Preaching Home Boy!

I came across this entry the other day and could not agree more with the author. I don't mind occasionally preaching in a congregation other than my own, but I never look forward to it. An important part of preaching is knowing your audience, and after 32 years I know mine pretty well!

Why I'm a preaching home-boy

Mon, 2010-11-22 06:30 — Adrian Reynolds

Preached a week ago last Sunday on Zechariah 5-6 and yesterday on Zechariah 7. Hope and pray it went OK. I don't think these are passages I could ever have preached anywhere other than at home church. Sure, I could explain them OK to strangers, but that is not preaching. 

• In difficult apocalyptic literature you need to know people well enough to know what they will understand and won't.
• Knowing people also shapes application sharply, or it should. Sure, the preaching of Zechariah 5-7 got the people building again (see Ezra 5.1-2). But we need sharper application than simply "you get building too...!" Ezra 4 details the opposition that the exiles faced. Zechariah 5-7 needs to be preached in the light of the opposition we face.
• Chief among the "mighty mountains" (Zech 4.17) that God needs to level is indwelling sin (which, I think, is the significance of the woman in the basket in Zechariah 5). Again, knowing people and knowing how that sinfulness manifests itself is key to sharp application. Similarly, false religion rears its ugly head in Zechariah 7. There it is fasting. It may well be fasting for our people today, but if we don't know how we will preach well...?

I'm a preaching home boy. That's where it counts. 

http://www.proctrust.org.uk/blog/2010-11-22/why-im-preaching-home-boy-935

Rick Warren on Longevity

I'm not a great fan of some of Rick Warren's ideas, but his post entitled, "Pastoral 'free agency' hurts churches," is right on target.

Among other things, he says, "The truth is pastoral longevity is one of the untold secrets of church health."


Check it out.

Still More on Preaching

I just finished this week's sermon (and it's only Friday afternoon, not Saturday night! But that's because I know I'll be busy tomorrow night. It's amazing how we can adjust to deadlines!)

I'm preaching through Mark's gospel, and I love it. (Though whatever I'm preaching through tends, at the moment, to be my favorite part of the Bible.) But I was thinking about what hard work it is — the research, the meditating on the text, the conceptualizing of what God is trying to say to me and my people through this particular text — all this is very hard and tiring work. I love it, but it's draining. And I haven't even started the physical preparation of preaching through the sermon (out loud) three or four times. I'll do that late Saturday night and very early Sunday morning.

But for this blog what came to mind is how many pastors are unwilling to invest all that hard work into their preaching. So they either buy their sermons (or download somebody else's work from the internet), or they do some cursory work on their text but find very little new to say. Either way, they are cheating themselves and their people. And, after a while, if you have little new to say, you have to move on to another congregation, because people quickly tire of "the same old thing" every Sunday.

Now, in truth, all we do have is "the same old story" every Sunday; but the Bible is such a rich texture of different presentations of that gospel that we have an almost infinite storehouse from which to draw. It's the same old story, but we have so many ways to tell it. So, for the pastor who is willing to do the hard work, preaching can be fresh each Sunday — for him and for his people. And that's been what has kept me going for over 30 years in the same pulpit!

The Fruit of the Spirit

If I ever write a book (which I won't), it will be on the Fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22ff) as exemplified in the life of the pastor. I know Paul described these for the entire church, but surely we pastors and elders should be known for our love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.

We pastors tend to blame other people for all our problems, but I wonder how much church turmoil could be avoided if leaders demonstrated the Fruit of the Spirit rather than giving in to reactions of our sinful nature?

When I'm gone, I don't want to be remembered simply for staying at my church for a long time, I want people to say, "He was a man who loved his people (and was loved by them)."

Consistent, persistent generosity

Seth Godin's words from his marketing blog might resonate with some long-term pastors:

Consistent, persistent generosity

That might be exactly the strategy you need to have an impact on the market.

Consistent as in not stopping to say, "my turn." Persistent as in long-lasting, not as in annoyingly over the top. And with permission, because interacting without delivering anticipated, personal and relevant messages is a waste at best, annoying at worst.

http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2009/10/consistent-persistent-generosity.html

Gratifying Comments

"My people" have always been generous with their comments to me, but today, I received an email note and a phone call expressing appreciation for my ministry. I try not to let such things "go to my head," but they are nice to hear every so often! Here's the email:

"A little over a week ago, I was at an event where, as part of an ice-breaker, we had to answer a series of questions in writing. One of those questions was: 'Who was your best teacher?' I initially, like most everyone else began to consider school teachers I had had, but, in a moment of revelation, I realized that you had to be the one! I knew immediately that I had to write a note of appreciation.

