there are two ways to approach contextual information. One is to ask, “How much context do I need to provide in order for my listeners to get the big picture?” I find most pastors asking that question. Another is to ask, “How much contextual information do I need to give them in order for them to understand my preaching portion?” The second question usually results in a significant paring of the contextual data I give in the sermon. Economy of time takes place when I only give what is absolutely necessary in order to make sense of the preaching portion. Preaching is too important for me to waste time.
The Individual Instruction Is Almost Always a Little Idea
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The individual instructions or commands in Scripture, such as Romans 13:8-10 can stand alone and preach very well. Sermons more accurately teach those commands, however, when the command “to love each other”, for instance, is explained in light of the teaching which started the list of instructions. So, in the case of loving each other, this is all part of discerning “the will of God” or a part of how the “renewed mind” of the Christian lives life or a part of being “transformed” or a part of not being “conformed to this world” (all taken from Romans 13:2). Or, we could say that the individual commandment of Romans 13:8 is one thing that happens when Christians present their “bodies as a living sacrifice…to God” (cf. Romans 13:1). Loving each other is simply one of many ways in which the Christian life is lived out. In this sense, although the instruction can stand alone, it’s clearer and maybe more accurate to place the instruction into the immediate context and allow that context–whichever part above you choose–to be the base or foundation for the individual commandment.
Preaching Little Ideas
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Expecting God To Do Great Things
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I’ve just completed Lloyd-Jones’ excellent book, Preaching & Preachers (40 anniversary edition). His final chapter is all about the need for preachers to be endowed with special power from the Spirit. What great exhortation! L-J asks, “Do you always look for and seek this unction, this anointing before preaching? Has this been your greatest concern? There is no more thorough and revealing test to apply to a preacher” (p. 322). I was a bit embarrassed to think that often my greatest concern is not whether I have the Spirit’s unction, but whether I have “got it right,” “it” being the sermon and the truth of Scripture. L-J challenged me again to keep highlight both, not one or the other. I don’t want to preach the truth by myself (without the Spirit’s power). I don’t want to preach something that’s biblical, but not biblical enough, with the Spirit’s power (if that is even possible?!). God help us be both Spirit-empowered and accurate in our preaching. Then, we can expect God to do miracles in all our lives. L-J encourages us preachers: “But go beyond seeking Him; expect Him. Do you expect anything to happen when you get up to preach in a pulpit….Are you expecting it to be the turning point in someone’s life?” (p. 340).