Is Your Preaching Over-Educated?

Chris Surber more from this author »

ChrisSurber.com

Date Published: 9/27/2013

If you have more theological degrees than a thermostat, you might be over-heating Sunday mornings!

Nothing slows learning more than excessive knowledge. That statement sounds crazy to over-educated minds like mine, but it’s true. I have more theological degrees than a thermostat. My favorite place to be is buried under a mountain of books written by long dead theologians. I love to learn. But excessive knowledge and too much information can actually be a great hindrance to the practical application of biblical instruction in the real daily lives of people.

One of my early mentors, who happens to hold three graduate degrees all from Ivy League divinity schools, told me that he spent the first few years out of seminary unlearning what he had been taught in seminary. At the time I was working toward the goal of a doctoral degree that I have since earned. It sounded crazy to me. After becoming terminally educated and shepherding churches for a decade I get it.

Here is some of what he meant and a few things I’ve learned about unlearning what I learned in seminary.  

1.  God’s message is simple. While it is very true that education is important—and I’m an advocate of teachers and preachers taking the time for Bible College, ministry diplomas or seminary—it isn’t all important. I’ll take a country preacher with an eighth-grade education who preaches to me straight from the Bible over an Ivy League man who doesn’t believe the Bible but knows everything about everything any day of the week, especially on Sunday.

The message of salvation in Christ is not complicated. Don’t complicate the message with excessive academic information.

2. Build bridges; don’t burn them. Academic preparation for ministry should help us build bridges between deep knowledge and practical application. The Greek nuance of a translated English word only has direct value in preaching to the extent that it helps me follow Jesus. While some geeks like me take great interest in the nuance of Hebrew semantics, the purpose of preaching is to build bridges between the deepest meaning of the text and the deep meaning of living a transformed life. If we insist on a lengthy word study in every sermon, which I don’t recommend, make sure that it has a point other than merely satisfying the admonition of a former seminary professor who loves books more than people.

3. People’s spiritual struggles exist in the context of real life. The trouble with too much systematic theology, and I’m speaking from experience, is that it has the great tendency to make the theologian act and think and teach as though theology and life are similarly theoretical. They are not.

The theological implications of what C.S. Lewis has to say on the problem of pain has no direct value to a woman who just lost her husband unless that theology is brought out of the ether into the real experience of her present pain and suffering. It may be helpful to quote a dead theologian but not as a part of an explanation to dismiss her pain. In real life just being present with her as the man of God praying for her and her family, reminding them of the love of God by our presence with them on His behalf is more likely to bring comfort and paint a welcome portrait of God’s love for them in the here and now.

4. Sometimes the terminally educated can be very callous. I am a pastor-theologian with a love for intellectually satisfying answers to hard theological questions. But I’ve got to be careful that in my ministry to those living life in the day-to-day struggles that I don’t push me out of their hearts with seemingly callous answers to their questions and intellectual sermons that bore them away from the love of God. Too much academia in a sermon can accomplish the very opposite of what we want.

We desire people to really the love Bible and the God who penned it. What I’ve discovered is that the best way to do that is to passionately present the plain truth prayerfully. People respond to love. Our seminary and Bible college training gives a great foundation for our preaching. But it makes a better rudder than a sail. Sound theology must guide our teaching. Passion for God’s glory and compassion for people must be at the center of our teaching and preaching.

Chris Surber

ChrisSurber.com

Chris Surber is the Pastor of Cypress Chapel Christian Church in Suffolk, VA. He is also a religion columnist for the Suffolk News Herald.

Source: sermoncentral.com

10 Must-Have Tips for Giving a Public Invitation

Joe McKeever more from this author »

JoeMcKeever.com

Date Published: 9/26/2013

Every preacher needs these practical insights if he/she plans to offer a time of response after the sermons.

Email this article

Print Friendly

“Come unto me, all you who labor and are heavy laden…” (Matthew 11:28).

“…as though God were entreating you through us, we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God” (II Corinthians 5:20).

