William H. Willimon on preaching and The King’s Speech:

The King’s Speech reminded me what a high vocation it is to enable others to find their voice in service to a God who uses our weakness to bring God’s gospel to speech. I preach today as the recipient of Lionel Logue-like instruction. One spring afternoon at Yale Divinity School I confessed to my teacher, Bill Muehl, that I was self-conscious about my thick southern accent, which everyone in New Haven seemed compelled to note and ridicule. “You can make good money in Texas with that accent,” Muehl assured me.

When I told him I had no intention of preaching in Texas, Muehl said, “Pity,” and then handed me a stack of reel-to-reel tapes. “Listen to these,” was his only instruction, “they are some of the greatest preachers of our time.”

I took the tapes back to my dorm room and spent the rest of the day listening to sermons by Harry Emerson Fosdick, William Sloane Coffin and Hal­ford Luccock. Immediately I noted that none of these great preachers possessed a great voice—all of them had odd speech quirks and vocal weaknesses. I got the point: as in the Bible, God tends to call the “wrong” people, without a surfeit of gifts, to do God’s work.

Fosdick in particular made me laugh, with his high-pitched, nasal twang. But I couldn’t stop listening. Fosdick must have had something really important to say, I thought, for why else would a guy who sounded like that be speaking in public? I thought: I may not have the best voice in the world, but it’s as good as Harry Emerson Fosdick’s! That day I became a preacher.

As Paul says, God demonstrates God’s power in our weakness. In speaking up to smooth-talking Hitler, faltering, stammering King George demonstrated a peculiar power. But for any of that to happen, God needed someone to help the king find his voice. This is the difficult and holy vocation of the teaching of preaching.

Read the rest of Willimon’s post here. Order the book The King’s Speech: How One Man Saved the British Monarchy here.

Thabiti Anyabwile responding to the assertion that the traditional sermon is the culprit in “crippling discipleship.”

I think that assertion errs in at least two ways:

1. It assumes that the primary or perhaps exclusive way of making disciples is the Sunday morning sermon.
Wherever that’s being assumed, it seems to me to be wholly in error. Preaching is necessary to but not sufficient for making disciples. It takes the entire body with every member every day to make solid disciples.

The reason we have spiritually immature believers (which we’ll always have in some measure) and burned out pastors isn’t because the pastor preaches every Sunday (which most pastors enjoy doing). The reason we have immature believers and burned out disciples is because so many Christians are not opening their lives, inviting others in, and making spiritual deposits in intentional disciple-making relationships.

The problem isn’t that we have preachers; the problem is that every disciple is not themselves making disciples as our Lord commands.

2. The assertion errs because it makes preaching to believers unnecessary when the NT makes it necessary.
Paul explicitly commands Timothy to “preach the word” in the gathered assembly. What word is that? Likely the OT, which Paul says elsewhere was written for our instruction and example. Insofar as Timothy is to “preach the word,” he’s doing some form of exposition in the assembly. It doesn’t get much clearer than that.

That was found in the comments section of a post called “Who’s Doing the Talking in Our Church Gatherings?” The entire post and about 2/3 of the comments are worth reading here.

So this guy named Paul gets arrested in a holy place. He gets arrested, ironically enough, because people who should be his allies are trying to kill him.

Why? Well, they had seen him with a second-class civilian earlier in the day, walking through the city. Now that same guy was in the holy place – not with Paul but… Unlawfully! – and they saw an opportunity to make an accusation.

Some dramatically inclined fellow puts on his acting hat and proclaims: “Help! You Israelites, help! This is the man who is going all over the world telling lies against us and our religion and this place. He’s even brought Greeks in here and defiled this holy place.” (Acts 21:28 MSG) A mob beating ensues…

A more likely scenario is that they dragged the Greek against his will into the temple just to frame Paul. As one commentator put it: “The possibility that Trophimus [the Greek] might have wandered of his own free will into the forbidden area is about as likely as that somebody should wander into the private rooms in the Kremlin for the purpose of sightseeing.”

Besides, they could have asked Paul directly if he’d brought him in but, shucks, he might say no, and then what? Paul was guilty of associating, no doubt, just like Jesus often was, but no proof existed that he had actually transgressed the law. But why let that spoil the fun?

