Tag Archives: exegeting the pews

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The High EQ Preacher (part 4): Invite Them To Think With You

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I knew Emotional Intelligence 2.0 (by Bradberry and Greaves) was worth reading when I read: “If you want people to listen…” (p. 44). Every pastoral preacher or Bible teacher wants people to listen. And, evidently, from a human perspective, assuming God has graciously given ears to hear, a preacher’s emotional intelligence (EQ) is a factor.

But let’s start with this question: Do you ever think about what your listeners are thinking and feeling while you’re preaching? High EQ preachers want to know the answer and work hard at getting listeners to think and “talk” to them. It’s easy to get caught trying to remember what you need to say. When that happens, it’s impossible to think about whether you’re communicating effectively.

So, we certainly need to know our material well so we can focus on our hearers’ reaction to what we’re saying.

On page 46 the authors urge all their readers to

“…create a safe and inviting forum for discussion.”

That happens in two broad ways:

First, we must continue to work hard at our relationships with congregants before and after the worship services, and during any other times when interaction takes place during the week. As I’ve said before, our faith-family members need to know we love them dearly.

Second, we must continue to work hard at our relationships with congregants during the teaching times in church. You can create a warm, inviting atmosphere during the sermon. At a minimum, invite them to think along with you while you preach. At the maximum, invite them to talk to you while you preach. I enjoy actual, limited dialogue virtually every Sunday.

Whether your congregants actually enter into a conversation with you during the sermon is not the point. The high EQ preachers relate to their listeners in such a way that parishioners want to be a part of the conversation.

Maybe the most important thing you can do is make sure that you don’t sound so dogmatic that you shut down any discussion. If you heard that and raised your red flag, you might be prone to squelching dialogue. High EQ preachers have a way of speaking authoritatively for God without putting up unnecessary barriers to communication.

Before Sunday, work on knowing your material so well that you can focus on what your listeners are thinking while you’re preaching. And may our Lord receive His due in the church and in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 3:21) because you’ve created a safe place to interact with His Word.

Randal

P.S. A few days ago I watched a couple of sermons by T. D. Jakes, pastor of The Potter’s House in Dallas, TX. My mission was to simply watch how he relates to his faith-family during the sermon. He’s an extremely high EQ preacher!

 

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Becoming a Critic of the Human Condition

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If we’ve studied together or if you’ve interacted with some of my material it will come as no surprise that Tim Keller has mentored me in the area of reading and preaching the Bible. Over the next few posts I intend to summarize my best takeaways from his book, Preaching: Communicating Faith in an Age of Skepticism.

First, let me tell you what I believe Keller’s best contributions have been. Keller is a master of Christ-centered preaching that is not afraid of making creative connections to the Cross. This separates him from well-known proponents of the method such as Sidney Greidanus and Bryan Chapell. Keller is also a master critic of the human condition (both the Christian and non-Christian).

On page 110 Keller writes,

“The Christian preacher must be a critic of nonbelievers….Christian communicators must show that they remember (or at least understand) very well what it is like not to believe.”

If you’re like me and have been a Christian since your youth, this is not easy to do. Another thing that makes this difficult is, due to the nature of most pastorates, we spend virtually all of our time with Christians. Add to that what we constantly read–Christian material.

But I’ve listened to Keller for almost as long as he’s been at Redeemer in NYC. He knows the human condition very well. Therefore, he is in a position every weekend to critique the human heart. And it adds quality and depth to his sermons.

So, here’s what I try to do in order to become more skillful in this area.

First, I try hard to pay attention to my own thinking, the struggles that go on in my head as I fight temptation. I will sometimes say to folks on Sunday, “I know you because I’m like you.”

Second, I try hard to listen carefully to what Christians say to me when they are honest enough to let things slip out (they say things when their guard was down and they were very exercised about something).

Those two cover the Christian condition.

Finally, and this comes harder for me, I try to read reputable blogs such as Church & Culture, and scan media coverage to become familiar with how people think about themselves and their world.

Then it’s a matter of learning how to strategically place those insights into the exposition of Scripture.

Long before Sunday I am trying to see how my preaching portion contains theology that includes some look into our human condition. That requires me to be a critic of Christians and non-Christians.

Preaching well so God receives glory in the church and in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 3:21).

Randal

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“Hell is unfair” (part 8 of What Are Our Listeners Thinking?!)

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This is my last installment of allowing Linda Mercadante’s research to help us understand what many of our listeners are thinking while they listen to our sermons. The research comes from her book, Belief Without Borders: Inside the Minds of the Spiritual but not Religious. I have benefited from her interviews of SBNR and hope you have too. We tend to think that our listeners are immune from such thinking, but it’s in the air we breathe. We’re all affected by such thinking and the Church is moving, sometimes slowly and sometimes rapidly, toward such thinking. Biblical preaching is one way to keep the Church of Christ on course.

