Category Archives: pastoral preaching

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Is Your Preaching Getting Better?

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A while ago the following sentence caught my eye. It’s from Pandora’s bio on the singing group, Hot Chocolate:

“An interracial English funk and soul group, Hot Chocolate scored a pair of huge hits in the 70’s but were otherwise more enthusiastic than skilled.”

Ouch!

This immediately made me think of what someone could say about me or any other preaching pastor.

I recognize that skill levels vary with individuals. It’s that way with athletes. There is LeBron James and there are other basketball players (older blog readers insert Michael Jordan). And it’s that way with preachers. I’m no Tony Evans or Tim Keller.

This week I begin teaching Advanced Homiletics to a class at LBC’s northern Virginia campus. I’m also in the middle of working with a Baltimore pastor in an independent study in Communicating Biblical Truth. So, I’m thinking a lot these days about how to teach hermeneutical and homiletical skills. As always, it forces me to think about how I’m doing. How skillful am I at…

  • fighting the good fight of faith? At fighting temptation? At displaying the fruit of the Spirit?
  • interpreting how Scripture functions for the Church? At theological exegesis? At understanding the human heart?
  • communicating God’s Word in church? At speaking, pace, movement, energy, urgency? At relating to the learners?

Take a look at those three broad categories. What does it take to become more skillful in these areas. It takes intentional, intense prayer. It takes purposeful reading. It takes consistent pastoral interaction (loving and listening).

God help us preach better so that He gets glory in the Church and in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 3:21).

Randal

P.S. Preach a good sermon, will ya?!

 

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One of Preaching’s Primary Goals: Preparing Parishioners for the Return of Christ

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NCAA Duke Wisconsin Final Four Basketball

For the record, my wife, Michele, does not approve of this post. She is a Carolina grad which automatically means she strongly dislikes Duke. But that’s not important right now.

What is important is thinking about what we’re accomplishing when we preach. These two coaches have spent the last couple of days preparing their teams for tonight’s championship game. They will have their teams ready. They always do. That’s part of the reason why they are in the position they’re in.

In some ways, that’s what we do every Sunday. We make sure our parishioners are ready for the return of our Lord. In his commentary on Luke’s Gospel, Marshall writes, “We cannot ‘live carelessly until the End…and then reform ourselves at the last minute.'”

Some preaching portions make this a no-brainer. In Luke 21:34 Jesus says, “But watch yourselves lest your hearts be weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and cares of this life…” Regardless of your eschatology, it’s hard to miss the fact that Jesus is preparing us for His return (in an earlier post I mentioned being careful to allow the Bible to inform our theology and not only the other way around, especially in these kinds of Texts).

But, in general, think of every sermon as contributing to this goal. Every preaching portion contributes to the goal of preparing our parishioners for the return of our Lord. Great coaches are known for getting their teams prepared. They have a reputation for making key adjustments at halftime.

Faithful shepherds enter their teaching times with the similar goal of making sure their congregants are prepared. Our goal is to create people who will be able “to stand before the Son of Man” (Luke 21:36).

Before Sunday, see if you can identify how the purpose of your preaching portion connects with this purpose of creating a prepared people.

Preach well for God’s glory in the Church and in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 3:21).

Randal

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Guest Post: 10 Pointers For Young Preachers

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This week’s post is from Peter Mead of the UK. For the past several months I’ve been reading and profiting from Peter’s blog, biblicalpreaching. I’ve enjoyed his humility, balance, and Christ-centered approach to preaching in church. Peter graciously agreed to write this guest post and I hope you’ll benefit from his insights. Even though I’m no longer considered a young preacher, his 10 pointers were extremely helpful. Enjoy!

