A Preaching Overhaul

I sat back and just watched the collision. I didn’t see it coming.

BANG!

There it was. It just happened. And I am glad it did!


That’s how it is when God orchestrates his will in my life.

Lately, I have been discontented with my teaching/preaching. Sometimes I have been hit or miss, mostly miss in my view. This past week was no exception.

In order to further some self examination I did three things: started to think through why and how I preach, started listening to someone else’s sermons (one a day for the past 3 days) and I bought a book on preaching (Yes, another one!).

Accident Report:

Car#1: Thoughts In My Head
As I was wondering why I have struggled in my preaching, it dawned on me I like to teach and explain Scripture. This is really not new information for me. I have had the same purpose statement for 10 years which states, “I exist to make the gospel of Jesus Christ as simple to understand has possible.” What shocked me is preaching that is only teaching and explaining is merely relocation of data and facts. Which I like, enjoy and am good at.

But with this goal, I knew some things were missing. I kept asking:
-Why did people need to know what I was telling them?
-What were they to do with it when they heard it?
I had to shoehorn the answers to these questions into my sermons because they did not naturally fit on their own.
What was I going to do about this?

Car#2: Listening To Someone Else
Wanting to see how someone else did it, I starting listening to another preacher’s sermons this week. This is not unusually for me, but this week I chose new preacher to listen to.
Their style and format rekindled some almost forgotten ideas for me. I was challenged to select a pattern or guide to follow in my preaching. I got excited looking forward to the next time I could preach again instead of lamenting the previous week's train wreck. Listening to this other preacher kind of ended my pity party and got me thinking.

Car#3: Seek Advice
A few weeks back I found a blog called, “Biblical Preaching.” On the blog the owner offers his “must-reads for preachers.” Most of the books I have already read or have studied with the author or both. However, there was one that caught my eye. The last Teaching Pastor at The Next Level Church was a fan of Andy Stanley. So, having never read any of his books or heard any of his sermons I chose his book, “Communication for Change: Seven Keys to Irresistible Communication” from the blogger’s list.

It was while reading this book that the collision occurred. You see one of Stanley’s keys, the first as matter of fact, states, “Pick a point.” At first I started to think his application of this key was only akin to Robinson “Big Idea” or Chapell’s “Fallen Condition Focus,” but I was wrong. Stanley’s key is exactly like Robinson’s Big Idea, but this is only the micro view of it. The macro view is determining the goal of communicating in the first place, not just for a sermon or a series.

Stanley points out there are three kinds of goal for preaching:

1. Teaching the Bible to people: the goal here is to simply explain Scripture. CRASH!
This is ME! No application is needed with this goal. It is all about transfer of information!

2. Teaching people the Bible: the goal here is to effectively imparting Biblical truth into the mind and hearts of the hearers.

3. Life Change: the goal here is to teach people how to live a life that reflects the values, principles and truths of the Bible.

After reading this I sat back and watched the debris scatter.

Even though my preaching was connected to my goal, even though I was doing exactly what I set out to do, even though my preaching was absolutely consistent with my stated purpose, I was only teaching and explaining Scripture! I have only been transferring information. No wonder need and application have been missing.

So, I started crafting another goal for my communication. One that focuses, not on what I like or enjoy, but on the goal of the Scriptures I am called to preach.

Better hurry, Tuesday com’n!