The final area we’re highlighting is the flat out rejection of a literal heaven and hell. Mercandante writes:

“They outright rejected the idea of a static heaven and a torturous hell. Most also rejected any kind of ‘winnowing’ process where some would go to a better place and some to a worse one” (p. 195).

Or…

“Guiding their judgments, again, were factors like the American ethos of ‘fair-play’ and equality, as well as the therapeutic ethos….a number felt that believing in heaven and hell, or in any kind of afterlife, was immature, childish, selfish, and/or a vestige of a superstitious past. Several felt almost ‘honor bound’ to reject such seemingly unpopular or unscientific views” (p. 196).

Or this direct quote: “‘I never believe that you have to make people behave because they think they will burn in hell if they don’t. That’s threatening them to behave, which is negative reinforcement, which I don’t ever think is good.” (p. 198).

There you have it. As you know, if you preach the Bible from cover to cover, eventually you will butt heads with such thinking. We cannot change their minds unless God graciously opens their eyes. However, we can kindly let some of our listeners know that we know they struggle with this teaching. We can be the best amateur, expository apologists we can be (seems to me I’ve read about a book with such a title, but can’t remember for sure).

Even our mention of such an intellectual/spiritual struggle helps our faith-families realize the fight we’re in for God’s reality in a world that champions human fantasy.

Preach well for the sake of His reputation in the Church and in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 3:21).

Randal

 

 

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“You’ve Got Church All Wrong” (part 7 of What Are Our Listeners Thinking?!)

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In this series of posts, I’m summarizing some of Linda Mercandante’s research contained in her interesting book, Belief Without Borders: Inside the Minds of the Spiritual but not Religious. My goal is to help you understand what some of your parishioners might be thinking. They may consider themselves to be in the SBNR camp. Remember, however, that every one of us breathes air containing particles of this kind of thinking. Every Sunday our preaching collides with these notions.

One prevalent opinion has to do with what a “good” church should be like:

“When I think of going to a community, I think of them making demands on me and my work and my family and my marriage life. It’s life-draining. I haven’t found a community that nourishes.” (pp. 163-164).

Or…

“The majority insisted their ideal group would have: no dogma, no written tenets, no labels, no belief systems, no symbols, no pressure, no fixed leadership, and would be entirely non-judgmental.” (p. 189).

Look at those two quotes again and note how many times our preaching centers on God’s perspective on the Church, what it is and how if should function. Look at how many of these beliefs are combatted each Sunday.

As you know, we can’t apologize for what the Church is or for what parishioners are responsible to do. We can provide a theological apologetic for why, for instance, God makes demands, why we have belief systems and fixed leadership. While that can’t win the day on its own, we’re trusting that those that have ears to hear will embrace Christ’s Body.

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

Randal

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Church Has Left A Bad Taste In Their Mouth (part 5 of What Are Our Listeners Thinking?!)

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In this series I’m highlighting some of the insights gained from reading, Belief Without Borders: Inside the Minds of the Spiritual but not Religious (by Linda Mercadante). I wanted to get a better understanding of what many of our congregants bring to the equation each time we preach. This kind of information affects sermon content and delivery.

For instance, many of our listeners have had previous relationships with other churches (it would be interesting to know what percentage of our parishioners have no history with a prior congregation). And many of those relationships were not good. This was one of the experiences shared by all five types of spiritual but not religious (SBNR’s) interviewees.

That means they already have a bad taste in their mouth when they sit down at your table and eat your spiritual food. One person reported:

“my mother and father would get mad at the church and pull us all out and I was too young to have a voice in the matter…” (p. 44).

Mercadante summarizes a common refrain: “[they] would find a tenet with which they disagreed, or they became disappointed with the all-too-human qualities of the average congregation, spiritual group, leader, or participant. Either they found the beliefs ultimately unbelievable, or felt that members were not living up to them.” (p. 52)

Here’s what I’m trying to do to help them reconnect with our church while I preach:

  • before Sunday morning, pray for their healing
  • showcase the relationship I have with the connected congregants through friendly sermon dialogue (it has a way of showing the hesitant that this is a safe place for their souls; they tend to get caught up in the relationship)
  • let them know you know they might disagree with a statement and address their concern as you prove your point (quasi-apologetics)
  • talk frankly about what one of my colleagues calls being a “messy church” (admit that we don’t always live up to what we believe; be honest about who we are)
  • mix in genuine smiles with all the serious sermon stuff (I’m still amazed at how strangers react to smiles in and out of church)

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

Randal

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Top Four Questions The Spiritual-But-Not-Religious Are Asking: Part 4 of What Are Our Listeners Thinking?!)

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One of the things I learned from Mercadante’s book, Belief Without Borders, is that the spiritual but not religious (SBNR) routinely ask the following questions:

1. Is there anything larger than myself, any sacred or transcendent dimension, any Higher Power?

2. What does it mean to be human?

3. Is spiritual growth primarily a solitary process or is it done with others?

4. What will happen to me, if anything, after death? (p. 15)

These four themes kept coming up in Mercadante’s interviews and it reminded me of the need to keep them in mind during sermon preparation and delivery.