Optimized-Peter Mead

10 Pointers for Young Preachers

I am way too young to be called a sage, but I don’t get called young any more either. So while there is better advice to be found, here are some pointers from me for young preachers:

  1. Get to know God. Never settle for knowing about God. Make it your life’s greatest ambition to really know and love the God who loves you.
  1. Be a Bible person, not an issue person. It is tempting to let certain issues define your ministry, but these will shift over the years. Instead of choosing a pet issue, develop an infectious passion for the Bible.
  1. Determine never to be a glory thief. Decide now that showing-off has no place in your preaching. Always point listeners to Christ and not to yourself. God delights to lovingly give glory, but never steal it.
  1. Learn to discriminate feedback. People will praise a public speaker. You are more likely to lose your way through hyped up praise than through nasty criticism. Learn to pursue and process genuinely helpful feedback.
  1. Don’t let your homiletical skill get ahead of biblical and theological awareness. People will praise a public speaker, but they need a preacher who is biblically and theologically healthy.
  1. Don’t let your ministry profile get ahead of your character. Let your ministry move forward at God’s pace, otherwise you may get a profile too heavy for your character to bear.
  1. Be proactive, but not self-promotional. Look for opportunities to serve, to learn, and to grow, but be wary of leaving God behind as you chase “more strategic ministry.”
  1. Learn to read wisely. Invest time in reading quality rather than quantity, widely rather than just your favorite author, and selectively rather than getting stuck in books you no longer want to finish. Prioritize books over blogs!
  1. Do not journey alone. Preaching is often a lonely ministry. Prayerfully pursue mentors and prayer partners who can speak into your life. Find a string of Bible read-through partners and chase God together in His Word.
  1. Have a lifelong conversation with God. There are too many technically capable and theologically informed preachers that have no meaningful relationship with God.
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Pastor, Scholar, or Both?

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How do you see yourself? More of a pastor or more of a scholar?

I’m fortunate each year to study with pastors from all over the world who are both pastors and scholars. They are pursuing advanced degrees partly because they enjoy studying hard. But I also rub shoulders with pastors who do not see themselves as the scholarly type. If you see yourself like that, you need to read John Piper’s segment of the little paperback, The Pastor as Scholar and the Scholar as Pastor. Professors will enjoy Carson’s take on how the professor functions for the Church.

Piper writes, “[God] did not have to give the church a book….So the very existence of the Bible as a book signals that the pastor is called to read carefully and accurately and thoroughly and honestly. That is, he is called to be a ‘scholar’….If I am scholarly, it is not…because I try to stay on the cutting edge in the discipline of biblical and theological studies. I am far too limited for that [Piper is very open about his limitations in his, largely autobiographical chapter]. What ‘scholarly’ would mean for me is that the greatest object of knowledge is God and that he has revealed himself authoritatively in a book; and that I should work with all my might and all my heart and all my soul and all my mind to know and enjoy him and to make him known for the joy of others. Surely this is the goal of every pastor” (pp. 66-67).

When you put it like that, surely this is our goal. Let me give you two ways to move in that direction if you don’t see yourself functioning as the scholarly type:

  • Subscribe to a scholarly journal, read at least two articles and the book review section in each issue. I enjoy BibSac, JEHS, and Preaching journals, but there are many good ones to choose from .
  • Make reading in biblical and theology studies a regular part of your week. There is a lot of pressure on us to read only church growth or practical ministry material. Find authors that will stretch your ability to think theologically.

Study hard and preach well for the sake of His reputation in the Church and in the world.

Randal

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Watch Seminar On YouTube: Creating Saint-Sanctifying, Seeker-Sensitive Sermons

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Over the past several weeks I’ve been posting 9 observations from three preachers, way past, past, and present, who were and are effective in reaching both insiders and outsiders with an insider-directed message. In other words, they preach to mature the saints, but also address non-Christians as well with the same message. Those preachers are Jonathan Edwards, D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, and Timothy Keller.

If you haven’t see the posts, here’s a brief summary. These preachers…

  1. Categorize listeners according to their spiritual condition
  2. Search the heart with probing questions
  3. Motivate listeners through both love for God and fear of God
  4. Attack the sin behind the sins
  5. Speak the thoughts of sinners (both the justified and unjustified)
  6. Identify our idols
  7. Show how the Gospel works to recreate the human heart
  8. Contrast what the world says with what God says.
  9. Plunge deep beneath the surface of theological terms.

