Proclaimer Blog
A biblical view of sleep
Historically, Christians were raised on a diet of good expository ministry Sunday by Sunday augmented by classic "Bible studies" (essentially taught studies) midweek. Many US churches maintain this balance through adult Sunday school programmes. But in UK churches, especially when mid week studies are group based expository studies, could it be true that – far from being better educated as Christians – we are becoming shallower? I haven't thought all this through for myself yet, but it's one of the reasons that once a month we pause in our church and have a short talk/Q&A on a particular subject from a Biblical point of view: how do we bring the Bible to bear on all kinds of issues. We call it Thinking Like a Christian. We've done Catholicism, politics, food – and this month it's my turn to do sleep. It's not a practical session…!! Nevertheless, standing at the front of church persuades me fully that many people don't have a problem with sleep.
The Bible has a lot to say about sleep, of course. I think some of the most precious psalms address this very question: Psalm 121 for example (which, more precisely, is about not sleeping – God in this case). But there's remarkably little said about it in Christian circles. That's surprising because most people struggle with sleep (or lack of it) at some point and sleep is a clear euphimism for death. My enormous (usually helpful) dictionary of pastoral ethics goes straight from slavery to social contract. No entry for sleep (nor insomnia). So, it's worth researching and worth teaching. Watch this space.
I'll post my outline after I've had a short nap.
Proclaimer Blog
Changing the ending
I enjoyed reading the review of Saving Mr Banks in the paper this morning. It's the story of Walt Disney and PL Travers (authoress) and the fight to make Mary Poppins. The Hollywood film finishes with Travers at a premiere screening of the movie, crying with joy because of the success of the movie. Interesting. For as the paper points out, the exact opposite was true. She disliked the film. She disliked the animation. So much so that she wrote into her will that no one involved in the production was to have any input into her further work or a stage production. Quite a turnaround, even by Hollywood standards.
But changing the ending is not as rare as you might think. Christians do it all the time. We are especially weak, I observe, on judgement. It's not a nice message, it's the bad news of the gospel, but it is biblical and right to preach it when it comes up, however sobering it may feel. Churches which are weak on the ending, or even change the ending, quickly find that the gospel is robbed of its power. For if there is nothing to be saved from…..
I'm not calling for a return to pulpit thumping. But a measured, expository sermon through any book of the Bible will reveal both the holy and righteous wrath of an impartial Judge and the awesome mercy seen in Christ our propitiation.
Proclaimer Blog
It’s in the text
It's amazing how often we, as preachers, don't look in the text.
In our preaching groups at Cornhill, the students have been preaching through James. That's not an easy book to preach and, for the most part, guys in my group have been doing a pretty good job. We even managed to avoid the trap of misrepresenting the mirror in James 1.19-27.
This is the way it normally goes. Preachers see the word "mirror" and think to themselves. Oh yes, I know how this works. A mirror shows you what you look like. This passage is all about the word and the point of the picture is that the word of God shows us what we are like (and what we must do to change). Not untrue, of course. But not the point of the mirror here.
The answer is in the text.
For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in the mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once he forgets what he is like.
The point of the mirror illustration here is not to make a case for how the word works, but the stupidity of hearing it and not doing it. In other words, the right reaction to the illustration is to say, "Yeah, stupid man." That sets us up for the punch of the next verses.
And it was all in the text all along.
Proclaimer Blog
Thinking ahead to next year…?
It's a good time in church life to be thinking ahead to next year. Maybe there's someone in your church you should be thinking about encouraging towards ministry? Maybe it's something you'd like to think about yourself. This is precisely the time to be talking things through as church leaders. And we'd love to partner with you in this great work. We're already starting to plan for the 2014/15 intake.
Why Study at PT Cornhill? from The Proclamation Trust on Vimeo.
Proclaimer Blog
Sermons crafted to the nth degree
There have been some articles circulating round the internet recently about the time it takes to prepare a sermon. Some well-known preachers have opened the door into their study a little and allowed a little peek in. Fascinating, but I'm not sure all that helpful. Most of those interviewed are not in what I would call a normal church. They are pastors of churches, sure. I grant that. But whether it's a mega multi-campus church or as leader of a huge staff, that's not the situation most of us find ourselves in.
