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PREACHING THE WEEK OF A NATIONAL TRAGEDY

From Sam Rainer comes this timely post:

Our hearts break for the people of Boston. It’s a tragedy we all feel. Like me, I am assuming you are captivated by the unfolding events of this story. Our church set aside time last Wednesday to pray for churches in Boston. No one questioned why, even though my congregation had no personal connection to the pastors or churches. In silent agreement we all prayed corporately.

Last week I reworked my sermon to address the Gosnell trial. This week I am addressing the Boston bombings. While not every story in the 24-hour news cycle deserves attention in the pulpit, I believe these tragedies warrant the collective attention of my church. Some local tragedies become national tragedies affecting the ethos of an entire nation. It’s rare to address two tragedies in two weeks, but it is important to do so. I believe every pastor in every pulpit should discuss these tragedies. Here’s why.

National tragedies can arouse fear in the people of your community. A gloomy anxiety can cloud a community, even one far removed from the tragedy geographically. My church is in Cookeville, TN, and though our town was not shaken in the same way as Boston, we still felt the horror. Some events simply transcend geography. Don’t let geographic distance be the reason for not preaching about the tragedy in your local pulpit. The tone of leadership helps determine the tone of culture, especially in times of crisis. It’s the same in your church. Your tone in the pulpit will help shape the tone of your congregation.

The people in your congregation need to hear their local pastor’s response to a national tragedy. TV interviews with experts are not enough for your people. The president’s speech (if given) is not the same as the spiritual response of a local pastor. In a time of crisis—national or local—people are hungry for leadership. Ignoring the gravity of something like the Boston bombings only adds to the weight people feel. Most likely, the people in your church this Sunday will expect you to speak to the tragedy. If you neglect the issue in the pulpit, then you risk confusing people. These types of tragedies create a need to dialogue about them. Avoiding the tragedy in the pulpit is tantamount to not giving food to a starving person before sharing the gospel. The distinction is merely one of emotional or physical; either way people are starving for a response.

In our digital age, people need the personal interaction of a local pastor. The instantaneous nature of news means most of your people are expecting a response this week. It’s a cultural expectation. To be culturally relevant pastors must be quick in their responses. Any person can get every detail available about these tragedies. Graphic scenes are accessible to the casual Internet reader. An overabundance of information assaults us through the cable box. We ask for it, and we get every bit and byte in raw form. The mind becomes numb to the never-ending “breaking” news. The best place to unthaw frozen emotions is through the life and work of the local church. This process should obviously happen in small group settings, but it also needs to occur in larger worship settings. What the pastor speaks to in the pulpit validates and reinforces what occurs in small groups. Don’t leave the burden of discussing tragedy to your small group leaders. Guide everyone in your church through a national tragedy by addressing it in your sermon.

Again, not every news story warrants time in your sermon. The evil of Gosnell and the evil of the Boston bombings, however, must be addressed. As a leader, you are a part of the healing process. It’s a critical function of spiritual leadership. The power of the pulpit must be used to demonstrate how what fallen people mean for evil God can use for good.

HOW MUCH TIME SHOULD A PASTOR SPEND PREPARING A SERMON?

This is from an excellent blog by Charles Stone

How much time should a pastor spend preparing a sermon?

Recently I watched a video where a rather famous pastor answered that question. His response, "I study and read all the time and it takes me about one to two hours to put a sermon together."

Yikes! When I heard that I felt guilty because there's no way I can prepare a sermon that quickly. I'm sure this pastor's heart was right, but I wish he had qualified himself more. I doubt very many of us are that speedy.

In Haddon Robinson's book, Biblical Sermons, he wrote that experienced preachers he surveyed spent an average of 16 hours preparing. That sounds more like it to me. That's probably my average and I've been preaching for 25 years.

So, how much time should you spend? It depends.

It depends on...

1. how long you've been in ministry. If you been in ministry several years, you have a backlog of study material. If you haven't you will probably need to set aside more study time. I did in my early ministry years.


2. how well you've kept your previous study notes, sermons, and materials upon which to refer back


3. how well you manage your time


4. what's happening around you. Sometimes unexpected family and ministry demands arise that require our time that we other wise would have spent on sermon prep. No need to wallow in guilt when that happens


5. your personality...some pastors have the gift of gab and can 'make up stuff on the fly' :), some of us don't; some personalities require the preacher to process what he wants to say more thoroughly

Here are a few thoughts to consider as you answer this question for yourself.