If you are interested in exploring this topic further with me, I invite you to watch the YouTube presentation below. I had the privilege of spending an afternoon on April 3, 2014 on the campus of Capital Seminary and Graduate School. A huge thank you goes out to Debra Ross, Online Education Developer, who graciously videoed and edited the session. I also want to thank Derrick Seegers, Director of Church and Community Relations for hosting the seminar.

Preach well for the sake of God’s reputation in the Church and in the world.

Randal

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How To Balance Saint-Sanctifying, Seeker-Sensitive Preaching (part 10)

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Have you ever tried balancing on a bongo board? Okay, I probably should ask it this way: Have you ever tried balancing on a bongo board at my age?!? Unless you’re extremely blessed, it’s usually a struggle to stay on for long; even tougher to stay on while you attempt to move around on it. I find it difficult to balance preaching to insiders and outsiders with the same insider-directed message. As you may have read when this little series began, 1 Corinthians 14:24-25 shows us it can be done, but it’s not easy to do.

So, my goal in this series is to list and briefly explain how three effective pastors reached and, in one case, still reach both insiders and outsiders with the same insider-directed message. The three are Jonathan Edwards, D. M. Lloyd-Jones, and Tim Keller. They are not your typical seeker-sensitive preachers and yet they were, and are, effective in reaching non-Christians while they preach theologically loaded sermons to the Christians. How? So far we’ve looked at the following aspects of their method. They:

  1. Categorize listeners according to their spiritual condition
  2. Search the heart with probing questions
  3. Motivate listeners through both love for God and fear of God
  4. Attack the sin behind the sins
  5. Speak the thoughts of sinners (both the justified and unjustified)
  6. Identify our idols
  7. Show how the Gospel works to recreate the human heart
  8. Contrast what the world says with what God says.

Now, #9: They plunge beneath the surface of theological terms.

This may sound counter-intuitive. We might think it’s best to reach non-Christians by avoiding heavy theological language. But all three pastors excelled in preaching sermons that included (and include) lengthy explanation, illustration, and application of theological terms. Listen to how Keller tackled repentance (sorry, I do not have the actual sermon; Logos footnoted this only from, The Timothy Keller Sermon Archive (New York City: Redeemer Presbyterian Church, 2013):

“If you hold grudges, if you’re full of pride….In other words, when you do things wrong, it sets up strains in the fabric of reality and eventually, they lead to breakdown. When the breakdowns come, when the circumstances hit you, when there’s some kind of meltdown, then you suddenly say, ‘Whew! What have I been doing? What has been wrong? How could I have thought that? What’s the matter with me?'”

Keller helps us know what repentance means by showing us how it happens in someone’s mind. It’s like what the young prodigal son might have thought as he was coming to his senses in Luke 15. Check out some of the overlap with #5 above. If your preaching portion contains theological language, fight the temptation to lighten them and delve deep into its meaning.

Preach well for sake of His reputation in the Church and in the world.

Randal

P.S. One of the most helpful little books I’ve read on this topic is Willimon’s, Peculiar Speech: Preaching to the Baptized. It will remind you of who we’re preaching to and help shape your perspective on crafting sermons.

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How To Balance Saint-Sanctifying, Seeker-Sensitive Preaching (part 9)

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My goal in this series is to list and briefly explain how three effective pastors reach both insiders and outsiders with the same insider-directed message. In other words, how do Edwards (as in, Jonathan), Lloyd-Jones, and Keller preach theologically loaded sermons to the saints and still manage to reach sinners? The three are not your typical seeker-sensitive preachers.

So far we’ve looked at the following aspects of their method:

  1. Categorizing listeners according to their spiritual condition
  2. Searching the hearts with probing questions
  3. Motivating listeners through both love for God and fear of God
  4. Attacking the sin behind the sins
  5. Speaking the thoughts of sinners (both the justified and unjustified)
  6. Identifying our idols
  7. Showing how the Gospel works to recreate the human heart.

Now, #8 is: Contrasting what the world says with what God says.

A few weeks ago the concept of meekness came up in a preaching portion. Almost everyone knew the world’s take on it: meekness is________? Right. Meekness is weakness. Defining what biblical meekness is is one thing, a good and necessary component of biblical preaching. However, we are more effective when we can contrast God’s view of meekness with the world’s view on it.

