# Whatever: Postmortem

This blog was always meant to die, that was part of its terms and conditions (see the title banner), but it wasn’t meant to phase into death, it was meant to switch, flash, jump into it.

Anyway, this is my attempt to redeem its inglorious demise with a crisper end. 

So, here are some reflections/report on the conference that has been and gone, which this blog was introducing: Xpose Preaching Conference, Preaching the Cross.

1. Numbers were up which was hugely encouraging (40-50 on Friday, 30-40 Sat). This means there will be an Xpose 2010.
2. The Speakers complemented each other well: Mikey the mini-Don Carson, Chappo the…the… completely original (you have to meet him!). Together they stretched our thinking and modeled the power of simplicity.
3. The vibe was really good: relaxed, speaker-centric, sit back and soak it up, great food.
4. I think we are attracting more of our target audience each year: inter-denominational, young punks wanting to preach & old  dudes wanting to raise up.
5. The sub-topics the speakers chose were excellent. Mikey’s lectures: “10 reflections on preaching the cross” and “Why have you forsaken me?” (pluming the depths of the God-man on the cross. Juicy stuff indeed). Chappo’s lectures: “Preaching the Cross in the OT” and “Preaching…..in the NT”. They also delivered a sermon each modeling great  cross-preaching. 
6. Clearly I reckon we need conferences like xpose and I’m glad to say I think it has a future.

Criticisms:

1. Our ‘streams’ are not hitting the mark with everyone. I think we need to communicate more clearly what they are for so people know what to expect and how to make the most of them. 
2. Related to #1, the stream designed for complete novices needs to have some concrete, take home value. We are trying to avoid the whole “train, train, train” vibe with xpose, but for those just starting they probably need a bit of the super-practical, workshop-type input. 
3. The recording of the talks wasn’t done properly and was of poor quality. again!! 

This is all pretty general, but I hope it gives you an encouraging taste. 

Always open to suggestions about how to make a preaching conference rock, so suggest away.

Thanks for your prayers, comments and following this blog. It will be resurrected next year for Xpose 2010.

4.1

3. Preachers get in the way of God & the congregation when he distracts the congregation with illustrations and stories and jokes that don’t aid the meaning of the text being preached.

4. Preachers get in the way when they don’t prepare. Lack of preparation serves as another distraction

5. Preachers get in the way when they preach what they want rather than what the Bible is saying.

Number 4 Clarity – When the preacher gets in the way

Stu is away at Summit, so as the other half of the Xpose committee I’m throwing out a few thoughts. I have just finished preaching through 2 Timothy at Church. As Paul explains to Timothy the role of preaching, it’s clear that clarity and plainness is important. Preaching is purposed for those hearing the Word, that God might correct them, rebuke them and encourage them. And Timothy is to preach with patience and care – a call for clarity

That made me think, can a preacher speak the words of God faithfully and yet harm the communication process by himself getting in the way between God and the listener?

For example,
1) Personality. The preacher can exude so much personaility that he is a distraction from the words of God being spoken

2) Sterility. The preacher can so hide his personaility that he undermines the reality of what he is saying

Murray

5.1 Self Application

This is an obvious point but “I think it is right to refresh your memory as long as I live in the tent of this body”. And to add weight, I’ll let Packman say it for me:

The way we preach must display a transparent wholeheartedness of response to our own message, as well as thorough commitment to persuade our hearers to trust, love, honour and serve the lord as we ourselves seek to do. Constant self scrutiny is therefore required of preachers in particular, to make sure that our own hearts are right before we attempt to speak in the Lord’s name.

I find a constant temptation is to “challenge” hearers with God’s word when I generally find God’s word a refreshing, inspiring and gracious balm to my sinful soul. If I seriously reflected on how a sermon applies to me before I preached I reckon this grace might come out more.