A pastor I once knew said Second Corinthians 5:20 changed forever how he extended an invitation following a sermon. “We beg you on behalf of Christ,” Paul said. As a result, the pastor said he no longer gives unemotional and passive invitations, but pleads with people to come to Jesus.

In the wing of the Christian faith where I dwell and minister, when a pastor preaches he expects people to respond, either publically at that moment or later in private. Or both.

A lot of good churches do not follow the sermons with invitations, however. It’s probably just a personal thing, but when I visit in a church where the sermon is followed with a hymn or a prayer and nothing else, I feel unsatisfied, like the salesman has spent the last half-hour selling us on his policy, then got up and left before asking if we would like to sign up.

My Mississippi church once had a Canadian pastor down for a revival meeting. I was young and all I knew was holding to the typical pattern for our annual revivals, so we did everything the same way we did the following year with Adrian Rogers—great promotion, enthusiastic gospel singing and public invitations.

Later, the minister from Canada told someone (who passed it on to me) in his delicious accent, “I couldn’t believe it! They gave an altar call in every service!”

We did, but we may as well not have for all the response we had. Not all preachers and every sermon call for this kind of action inside the sanctuary.

There are times when not giving an invitation is the right thing to do, I’m sure. (In my case, those times are rare.) The only way to know for certain is to ask the Lord and obey the Spirit.

It is reported that Dwight L. Moody once preached, then sent his flock home without an invitation, telling them to think about these things and come back next Sunday. However, the Great Chicago Fire occurred that week, taking many lives and destroying hundreds of homes and scattering his congregation so completely they would never be reassembled. Mr. Moody reportedly regretted for the rest of his life not extending that invitation.

I surmise that this same fear is what keeps most of us preachers giving invitations. We worry about What if I don’t and someone is there who needs to be saved?

Entire books have been written on this subject, and we cannot begin to do it justice here, but I have a few suggestions on public invitations, lessons learned over decades of ministry…

1. Do not surprise the congregation. Tell them early in the sermon and again in the middle that you will be asking them to do whatever it is you’re going to be asking them.

In his great crusades, at the front of Billy Graham’s sermons he would often say, “Now, tonight I am going to be asking you to commit your lives to Jesus Christ” or something similar.

When I preached in a British church two Sundays in a row without any response to my invitation, a deacon explained later, “Our pastor gives the altar call only on Sundays when we have communion, so we expect it then. You surprised us when you did it. Had you announced when you began that we would be having a public invitation, the congregation would have been prepared.”

2. Make it appropriate to the message. Your plea, the wording of your invitation, the music, the manner, and the length, everything should work together harmoniously.

3. Plan in advance how you will go about it. Give thought to the transition from the sermon, the exact wording you will use and the precise nature of what you are asking people to do. (I recall hearing of a visiting preacher who spoke night after night on patriotism and anti-communism. After several messages, he complained to the pastor, “I don’t understand why we’re not getting any response.” The host minister said, “What do you want them to do—join the FBI?”)

4. Work with the worship leader/song leader and/or musicians to accomplish the transition smoothly and effectively. If the minister ends the sermon with a prayer, then asks the congregation to stand and encourages people to come to the altar, the music should begin seamlessly, easily, naturally, without a long pause, without abruptness, without anything to disrupt the mood.

In most cases, I prefer to have the congregation standing with heads bowed in prayer. Any singing is done by the choir or ensemble or the worship leader. Often, we have no singing, just the instruments playing. I want the people focused on the Lord and this invitation, not worrying about the next line to sing.

5. When you use a hymn, it should be familiar to the people. Just as the pastor does not want to be introducing new ideas as he makes his plea, the words of the hymn should not be unfamiliar and draw the minds of the people away from the business at hand, which is responding to God’s call.