1. Schedule your study and prep time during your best, most alert hours.


2. Set reasonable expectations. An hour or two is too little time for most just as 35 hours is probably too much


3. Use computer tools readily available. I own a Mac and use both Accordance and Logos. I rarely use paper books. These tools have made my study time more efficient.


4. Trust God to use your faithful preparation. Seldom do ministry demands allow us to study as much as we'd like. We must do our best and trust the Holy Spirit to fill in the gaps.

IMPOSSIBLE APPLICATION 2

more from BIBLICAL PREACHING

Impossible Application 2

So how do we present practical application without promoting an outside-to-in simplistic copyism in the church?  Yesterday we started by stating that the human fleshly tendency will be to perform in order to maintain autonomous distance from God.  Furthermore we added that practical preaching can give people lists of things to do, but not address the heart issue.  Continuing on . . .

3. Heart transformation is not something listeners can self-generate, neither is it something we can force on folks.  Actually, if it is about response, then the burden is on us to offer Christ and the gospel so compellingly that perhaps some might respond.  This means that we don’t simplify our view of preaching to explanation separate from application, for it is in the explanation that hearts should be stirred for the application.

4. Listeners have a sensitivity to the integration of the preacher.  That is, whether the explanation we offer has obviously marked our lives from the inside-out.  Listeners don’t just look for conformity to our own lists of practical applications, they sense the importance of heart change in the truths of what we say.  If we don’t have a vibrant and real walk with Christ, then the practical application content will be meaningless.

5. Take the opportunity afforded by practical applications to drip-feed a critique of copy-ism and do-ism.  Over time, week after week, perhaps people will start to sense the difference between writing a list and trying to live up to it, as opposed to a from-the-heart response to the grace of God in Christ.  Grace truly transforms values and therefore behaviour.  Part of our task is to make sure we don’t reinforce the post-Genesis 3 notion that informed choices will lead to success in our performance before, but distant from, God.

6. Reinforce that it is possible to perform without being transformed.  The Pharisees should helpfully haunt churchy types like us.  It is possible to look really good on the outside, but God wants to transform us from the inside.  Perhaps we settle too easily for conformity to church social mores, rather than having appetites whetted for the wonder and glorious privilege of knowing God in Christ.  If listeners don’t pick up that possibility from the preaching they hear, where will they develop such an appetite?

IMPOSSIBLE APPLICATION

from Biblical Preaching

Impossible Application

As we preach the Bible we have to make sure we don’t simply offer historical and theological instruction.  Part of our responsibility is to present what difference the message should make in a life.  We need to give a sense of what this truth looks like dressed up in everyday clothes.  But therein lies a challenge.

How do we present practical application without promoting an outside-to-in simplistic copyism in the church?  Here are some thoughts:

1. The human fleshly tendency will be to perform in order to maintain autonomous distance from God.  I know that we tend to think of fleshliness as rebellion alone, but we need to see how the flesh can also play up to a religious role.  The essential impulse remains the same as it did in Genesis 3 – I can be like God.  This is why we need to be so careful in our preaching.  Simply pounding the pulpit and demanding greater morality does not avoid the problem of rebels becoming religious, but still keeping God at arms length.  The older son in Luke 15 matched his brother in viewing the father as employer and purveyor of benefits, and went beyond his brother in resisting the father’s extreme desire for relationship.

2. Practical preaching can give people lists of things to do, but not address the heart issue.  Notice that I wrote that it can, not that it must always do that.  I think preaching should be practical.  But if we think that adding practical suggestions to historical explanation amounts to good expository preaching, then we know neither our Bibles nor our listeners very well.  We need more than practical instruction.  We need heart transformation.  And that requires an awareness of the difference between response and responsibility.  Consistently presenting responsibility to people will not auto-generate any sort of responsiveness in people.

I will continue the list tomorrow…

COTTON CANDY PREACHING

This is an excellent article from Charles Stone. - Steve

Cotton Candy Preaching: Why Pastors Should Learn to Preach that Way

The phrase “cotton candy preaching” is a derogatory term that implies sermons lack depth. And of course no pastor wants to be considered a “cotton candy preacher.” On the other hand I’ve heard pastors say that Christians need “meat and potatoes” preaching which they define as sermons with depth. Such pastors often begin their sermons with, “Please turn in your Bibles to today’s text.” Once they read the Scripture, they’re off to the races to give a deep, theological sermon, a meat and potatoes kind.