“Never mind the facts – we say Paul brought him here! Let’s get him, boys!”

Part of their message to Paul was, “Be careful whom you are seen with in any place. It could come back to haunt you…” and you can imagine that being followed with an “if-you-know-what-I-mean” wink. In other words, they were seeking to control his actions with fear of repercussions – in this case, direct physical violence.

Like this was news to Paul. He already knew, since the Holy Spirit had notified him, that in every city he went to there would imprisonment, beatings, and persecution. (see Acts 20:23-18-23)

And So…
When people don’t like what you’re doing, they’ll use anything as a stone to throw. Good intentions? – We don’t care. Actual facts? – Maybe later.

When people don’t like what you’re doing, they watch you with an eye for any small mistake that can be leveraged into a full-scale assault.

When people don’t like what you’re doing, they’re willing to believe anything negative about you because they’ve already decided what they think about you.

When people like this don’t like what you’re doing, be blessed, because Jesus says you ARE blessed. Matthew 5:11-16 (ESV):

“Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you. (or, as Peterson puts it: “My prophets and witnesses have always gotten into this kind of trouble.”)

Be blessed.

I threw a question out on Facebook a couple of days ago. “What is one question you’ve always wanted to ask a pastor?” Below are responses to some of the questions:

Where do I struggle in my faith? Hmmm… I’ve shared with some of you before that faith is an area of strength for me. I feel that I’ve been given an “extra portion” so to speak. This has nothing to to with anything I’ve done to obtain an extra portion, simply that God has given me strength in this area for a purpose. What is that purpose? Primarily so that I can engage and encourage those who struggle deeply with faith.

This is not to say that I have no doubts – I have plenty, but they rest inside the fence of faith.

To your second question: If I’d been born into a different religion, who knows; if I’d made a choice, probably Buddhist.

At the same time, because I do believe in ultimate truth, and that that ultimate truth is Jesus Christ, I believe thst regardless of what religion I could have been, my search for THE truth (Jesus) would have ultimately led me to him.

Next question:
In one word: distraction – “the diversion of attention of an individual or group from the chosen object of attention onto the source of distraction.” TV, internet, email, txt messaging, kids sports, etc, etc, etc… and I’m probably the guiltiest one.

How can you be part of the solution? Be an example of wise time management and technology use.

Next:
Answer: have you ever read Song of Solomon?

Next:
I don’t understand…. I would do what I’m doing now, but I would work for free. Is that what you’re asking?

Next:
I find that throughout the day works well and that answers do not necessarily come in the same order as questions are asked. Also, sometimes the answers are not what you expect them to be and you don’t notice them until days, weeks, or years afterward.

Write out your prayers and regularly take time to reflect. You’ll see God working.

Next:
Who says I don’t get depressed? I do, but nowhere near as often or to the degree that I used to.

Realizing that I am not THE solution (actually, sometimes I’m part of the problem) is crucial. It’s not up to me to fix people. My job is to help them make space for God to do what needs to be done.

Next:
My answer to Matt is always the same: communism. [inside joke alert]

That’s it for now. Thanks for the questions. Let’s do this again sometime.

Feel free to discuss in the comments section or in the comment thread at Facebook.

A Caveat
In the comments section of yesterday’s post (Pastoring and The Honeymoon Period), PJ pointed out that marriage is not the perfect metaphor for describing the relationship between pastor and congregation. I agree to the extent that Jesus is the bridegroom and the church is his bride – not the pastor’s. But the analogy of a honeymoon period works insofar as the relationship is, like marriage, a covenant between two parties.

So I’ll continue with the marriage metaphor with the caveat that I’m not talking about taking the place of Jesus in the lives of the people in a church.

I ended yesterday saying that in a pastor-congregation relationship, whether a decision is made to continue or to part ways, there is probably some accumulated baggage.

Baggage
Baggage is looking at someone (or a group of people) and knowing things about them that wish you didn’t. Baggage is also them looking back at you and knowing things about you that they wish weren’t true. Once this is the case, you’re done dating.

Despite all of the above, an absence of baggage should not be the ultimate determining factor in the decision to continue or part ways. It’s not like a probation period for either the pastor or the congregation. It’s not a “Behave well during this time and we’ll reward you with our presence” arrangement.