You may have seen similar lists. The concept of creating a sermon series from such questions has been around for a while. Number 4, for instance, is certainly not new.

However, while the sermon series idea has merit, I find it more effective to include these questions and answers in any sermon where they apply. Over the long haul of pastoral preaching week in and week out, congregants will benefit more from hearing answers to these questions embedded in sermons that are not particularly aimed at these questions.

Although the SBNR are not represented solely by one age bracket, I find the younger crowd asking these questions. Young professionals and artists voice their concerns more readily than my parent’s generation. If you have younger people in your church they will appreciate any time you address their questions.

You won’t have any trouble identifying questions #1 and #2 in most preaching portions. Virtually every Sunday affords opportunity to spend a minute or two on them.

Question #3 caught my eye. As the years go by, more and more people are believing less and less in the local church. The days of Mrs. Jones teaching Sunday School for thirty years seems to be gone. Question #3 will continue to be an issue pastors will have to address for years to come. In churches over 200 attendees, a smaller percentage of parishioners are involved in small groups. A greater percentage only attend Sunday morning worship and have little, if any, contact with others throughout the week.

Before Sunday, see if any of these four big questions can be addressed so that God receives glory in the church and in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 3:21).

Randal

 

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Preaching to the “Fuzzy Faithful” (part 3 of: What Are Our Listeners Thinking?!)

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Reading, Belief Without Borders: Inside the Minds of the Spiritual but not Religious, reminded me that I have to do a better job preaching to various kinds of Believers. It’s not enough to think in terms of saved and unsaved. Within the category of the “saved” are professing Christians experiencing less-than-desired reactions to the Word of God.

The author writes:

“it has always been obvious to religious leaders that there are many ‘fuzzy’ faithful sitting in their pews; people who are neither completely clear, completely in agreement, nor completely faithful to the tents of their religion” (p. 11).

Maybe it’s always been obvious, but that doesn’t mean pastors preach with these kinds of people in mind.

To the slightly confused I could say: “Let me try to make that clearer. In other words…”

To the slightly disagreeable I could say: “Let me try to prove this because you might not be buying it yet…”

To the slightly unfaithful (is that like saying someone is slightly pregnant?!) I could say: “Some of you know God has not been able to rely on you lately in this area…”

Most, if not all, of these kinds of listeners would claim to have a saving relationship with Jesus Christ. Effective preachers like Jonathan Edwards or D. M. Lloyd-Jones made it a habit to challenge that claim. They pointedly spoke to various categories of listeners. They acknowledged the presence of those overhearing worship; they spoke directly to various categories within the camp called Christian.

God help us do the same for the sake of His reputation in the Church and in the world (Ephesians 3:21).

Randal

 

 

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What Are Our Listeners Thinking?!: Confronting the Thoughts That Are Slowly Making Their Way Into the Church

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A couple of weeks ago I finished reading Linda Mercadante’s book,

Belief without Borders: Inside the Minds of the Spiritual but not Religious (Oxford, 2014)

I had two goals in mind:
  1. I wanted to begin to understand what this growing population is thinking about Christianity and the Church. Not often, but sometimes relatively unchurched or been-out-of-church-for-years visitors attend. I wanted to learn what they’re thinking.
  2. I especially wanted to understand the kinds of thought patterns that our parishioners are unknowingly drifting towards. The kind of stuff that’s in the air we breathe by virtue of living in this world.
Knowing this helps me when I’m preparing and preaching sermons. I can ask how certain Scripture interacts with such thinking. I can explore how the Gospel creates a renewed mind. It’s a way for pastors to cut worldliness off at the pass. (Sorry if the spacing gets lost below.)
Let me begin with Mercadante’s citing of Harvey Cox:
“Cox asserts that religion is leaving behind the ‘Age of Belief,’ which is characterized as inordinate focus on ‘right belief,’ and entering, instead, the ‘Age of Faith’ where dogma is ignored, religious difference is minimized, and spirituality replaces religion” (p. 8).
We’ve got our work cut out for us!
Little by little our listeners will drift away from being learners of Jesus Christ. Unless, of course, we challenge those with ears to hear to think carefully about Christian doctrine/dogma and how it directs the Christian life. This involves preaching biblical sermons that are incontrovertibly true. This involves creating sermon segments that dive deep into doctrine.
Before Sunday, see if your sermon contains the incontestable truths of God. See if “right belief” is the foundation for righteous living. See if Christianity is expressed in such a way that automatically maximizes religious differences (“there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name…” Acts 4:12). Let’s do so for God’s “glory in the church and in Christ Jesus…” (Ephesians 3:21).
Preach a good sermon, will ya?!
Randal