THE 4 LEVELS OF LISTENING: PASTOR, ARE YOU AT THE PRESCHOOL LEVEL?

Charles Stone publishes a superb blog called Charles Stone: Vintage Wisdom: Authentic Answers. This one of the blogs I read regularly.  Recently he wrote a post about listening, a key skill for those of us who would presume to preach. - Steve

BY CHARLES STONE

One of the greatest skills a pastor or leader can develop is to learn to listen well. Woodrow Wilson’s words below should cause every leader to evaluate his or her listening skills.

The ear of the leader must ring with the voices of the people.

We pay others a high compliment when we listen.
We affirm other’s God-given value when we listen.
We develop our own heart when we listen.
The father of the field of listening, Ralph Nichols, captures the essence of listening in these words.

The most basic of all human needs is the need to be understand and be understood. The best way to understand people is to listen to them.

Through my 15-week coaching I’ve learned that we listen at several levels. Often we get stuck on the first level, the most elementary one. As you read the four levels below, ask yourself at which level do you usually listen.

1. Level 1-Listening TO…Internal Listening. At this level when we listen to others we mostly listen to our inner dialogue, our thoughts, our feelings, and what we plan to say once the other person has finished speaking. We focus on ourselves, our conclusions, our thoughts about the person/subject of conversation, and what the subject means to me. Unfortunately most listening happens at this level where it’s all about me.
2. Level 2-Listening FOR…Focused Listening. At this level we begin to authentically listen as we focus on what the other person is saying. We lock onto their dialogue and suppress our temptation to correct, give our opinion, give advice, or offer another perspective as soon as they finish. We become truly present and give them the gift of being understood.
3. Level 3-Listening WITH… Intuitive Listening. At this level we pay attention to what is not being said through these cues:  inflection, pauses, changes in tone and energy, the eyes, and body language. We listen with our gut and allow intuition to speak to our soul.
4. Level 4-Listening to the Holy Spirit. This is the deepest level where we intersect what the person is saying/not saying with an openness to what the Spirit of God is saying to us. This level requires great discipline and focus, yet provides pastors and ministry leaders a way to become conduits of God’s grace to people.

So, at which level do you often listen? What tips have you discovered that help you listen at levels 2-4?
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WHERE IS THIS THING GOING?

"Be obscure clearly." - EB White

Most English majors have encountered the writing and counsel of E.B. White. White is brilliant and some of his brilliance comes through being facetious.  He wasn't advocating obscurity. He was becrying the absence of clarity.

There are times I think EB White should be teaching homiletics.

Because I am a local church pastor, I do more preaching than listening to preachers.  But when I have the opportunity to hear from my colleagues, I find myself troubled by how many sermons start out and then go nowhere, taking 20-30 minutes to arrive at their destination.

The result is people who are bored or confused or ignorant of the Word.  And the result is that people who need the milk of the Word get the truth even more watered down. And those who  need meat never find it in the fast food of shallow obscure messages.

The call to preach and the opportunity to preach are a tremendous privilege.  You get to stand in that "spotlight: as the spokesman of the Living God. Out of your mouth can comes the wonderful words of life.

Too bad when so much of it is garbled by sermons that leave you asking, "Where is this going?"

Can I offer you a seven-letter homiletics lesson?

P - R - E - P - A - R - E

Is that direct enough?

When we prepare, let us remember we are preparing the way for the Word of the Lord.  Winging it as a pattern for your pulpit is a sin.

P - R - E - P - A - R -E

Those of you who understand this, I'd love to hear what you have learned is involved in preparation.

(C) 2012 by Stephen L Dunn

PREACHING CARTOONS

AND NOW THEY CAN HEAR

  Danny Dodd posts a blog called ADVENTURES IN PREACHING.  Written a year ago, his words speal to the challenge and task of preaching a fall and consumeristic world. - STEVE

There is tension in the pews.

Marriages are crumbling.  Jobs have been lost. A sister is lonely. Someone’s health is failing. A brother is fighting an addiction. Depression is damaging a relationship. A believer is not sure he believes anymore. A teen wonders why her parents do not understand her.

Every preacher realizes the task facing him each Sunday- and he hurts with his church family. He carries within him the burden of trying to speak a word of help and hope- of grace and truth- to this tension.

Often, there is another type of tension in the pews.  This concerns the preacher himself.  He is aware of it too.
He is not experienced enough (read too young). He is not energetic enough (read too old). He needs to preach deeper sermons. His sermons are too deep. He needs more passion. He needs to be more entertaining. He is too dry. He tells too many stories. He is too liberal. He is too conservative.

The preacher hurts over this tension also- but it is a personal and quiet hurt. And if he is conscientious does try to sort through this tension too and work to address it as best he can understanding, however, that he cannot be everything everyone always wants him to be.


This is nothing new.

The Apostle Paul knew this tension in his ministry. Imagine facing the issues that defined the church in Corinth! Their immaturity, immorality, divisiveness, doctrinal and worship issues would challenge any preacher. Add to this mix the fact that- some at least- within this church were disappointed in the message that had been preached. They somehow had expected something more spectacular.

“God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe” was Paul’s reply to that (1 Corinthians 1:21).

Further, it just wasn’t preaching in general they struggled with- it was Paul specifically. Apollos was more eloquent (a given- Acts 18:25). Peter was more dynamic (not hard to imagine Peter being dramatic). And Christ well who can compare to him? (See 1:12)

As he felt the sting of this tension he replied:

When I came to you brothers, I did not come with eloquence or superior wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. I came to you in weakness and fear, and with much trembling. My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, so that your faith might not rest on men’s wisdom, but on God’s power.  (2:1-5)

Preachers come in all shapes, sizes and giftedness. For most of us- it is an adventuresome life calling. It is not just what we do, it is who we are. Our lives are irrevocably connected and intertwined with the church we serve.

We all can relate to Paul’s words. Preaching “Christ and him crucified”- that is our aim too. Leading people to resting their faith on God’s wisdom is also our goal.

That is why we do what we do- tension and all.

How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?  (Romans 10:14)