6. Even though the plea is specific to whatever you preached that day, it should always include a general invitation for people to come to the altar area for their own personal prayer. They do not have to speak to a minister for this. Pastors should make sure the front of the sanctuary has comfortable places for people to kneel and pray, that church furniture is not blocking the way and that there is adequate space for them to kneel without being crowded. My church has kneeling cushions across the front of the church where people can kneel and pray. I love that it makes a statement: “We expect people to pray in this church!”

7. The length of the invitation depends. Two primary considerations here are the congregation’s endurance/patience and the people praying at the altar. If this period goes on too long, people get tired. If that happens only occasionally, the congregation is accepting, particularly if people are responding. But if the pastor belabors the invitation Sunday after Sunday with few results, most congregations come to resent it. Likewise, when people come to the altar to pray, they should not be rushed but encouraged to stay as long as they wish.

8. I encourage church leaders to make coming to the altar and praying a regular practice. It’s good for them, of course, but this also encourages others to come. Jesus nailed this for us: “My house shall be called a house of prayer” (Luke 19:46).

In churches where no one has “walked the aisle” in months, only the most courageous soul will be the first to do so. But where people are getting up and walking to the altar every service to kneel and pray, those making significant decisions find doing so much easier.

9. Pastors will want to have working sessions with everyone involved in the service in order to plan the invitation, know how to deal with responders, handle interruptions and understand the pastor’s hand signals. Hand signals? Yes, or some other non-verbal sign he may send to others involved, directing one minister to someone he might have overlooked, telling the worship leader he’s ready to end the hymn, that sort of thing.

10. Pastors do well to keep reminding themselves that they are dealing with the fine china of people’s eternal lives here. This is not about your sermon, not an affirmation of your ministry, and nothing that happens here is about you. It’s about people coming to Jesus Christ and living for Him. Whatever you can do to assist them in this, you will want to do it and do it well.

A couple of dangers about public invitations:

1. Public altar calls can be abused by manipulative leaders. Shoppers know about impulse buying. Stores situate impulse-items near the checkout and the bread and milk in the back of the store.

I fear there are those who have come under the sway of a high-powered preacher and “gone forward” during the invitation and then regretted it the moment they walked outside into the light of day. We must guard against this.

Once before I began pastoring, our church had an evangelist whose invitation consumed a good 15 minutes every night and consisted of the same sequence: “If you want the Lord in your life, raise your hand.”  “If you raised your hand, look up at me.”  “If you are looking up at me, stand to your feet.”  “All of you who are standing, walk to the front.” (I guarantee you after a night or two of this, people learned not to raise their hands to this guy!)

2. There is not enough time during the typical altar call to deal with people sufficiently. That’s why churches should have trained counselors ready to help those who respond and in many cases to invite them into an adjoining room for an unhurried visit.

3. The minister must do nothing inappropriate as he transitions into the invitation. The most common mistake that I’ve noticed is telling a joke or delivering a humorous line that just occurred to him. He must learn to squelch that if he wants people to come to Christ.

All thoughts and eyes and words should be about this time of commitment. This is no time for the pastor to tell the custodian to turn down the thermostat, the youth minister to come to the front and assist him, or someone to see to the crying baby in the balcony. Tough it out, preacher. Lives hang in the balance.

I hope someone will find this helpful.

Joe McKeever

JoeMcKeever.com

Dr. Joe McKeever is a preacher, cartoonist and the retired Director of Missions for the Baptist Association of Greater New Orleans. Currently he loves to serve as a speaker/pulpit fill for revivals, prayer conferences, deacon trainings, leadership banquets and other church events. Visit him and enjoy his insights on nearly 50 years of ministry atJoeMcKeever.com.

Source: sermoncentral.com

8 Ways You Might Be Losing People in Your Sermons

• BY BRANDON HILGEMANN
• IN PREACHING
• — 17 SEP, 2013

Are you losing people when you preach?

Do people check out during your sermons?

After listening to thousands of sermons and preaching quite a few myself, I have learned 8 different ways that pastors lose people in their sermons.