But after spending 15-20 hours per week preparing a sermon, how do we really know if it connected with the listener? Is the test of a good sermon simply that we delivered a deep, theological, sound talk? Is it all about good content? Is it up to the listener to get it and figure out how it applies to his or her life? Or is this the true test of a great sermon: that we truly connect to the listener’s heart and mind so that the Holy Spirit changes attitudes and behaviors?
I think it’s the latter. That’s where cotton candy preaching comes in.

In my current masters program I’m completing on the neuroscience of leadership, also called neuroleadership, I’m learning how important the brain plays in persuading others to change. In my 32 years in ministry I’ve faced my share of critics. Some have said that my sermons were too heady and that they didn’t connect with the heart. I’ve been puzzled why I seemed to get those comments. Now I understand why.

The old sage Aristotle helped us when he described three domains that affect persuasion (and preaching).

1. Logos: persuasion through reasoning and logic.
2. Pathos: persuasion by appealing to emotions.
3. Ethos: persuasion through the force of character or personality of the speaker or writer.

People in your congregation are largely persuaded through these factors. Either reasoning or emotion moves them. I tend to be more of a thinker, so I’m persuaded more by thoughtful, reasoned sermons rather than ones that I might classify as cotton candy. I’ve tended to be more of a meat and potatoes preacher. But I’m in the minority because emotions persuade many more people than does logic. Think about TV commercials. Most commercials don’t list the benefits of their products. They tell a story or evoke emotion or move the heart. Dodge Ram’s God Made a Farmer  commercial in this year’s super bowl with Paul Harvey beautifully illustrates how emotion moves the heart. I tear up every time I watch the commercial, yet it does not lack depth.

I had received those criticisms I just mentioned because I had crafted my sermons to avoid being pegged a cotton candy preacher. But I now realize that for any meat and potatoes sermon to stick, we must incorporate some cotton candy techniques, those that we may think don’t contribute much to a message’s depth.

Consider these cotton candy preaching ideas the next time you prepare and deliver a sermon.

• Remember that because most of the people in your congregation came from hectic and difficult weeks, they aren’t in a mindset to listen to you. It’s your job to help them get ready, along with the other elements of the service.
• During the week live a life of integrity and authenticity. Love people and spend time with them so that your ethos works on your behalf. People must believe you are a credible person before they will believe you have a credible message.
• Start your message with pathos and then move to logos. Use emotion, within reason, because it grabs attention. Remember, nothing is learned that is not paid attention to.
• Use novelty. The brain loves novelty (Eide, 2006). Start, illustrate, and deliver your sermons creatively. Don’t become so predictable that people can guess what you’re going to do next.
• Use humor. Humor makes people feel good and when they feel good they learn more.
• Make sure you provide lots of application. Neuroscience tells us that self-referent information (that which we can apply to ourselves) is more easily learned and retained (Rogers, Kuiper, & Kirker, 1977). After all, we teach and preach so that God can take His Word to change people’s lives.
• Keep your messages simple. Less is often more.

What cotton candy ideas have worked in your preaching?

SERMON PLANNING

A simple bit of guidance from Artie Davis

If you don’t have your series and sermons planned out for 2013…you’re not alone! Many pastors and communicators wait until the last-minute to plan things out.

Let me share with you what we’re doing and I hope it can help you to not be a “crunch time” planner.

1) Preach through the Bible every year

- We read through the Bible as a church every year (We use Mariners Church condensed reading plan)
- It gives you the opportunity to tell the entire God-Story every year
- The first two quarters (Jan-Jun) go through the Old Testament
- The last two quarters (Jul-Dec) go through the New Testament

2) Use a spreadsheet to date all the Sundays

- Plan in advance for Sunday’s off
- Understand the importance of special days, i.e.,  MLK, Mothers day, etc.

3) Plan for series to run 4-6 weeks

- Start a new series the Sunday after Easter
- Start another new series the Sunday after Labor Day

4)  Answer these questions about each sermon

- What is the main Scripture
- What story will captivate and tie to the Scripture
- What is the main idea to be conveyed
- What is the “One Point” that will be memorable
These have been a tremendous help to us in planning our sermons series, especially preaching through the Bible every year. It has helped our church to stay on the “same page” every year.