"I actively sat under your teaching longer than anyone else, including my dad, and my world view was radically reshaped in the process. I owe even more than I really know to your guidance, as you taught and counseled my wife and children as well as myself. You led me to discover more in scripture than I had, or would have, and to see it as a whole, complete and sufficient, both simple and unfathomable. You introduced me to evangelism and discipleship, and inspired me through your servant example to a reduced level of selfishness. You put up with my immaturity, and did not give up on me or become hostile or dismissive, even when it was deserved. Your wisdom and counsel was useful even when it was ignored at the time: I heard and understood it later. You allowed me to question and to err, even when it would have clearly been more convenient to put me in my place. I understand you are not perfect, and, unfortunately I have not been particularly graceful on those few points, though you always were more than gentle toward me. Your perseverance is remarkable: Others often cut and run, or give up, but you have persisted, despite occasional temptation to do otherwise. You have a legacy that cannot fade or spoil: complete the course in the same manner as you started it, and you can rest assured that you will hear 'Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master's happiness!'"

The caller (who also lives at a distance now) called to say he had been on our web site and was surprised at the breadth of ministry that we had. All I could say was, "It helps to stick around for a few years!"

The Philippian Jailer

What a great service we had this morning. Some months ago I officiated at the funeral of a friend (not from our church) whom I had known for a number of years. As a result of that funeral, this man's widow and their daughter and family began to attend our church.

As part of our new members class, I always give a presentation of the gospel along with an invitation for people who've never done so to place their faith in Christ. The dad of this new family became a believer as a result of our class, and today I baptized him and his two boys (his wife was already a believer and had been baptized).

What made this morning so neat was that the dad is the administrator of our county jail. And so, during the baptism, I told the story of another jail "administrator" from the city of Philippi, as told in Acts 16. And, of course, it was this jailer who asked Paul, "What must I do to be saved?" and was told, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved -- you and your household." And, indeed, not only was this man baptized but also the rest of his family. So it was fitting (and very touching) this morning to baptize this dad and his two boys -- just as Paul had baptized the family of the Philippian jailer.

On this blog that focuses on long-term ministry I would love (but won't take the space) to elaborate on how many years and how many contacts went into making this morning's wonderful service possible. This sort of fruit is rarely seen by a pastor who feels the need to move from church to church -- or by churches who trade off their pastors every few years! But I wouldn't trade it for anything!

Experience Helps

Yesterday was one of those days that if it had occurred 30 or even 25 years ago would have left me -- if not devastated -- wiped out and discouraged. It began, moments after I arrived in the office following a week-long vacation, with a desperate call from a parent that her daughter's marriage was in trouble. Shortly afterward, I met with the husband and learned, in a very tense discussion, that infidelity was involved. Meanwhile, a recently divorced woman came to see me -- sure that her former husband would try to wile his way back into my good graces. Finally, a man called to tell me that his elderly mother had just died.

Death, divorce, and infidelity -- all in about four hours!

But all, I now know after more than 35 years in the ministry, a pretty normal part of pastoral care. And so at the end of the day, as I finally had time to think about all these crises that I had managed, I was able to smile and reflect upon the thought that what had been a very full and rather intense day -- but by no means overwhelming -- would have left me dish rag limp had it occurred toward the beginning of my ministry. Instead, I was able to commit the various crises to the Lord, deal with each one lovingly and thoughtfully, and simply thank the Lord as the day closed, for His wisdom and presence.

Experience does help!

On the Long-Term Benefits of Preaching

We're always wondering if people are truly "getting" what we're trying to say -- if our preaching is really practical and applicable. One of my concerns over the years has been that if we're too focused on application (that is, at the end of each sermon we have two or three life-oriented ways people can apply the truth of what we've preached), pretty soon our people are going to have such a long "laundry list" of things to do that they won't do any of it anyway!

After more than 35 years of preaching (and trying faithfully to "apply" the text to daily living) here's the conclusion I've come to: As people sit week after week under the ministry of the Word, they will probably pick up a practical suggestion or two along the way that they find helpful.

But I am coming to realize that the greater impact is far more cumulative than immediate. Here's what I mean by that: Normally after a Sunday service several people will say something like, "Great sermon, Pastor, I really enjoyed it." Occasionally, someone will pick up on a particular point of that week's sermon and want to discuss it further or just make some comment about it. Those reactions are always encouraging; but I've learned not to be too seduced by them. In truth, within a few hours most people (sometimes even me!) will have forgotten most if not all of what I've said!