1. Sloppy Transitions

You just told a great story. It was funny and thought-provoking. But as soon as the story ended you suddenly switched direction and started talking about something else.

Wait… what? Slow down. How did we get from that funny thing your kid did to some old guy in the Old Testament?

Where is the connection?

You have to make clear connections between one part of your sermon and the next. Otherwise, people get lost in the transition.

It is as simple as saying, “that funny thing my kid did reminds me of a story in the old testament where a man named Samuel experienced something similar.”

Boom. Bridge built. Transition made. I see where you are going.

Typical transition points are after the introduction, before and after scripture, before and after illustrations, and before the conclusion.

Please don’t overlook how important a simple transition statement is in keeping everyone in the audience on track with you.

2. Too Many Points

I recently sat in on a sermon where the pastor preached so many different points with so many different fill-in-the-blanks that I got lost.

I seriously had no idea what exactly this man was talking about, because his points were all over the map.

Sure, they were all good points, but I lost the point in all the points.

Keep it simple. What is the big, overarching idea that people need to understand from the passage of scripture?

Stick to one point, or at least one main point or you will lose people.

HINT: When your sub-points have sub-points, there is a good chance you are getting a little carried away.

3. TMI (Too Much Information)

When you introduce scripture you become a historian. You describe the architecture, the types of clothing people wore, the political climate, and every last ounce of historical detail you can.

Yes, you did your homework. Yes, you are thorough. But most people, frankly, do not care.

Give people just enough information to set up the scripture and then let scripture speak for itself.

Only give details if it is essential to understanding the meaning of the text. You will have to explain some historical situations or nuances of the time period, but don’t get carried away.

If you take too long setting up a passage of scripture, you will lose people. This is a sermon, not a history class.

Your goal should be to point people to the Bible, not prove how smart you are.

4. Long Introductions

Get to the point.

Introductions that take forever make peoples minds wander to lunch or Fantasy Football.

I don’t care if you have a great story. Get to the point.

What are you talking about? Why should I care? How does this impact me?

These are questions people in the audience want to know. You will lose people if you ramble for 10 minutes before they have a clue what you are going to preach about.

5. Lazy conclusions

Like an airplane your sermon began with a smooth takeoff. The flight was good. But when it came time to land, you crashed.

Consistent with the airplane analogy, there are two types of lazy conclusions:

Circling the runway: You know it is time to end the sermon, but you aren’t exactly sure how to end it so you keep summarizing things you already said. HINT: If you said “In conclusion…” and then preached another 10-15 minutes, you are probably circling the runway.

Abrupt landing: You said everything you planned on saying. You ran out of material. It is now time to end the sermon so you immediately say, “Lets Pray.” Although this approach may be better than circling the runway, your awkward conclusion failed to capitalize on one of the most important parts of the sermon.

A good conclusion should be a smooth landing. As you descend, summarize what you talked about, challenge the audience again to do something with what they heard, and have a memorable closing statement.

The closing statement may be a phrase you have repeated throughout the message, scripture, a quote, a story, a challenge, or whatever else fits.

Remember, the last thing you say in a sermon is often the most memorable. Pay attention to this, so you don’t leave everyone with, “Well, umm… that’s all I have today. So… lets pray.”

6. Abstract Thoughts Without Real-Life Application

You preach a lot of big ideas, abstract concepts, and sound doctrine. That’s great.

But even the best doctrinal teaching without real-life application will bore the snot out of most church-goers.

The whole time you are painting a theological masterpiece, they are asking, “So what? How does that affect me?”

Selfish? Yes. But true nonetheless.

So go ahead and keep on preaching abstract thoughts and concepts, but don’t stop there. Answer the questions you know they are asking.

Say, “So what? How does this impact you and me?…” Then launch into some seriously detailed, concrete, real-world application.

Not only will your people appreciate the practical tips, they will begin to appreciate theology more as they see how it actually does matter.

7. Preaching Too Long

I will probably get some pushback here, and that is OK. But It is a rare thing to find a preacher who can hold an audience captive for more than an hour.