No, baggage is part of community; until you have some, you don’t have community; once you have some, you have the potential for community and the beginnings of a healthy relationship.

Baggage should not determine the future of a relationship. But the way baggage is handled will. Sin – which is what leads to baggage – in any relationship needs to be confronted, confessed, repented of, and then forgiven.

Forgiveness, as all of you who are married will know, is the foundation of marriage.

Tomorrow: Seasons of Attack the Lure of Adultery

When you become a pastor, what’s commonly known as the “honeymoon period” is the time after a pastor first arrives when both pastor and congregation overlook one another’s mistakes. The length of this phase can be anywhere from six months to a year to two years.

During this period you’re already hired and working among the people but as a wise older pastor told me when I was first hired, “Somewhere around the one to two year mark the people will decide whether or not you love them.”

It was simple enough sounding at the time and to tell you the truth, as a first-timer and early in the game at that point, I wasn’t sure exactly what it meant, but it has rung in my brain ever since.

He wasn’t talking about the type of love that caters to whims or performs magic tricks to impress. He was talking about the kind of love that encourages and corrects, that speaks prophetically and compassionately, that both examines and opens itself to examination.

The Dating Phase
I think what he was describing in this part of the journey is more like a pre-marriage or “dating period”. Good marriages are based on foreknowledge, and the first six months to two years of a pastor’s life with a new congregation are spent getting acquainted. In other words, if there’s a hope of longevity, you don’t wait until AFTER you’re married to get to know each other.

During this phase you’re trying to figure out whether you’re going to make things more permanent or decide part ways. In a worst-case scenario, where the dating period has revealed obvious incompatibility, the politics can make things tricky. Either a contract has been signed for a certain number of years or neither party is willing to make the call to pull the plug on the relationship.

So sometimes the marriage is maintained to keep up appearances or for the reasons that it’s both too complicated and too time-consuming to correct. Either way, whether a decision is made to continue or to part ways, there is probably some accumulated baggage.

Tomorrow: “Baggage is Part of Community“

“Preaching does not have to be an individualistic sort of activity. In fact, great preaching well understands this. The true preacher is not over against the Christian congregation but rather is an expression of the congregation.

The true Christian preacher affirms the faith of the congregation, and raises up the hope of the congregation. Much of the genius of great preachers is their ability to express the faith of the people to whom they are preaching”

Hughes Oliphant Old, The Reading and Preaching of the Scriptures, p. 271

(via:Doug)

These guidelines will be helpful for anyone who frequently makes presentations, but especially for pastors.

As pastors, we often find ourselves in the position of proposing or spearheading change. Usually a part of those efforts is a document and a verbal presentation.

Let’s just say it out loud, ok? We pastors can be an academically nerdy bunch. Most of us read a lot and spend large amounts of time putting our thoughts on paper. And then we often forget that the majority of the people we’re speaking to have no experience in our environment.

To overcome this hurdle I suggest four things:

1. Keep It Short
Invariably, when presenting a substantial document to a group of people, the length will be seen as overwhelming. You can assure them that it’s NOT overwhelming and that the first draft was WAY longer, but most of them will still look at it and say “wow, that’s long…”

2. Hand Out Copies In Advance
If possible, get the document into the hands of those who need to see it a few days before your presentation. This will ease the tension in the room on presentation day since they’ll have had a opportunity to look at the document and (hopefully) attain a level of comfort with it.

3. Include a Glossary Page
Comb your document for words that are common in the theological circles you run in and include them on the glossary page. If you are oblivious to which words these are, ask someone outside your circle to read your document and circle them. They’ll know.

Mention the location of the glossary page both when you distribute the document and at the outset of your presentation so people know they can flip to it at any time.

4. Establish Terminological Handles
Do introduce new words and concepts but then be consistent about using them.

Expanding the thinking and word knowledge base of others is a good thing, but giving people too much at one sitting is counterproductive. You might appreciate the interchangeability and nuances of certain words but the effect on others is usually confusion.

By defining new words and concepts in broader terms now you will be able to expand on them as understanding deepens after a time of consistent usage. As Seth Godin says: “Take complicated overall answers and make them simple steps instead. Teach complexity over time, simply.”