But over the course of several years I have observed that people seem to pick up on the major themes of my preaching and get the "big ideas" that I've tried to suggest from the texts. And, perhaps more importantly, they've learned how to examine those texts for themselves and develop their own applications. And that's when it's exciting! But it takes lots of time to get there.

There's a caution in this as well. Years ago I read a book by a Princeton Seminary prof, J. Randall Nichols entitled, Building the Word. Nichols suggested that most preachers are only capable of keeping a handle on six or seven catagories of ideas. And he noted that most of our sermons -- despite our attempts to diversify and to preach from all sorts of different texts -- had as their themes these six or seven categories. He point was not that we should try to break out of those categories, but simply that we should be aware of what our particular emphases are so that we can be sure to "spread out" our sermons among them and not be "one note" preachers.

On Visiting a Very Sick Friend

Today I went to see a friend in the hospital -- one of my church members. Early this morning I prayed with him and his family before he underwent "routine" bypass surgery. I told him I probably wouldn't see him after surgery because he'd be too tired to know or care that I'd been there. Instead, I'd see him in the morning. Well, I DID see him again tonight because he had a brush with death, though he appeared to be stable when I left, late into the night.

I've known my friend for over 20 years. The hard part about that, of course, is realizing how close he came to dying. When I came to our church nearly 29 years ago, I had funerals for my members. Now, I only have funerals for my friends! Every funeral involves my family. And that's hard. It's wonderfully rewarding to be able to support a family I have known for 20 or 25 years, but it's hard. It's part of the suffering of the ministry.

This week I was talking with someone in town who said a former pastor had told people that pastors shouldn't stay with a church longer than 10 years. I suppose that's fine for him. It will protect him from the kind of pain I suffer each time I bury one of my long time friends. But it will also shield him from the joy I experienced last week when I married two young people who had grown up in our church, been nurtured in our youth group, gone off to college, and returned to be married here. How cool is that!

Ten-year pastorates don't hurt as much, but they don't give as much either!

On using old sermons

I know I've talked about this before, but one of the benefits of getting older in the ministry is that you accumulate a lot of sermon notes. The danger, of course, is that you simply go back (after a "decent" amount of time has passed, of course) and re-preach those old messages! I have found that I can't generally do that.

For example, I am now preaching through the book of Revelation. It was a series I had done back in 1997 and was well-received. But as I look at those old messages, I see a lot of flaws as well as out-dated illustrations, etc. And not only is the world a different place than it was 10 years ago, I am a different person and my church is a different church. So while the Word of God is eternal, our understanding of and application of the text is constantly growing and changing.

Does it save me some time to re-trace old steps? Maybe a little some weeks. But generally, I find it just as easy to look at the old sermon and then virtually start from scratch!

On Long Sermons

One of my parishioners was visiting out-of-town relatives and attended a church service where the pastor preached a 71-minute sermon. To my mind that borders on just plain wrong!

I was concerned about the length of my own sermon for tomorrow, because with communion I didn't want to see the service go too long. My philosophy on these things is that the mind can only absorb what the seat can endure. So as I looked at my introduction tonight, I realized that while it was endlessly interesting to ME, it was actually unnecessary to the sermon. So I cut it, introduced the message with a sentence, saved five minutes, and had a much stronger sermon.

John Stott says that a sermon should last 20 minutes . . . or feel like it. As usual, he's right.

Coincidences

My favorite definition of a coincidence is "a minor miracle for which God gets no credit."

Today a gentleman from out of town stopped in to the office to see if a man who had died in a house fire 27 years ago was from our church. By "coincidence," I happened to be in the neighborhood when that house fire occurred. And so while the deceased wasn't from our church, I was able to direct this gentleman to the correct church.

Now, this wasn't a "big deal," and if I hadn't been able to help him, he wouldn't have been surprised. But how cool to have been there, remembered the fire, and also be able to direct this man where he needed to go. It's a small issue, but just another example of how staying in one place for a long time makes you a part of the history of the community.

When I first came here I would listen to the "old timers" talk about community people and go through their "genealogies:" "You remember Sadie, don't you? She was married to Barny Evers, John Johanson's first cousin who used to live in the Bowers house." I thought it was so funny! No, I can follow the genealogy and usually know most of the people!

And that's no coincidence.