Yes, there are some do it well, but do their people really love it or just tolerate it?

Personally, if I am sitting in on a sermon that begins to go over 30 minutes my attention begins to drift. And I’m a pastor who loves listening to preaching! I have to consciously refocus myself on the message.

Most people struggle listening to one person talk for longer than 30 minutes, especially if they are not auditory learners. It had better be really entertaining (like a great comedian), or incredibly impactful (insert memory of the best sermon you have ever heard here).

Personally, I would rather leave the audience wanting more preaching than less.

This may just be my opinion, but if you are a long-winded preacher, I challenge you to test this.

Survey random people in your church. Ask for honest feedback on the length of your sermons. (Want truly honest results? Ask someone other than a staff member to conduct the survey for you.)

8. Christian Words Without Explanations

If you are saying a lot of words like “Sanctification,” “Transubstantiation,” “Regeneration,” “Incarnation,” or any other term you learned in seminary, you are losing people.

HINT: if there is an “ation” in the word, you better define it or pick a different word.

Don’t make people feel like they need a dictionary or a seminary degree to understand what you are talking about.

Even words that you might think are common knowledge like “Gospel,” “Sin,” “Glory,” and “Salvation” need proper explanation.

What you think of when saying “sin” and other people think you mean could be two very different things. Define your terms.

Go ahead and use these technical terms if you want, but explain what you mean in simple terms every time or you will lose people.

This may get a little tiresome for you, because you already know what you are talking about. But you cannot assume that everyone in the audience is on the same page (because most of them probably aren’t).

Photo Credit: Brian Talbot cc

Source: pastors.com

Pastoralized by Eric McKiddie  

5 Types of Sermon Illustrations and How to Use Them

 

+TAG

Perhaps you’ve read my post here “3 Types of Effective Sermon Illustrations and How to Use Them“. Well, I recently had the opportunity to expand it to five types for an article that ran at The Gospel Coalition last week. In case you missed it, you can check it out here.
Here’s a preview:

“One reason I neglected illustrations for so long was that I operated with a narrow definition. As far as I was concerned, illustrations were limited to stories that brought out the point of the sermon. But it wasn’t long into my efforts to improve as an illustrator before I realized that illustrations are not “one size fits all.”

While a fourth grader can get away with one brush in art class, anyone beginning to take painting seriously knows she needs brushes of various breadths and sizes. It is the same with the preacher beginning to take illustrations seriously. Some sections of the sermon call for thick brushes like stories while others require only thin dab from an analogy.

The question, then, is which illustrations are most effective for which parts of the sermon?”

Read the rest.
(Image credit)

While We're On The Topic:

1. Download My Free Sermon Illustration Ebook “Show Then Tell” Today!
2. How to Follow a Wild Goose Chase to a Powerful Sermon Illustration
3. A Formula for Sermon Illustrations That Always Work
4. The Best 3 Places to Find Sermon Illustrations: From Jay Z to Brian Regan to (Almost) Plagiarizing
5. Introductions: 3 Things That Will Get Your Sermon Off to an Effective Start

One More Way to Outline a Sermon

• BY BRANDON COX
• IN PREACHING
• — 10 SEP, 2013

Adrian Rogers outlined sermons using four phrases:

• Hey You! (Get the audience’s attention)
• Look! (Examine the Scriptures)
• See! (Explain the passage)
• Do! (Make application)

Andy Stanley is famous for one-point preaching, but really breaks his messages into five movements:

• Me (How do I struggle with this?)
• We (How do we all struggle with this?)
• God (What does the Bible say about this?)
• You (What should you do about this?)
• We (How can we all live this out together?)

And I’m not sure who came up with it, but another well-known system is:

• Hook (Get attention)
• Book (Examine the Word)
• Look (Expound the passage)
• Took (Make an appeal)

The Puritans jumped right into point one of 27ish as they preached for several hours and there are plenty of other outlining methods as well. I’ve changed my system several times over the years, which I think is important to keep us out of a rut. Lately, I’ve been outlining my messages around three movements..

