Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Preaching

The past two Tuesday evenings, I have had the privilege of opening the Word of God at a Rescue Mission in our city. I usually do something different at the Mission than what I am preaching currently in our church. These past two weeks, I felt that the messages on Peter's denial of the Lord Jesus and then Jesus' restoration of Peter could be very beneficial to some of these men as well. It has been a delight to see these men respond to God's Word just as I have seen in our own church. It is an immense privilege and responsibility to handle the Word of God in front of anyone but even more so when you know that the listeners are truly coming to hear from heaven. I had an opportunity to talk to a friend last night about the nature of preaching. It brought to mind some of the quotes about the nature of preaching and some of the dynamics that go into preaching. I am going to post a few of these quotes over the next few days and share briefly (yeah, right!) regarding them.

First Quote - "the key to preaching is self-forgetfulness" (John Stott)

Self-forgetfullness is hard to achieve! In fact, I would say that it isnt something that can be achieved or conquered. Much like in our own daily walk, we do not achieve it or conquer it. It is a daily struggle to 'take up our cross and follow Him' or as John the Baptist said 'He must increase, I must decrease'. If I truly want to preach in such a way that He increases than I must decrease! Too many times we say that we want Jesus to increase in the eyes of the listener but we still want to increase as well! We cannot exalt Christ and ourselves simultaneously. It is either one or the other. The preacher has the unique challenge of exalting Christ in preaching while still maintaining his own personality and yet not allowing his personality to stand in the way of the listener seeing Christ. In preaching, God does use the preacher's personality. So self-forgetfulness does not mean that the preacher cannot share a life experience or an illustration from his life or family (although I do think the minister should be careful about how much of this he does). Instead 'self-forgetfulness' is exactly what it says. I have found that preaching at its best for me is almost like an out of the body experience. When it is over, I feel like I was watching what just took place and it wasn't even me that was preaching - which explains why that's best, huh! And the key is this thing of self-forgetfulness. Which means while I am preaching I need to be 'freed up' from the thoughts that are so natural, such as:
'I wonder what he is thinking'
'I hope somebody is getting something out of this'
'Oh man, he just looked at his watch again'
'Is he really sleeping through this powerful message'


Ultimately, all of these kinds of thoughts come from a mind that is occupied with self. How am I coming across? What are they thinking of me? These kinds of thoughts are poison to good preaching because 'self' is still central. When this occurs the preacher is using the 'art of preaching' as a means to an end - namely, self promotion or self exaltation. So, on a good day, when he thinks he has 'hit it out of the park' he walks around with a spring in his step. On bad days, when he thinks he 'struck out' he walks around in despair. Both are wrong because the focus is in the wrong place. Of course, the Evil One loves to get us distracted in this way and it doesn't take much on his part to get our sinful human minds focused here (this is also true during the music portion of our worship service!). This is why it is so important that the content of our worship (Preaching and music) be such that God is central and not man. We are already prone to put ourselves at the center. It isnt just the listener who is prone to this but the preacher or worship leader as well. If you are like me, you forget a lot of things...but one thing I never seem to forget about is myself! There I am...everywhere I turn...dominating my thoughts, my words, my concerns. It is so natural for me to make everything about me. It will take a supernatural work for that to be stripped away...and it doesnt happen overnight. It is part of the life-long journey of sanctification and for the preacher it is a constant battle everytime he stands on behalf of our Great God to speak His Word to His people.

So, whether it is during the worship service or at any other time, we must pray for God to help us keep our thoughts on Him. If our goal is really to glorify God and make much of Jesus than it will come at a price. We must die to ourselves daily! If He is going to increase, then I must decrease! We cannot exalt both Christ and ourselves simultaneously! It will be the One or the other! Which will it be?


sidenote: If your interested, this is one of the reasons I have never listened to myself on cd or watched on video. I have often heard others say that I should do this but I still have not been able to get myself to do it. In fact, it is also part of the reason I have not been very proactive about getting messages online or other various media outlets. While I see nothing wrong with making the messages more readily available for others, I have no interest in hearing it myself. This morning after typing these thoughts, I stumbled upon a short article from John Stott. It actually confirmed what I have always felt and thought. If interested, here it is:

The abundance of audio and video recordings of preaching today tempts pastors to listen to themselves and look at themselves. One might improve a few things that way. But in general it’s a bad idea. John Stott explains why:

If you look at yourself in the mirror, and listen to yourself on tape, or do both simultaneously on videotape, I fear you may find that you continue to look at yourself and listen to yourself when you are in the pulpit. In that case you will condemn yourself to the cramping bondage of preoccupation with yourself just at the time when, in the pulpit, it is essential to cultivate self-forgetfulness through a growing awareness of the God for whom and the people to whom you are speaking.

I know actors make use of glass and tape, but preachers are not actors, nor is the pulpit a stage. So beware! It may be more valuable to ask a friend to be candid with you about your voice and mannerisms, especially if they need correction. An Indian proverb says “He who has a good friend needs no mirror.” Then you can be yourself and forget yourself.

1 comment:

Pat Green said...

I found your comments to be very insightful indeed. One would have thought to listen to oneself to be helpful in the delivery process; now I agree it would be as you stated all about the messenger and not about the message. I miss the basic truths and humbleness of your Sunday messages. From now on I will stay in touch by reading your blogs regularly in fact I will be reading the archive ones as well.