NUMBER 5. Application

I love Cookie’s preaching pyramid when it comes to application. He has three categories:

1. The Impossible Application: This is what the passage cannot possibly mean. His theory is that many Christians live, paradoxically, with the impossible application and it’s good to put a finger on that. Example:  what can “..in all things God works for the good of those who love him” not mean? Well, it can not possibly mean that God has forgotten you cause thinks have turned crap, for instance. And yet, this is how we can easily feel when things do turn crap. It’s good to make this clear.
2. The Necessary Application: What this passage always means for all people. “God works for the good of those..” has an obvious “necessary” application: God is always working for the good of all christians.
3. The Possible Application: What this passage sometimes means. It may be that the “all things” passage is a rebuke to a Christian who is bitter toward God because they stubbornly refuse to trust him.  It may be that the “all things” passage is a comfort to some poor Christian who is trying really hard not to feel bitter toward God because they’ve been taught material and physical trials are sign God is unhappy with them, and they can’t understand why he’s unhappy with them.

These three categories have helped me think more carefully about application than I otherwise might.

The art of sincerity – prayer

I suppose we will all fail at this next point more than anywhere else; that is in the matter of prayer.  Read the biographies and autobiographies of the greatest preachers throughout the centuries and you will find that this has always been the great characteristic of their lives. They were always great men of prayer, and they spent considerable time in prayer…. These men found that is was absolutely essential, and that it became increasingly so as they went  on. – The Doctor, Preaching and Preachers.

Prayer is so important not only for our Christian lives but also for our lives as preachers.  I fail in this area so often.  The question I have had to ask myself lately is:  How can I expect people to believe I am sincere in my concern for them as I preach when I am not conerned enough to pray?

6.2 The art of sincerity – godliness

“The greatest need of my people is my personal holiness.” – Robert Murray McCheyne

How much weight does the life of the preacher add to his words?  Certainly, we know the damage that is done when a preacher is found to be sexually immoral, or stealing from the church, or abusing his wife, but we rarely reflect on how godliness adds weight to a mans words.  And yet:

- the Apostle Paul seems to add enormous amounts of weight to them.

1 Tim 4:16 - Watch your life and doctrine closely. Persevere in them, because if you do, you will save both yourself and your hearers.

Titus 2:9-10 – Teach slaves to be subject to their masters in everything, to try to please them, not to talk back to them, ¹⁰and not to steal from them, but to show that they can be fully trusted, so that in every way they will make the teaching about God our Savior attractive.

- anecdotally we know that a mans words are rarely the most persuasive thing about him.  The most persuasive thing is when his words are reflected in the way he lives.

6.1 The art of sincerity?

I have often sat under preachers who to me seem fake. Its always hard to put your finger on exactly why that is the case.

Here are a couple of things we need to grow out of as young preachers seeking to be authentic in a preaching (I say we because I am a still a young preacher – though the uni students at church think I am ancient).  Both I have been guilty of:

- Performance to pastoring.

Straight out of college or in training young the temptation after preaching a sermon is to think, “How did ‘I’ do?” This is natural enough. You want to preach well. But the difference is you want to preach well for the people God has placed under your care. Not for your own reputation as a preacher.

- Get rid of the high tone:

Young preachers, trying to find their voice, their style, often go for the high tone style – which is basically to speak at the same ‘high’ volume for the whole talk! I think the reason we do this is we want people to realise “He’s really excited about this passage” (or we want to have the same conviction / passion / sincerity we see in Piper or Chandler or one of those guys).  The problem is it is very easy to switch off to and no-one is convinced that you are more sincere because you speak louder.

- Sam

7.4 Last Minute Creativity is a Myth

Often preachers will say that the juices don’t start flowing till they are under a bit of pressure. They leave their sermon prep to the last minute so they work effectively etc.

I used to be one of them. But this approach is lazy and will generally hinder, not help, your sermon prep.