*(Bonus point for not saying, “These are the terminological handles for which comprehension is required as I commence with my presentation…” unless you’re including all of those words in your glossary)

5. Presentation is a Team Sport
Ensure that there is adequate time for verbal presentation of the document and time for questions as you go – not just at the end.

People can easily and quickly feel intimidated by anything that has an overly academic ring to it. This is something that needs to be remedied to an extent on their part with more education (self and/or formal education) but in the meantime anything you can do to sound less academic will win you a more favorable hearing.

You don’t want to lose “the meat”, but the meat has to be chewable.

A few weeks ago I wrote a post called “What If Pastor Can’t Preach?” in which I explored the idea that a lead pastor doesn’t necessarily need to be a great preacher. That started a good discussion worth reading  in the comments section.

Yesterday someone left the following question there:

I came to this looking for insight on how to address our Pastor’s mediocre sermon writing and sub-par speaking skills. I love my pastor like a brother, but he clearly is not gifted for the puplit. In our small, struggling to survive congregation where he is the only one preaching, we have few returning visitors. Rambling thoughts, awkward phrasing & pacing, constant ums, and the tendency to jam new concepts into the sermon at the last minute challenge even the most attentive listeners.

Though exceptional in small groups due to his in-depth scriptural knowledge, few newcomers stick around long enough to see that side of him.

I no longer invite friends to church as each and every one has decided to “continue their search elsewhere.” He is extremely defensive about his sermons and no longer approachable on the subject.

Now what?

Darryl Dash responded:

If what you’re saying is true, it merits an open and honest conversation with the pastor. I’ve been in his place, and it’s tough in the short term but worth it. If you do love him like a brother it won’t be an attack that leaves him flattened. The good news is that poor preachers can improve. They may never be great, but they can become decent.

If the pastor is not willing to receive honest feedback, that’s a separate and probably more serious issue. It has to be done safely and with the right people, but we all need to be willing to hear feedback from others.

Well done.

I read Darryl’s blog regularly. If you’re interested in practical observations about pastoring and local church life you should too. His blog is here.

About a year ago I was quite enamored with my prospects for success. I had recently become a pastor; my site traffic was picking up; I had landed a gig writing a column for a national Christian newspaper. To what heights could I ascend? A book deal? A speaking tour?

It was all very exciting.

Somewhere in the last 6-8 months there has been a reversal. I’m still excited about the possibilities, but my heart and hopes have turned from my own prospects to the prospects of the people in my care.

I know that God has called some into “one-to-many” (?) ministries like mass evangelism, book writing, and speaking tours. I may be one of them, and if that’s the case, I’ll gladly follow the call. But more recently I’ve experienced a greater sense of contentment in realizing that the opposite suits me fine as well: to be known by a limited number of people, to not be a sought-after author/speaker, to have nobody outside of my own church or town recognize my name.

I’ll stay right where I am for the rest of my life if that’s where God wants me.

Too many have fallen into the trap of thinking that “bigger is better” and that visibility equals significance. I was almost one of them.

But significance is found only in obedience and faithfulness and our identity is found only in Christ. So bigger is only better if it’s God’s doing and not ours.

As a pastor, ambition is one of the biggest idols to deal with. Between the temptation to encourage sycophants and struggling to fend off attacks, sometimes it’s easier to seek to accomplish more as evidence of your calling rather than resting in God and leaving it to him. (see “Making An Idol of Ambition“)

But I have been experiencing contentment, and discovering this contentment has something to do with he fact that we’re pursuing “strategic division” (?) at my church. Well over 500 people call the church I’m serving at their home church and I probably don’t even know 250 of their names.

Ministering in a “one-to-many”(?) environment can frustrating. It can be disjointing and can force a level of dis-traction that is unhealthy. At some point you resign yourself to the fact that you never WILL know the names of everyone who goes to your church.

But we’re already seeing the benefits of strategic division. On Saturday nights I look around and I know everyone, and when there is someone I don’t know I actually notice.

That’s a good experience, and it feels a whole lot more like “church” than sitting with – or serving – hundreds of people I don’t know.

