Proclaimer Blog
Preacher’s Profile [Nigel Styles]
This is the fifth in our Preacher’s Profile Series. This time we asked Nigel Styles, the PT Director of Cornhill some questions about his life and preaching ministry.
Since April 2016, Nigel has been Director of the Cornhill Training Course in London. Previously, he was involved in church leadership for over 35 years, most recently as Senior Minster of Emmanuel Church Bramcote, Nottingham. He is enthusiastic to hear the Bible taught well and loves watching its impact in people’s lives.
Nigel is married to Lizzie, and they have six children and nine grandchildren. He loves music, theatre and contemporary fiction. Nigel wishes he’d been a Blue Peter presenter.
1) When did you preach your first sermon and how long have you been preaching?
I don’t remember my first sermon, but I do remember my first sermon in front of Dick Lucas. It was in a preaching group at one of the very earliest Proclamation Trust conferences at Fairmile Court. My ‘gobbett’ was 1 Corinthians 10:12-13. I had no idea what I was doing and cobbled something together from the Tyndale commentary. My two points were: ‘1. this is a warning’ and ‘2. this is an encouragement’. Dick’s single comment at the end was ‘Well, I think you’ve got to decide which it is, brother’. Brilliantly incisive!
2) What was your journey to preaching ministry?
After working as an actor in a Christian Theatre company, and then as a Music Director in a local church, I ended up at that Fairmile Court preaching conference. It was the first time someone had taught me how to be able to understand the Bible and teach it to others. It was exhilarating. After some years working at St Helens Bishopsgate, I grew in conviction about the powerful effectiveness of God’s word and that I wanted to give my life to teach it to others.
3) Describe the congregation/setting you regularly preach to.
In my role at Cornhill, I’m ‘on my feet’ with Bible in hand most days. But my preaching is mostly now as a visiting preacher (- I prefer church weekends to a single sermon), and sometimes at the home church we attend as a family.
4) What are you currently preaching on/through?
I’ve always tried to have ‘a Book of the Year’. In local church ministry, I obviously was preaching from more than one Bible book over the course of a year, but I tried to have one Bible book that I’d keep coming back to, and that I’d preach from whenever I had the chance. In my role now, that’s much easier to maintain. It’s been Daniel for the last 18 months. And I’m just moving on to 2 Timothy.
5) What is your regular rhythm of sermon preparation, your usual process and how you schedule it in during the week?
I aim to get ahead with my ‘Book of the Year’ by reading it in personal quiet times, or going through it at church staff meetings about 6-18 months ahead. Then I give some good time to ‘overview’ the whole book during the quieter summer months (as a preview for the new academic year). I use an A5 notebook and, in the first section of that book, write up anything and everything I discover. I’d aim to end that initial overview with three things clear: some sense of the ‘Melodic Line’ of the book (ie main subject), the pastoral intention of the author (ie purpose), and sections for preaching it. (I break all my own rules, and read commentaries at this early stage … and always read at least two or three!)
Then I divide the rest of my notebook into those preaching sections. When I come to preach on that particular passage, I’ve already got some clear sense of what the whole book is about and this passage fits in. In a regular, preaching-every-week pattern, I spend the first part of the week taking the passage apart and using all kinds of techniques to make me read slowly. ‘Teaching people to read’ is one of the first things we do at Cornhill! Jotting down all these prep notes in a notebook means that I have a record of my Bible ‘text work’ that I can use again in the longer term future.
I’d aim (by Wednesday) to have a draft sermon outline with Theme Sentence, Aim Sentence, headings and (most importantly) the logic of what I’m seeking to persuade people from this Bible passage. I handwrite all that onto a single side of A4.
And then immediately, at this early point, I begin to compile a script. I type onto A5 (portrait), using Verdana 12pt (ie quite large font, so I don’t need my glasses to read in the pulpit!). I start each new sentence on a new line, and I know that if any line continues into a second line, it is too long. I leave lots of space on the pages of my notes to show me where to add fuller explanation, illustration, application, etc. During the rest of the week, I’ll add to those notes. I keep re-writing sentences/phrases. I want to be as colloquial as possible, rich in word pictures, checking that there’s a rhythm to my phrases. I’m on the look out for anything that might be useful, from TV, reading, news, chats with people, road signs, conversation overheard on a bus … Yes, anything!
That script with its later additions and scribblings is what I take into the pulpit with me:
8) What is your routine before preaching on a Sunday?
I’d normally get up very early to have lots of time to read through my notes – not simply so that I’m familiar with them, but so that I’m really clear about the simple, simple message. I could preach that with no notes (if I had to … but I’d never choose that option!). I want to pray myself into the text and into the people I’ll be speaking to.
9) What feedback structures do you utilise in improving on your preaching?
Nothing beats the regular feedback from a church staff – people I know and love, and who I know are absolutely committed to my good. My regular pattern was that the first 15-20mins in the weekly staff meeting would review the previous Sunday’s sermon.
The next best thing to that is giving feedback to others, because that keeps me analysing what makes good preaching.
10) What areas are you currently seeking to develop in your preaching?
I want to be simpler. The main thing I notice when I look back at sermons I preached some years ago is that my sermons now are less jam-packed with ideas. I think congregations need to be told less to hear more. I always remember the advice of John Chapman: a book contains the maximum number of ideas in the minimum number of words … and a sermon is the exact opposite: the minimum number of ideas in the maximum number of words.
And that is my main piece of advice to younger preachers.
11) What do you do on the days your preaching did not go very well?
Someone told me that the loneliest place on earth is the bottom of the pulpit steps, immediately before and after preaching. That’s certainly my experience. I am absolutely exhausted after I’ve preached. Talking to people at the end of the service is hard work … but it is essential, so I simply won’t let myself run away (however much I might want to!). And in that ‘down in the dumps’ feel at home afterwards, I simply give myself a talking to: ‘Did you, to the best of your ability, tell people what the Bible says and means? Is the Bible powerful? Well, trust God and go to bed. Tomorrow is another day.’