Tom Ascol has posted several insightful points made by Iain Murray on what’s lacking in contemporary preaching.
If you’re a preacher or training to be a preacher I encourage you to give the post a read.
From The Cross and Christian Ministry by D.A. Carson,
Western evangelicalism tends to run through cycles of fads. At the moment, books are pouring off the presses telling us how to plan for success, how “vision” consists in clearly articulated “ministry goals”, how the knowledge of detailed profiles of our communities constitutes the key to successful outreach. I am not for a moment suggesting that there is nothing to be learned from such studies. But after a while one may perhaps be excused for marveling how many churches were planted by Paul and Whitefield and Wesley and Stanway and Judson without enjoying these advantages. Of course all of us need to understand the people to whom we minister, and all of us can benefit from small doses of such literature. But massive doses sooner or later dilute the gospel. Ever so subtly, we start to think that success more critically depends on thoughtful sociological analysis than on the gospel; Barna becomes more important than the Bible. We depend on plans, programs, vision statements — but somewhere along the way we have succumbed to the temptation to displace the foolishness of the cross with the wisdom of strategic planning. Again, I insist, my position is not a thinly veiled plea for obscurantism, for seat-of-the-pants ministry that plans nothing. Rather, I fear that the cross, without ever being disowned, is constantly in danger of being dismissed from the central place it must enjoy, by relatively peripheral insights that take on far too much weight. Whenever the periphery is in danger of displacing the center, we are not far removed from idolatry (25-26).
Yesterday I posted a video of a talk given by Tim Keller on the role of persuasion in preaching the Gospel. As a follow up I wanted to provide an explanation of what Keller means by persuasion. The following is a paraphrase of Keller’s definition.
Persuasion is seeking to understand your audience so what you say to them will address their concerns and overcome their objections. In doing so, the barriers that formerly prevented your listeners from giving thought to the message you proclaim will be taken away and they can begin to see the attractiveness of the Gospel.
I encourage you to watch or listen to Keller’s talk in its entirety (see yesterday’s post).
At the 2008 Dwell Conference in New York City Tim Keller spoke on the topic of persuasion in preaching. I appreciated how at the very beginning of the session Keller addressed some of the common objections to the use of persuasion in preaching the Gospel. Video of the session is embedded below.
You can also download the audio and notes at the Acts 29 website.
Recently one of our church’s interns, Matthew Seymour, a student at Westminster Seminary California, preached an excellent sermon on suffering from I Peter 4:12-19. Matthew helpfully summarized how we’re to understand passages that deal with suffering and persecution.
We may not face trials and suffering on the same level of physical intensity that our brothers and sisters do around the world. However there is a wider sense in which Peter’s words apply to every situation in our lives. We experience a trial any time when our faith is tested and proved true. We suffer when we feel the effects of sin in our work, relationships and our own bodies.
Peter wants to prepare these believers to stand firm in trials and suffering and so he gives them a ‘vaccination shot’ of a biblical theology of trials and suffering. Whether or not we are facing trials and suffering at this present moment, we need right thinking now so that we will respond with right responses in the future.
You can listen to or download the sermon here. It will be well worth your time.
“Preaching” God’s promises to yourself is an important practice that every Christian ought to develop.
My first exposure to the concept came by way of the book Spiritual Depression: Its Causes and Cure, a collection of sermons preached by Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones at Westminster Chapel in London some 40+ years ago.
In the first chapter Lloyd-Jones examines the words of the psalmist in Psalm 42 verses 5 and 11:
“Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted in me? hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise him for the help of his countenance…Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me? hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God” (KJV, the translation used in the sermon).
Lloyd-Jones comments,
“…we must learn to take ourselves in hand. This man was not content just to lie down and commiserate with himself. He does something about it, he takes himself in hand. But he does something which is more important still, that is he talks to himself” (p. 20).
He continues,
“…I say that we must talk to ourselves instead of allowing ‘ourselves’ to talk to us! Do you realize what that means? I suggest that the main trouble in this whole matter of spiritual depression in a sense is this, that we allow our self to talk to us instead of talking to our self…Have you realized that most of your unhappiness in life is due to the fact that you are listening to yourself instead of talking to yourself?” (p.20).
Later Dr. Lloyd-Jones explains that,
“the main art in the matter of spiritual living is to know how to handle yourself. You have to take yourself in hand, you have to address yourself, preach to yourself, question yourself. You must say to your soul: ‘Why art thou cast down’ – what business have you to be disquieted?…and say to yourself: ‘Hope thou in God’ – instead of muttering in this depressed, unhappy way.” (p. 21, emphasis added)
Lastly, Lloyd-Jones says,
“…you must go on to remind yourself of God. Who God is, and what God is and what God has done, and what God has pledged Himself to do. Then having done that, end on this great note: defy yourself, and defy other people, and defy the devil and the whole world, and say with this man: ‘I shall yet praise Him for the help of His countenance, who is also the health of my countenance and my God”” (p. 21).
This is such wise and valuable instruction. I’ve benefited from it immensely over the years (even this past week!). So what are you waiting for? Start “preaching” to yourself.