WHERE WE ARE

In the first part of the message, I speak about the problem or issue that the message addresses, hopefully in a way that motivates my hearers to identify with the problem personally as in, “Oh yeah, I struggle with that too!”

WHAT GOD SAYS

In the middle part (the longer part), I dig into the passage, or sometimes several passages, that address the issue, provide a historical context and expound on the meaning. Sometimes there are three or for “points” here, but not always.

WHAT’S NEXT?

Finally, I move to how we need to live out the solution that God’s Word has provided. I try to be as concrete as possible such as challenging people to go sign up for a ministry, buy a particular book, talk to their next door neighbor, etc.

I’ll probably tweak and change it up again soon, but for now, this system works quite well for me right now.

 Brandon Cox

Brandon Cox has been a Pastor for fifteen years and is currently planting a church in northwest Arkansas, sponsored by Saddleback Church and other strategic partners. He also serves as Editor of Pastors.com and Rick Warren's Pastors' Toolbox, and authors a top 100 blog for church leaders.

Source: pastors.com

Build Your Sermon Like a House

Greg Stier more from this author »

Date Published: 9/7/2013

Greg Stier learned to exegete a text at the same time he learned to swing a hammer. It paid off.

I was in construction for eight years of my life, mostly as a roofer. Having done tons of new construction houses over the years, I learned a lot about what it takes to build a house from the ground up. There’s something about being on a roof for twelve hours a day at a new construction site that gives you a bird's eye view of the entire building process.

All during the time I was a roofer I was also developing sermons. As a volunteer middle school youth leader and once-in-awhile pulpit fill at a small Baptist church, I learned to exegete a text at the same time I was learning to swing a hammer.

There are a lot of parallels between building a house from the ground up and building a sermon from the text up. Here are at least seven.

1. Pick The Best Place To Build.

Location is everything in real estate and construction. If you build a house in the wrong place, it won’t sell. If you build it on the wrong type of ground, it won’t last.

When it comes to Scripture, you have a lot of real estate to cover. From Genesis to Revelation, you want to find the best place to build your sermon.

How do you do that? You exegete your audience before you identify your text. Find out their spiritual temperament, maturity levels and other nuances before you pick which passage you are going to build on. If you already know these things because you are preaching to the same audience week in and week out, identify which particular issues they are struggling with right now. Then search for a sermon or series that will address that.

Just last week I preached at The Salvation Army National Evangelism Conference. Before I developed a sermon for them I tried to find out as much as possible about who was attending (were they youth leaders, territorial officers, lay people or a mixture?) and why they were attending (training in evangelism, inspiration for evangelism or something else?). Once I identified this I was able to start building a sermon that fit this particular audience.

You must investigate your audience before you investigate which part of the Word you are going to preach to them.

2. Make Sure You Have More Than Enough Power.

Whether it be a generator or a plug-in, you need to have access to power if you’re going to build quickly and efficiently in the 21st century. From air guns to buzz saws, electrical power is a must.

In the same way, we need to get and stay “powered up” if we are going to truly handle the Word well. The original Architect of God’s Word dwells within us to guide us and empower us as we prepare our sermon and preach His Word. We need to stay plugged into His power every step of the way so that our sermon is as effective and impacting as possible.

3. Follow The Blueprints.

Builders who don’t follow blueprints build houses that break code and fall short. With God’s Word as our infallible blueprint (and the original Architect guiding us every step of the way), we can design sermons that are accurate and impactful.

We need to rightly divide the Word of God by asking the classic questions who? what? when? where? and why?

- Who was this book written to and from?

- What were the historical, cultural and religious situations of the readers and writer of this book?

- Where was it written?

- Why was it written?

Questions like this may take time to answer, but one must answer “What does this passage mean?” before they can answer “What does this passage mean for my audience?”