Still More ...

I hate to sound like a broken record, but a couple of weeks ago a young couple showed up in our worship service. The husband worked with one of our members, so I assumed that was their connection with us. But the next week they showed up along with her mother -- and I realized that this was one of those networking connections from years ago. I had met her parents and worked with them on some projects at least 25 years ago. That connection certainly wasn't the only reason they chose to visit our church now, but it didn't hurt to know that as they walked into our church at least one familiar face was waiting!

I simply cannot over estimate the cumulative value of years of community service that are now coming to fruition. These are the sorts of contacts that a pastor who moves every five or six years (or who never gets out of his church and into the community) will never see!

Long Term Benefits

This past Sunday was a classic example of the value of being a long-term pastor -- as reflected in three visitors who attended for the first time.

The first was a couple whom I had first met over 25 years ago when we moved to town. They were interning at another church in town at the time and then moved away. But when they returned to town recently they decided to follow-up on our old relationship.

A second visitor was a gentleman (and his wife) whom I had visited in the hospital 15 years ago after he had suffered a stroke. He was not a member of our church, but I had met him through one of our members and stopped in to see him. Despite the fact that he recovered from his stroke so many years ago, he has never forgotten my visit! The couple lives an hour north and are active in a church near their home but drove down Sunday just to see me and thank me again for that simple act of pastoral care so long ago.

A third visitor was a young woman who had been employed at another church in town. A year or two ago she wrote me a very kind but rather critical letter about an article that had been published in the local paper about our youth ministry. The article implied that we were calling our youth ministry the largest in town, and her letter questioned whether that statement was true and whether such a claim truly mattered anyway. Rather than be defensive about it, I paid her a brief visit in which I apologized for any misunderstanding and assurred her that the statement was made by the reporter and not by any of our staff.

So imagine my surprise to see her in our worship service Sunday. Afterward she told me that she had been released from her job with the other church, so she and her husband were looking for a new church home.

Having a long-term relationship with your church also means that you gain a long-term relationship with your community. The "payoff" for these relationships is not always (or often) immediate, but it's gratifying when it comes!

Reading through the Bible

I suppose there are a dozen "Read-through-the-Bible-in-a-year" books out there. A couple of years I used the Chronological Bible in a Year, but found myself frustrated that I didn't get to the New Testament until what seemed like November. So late last year when I came across "Seasons of Reflection," published by the International Bible Society, I decided to give it a try. What a delightful edition of the Bible! For each day you read an Old Testament, New Testament and Psalm or Proverb portion. In addition the editors do their best to present the texts in chronological order (Job follows the Pentateuch, for example).

Since the Bibles are only about $6.00 each (including shipping), we ordered them for our people and sold out several cases. What is even more encouraging -- a lot of people are keeping up with their reading, asking me questions about it, and sharing how enjoyable the experience has been! Over the years, we've tried a number of through the Bible programs, but this is by far the most successful. Hardly a week goes by that someone doesn't comment to me about how meaningful the readings have been or discussed some issue that their study has raised.

Check it out on www.IBSDirect.com.

On stress in the ministry 2

So, here it is, the week of Christmas, and I find myself not only with Christmas Eve and Christmas Day services but now with a funeral on Thursday and another on Monday. And a wedding the following Saturday. So much for a relaxing Christmas! Talk about stress.

The interesting thing is that I am not stressed at all! For one thing, I "enjoy" funerals. Of course, I don't enjoy the fact that someone has died, but I find funerals to be a time that I can provide real help to a family in a time of great need. And since my funerals tend to be fairly simple (scripture readings and a brief meditation), they are not difficult for me to put together. For years I have said that I'd rather do a funeral than a wedding any day! Finally, this year I realized why: in a funeral, I am in charge; but in a wedding NO ONE is in charge! (Though the bride, the bride's mother, and assorted other people think they're in charge!)

So it's a busy week for me, but not terribly stressful (except for the wedding, of course! :)

On stress in the ministry

Some years ago I put together a seminar on "Burnout in the Ministry" that reflected some of the struggles I was experiencing. Each time I gave that presentation to small groups of pastors it had a different focus. At first, time management was the culprit. Then understanding your gifts and skill-sets. Finally, it was tailoring your ministry expectations to the type of church you pastored. But I have grown to understand that ministry, by nature, is a stressful calling. After all, we are working alongside several sets of expectations: God's, our people's, our family's, and our own expectations of ourselves. (That last one is probably the greatest stressor of them all! At least it has been for me.)

