Friday, November 25, 2011

LEANING INTO THE SERMON - PART 3

More great counsel from Ben Witherington ....

There are lots of different kinds of deliveries. There’s regular mail, there’s Fed Ex, there’s UPS… we could go on and on. But when it comes to the delivery of the sermon it’s not just about fast or slow, regular or irregular. There are more effective and less effective ways of communicating with a particular audience. Here, knowing one’s audience is crucial. There is a difference between a word on target, and using the buckshot approach and hoping to hit something. Of course this means you need to get to know your audience. It’s about connecting the Message to the people. And we must always remember its not about the Messenger, though at times you will have parishioners who think it is, and want to shoot the Messenger.

Let’s start with voice. Do you know what you sound like? Are you loud or are you soft. Do you have a high voice or a low voice, or somewhere in between? You need to know this. Why? Because some voices are harder to hear than others due to pitch. And you need to know this. Proper miking helps of course, but if you have a soft voice, you must not allow your voice to drop regularly into a lower register, or people will simply miss the end of sentences. And this is not good. Then there is the issue of volume. Some people are just loud, some are just soft. If you are loud you can easily come across as overbearing, boorish, browbeating etc. You need to learn to modulate your voice. It should not be like the preacher who wrote in his sermon notes “not sure about this point, increase volume and pound the pulpit hard”. Volume never ever makes up for a lack of substance.

This leads to a discussion of enthusiasm. Being dull is deadly when you have the most exciting message ever written down. Indeed, it is a contradiction in terms. It is o.k., indeed advisable to show your enthusiasm for the Word, and for what you have learned from it. Indeed, when people see their pastor get excited about something, even if they don’t fully get it, they too can become excited. Somethings are more caught than taught anyway.

And then there is the issue of gestures. If you gesticulate wildly, you will indeed appear out of control, even unhinged to some. Of course this varies from congregation to congregation. In some Pentecostal contexts no gesticulation means no preaching, so of course you have to be sensitive to your context. The first church of the Frigidaire however is not much fond of wild gestures. It ought to be gestures that come naturally to you, not something forced, but something that helps make your points. The opposite of this— standing like a statue and simply reading your sermon text is not so good either, though God can use most anything. But consider this— would you rather be used in the way Paul was used, or would you rather be used in the way Balaam or his donkey was used ? :) You get the point.

The preacher’s demeanor will convey the seriousness of the message, his enthusiasm the exciting nature of the experience, his learning the need for studying the Word, and his application the relevance of the message. All of this, and much more is ‘leaning into the sermon’. But in the end don’t be like the following example.
The young preacher was worried about getting through his first sermon at his first church, a little country church. All throughout the week he practiced and practiced his sermon. He practiced on his children until they complained, he practiced on the dog until it howled, he practiced on his wife until she said ‘no mas’. He practiced in the shower, and finally decided to memorize the text just in case he got too nervous. He knew his congregation frowned on preachers who used notes much less a sermon text.

The day of reckoning, Sunday, came along. He manage to remember all the elements of worship leading up to the sermon, even remembered to take up the collection like the bishop urged.

After reading the text for the sermon he closed the Bible he gripped the pulpit and in a loud voice said ‘Behold I Come’ and then his mind went absolutely blank. Panic overcame the young man. What would he do?

Now this little country church had a pulpit that hovered over the front row of pews so the appearance was that of Moses giving the ten commandments from Mt. Sinai. Backing up in the pulpit which had a little runway, the young minister launched himself at the pulpit and said again, even louder ‘BEHOLD I COME!’ Still nothing came to mind after that.

Now the preacher was really sweating. His palms were moist. He decided to back up and try one final time. Charging the pulpit his sweaty palms slipped as he attempted to grip it and he went right over the front of the pulpit and into the lap of persons on the front row.

Picking himself up, and the lady he had landed on, red faced he apologized and said ‘I am ever so sorry mam..’ as he envisioned his ministry career ending before it really began.