4. Lay The Foundation.

You lay one foundation when you build a house. In the same way there is one main thing that whole passage is saying when it comes to preaching. Master preacher Haddon Robinson calls it the “Big Idea” of a passage. I call it the foundation.

When you identify the big idea of a certain passage you are laying the foundation for your entire sermon. Everything else is built on this one idea. If your big idea is weak, then your sermon will lack authority and gravitas. If it is strong, then you are preaching the Word accurately and it will have maximum impact on your audience.

5. Frame It Out.

Once the foundation is laid you can frame the house out. This is when you build the structure upon which everything will be hung.

When it comes to preaching this means your main sermon points. These points become the framework that builds on the strength of your big idea and truly begins to add structure and substance to your sermon.

If my big idea from John 3:16 is “God’s love is demonstrated by Christ’s sacrifice,” then my sermon points could be something like: 1) The world is the object of his love, 2) The cross is the proof of God’s love and 3) Eternal life is the result of God’s love.

…or something like that.

6. Close The Gaps.

From roofing to drywalling to flooring to siding, there’s a whole lot of construction that is committed to closing the gaps. From transitions to historical insights to researching commentaries, there’s a lot of preaching that should be committed to closing the gaps.

A sermon must have a solid structure built on a strong foundation with no visible gaps. The best exegeted sermon in the world can sound horrible if a preacher doesn’t have the right transitions from point to point or has no “zingers” (unique insights) that stretch your thinking and help you see the text in a deeper, richer way.

7. Dress It Up.

Last but not least are illustrations. These represent paint, carpet, tile and intricate woodwork. These can transform a house from livable to beautiful.

Use personal, historical and hysterical illustrations. Use illustrations from nature and newspapers. Use all sorts of illustrations all of the time.

Some preachers are great builders but lousy artists. They build a solid structure that is exegetically sound, but nobody wants to live there because the floors are bare and it’s painted gray.

Take the extra time to add an opening illustration that grabs the heart, stretches the mind or tickles the funny bone of your audience. Pepper your sermon with stories so that you can capture and keep their attention.

And if this sounds unspiritual you can take it up with Jesus. He was the master builder and used stories to drive home theological points in ways that the average preacher today would never dare.

Yes, writing a sermon is like building a house.

So let’s start swinging those hammers!

Greg Stier

Dare 2 Share Ministries

Greg Stier is the founder and president of Dare 2 Share Ministries. His website offers hundreds of resources (many of them free) for evangelism and youth ministry, including a field guide called Dare 2 Share. This practical book will give Christians the tools they need to share their faith with anyone, anywhere and anytime in a compelling and Biblical way.

Source: sermoncentral.com

Expository Preaching—The Antidote to Anemic Worship by Albert Mohler

MONDAY • August 19, 2013

Evangelical Christians have been especially attentive to worship in recent years, sparking a renaissance of thought and conversation on what worship really is and how it should be done. Even if this renewed interest has unfortunately resulted in what some have called the “worship wars” in some churches, it seems that what A. W. Tozer once called the “missing jewel” of evangelical worship is being recovered.

Nevertheless, if most evangelicals would quickly agree that worship is central to the life of the church, there would be no consensus to an unavoidable question: What is central to Christian worship? Historically, the more liturgical churches have argued that the sacraments form the heart of Christian worship. These churches argue that the elements of the Lord’s Supper and the water of baptism most powerfully present the gospel. Among evangelicals, some call for evangelism as the heart of worship, planning every facet of the service—songs, prayers, the sermon—with the evangelistic invitation in mind.

Though most evangelicals mention the preaching of the word as a necessary or customary part of worship, the prevailing model of worship in evangelical churches is increasingly defined by music, along with innovations such as drama and video presentations. When preaching the word retreats, a host of entertaining innovations will take its place.

Traditional norms of worship are now subordinated to a demand for relevance and creativity. A media-driven culture of images has replaced the word-centered culture that gave birth to the Reformation churches. In some sense, the image-driven culture of modern evangelicalism is an embrace of the very practices rejected by the Reformers in their quest for true biblical worship.