Why does God’s salvation include such a character trait (another way of getting at #7 above)? Why does the human heart have an allergic reaction to it (another way of thinking about #5 above: “Because the weak get run over in the ‘real’ world!”)? Let your listeners see just how diametrically opposed God’s kingdom and the kingdom of darkness are. Let them know why the two are opposite and why the kingdom of God is the better quality of life (both here and now and in eternity). That kind of analysis is good for saint and sinner alike.

Preaching well for the sake of God’s reputation.

Randal

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How To Balance Saint-Sanctifying, Seeker-Sensitive Preaching (part 7)

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For those that have been reading this series, I thought you might enjoy a different image this time. Pretty incredible balance and power too!

In this series, I’m summarizing some of the things effective preachers do to hit both outsiders (unbelievers) and insiders (saints who entered the building with ears to hear) with an insider-directed message (cf. 1 Corinthians 14:24-25 for an example).These are ways in which men like Jonathan Edwards, D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, and Tim Keller (of Redeemer Presb’ in NYC) reach both audiences.

So far we’ve noted the following effective rhetorical devices:

  1. Categorizing your listeners according to their spiritual condition
  2. Searching the hearts with probing questions
  3. Motivating listeners through both love for God and fear of God
  4. Attack the sin behind the sins
  5. Speak the thoughts of sinners (both the justified and unjustified)

Today’s tip is: Identify our idols.

There are times in our sermons where we can highlight the false gods we tend to worship. This is one way to attack the sin behind the sins (#4 in this series). It’s a way to analyze our sins in more detail. Identifying our idols is a way of uncovering the kinds of things that have captured our affections. Someone has said that the human heart is an idol factory. Preaching that uncovers idolatry effectively matures the saints, while also showing unbelievers that they too are worshiping something or someone other than God.

One effective way I’ve found to help identify my particular idolatry is to ask myself two questions: (1) What brings me greatest joy? (2) What brings me greatest sadness? Usually, the answer to either question helps me see what has captured my affections. If you haven’t read it yet, I highly recommend Keller’s book, Counterfeit Gods.

Preach well for the sake of God’s reputation…

Randal

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How To Balance Saint-Sanctifying, Seeker-Sensitive Preaching (part 6)

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In this series, I’m summarizing some of the things effective preachers do to hit both outsiders (unbelievers) and insiders (saints who entered the building with ears to hear) with an insider-directed message (cf. 1 Corinthians 14:24-25 for an example). These are ways in which men like Jonathan Edwards, D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, and Tim Keller (of Redeemer Presb’ in NYC) reach both audiences.

So far we’ve noted the following effective rhetorical devices:

  1. Categorizing your listeners according to their spiritual condition
  2. Searching the hearts with probing questions
  3. Motivating listeners through both love for God and fear of God
  4. Attack the sin behind the sins

Today’s tip is: Speak the thoughts and reasoning of sinners (both the justified and unjustified)

In describing Edwards’ approach, Carrick highlights the need to try to put your finger on “the secret language” of the hearts of our listeners (The Preaching of Jonathan Edwards, p. 302). This involves trying to figure out what the non-Christian and Christian might be thinking about the particular theology being communicated.

Apart from Keller’s unique, Christ-centered hermeneutic/homiletic, the one thing I’ve benefited from from Keller’s approach is his ability to articulate how his listeners are thinking about the preaching portion. This involves, of course, reading and listening to commentaries about our culture (newspaper, news reports, magazines, books, films). It involves listening to what people are saying whenever they declare their thoughts about life.

Carrick described Edwards as having “an incisive knowledge of the human heart” (p. 269). Add to that the ability to put words in our listener’s mouths, the things they should be saying. It’s an effective combination that helps “unmask the man.”

I must admit that this is the one area I’ve had to work on the most and am still working on. I find it much easier to exegete the Text than the pew. I’ve also found that the more I study my own depraved heart, the easier it is for me to speak the secret language of the hearts of my congregants.

Preach well for sake of God’s reputation in the Church and in the world.

Randal