To this she replied…. ‘well it wasn’t a total surprise, You done told me three times you was comin’”

Thursday, November 24, 2011

LEANING INTO THE SERMON - PART 2

More from Ben Witherington on preaching ....

here is of course a long history of preaching, inside and outside of the church. It’s called a sermon or revival message inside the church, evangelism outside the church, though it’s only one form of evangelism of course. My concern in this post is to talk about the rather drab and dismal state of preaching in some quarters these days, even in Evangelical churches.

While of course it is true that the Holy Spirit is involved in the process of preaching, and provides inspiration and guidance, the Holy Spirit should not be used as a labor saving device. The Spirit brings to mind things you have previously learned and put into that brain of yours. I once had a student who came up to me frustrated. He said ‘I don’t know why I need to learn all this NT stuff, I can just get up into the pulpit and the Spirit will give me utterance’. My reply was ‘yes you can do that, but it’s a shame you are not giving the Spirit more to work with.’ This little series is meant to help us get focused so we do give the Spirit more to work with.
The first thing to be said….which ought to be obvious is that while there are many possible styles and kinds of sermons, at the root a sermon is supposed to be an explaining and applying of some text or texts of the Bible. You are not supposed to be preaching your own experience, or your latest counseling theories, or the latest self-info you think is neat. Nor should your sermons be based on human wants and needs. Your sermons should be grounded in the word of God, helping people understand and live out of that Word. If you do that, of course the genuine needs of people will be addressed.

There is a problem with preaching that is needs-based. First of all, such preaching is based on what the pastor or the congregation perceives as their needs. Perceived needs are not the same thing as actual needs. More often than not, they are more like wish lists or wants, than actual needs. And in any case worship is not about giving people what they want and crave, its about giving God what he desires and requires. And what God requires of preachers is that they preach the Word, in season and out of season, when it’s popular and when it’s not.

In order for preaching of the Word to actually be done competently it requires actual study, actual reading of resources, actual perusing of good commentaries (I would recommend the socio-rhetorical commentary series of Eerdmans and Inter-Varsity I have been involved with). Ideally, it involves the actual exegesis of the Hebrew or Greek text of the Bible. There is nothing like original language study of the Bible to produce all sorts of exciting insights into the Word. Failing that, you should rely on reading 3-4 good exegetical commentaries on any given passage. Illustration books or sources should be consulted last, after you have done your detailed textual work. And illustrations should illustrate some point you are actually making. The danger is that the illustration or the joke or the poem, or whatever takes over and becomes the only memorable part of the sermon. So choose illustrations that illuminate what you are actually preaching.

All of this takes time, and this means that you the preacher must set aside adequate time to do this task of sermon preparation well. This is in some ways the most important thing you do for your people. Even Jesus thought so. In Mark 1.38 Jesus tells his disciples he did not come mainly to heal, or to administer a congregation, or to visit the hospitals, or to visit people in their homes. or to have committee meetings…. he came into this world to proclaim the Good News. It’s important that the preacher make the main thing the main thing, and delegate to the priesthood of all believers a lot of these other tasks, instead of thinking one has to ‘do all the ministry’ just because you might be paid to do ministry’. Too often the pastor’s ego gets caught up in trying to be all things to all people, to be pastor superstar, and instead of enabling other people for ministry, he or she ends up disabling other peoples gifts, instead of ‘equipping the saints for ministry’.
‘Leaning into the Sermon’ in this case means having the discipline to jealously guard the time each week to prepare excellent messages from the Word itself. When a preacher simply recycles older stuff, you can tell.

And it stultifies his or her own growth when he does so as well. If you were to read through my Eerdmans collection of sermons (entitled Incandescence) you would find messages that today I would often preach differently because of re-engaging the same texts and learning new things. I won’t even discuss the problem of recycling other people’s sermons. There is no living engagement with God’s Word in that. You can get ideas from other sermons, and learn from them— but they cannot be your own sermon text. That requires you, prayerfully engaging with the text and listening to what the Spirit is saying to your church or churches.

