The Center for Healthy Churches & PneuMatrix

Tag: sermon

  • Tantalus, the Search for Perfection, and Grace

    Tantalus, the Search for Perfection, and Grace

    My education in preaching aligns with the tradition of excellence in manuscripts.  It is the tradition of the crafted phrase and the choice of the perfect word at the perfect time.  It is the tradition which includes Fosdick, Buttrick, and Claypool. 

    After using an electric typewriter for a few years, I graduated to word processing – on a Commodore 64.  I remember the absolute marvel I felt the first time I cut and pasted dotted-green letters on the screen and pasted them into another point in the sermon where I thought they were better suited. 

    It was a significant milestone on my quest for the holy grail – the perfect sermon.  The flawless manuscript delivered perfectly.  One where I included everything in the pulpit that had been on paper, in the order it was written.  Nothing left out.  A sermon where I anticipated the illustrations or quotations offered by church members at the door. A sermon that said it all and said it well.

    I keep every preached sermon in a file folder with all the research that went into its writing.  Almost every sermon had notes and file clippings added to the folder AFTER the preaching – in the hopes that if I ever tried to massage it into condition suitable for publication – I would have the all the material to make it a perfect sermon.

    After forty years of trying, I still have not written, nor have I preached the exact sermon that I planned during the week.   No matter how captivating I think the idea is, no matter how good or how powerful the illustrations seem to me, no matter how profoundly I think have explained the text, all my sermons leave something out. Like the sentence crafted in the study, but forgotten in the preaching moment.  The story found in the Sunday paper after the sermon was preached, but would have made a much better introduction.  The new understanding of a text which rendered all my past sermons on that text pointless.  Perfection has always been beyond my reach.

    I often felt as Tantalus must have felt.  You remember Tantalus.  He is the famous figure in Greek mythology, a half human son of Zeus who was uniquely favored among mortals, but he committed a crime related to food.  The stories vary as to what he did.  Whatever his crime, Tantalus was punished by being “tantalized” with hunger and thirst in the afterlife. He was immersed up to his neck in water, but whenever he bent to drink, it all drained away.  Luscious fruit hung on trees above him, but whenever he reached for it, the winds blew the branches where he could not grasp the fruit.  The myth says he starved and thirsted for eternity, with satisfaction just out of reach. Just as the perfect sermon is out of reach.

    Then I read a quotation from an artist who said, “I used to strive for beauty.  Now I strive for life.”  I saw a parallel between seeking beauty and perfection.  I quite striving for the perfect sermon – since I wasn’t going to write it anyway.  I started placing a priority on life.

    I engaged the congregation more.  I no longer focused on the words, the outline, or that manuscript.  I focused on the people, the lives they lead, and the faith to which they aspire.  It was freeing.  The result was that the sermon seemed more alive to me.

    The manuscript became a discipline for preparation, not a master.  I left it in the study after reducing all my preparation to as few notes as possible. I became comfortable when, during the preaching moment, I left out illustrations that seemed important or forgot phrases I had worked hard to craft.  I accepted that they were part of the preparation of myself, but not the sermon as it was preached. 

    There is no task into which ministers inject more of themselves than preaching.  Consequently, preparation styles are personal, with each of us using the methods that work best for ourselves.  Whatever your method, my advice is to work hard.  Prepare well.  But ask yourself if the congregation will recognize their lives in the message? Will they see how the Bible relates to their lives?   

    If the answers to these questions are “yes” and you’ve prepared well enough, forget about perfection, put the manuscript aside and trust the Spirit.  Perhaps you will experience the grace of reclaiming the joy of your calling.   

  • It’s Not Just A Sermon

    It’s Not Just A Sermon

    Most ministers, particularly those who have studied to be pastors, took at least one course in seminary on preaching.  That class time covered using the Bible, sermon structure, and delivery.  A few hours of these classes also discussed how to plan preaching, but, by necessity, the majority of class time focused on the sermon.  Grades in those classes reflected how well students wrote and delivered a message.  Class time and grades left many with the assumption that preaching is primarily about the sermon.  Individual sermons, however, are simply the starting place for ministers who deliver a message each week.  There is more to preaching than crafting a sermon. 

    Preaching is Also a Relationship 

    A member of a nearby church once said to me, “Our preacher is better than when she came to us.”  After passing the ten-year mark at a church, a pastor friend once said to me, “I’m glad I’ve been here long enough that I don’t have to explain myself anymore.” Both comments are about relationships. Most pastors find it easier to preach to their own congregation and congregations listen better to their own pastor as people know him or her better.  Hopefully, we all improve over time.  Yet, I believe that, when members comment on how a pastor has developed, a significant part of that development comes from a relationship that grows. 

    While time is one essential ingredient for stronger relationships, another is effort.  We must learn names as early as possible in a new ministry.  We must visit people where they work, live, play, and shop.  We need to read the local paper and know what is happening in the community.  I heard of a pastor who positioned himself in the organ pipe chamber each Sunday before worship.  He noted who entered and prayed for each one until it was time for worship to begin. Invisible to the congregation, he was learning who they were and prayed for what they needed.  He worked to grow the relationship.  

    Understanding preaching as relationship also affects our delivery.  How do you feel when a friend won’t make eye contact when they speak to you? Maybe the congregation feels the same way when we look down instead of looking at them.  Look up at those in the room when you preach.  Constantly looking at the carefully crafted manuscript tells the people it is more important than they are.  Make eye contact with the people you love.  

    Preaching is Also a Ministry

    For years, I struggled with the need to preach the perfect sermon.  It always seemed that during the week after a particular message, I discovered an illustration or insight that would have made the sermon better.  I saved notes on these new discoveries in a file folder I assigned that particular sermon.  If I ever preached it again, I could add it to the message.  Maybe with this addition, the sermon would be complete.  My focus was on each, single sermon.  