Most of are preparing 2 or maybe more sermons per week. We're planning a mid week Bible study perhaps. We're spending time with people and have to fit in some extra prep for a funeral sermon unexpectedly. Some of us will have others to call upon to share that load. Most will not. That's real church for most of us. Even if we wanted a large staff team, it's out of our league financially and the church cannot sustain it.
In this setting, hearing that someone spends 25 hours on a sermon is not – to my mind – particularly helpful. Particularly if that's studying and preparing time, not counting prayer. It's not a ministry model that's sustainable for most of us in regular church ministry. And thinking it is, is immensely damaging. Dangerous in the long term. It's the same mindset that has us still tweaking a sermon at 2am on a Sunday morning.
Here's my news. Preaching is a spiritual task. There's a practical element to it, one we're very concerned with here at PT. We need to rightly divide the word of truth. But we are not producing finely honed and crafted masterpieces where every word, comma and construction would have to pass muster at a mega conference. Our people know us. We know them. Our preaching needs to reflect that relationship (where give and take exists) and acknowledge that preaching is supernatural.
What does that mean, practically? Most obviously we would talk about the place of prayer. Indeed. But it also means that late nights crafting sermons to the nth degree, getting that heading just right by working over it again and again, is misplaced priority. I can always do that to a sermon if I wanted. But we need to bed promptly on a Saturday night and sleep soundly, confident that the effectiveness of the sermon is not down to the cleverness of a particular heading, but the work of a sovereign God.
Please don't mishear me. I'm not making a case for laziness or cutting corners. God forgive! Rather, I am saying that if we truly understand the nature of preaching we will be able to sleep soundly, knowing that crafting to the nth degree is not what we are called to do.
Proclaimer Blog
The Proclamation Trust and the local church
I was interviewed the other day by John Stevens about PT and the local church. Not prepared, so here are my off-the-cuff answers. It's filmed in a pastor's study, with me sitting on a sofa and John (who is very tall) towering above me. All of which will not prepare you for the unflattering angle….you have been warned. One to listen to with your eyes shut.
Proclaimer Blog
Topical preaching….?
I am just getting into Jason Meyer's Preaching: a biblical theology. Stimulating stuff. As is my want, I skipped forward, because I was interested to read what case he made for expository preaching (very strong) and how his view of topical preaching fitted into this. I heard Peter Adam (at my very first ever PT residential conference) make a case for preachers preaching one topical series a year as a way of making sure congregations were fed a regular expository diet but allowing room for applying the Bible in particular areas of life. This is Jason's take on the same topic:
The Bible does not contain the phrase expository preaching, but I believe with all my heart that expository preaching is the best fit for the biblical concept of preaching. The Bible itself commends expository preaching. The [last three chapters] have attempted to show that other systematic truths from Scripture support expository preaching. My main point in this chapter can be stated simply: a preaching ministry with a steady diet of expository preaching is the best strategy for the long term health of the body of Christ. Therefore, expository preaching should have pride of place in the regularm rhythm of congregational life. I affirm that preachers can hold up the primacy of expository preaching without denouncing or demonizing topical preaching. (p297).
Only, I'm not sure I'm quite with him. I think my categories are ever so slightly different. Here's how. I think what he's describing is systematic expository preaching – i.e. working through a book of the Bible. If – as I think I understand it – expository preaching is (to use Dick's phrase) a mindset not a method, then a topical sermon should be expository too; it is still saying what the text says and letting that guide the sermon. The best kind of topical sermon is rooted in a text and so, the best way to preach a topical sermon is surely to practice some of the same hermeneutical approaches we use when preaching a sermon series. Topical preaching can still be (and I think, should be) expository.
Proclaimer Blog
Sandra’s nose and contentment in ministry
So, Hollywood actress Sandra Bullock was on London's Red Carpet last week for the premiere of Captain Phillips. And the question foremost in my mind was, what has she done to her nose?. I find cosmetic surgery (for the most part) incredibly sad, and the fact that she now has Michael Jackson's nose (or so it seems to me, see picture) achingly tragic. Who told her that would be a good look? What possessed her to dislike her real nose so much?
Hmm.