In our next post, we will talk about what should happen on the day of delivery in order to ‘lean into the sermon’.

Wednesday, November 23, 2011

LEANING INTO THE SERMON

Ben Witherington writes an excellent blog called Bible and Culture.  He has written some excellent counsel about preaching, which I will be sharing in this post and future ones. - Steve


Leaning is a means of concentrating. The parishoner leans forward in the pew to listen more intently to what the preacher is saying. The preaching leans forward on the pulpit when he is making a particularly crucial point and wants to have the full attention of the congregation. I like to lean on the arm of the pew and incline my ear and heart to the Word. Some of us are more visual learners (especially the computer generation) some are more auditory learners, but whatever it is that you do to ‘focus’ and to ‘hear and heed’ what is being said, we need to do that, for our spiritual life and growth does indeed depend on it. Preaching is a sacrament of the Word, and listening and heeding a means of grace. In this series entitled ‘Leaning into the Sermon’ we are going to reflect on the sermon from various perspectives— that of the listeners and that of the speaker as well. Let’s start with the listeners.

If indeed preaching can be a means of grace for those who are listening then it would serve us well to pay close attention. So let’s talk about preliminary things we need to do in order for that to happen. Firstly, since we are in a worship service we should have already stilled our hearts, and begun to focus on the Lord. We should have quieted all we are in the presence of the Lord. It is not just people present in that sanctuary, it is the Lord, and he has something to say and to do with you as you worship. Preparing yourself to receive the Word involves not just turning off the cellphone, it also involves a deliberate setting aside of all wandering and distracting thoughts and feelings and resolving to concentrate with one’s whole self on the Word. No excuses at this point. Don’t be complaining that the preacher is weak, or his sermon is not perfect. Of course both of those things are true, but God can write straight with a crooked stick. I’ll get to the part about the preacher doing a better job of leaning into his sermon.

Right now I am focusing on the listeners. Unfortunately, our TV addiction has trained us to only concentrate periodically, tuning out commercials. There are usually no commercials in a sermon, or at least there ought not to be. If you find the sermon a bit tough, then gnaw on the bone until you get some meat off of it. My point is it requires a concentrated effort on your part, indeed continual concentration throughout. Don’t expect the pastor to spoon feed you pablum each week. If he does, shame on him (and we will get to that). Expect instead he will tease your mind into active thought. One thing about Jesus’ preaching— he never pandered to the lowest common denominator. He boiled up the people, he did not water down the Gospel.

Now it may well be that the Lord has only one important thing to say to you through a whole sermon, but you will need to be listening intently to hear it throughout. There is a reason Jesus said ‘let those with ears hear…’ There is a difference between listening and hearing, just as there is between hearing and heeding.
Of course sometimes we don’t want to hear. We are afraid we might have to change something or do something if we actually hear and comprehend something. Sure enough, that’s true. On the other hand, the Lord may really have many things to say to you through a sermon. He may be dealing with you in some extensive or profound way, not merely in a casual way. The Spirit will let you know when it’s one of those Sundays. And by golly when that happens, you need to focus like a laser beam on the meat of the Word on that day. The preacher has stopped preaching and started meddling in your life….and it needed to happen.
It may be useful for you to take a few notes on the sermon. It is after all a learning occasion not just a revving up the troops of inspirational occasion. Don’t be ashamed of being a student of the Word even in worship. It shows your maturity, not your bookishness. Remember, sermons are not another form of entertainment, or they shouldn’t be in any case. They are the proclamation of God’s Word. You should not view this as a consumer opportunity. You should see this as an opportunity to grow in Christ and grow closer to God. As 2 Pet. 1.3-4 makes very clear everything necessary for Christian life and godliness comes through the knowledge of God…’ You need to know Him and his will better. Word Up. You need to listen to the preacher.