God's expectations are incredibly high -- "be holy as I am holy." And I have decided that the only way I can deal with His expectations of me is to understand that His grace to me equals and far exceeds His expectations. I am stretched by His demands, but I have learned (and am continuing to learn) to rest in His mercy, and patience, and grace. And to understand that when He calls me to a task He will equip me to do that task. I have also come to understand and even to appreciate (as I have spoken of earlier) that ministry is suffering. It doesn't just involve suffering, it is suffering. When a pastor understands that suffering is not necessarily a result of failure in ministry but is instead a partner in ministry, he will not be so overwhelmed by it.

Other's expectations of me also create stress. But I learned a great lesson during a terrible crisis some years ago. A family in church -- who also happened to be our best friends in all the world -- were going through a divorce. Because they were such good friends (and probably because I had never seen close friends divorcing before) I made it my job to preserve their marriage. After all, I was their pastor; I was trained for such things; and, as their friend, I couldn't bear to see either them or us in such overwhelming pain. As you might have guessed, I failed. And in my failure I hated myself and I hated God for letting this happen!

But out of the sadness and anger and depression of that experience, I learned a very simple but terribly profound lesson that I have leaned on ever since. I learned to differentiate between my problem and your problem. As simple as that sounds, it has been lifesaving for me. Your problem (in the case of my friends) is to save your marriage. I can't do that for you. NO ONE else can do that for you, no matter how much we would like to! My problem is to help you, to love you, to be your pastor; but it is not to save your marriage. From that time on, whenever I am dealing with people and feel my adrenalin starting to rise and my neck muscles starting to tighten -- I stop and ask myself, "What is MY problem in this difficult situation and what is theirs?" That saves me from becoming (to use a term now out of currency) "co-dependent" and makes me a much better pastor and helper.

Finally, as to my family's expectations, I look back on 30+ years of ministry and realize that too often I put my church and my church work way ahead of my loyalties to my family. And I regret that. But I have also found my family to be far more gracious and forgiving toward me than I am willing to be toward myself.

One day at a time

How does a long-term pastorate evolve? Literally, "one day at a time!"

I was thinking about this as I waited for my cash at the drive-up teller this afternoon. When I moved to my present church I came with the idea of staying five years or so and then moving on to a more "desirable" congregation (meaning larger, more affluent, more "professional," etc.). So, because I wasn't going to stay for long, I didn't have my name printed on the church stationery. Why make them throw out a lot of outdated sheets? At the house, I kept a lot of our packing boxes, because I just assumed we'd need them soon. And, each year as I compiled the church's annual report, I wondered if it would be my last.

But along the way, one year turned into nearly thirty! There have been times when I've wanted to leave for one reason or another, and times that I tried to leave but it just didn't work out. But for some reason it was hard for me to imagine that I would stay here -- even though the church was doing relatively well. Perhaps it's just that sense that pastors are meant to move around! It wasn't until I turned 50 that it truly occurred to me that I could retire here. I realized that I was at a critical age -- if I wanted to move, that was the time because there's not a big "market" out there for 60-year old pastors! But I didn't want to move! This has been a wonderful place for us -- members who love us and support us, a job I look forward to (just about) every day! Why spoil it all searching for that elusive perfect church? (As someone once told me, "The grass is always greener on the other side, but that's because there's so much manure there!)

So it's been nearly 30 years. But, in reality, it's been about 11,000 days -- one at a time!

On funerals

I attended a funeral today that made me proud to be a pastor. The granddaughter of one of my parishioners was killed in a terrible accident, and this morning I went to her funeral. Funerals for children are incredibly difficult, but the pastors of this church did a masterful job. Their service was personal, hopeful, soulful, and even at times humorous. We mourned together -- deeply -- but we also left with a sense of quiet joy and hope for the future.

Few things disappoint me more than going to a poorly performed funeral. Instead of taking the opportunity to minister to the hurting family, too many pastors go through the motions, read their service books, and give too-long dry sermons that may declare some correct theology but fail to embody the gospel.

The pastor who learns to perform sincere, simple, and grace-filled funerals will build incredible "capital" and loyalty among his people that will -- over the years -- carry him through a host of potentially difficult situations. I was so honored several years ago when one of our senior members told me that I had to stay at the church long enough to do her funeral. I told her that, God willing, I would; and just a few months ago I had the privilege of keeping that promise.

The hardest part of being in the same church for a long time, however, is that I no longer bury my members, I bury my friends!