Music fills the space of most evangelical worship, and much of this music comes in the form of contemporary choruses marked by precious little theological content. Beyond the popularity of the chorus as a musical form, many evangelical churches seem intensely concerned to replicate studio-quality musical presentations.

In terms of musical style, the more traditional churches feature large choirs—often with orchestras—and may even sing the established hymns of the faith. Choral contributions are often massive in scale and professional in quality. In any event, music fills the space and drives the energy of the worship service. Intense planning, financial investment, and priority of preparation are focused on the musical dimensions of worship. Professional staff and an army of volunteers spend much of the week in rehearsals and practice sessions.

All this is not lost on the congregation. Some Christians shop for churches that offer the worship style and experience that fits their expectation. In most communities, churches are known for their worship styles and musical programs. Those dissatisfied with what they find at one church can quickly move to another, sometimes using the language of self-expression to explain that the new church “meets our needs” or “allows us to worship.”

A concern for true biblical worship was at the very heart of the Reformation. But even Martin Luther, who wrote hymns and required his preachers to be trained in song, would not recognize this modern preoccupation with music as legitimate or healthy. Why? Because the Reformers were convinced that the heart of true biblical worship was the preaching of the word of God.

Thanks be to God, evangelism does take place in Christian worship. Confronted by the presentation of the gospel and the preaching of the word, sinners are drawn to faith in Jesus Christ and the offer of salvation is presented to all. Likewise, the Lord’s Supper and baptism are honored as ordinances by the Lord’s own command, and each finds its place in true worship.

Furthermore, music is one of God’s most precious gifts to his people, and it is a language by which we may worship God in spirit and in truth. The hymns of the faith convey rich confessional and theological content, and many modern choruses recover a sense of doxology formerly lost in many evangelical churches. But music is not the central act of Christian worship, and neither is evangelism nor even the ordinances. The heart of Christian worship is the authentic preaching of the word of God.

Expository preaching is central, irreducible, and nonnegotiable to the Bible’s mission of authentic worship that pleases God. John Stott’s simple declaration states the issue boldly: “Preaching is indispensable to Christianity.” More specifically, preaching is indispensable to Christian worship—and not only indispensable, but central.

The centrality of preaching is the theme of both testaments of Scripture. In Nehemiah 8 we find the people demanding that Ezra the scribe bring the book of the law to the assembly. Ezra and his colleagues stand on a raised platform and read from the book. When he opens the book to read, the assembly rises to its feet in honor of the word of God and respond, “Amen, Amen!”

Interestingly, the text explains that Ezra and those assisting him “read from the book, from the law of God, translating to give the sense so that they understood the reading” (Neh 8:8). This remarkable text presents a portrait of expository preaching. Once the text was read, it was carefully explained to the congregation. Ezra did not stage an event or orchestrate a spectacle—he simply and carefully proclaimed the word of God.

This text is a sobering indictment of much contemporary Christianity. According to the text, a demand for biblical preaching erupted within the hearts of the people. They gathered as a congregation and summoned the preacher. This reflects an intense hunger and thirst for the preaching of the word of God. Where is this desire evident among today’s evangelicals?

In far too many churches, the Bible is nearly silent. The public reading of Scripture has been dropped from many services, and the sermon has been sidelined, reduced to a brief devotional appended to the music. Many preachers accept this as a necessary concession to the age of entertainment. Some hope to put in a brief message of encouragement or exhortation before the conclusion of the service.

As Michael Green so pointedly put it: “This is the age of the sermonette, and sermonettes make Christianettes.”

The anemia of evangelical worship—all the music and energy aside—is directly attributable to the absence of genuine expository preaching. Such preaching would confront the congregation with nothing less than the living and active word of God. That confrontation will shape the congregation as the Holy Spirit accompanies the word, opens eyes, and applies that word to human hearts.