Being under pressure may make you feel like you are more productive and creative but is in fact an illusion. Sure, it cuts down on procrastination, but it also cuts down on the careful consideration of any complex issues that might arise, on thoughtful application, and it inhibits your most creative thoughts that bubble to the surface when your mind has space to really think.

If you don’t believe me, check out this article.

Of course, being disciplined enough to always allow unpressurised prep time has certainly alluded me. But it’s something I think all preachers should aim for.

7.3 Overcoming Writer’s Block

Once I had done my initial comprehension work on the text (exegesis), it used to take me about an hour or two to even start my sermon. I would be sitting there staring at the wall trying to think of the very best intro that would set the right trajectory for the talk and immediately grab attention. I was waiting for inspiration. And it didn’t end there, I would go  through the same process with every point I wrote.

Sometimes I would get severe writers block and be stuck for hours with a few blank lines waiting to be filled with just the write words. Other times the whole sermon would just pour out with relative ease.

Writing sermons will always involve hard work for anyone wanting to wrestle with the text and apply it effectively. But there are ways to make the process less painful.

When it comes to ‘writer’s block’, a watershed for me was learning to not stop and wait for inspiration. These days I just keep writing.  If I can’t think of an illustration, or an intro, or the ‘right’ way to express a certain point, I either leave it behind or quickly pen an approximation. I have found that just hammer the basic talk out as quickly as possible enormously helpful. Sometimes those difficult bits get axed once it’s finished anyway. And often, having done the whole talk, the block gets removed. Of course, it may still be there, in which case you just have to suck it up.

7.2 10 Hours Max

Is what David Jackman reckons. Any longer is too long.

I heard him say this at a presentation he was giving on preaching and was quite shocked- I’d always been told 15 hrs was pretty standard and that some preachers even took 20 hrs. I have spent over 30 before!

But I dig what he’s saying. Here are some cons to 15 hr  prep:

• It’s at least a quarter (for me it would equate to a third) of your working week!! It had better be a cracker to justify that much time in the study!
• It ends up being the total time (b/c it’s such a big chunk) I spend in private study of the word (excluding prep for Bible studies). For me, there is a qualitative difference in studying the word with the intent to write a sermon, and studying the word for it’s own sake.
• Many ministers struggle to find the 15 hrs they need. This tends to lead to long weeks, late nights, neglected families etc..
• It’s easy to waste 15 hrs. You don’t feel the pressure to work efficiently till the last few hours.

Roughly, my 10 hrs is broken up thus:

• 4 hrs exegesis (digging into the text- filling out that pyramid thingo)
• 4 hours ‘packaging’: writing the talk, reducing to note form and adding illustrations.
• 2 hrs practising delivery. I usually get through my entire talk twice before I get up to preach.

I getting there with the 10 hr thing- sometimes over, sometimes under- but I reckon it’s a good aim.

7.1 The Pyramid of Power

David Cook has devised this pyramid to help preachers prepare talks.

Some people don’t like it cause they reckon it’s a bit of a straight jacket which produces Cookie-cutter preachers. But I find it very effective in keeping me on the straight and narrow and not at all constraining. The idea is that you start at the bottom of the pyramid, filling in questions it asks of the passage, and work your way up. By the time you’ve finished, all the basic questions you need to ask of a Bible passage in order to preach faithfully will have been covered. Bonza! Then you just have to work out how to communicate it.

The book that contains this (How to Speak at Special Events) can be purchased here.

NUMBER 7. Power Prep

really I just mean “prep”. The “power” is there for sex appeal.

But even though prep may seem a little boring, nailing a good prep routine will move us a long way along the road to great preaching. And it’s a tough beast to negotiate. Chappo’s (John Chapman) famous for saying “The first fifty years are the hardest” and it is true, preparing a sermon is hard work.

So this week I want to reflect on my own prep routine and share what works for me. It may not work for you of course, but hopefully it will at least get you thinking in the right direction.