Ministers often dislike their churches. There's a godliness in that rightly expressed. Discontent is a good Christian virtue, if by discontent we mean we are always disappointed in what we are and long for what we one day will be. It's part of the process of sanctification. But discontent in church life can also be a good thing. We want people to be saved! We want churches to grow in maturity and love for Christ, as well as likeness to him. We should never be content with what our churches are and should be on our knees praying for God to make his word come alive so that lives would be transformed.
But most of us, I would guess, feel a more godless form of discontent which says "you want to be more like the church down the road [or insert mega church name here]. You want your preaching to be more like [insert superstar name here]. You want a 20s ministry like…. You want a youth work like…." And on it goes. There's nothing wrong with wanting a church to grow. There's nothing wrong with wanting to be a better preacher.
But may God give us grace to accept that some things are from his hand. We wrestled with this in our old church when it came to 20s. We just didn't have any. Partly this was local demographics. Partly it was a strong local church that had a core which attracted more. It used to vex me greatly. But then God gave me grace to see that I was called to minister to those who were there, not those who weren't. And I should stop spending so much time worrying about what the church wasn't, and make more of what the church was. That kind of local church contentment is a great thing.
Because wanting someone else's nose always makes your face look kinda stupid.
Proclaimer Blog
A preaching Bible?
One of the most helpful things I ever heard Mark Driscoll say (!) was that – as a preacher – you needed to have a Bible that you were comfortable holding. I've not always found that an easy thing to achieve. For sure – there are hundreds (probably thousands) of Bibles out there. But getting the right one is not always that easy.
- You've got to obviously have the right translation, the one your church uses. For us that's the NIV.
- You've got to have one that is legible. I've never had good eyesight, but now middle age is approaching ('approaching' I said!), I find that my short sightedness is being matched by difficulty reading too. So I can't do with an 8pt text. I am constantly amazed at people who preach from pocket Bibles. But, for the most part, preachers can't do that.
- It needs to be lightish. There's no point having a 3kg monster.
You'll have other criteria too. Driscoll continued his advice by saying something like "get the best you can afford." There's some wisdom there, at least. You want a binding that is not going to fall apart. You want one that will not slip out of your sweaty grip and so on.
Which leads me to rave about RL Allan Bibles. I used to use a Cambridge University Press bible, but they don't make NIVs any more. And whether you're an ESV or NIV user, I've yet to find a Bible maker that makes Bibles Allan's. I've been trying one out the last few days and I'm completely sold. Even in a short space of time I can see that this is the edition for me. My version is made of Highland Goatskin and smells and feels great. But, truth be told, smell is hardly top of the preacher's criteria list.
So what is so good about this Bible? Apart from the fact it has three markers, that is. It sits in my hand very nicely. I can fold it back on itself (I know, I know…). It's taken the Hodder block so I've got the same pagination as the rest of the church and the same excellent typesetting. It is quality. This is a good preacher's Bible – no, an excellent preacher's Bible.
OK, it's expensive. It will cost you about three times the amount of the mainstream bonded leather version. But, brother, using, handling, preaching this book is the heart of your ministry and so, I contend, it is money well spent in the end. You can read more about RL Allan here and here you'll find a more detailed review by a complete book-nerd (my kind of man).
Think about it.
Proclaimer Blog
What do you make of Solomon?
Helpful comment on the life of King Solomon and the question people ask:
In a sense Solomon sums up in himself the range of all subsequent kings. This is not only because he is most directly 'son of David' and the last to sit on the throne of the united kingdom, but that good and bad qualities are expressed most starkly in him. Many of the kings ‘do evil in the eyes of the Lord’ ; a few, notably Hezekiah and Josiah ‘walk in the ways of David’. Solomon does both and this needs to be taken into account in considering the often-raised question as to whether Solomon was condemned to eternal judgment as an apostate. We have to acknowledge that the Bible is silent on this question. The preservation in Scripture of Proverbs and other wisdom books may suggest that in the end he repented. This may be confirmed by the absence of negative comment in the New Testament.
However, often behind this lurks another question: how far can I dabble with forbidden things and get away with it? That is the wrong approach: the story of Solomon is not telling us that we can sin as much as we want and come back when we choose; rather it tells us to recognise our own weaknesses and frailties and trust in the grace of our Advocate who is able to keep us from falling. (From a forthcoming PT title)