    As important as each sermon is, any single message is only a small part of our overall preaching ministry. Realizing this fact can be liberating. It is okay that we will never preach the perfect sermon on grace or the Prodigal Son.  More study can make any sermon better.  But no amount of study for this week’s message can uncover every scrap of material needed to make it the last word on the subject.  Surely, we all hope that we know more about scripture and theology in the future than we do today.   Hopefully we grow more, learn more and have additional sermons yet to preach on any given passage.  This week’s sermon is not the crown of our preaching ministry.  No single sermon is.     

    The material found too late for last Sunday’s message, however, can be fodder for the next time we preach on the same passage.  We don’t have to say everything about grace, or judgement, or discipleship this week. But, perhaps over time we can say enough about any of these subjects to get the message across.  

    Our deepest hope is that the body of work from all our sermons lead the congregation to deeper faith. Preaching is about the cumulative impact of years of sermons, not any single message. It’s a ministry, not just a sermon. 

    CHC Preaching Coaches

    A preaching coach can help you discover the places you would like to grow in your ministry.  The Center for Healthy Churches offers Preaching Coaches who tailor their work to help you in the areas most important to you. Whether you want to write better, deliver more effectively, plan more comprehensively, or uncover ways to identity with your members, a coach can help you reach your goals.
     
    If you want to explore the possibilities of using a CHC Preaching Coach, email our coordinator Dr. Chuck Bugg to talk about areas of your preaching ministry that you want to explore and grow.  

  • How to ruin a sermon

    Healthy churches are marked by engaging worship. Engaging worship is nearly always marked by excellent preaching.  Good preaching comes in a myriad of forms in a multitude of settings. Don’t let anyone fool you: there is no one way to preach a sermon, as the diversity of styles that have developed over the last two thousand years attest. There are, however, common traits that mark excellent preaching regardless of style or setting.

    Ask nearly any group of congregation members who regularly listen to sermons what they appreciate most about good preaching.  Go ahead, if you dare. Most ministers are quite afraid to ask, for fear that what we deliver on a weekly basis is missing the mark.

    However, I think you might find something at the top of the list that is not necessarily threatening nor insurmountable. Heading the list in most of these types of surveys is not doctrinal purity, accurate biblical exegesis, or intellectual insight. While all of these are important components of excellent preaching, what most often tops the chart is something more human.

    It is the ability to inspire. Good preaching is, first of all, inspirational.

    To inspire is, literally, to breath life into something. Good preaching breathes life into individuals, groups and congregations. Good preaching motivates and encourages us to act. Good preaching empowers us, under the leadership of the Spirit, to aspire to become more of the person God intends us to be.

    It may be shouted or whispered. It may be lengthy or brief. It may be delivered in an academic gown or by someone wearing tennis shoes. The preacher may have multiple degrees or still be in high school. The variables are endless.

    However, in the end, if the sermon doesn’t move us, it has failed at a very pivotal point.

    Good preaching is no easy task in our culture. Multiple communication platforms make our methods seem outdated and outmoded. Culture seems to lure people away from the preaching event. Congregational life is demanding and time-consuming, leaving little time for adequate preparation. Clergy get weary in their well-doing and relegate preaching to left-over time and energy.

    What can a church do to encourage their ministers toward excellence in the pulpit?

    May I suggest an exercise that might help you breath life into your minister and their sermons? It is a technique called TRIZ, which is a hard-to-pronounce Russian acronym for inventive problem solving.

    A TRIZ conversation begins with this question: “What can we do to reliably get the very worst results imaginable?” Participants then brainstorm imaginative and effective ways of producing something horrible. Using this method, imagine gathering a group of church members together and asking: “What are some things we can do that would virtually assure that we would have terrible preaching on a weekly basis?”

    I would imagine a Top-Ten List might include items such as:

    1. Complain. Regularly. About anything and everything.
    2. Do little to no planning for a cohesive worship service.
    3. Never allow your minister to read, pray, or spend time studying scripture.
    4. Insist that your minister attend to every minor administrative or pastoral detail during the week, thus assuring that the weightier matter of preaching is neglected.
    5. Come to worship unprepared, weary and distracted.
    6. Critique your pastor’s sermons harshly, preferably at the door as you leave.
    7. Unfavorably compare your pastor constantly to your favorite preacher.
    8. Require sermons that are at least ten minutes longer than their content merits.
    9. Have regular HVAC issues, problems with the sound system, and a variety of other technical problems.
    10. Make sure all cell phones are on and actively used during the sermon.

    Now, with your list in mind, try asking: “what can we do to promote more positive results?”

    Again, I can imagine something like:

    1. Create an expectation that your pastor devote substantial time to sermon preparation, even if it means they cannot attend to all aspects of administration or meet everyone’s expectations for personal appearances.
    2. Work hard to create coherence in the worship theme and coordinate all elements of the service.
    3. Invite your congregation to expectantly approach worship as a divine encounter, in prayerful humility and awe. Come expecting to be inspired and changed.
    4. Pray for and affirm you minister at every opportunity.
    5. Allow and pay for your pastor’s time away for continuing education, planning, and conferencing that energizes and encourages.
    6. Prepare the space and facility so that worship is enhanced by its surroundings, never forgetting that the agenda is the worship of God, not décor or technology.

    You get the idea. Inspiration doesn’t just happen. It is the powerful mix of a dynamic God, a willing earthen vessel, and a congregation that hungers for the Word of Life. When those come together, it makes for an inspiring day of worship!

    Creative Commons License
    BillWilsonCCH by Bill Wilson is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.
    Based on a work at www.healthychurch.org