8.3 The Perfect Preaching Conference

This depends on the aim of the conference of course. But for one which is aiming to raise up preachers, here is what I reckon it needs to acheive:

1. Attract it’s target audience  (how I rate Xpose conference: 20/30)
2. Inspire young men and women to want to be preachers of God’s word (27/30)
3. Help them discern whether or not they ought to be preachers (7/10)
4. Equip them with the knowledge/resources to take the next step toward becoming a preacher (8/15)
5. Equip preachers with the knowledge/ resources to identify and train preachers (8/15)

So according to my weighted analysis (according to importance) xpose rates 70% on the stu-white-laboratory-tested perfect conference scale. Not too bad eh?

Hopefully in the next few years we’ll improve on #’s 1, 4 & 5. I’d love for us (the xpose team) to develop on line resources to counter these weaknesses. We also need better marketing I reckon.

This is all pretty subjective. What do youse think?

8.2 Can we ‘train’ preachers?

Yeah we can. I’m not contradicting myself or wanting a foot in both camps: the answer depends on what we are training preachers for.

If we think we can consistently produce great preachers through a structured training program, I think we are mistaken. If, on the otherhand, we believe we can consistently produce preachers with the right foundations on which to build great preaching, I think we are right.

We can train preachers to carefully handle the word of God, to understand what is meant by and the significance of exegesis and exposition. We can train preachers in the basics of public speaking. But this of course will not mechanistically produce great preachers.

8.1 Can we ‘train’ preachers?

I don’t think we can really. Most great preachers  just get there naturally.

What I reckon we can do, though, is expose as many young Christian men and women as possible to the very best of preaching. In attempting to be part of “raising up preachers for tomorrow”, modelling seems to be the key ingredient. By posing the question “can you preach?” and offering great examples, we are hoping to fan into flames what is already there.

Are we on the right track?

NUMBER 8. xposepreaching.com

This is a cheeky-monkey ‘essential’ and an unashamed plug. But that’s what this blog is all about.

In the last week we have got the on-line rego working properly (a few hassles with paypal), the brochures are done and on their way out: Rego season is open.

So this week I want to talk about training preachers, the values that underpin xpose, and what makes for a good preaching conference.

9.4 The CONS of Brevity

Brevity’s not the be all and end all:

1. It may be the sign of an ill prepared preach where you simply don’t have the substance to go more than 25 mins
2. It may feed a certain consumer culture in relation to preachers and preaching which is a huge step backwards
3. You may be a naturally engaging speaker who people would happily listen to for 35-40 mins, in which case you’re doing a disservice to your listeners stopping at 25.
4. You may be a start cold, begin to warm up around 30 mins kind of preacher. There is little indication these guys could preach beyond 25 mins till they actually do!
5. Sometimes it is true that a passage/subject cannot be served justice under 30 mins.

**Best to assume #3 & 4 does not apply to you until you are positive it does.

9.3 The PROS of Brevity

(Generally) I think the advantages are:

1. Forces you to stick to the point and cuts down unnecessary Bible flipping
2. Makes you think a little more about your phrases and words
3. People are more willing to listen and work with you
4. Means you a more likely to end well cause the whole talk is neater and cleaner
5. Enhances clarity which can make even an ordinary orator quite engaging
6. Conveys a certain humility:  I do believe your time matters,  I care that you are engaged and don’t assume you are and don’t assume it’s your spiritual immaturity if you’re not.

9.2 Luther’s essentials

Thought I’d give you Luther’s other essentials while we’re at it (nothing to do with brevity, just interesting):

A good preacher should have these properties and virtues: first, to teach systematically; secondly, he should have a ready wit; thirdly, he should be eloquent; fourthly, he should have a good voice; fifthly, a good memory; sixthly, he should know when to make an end; seventhly, he should be sure of his doctrine; eightly, he should venture and engage body and blood, wealth and honor, in the Word; ninthly, he should suffer himself to be mocked and jeered of every one.

Do any of these surprise you?