Preaching That Works

          Adam Hamilton, pastor of Church of the Resurrection, gave a lecture that was by far the most practical and helpful of the week. He called it, "Preaching That Works" and gave several suggestions on how to improve our preaching. I resonated with almost all of them. Just in case they are helpful to anyone else, here's what I learned from Adam Hamilton (which I'm sure can be found in some of the many books he's written but it was easier to learn these in a one hour lecture than in reading a book.)

          Kierkegaard the philosopher said we should preach with fear and trembling, but that shouldn't paralyze us. If God can speak through Balaam's ass, God can speak through you and me. The Spirit works despite those Sundays we feel completely inadequate or unprepared. Preaching is about giving it our all, our best, and then leaving the rest to God. When we don't spend enough time in prayer, we can often feel the difference in our preaching. We know how to write a sermon, but it's not about our work or our word in the end so we rely on prayer and the Holy Spirit.

          The sermon we live is the most important one of all. Be authentic. Be vulnerable. Be honest about your struggles and fears. Don't use preaching for self-therapy but also don't act like you are any better than anyone else. After all, we wouldn't need the gospel if we were perfect.

          Be clear about your MVP: mission, vision, and plan. Make sure the church is clear about its MVP and then allow the preaching moment to reinforce the direction the church is going in. Have a one or two year preaching plan. Hamilton takes one week a year away to plan out the next year's worth of sermons with input from the congregation. What are you trying to accomplish through your preaching? Be clear about your goals and create a long term plan.

          Every sermon should have 3 aims: the head, the heart, the hands. We should be biblically informed, spiritually transformed, and serving God in the world. Make sure they learn at least one thing through every sermon. Make sure they feel inspired, motivated, uplifted. Make sure they are challenged to do something specific as a result of the message, living it out in their own lives.

          Keep in mind the 5 categories of sermons. 1. Fishing sermons geared toward seekers. 2. Discipleship sermons helping people go deeper in their faith. 3. Pastoral Care sermons to care for and nurture people. 4. Equipping and Sending sermons to encourage people to share God's love with others. 5. Strengthening the Church sermons that focus more on the church itself. Try to keep a good balance of all five of these different kinds of sermon series throughout the year.

          Preaching on difficult subjects: be faithful to each side. Carefully articulate each side of an issue and respect those who differ. Share your perspective with humility and love. Begin with, "This is where I am today on this topic." or "I may be wrong but..." Keep in balance the prophetic and the pastoral when preaching on controversial issues.

          My hope is that people leave more authentically human than when they came.

          Preaching can begin with a text and apply it to life today. Another way is to start with a life question and then apply the biblical witness to it. Both are effective ways to preach, although Jesus seemed to lean toward the latter in his preaching and many in our culture today do also.

          Understand where people are on the discipleship pyramid. If Christ is at the top of the pyramid and is our aim in the Christian life, about 10% of the congregation has almost reached it. These are the saints, the ones who are the closest to living like Jesus. The next 20% are the leaders. They are always at the church, giving of their time, talent, and treasure, and are invested in the church. The next tier down makes up 30% of the people, people who are trying but still struggle. They come to worship most of the time but might not be involved in anything else. The bottom of the pyramid makes up 40% of the congregation, the people that come three or four times a year or when it's convenient. We have to preach to all four levels, but mostly to the 40%. We can't assume they know scripture or the context or history of biblical stories. We must preach with a heavy teaching component so many can get caught up in their biblical background knowledge. Don't just preach to the top one or two tiers of Christians. Make your preaching accessible to all. 

          Capitalize on special holidays like Mother's and Father's Day with a special sermon, give away, or personal invitation to a special activity during or after church.

          Illustrations and stories are your bread and butter. It's the stories that make the sermon. Spend time looking for powerful and compelling illustrations for the message. Your own family, people in the congregation, and every day life are great places to look. Be on the look out constantly for great stories/examples.

          Give aways are an effective way of reinforcing the sermon and helping people put it into action. A magnet, memory card, coin, rock, or shower tag are all ways that people can take something tangible with them to remember the point of the sermon and to encourage them to live the message. These give aways become a reminder of the message so it stays with them longer.

          Of course there are no magic answers or formulas to great sermons, but I found all of these tips and suggestions to be helpful as I look forward to my next preaching opportunity. There is always room to grow and improve upon one's gifts. I'm thankful for these tidbits of wisdom as I continually and intentional seek to grow in my preaching abilities.

Swirling Nuggets of Wisdom

          On my last trip to Chuck E Cheese I had the honor of accompanying my newly turned six year old into the ticket blaster machine. After putting on safety glasses, my son and I stepped into this capsule. In a matter of one minute we were bombarded with flying tickets swirling around us and had to grab as many as we could as onlookers stopped to watch this frantic scenario. It was stressful to have so many valuable tickets coming at me and helplessly trying to capture as many as possible. 

          The Festival of Homiletics is like trying to grab as many valuable nuggets as possible swirling around me in a finite amount of time. It's both rewarding and stressful to try to capture all these pieces of wisdom, truth, and advice for the preaching moment. And then there is the challenge of sharing these various nuggets with those who have not had this experience. 

          Tuesday was a twelve hour day of lectures and worship, each one teaching and enriching my personal, pastoral, and preaching life. What a rich and overwhelming diet to feast upon! Here are some nuggets I was able to catch as they were swirling by:

          We feasted upon the first miracle of Jesus at Cana and how even God needed a mom to encourage him at age 30 to fulfill his purpose in this world. Preachers are like parents, offering courage and hope to a congregation hesitant to fulfill their purpose in the world. Mothers and preachers know what their children and congregation are capable of and so nudge and push them saying, "You can do this!" We remind them who God calls them to be and give them the support and courage to be it. 

          Your people will make you into the pastor they need you to be. 

          We preach from our scars but not our wounds.

          Before we can know the Good News about a text, we need to be clear what the bad news is, what is the text convicting me of. Dig deep and be vulnerable and honest. 

          In prophetic preaching, we must first expose and then envision. Exposing without envisioning leaves us in despair. Envisioning without exposing leaves us with no motivation to change. For example, we must first expose our racist society before we can envision the sacred work of reconciliation we are called to do as God's people.

          At some point the community context cries out to be addressed from the pulpit. We cannot ignore the world around us. We cannot ignore the evil in the world. Preaching must address pertinent issues like racism in the face of Ferguson, New York, and Baltimore.

          We were told through Nehemiah 8:1-12 to Lawyer up when we approach the pulpit. Scripture gets people upset and the temptation is to soften it. But if we are not getting run out of town then we probably aren't preaching Jesus. God's Word puts us all on trial. Preach God's uncomfortable Word, not what people want to hear.

          And in the evening, just to put our ego in check, we heard, "Consider your call. Not many of you are wise or powerful or of noble birth, but God chose what is foolish to shame the wise. God chose what is low and despised, so that no one might boast. God chose you."

          My husband told me to enjoy my vacation this week. After a long twelve hour day and 7 1/2 pages of single spaced notes, it is anything but a vacation. Rather it's an intense learning, growing, challenging, nourishing experience to mold me into a more faithful messenger of God's Word. Speak Lord, for your servant is listening.