Before I was a pastor I wouldn’t have known where to purchase cocaine. Now, access is just a phone call away.

(For the record, there has been no accessing of this substance on my part.)

What I’ve discovered since becoming a pastor a couple of years ago is that there is more of a drug culture, even in our small towns, than we think. This has led me into some dark places to be with the kinds of people that it turns out Jesus was keen on reaching out to.

They’ve brought their friends to meet me too. These meetings – the initial ones and the subsequent ones – never have fairy tale endings. The friends I’ve met, even the ones who have decided to follow Jesus, still struggle with their addictions. They struggle with their addictions, with their ongoing social strife, with the poor start they were given in life, and with their inability to avoid a daily existence involving the worst kinds of drama.

You know, all of the stuff that most of the rest of us don’t need to worry about.

Walking with someone through all of this is frustrating, draining, and difficult… but it’s not boring, I can tell you that, and it is ultimately rewarding.

Sick Physicians
It’s the sick, Jesus tells us that are in need of the physician. Unfortunately too many physicians are happy to gather together weekly for mutual affirmation while ignoring the sick.

Many of these physicians are just as sick in other ways, but it’s really hard to tell that when you’re surrounded by a bunch of other people with the same sickness. More mutual affirmation…

We Need Each Other
The sick and the healthy – we need each other. Those who are sick with addictions need those who are not and those who are sick with pride need those who have none.

I was in a meeting on Saturday night when a thought occurred to me. I was sitting with three very good friends talking about where the ideal place would be to plant a church amongst the homeless, drug addicted, and sex-trade workers.

What’s important at the outset, we all agreed, is to let people know that WE are not there to change THEM. We are there to change WITH them, since WE are not complete in our perfection.

When you meet someone who struggles with addiction, they are changed but you are too. Sometimes, you change more than they do!

Connections
Do you have the right connections to make a call right now and have the ability to purchase cocaine? If not, you probably don’t know enough of the types of people Jesus did.

I can help you find these people if you’re interested. Let me know.

(Of course there are a couple of cautions to throw in here. Don’t do this if you’ve struggled with this type of substance abuse in the past. Don’t walk into an area of weakness and tempt yourself beyond your limits, etc.)

But for most of the rest of you, you really need someone you can look in the face and say:

“I’m not here to change you; I’m here to change WITH you.”

So says David Fitch. First, Fitch offers an admission (one that I could make myself):

I often use the pedagogical tactic that starts out by saying something provocative and then, after I’ve gotten myself into some trouble, and acquired some people’s attention,  I try to explain myself. It’s a bad rhetorical habit. Nonetheless, it works. This time it seems to have attracted some attention so let me take advantage of it and explain what I meant.

So, is there some hyperbole in the statement? Yes, but it did get your attention, didn’t it? Fitch explains:

Prototype youth groups are built on the worst of modernist assumptions concerning the way human beings develop as cultural beings. [Parents] think the answer is to somehow get their children to a place where the youth culture attracts them and somehow makes Christianity attractive to their age group. All these things, I argue, work against the child growing up into a vital and real relationship with the living God and what He has done in Christ for the world.

He then lists as least three ways that prototype youth programs are destructive:

1.) YOUTH GROUPS FOSTER PEER ORIENTATION.

Youth groups segregate the youth from the adults creating programing geered towards them as a separate culture. This creates a gap between the youth and the adults culturally. This then leads the youth to look to their peers for orientation into life. This I contend works against the discipleship of youth into Christ. I contend this peer orientation is disasterous for the lives of our children.

2.) YOUTH GROUPS UNDERCUT WHOLISTIC COMMUNITY from which a child can learn faith in Chirst as a way of life/relationship, not just information slickly delivered… children learn about the living God by being in living relationships within a community where God is present. Once Jesus becomes infotainment, once it becomes a program, detached from real relationships, it loses its reality. It takes on the character of a learning experience in competition with other learning experiences.

3.) YOUTH GROUPS TOO OFTEN TRY TO ATTRACT YOUTH PLAYING TO THEIR WORST INTERESTS.

It’s a mistake to try to “attract” youth to discipleship with either social occasions that play on their sexual insecurities or music entertainment that plays on their desire to be “cool.” There will be times I am sure to attend the occasional rock concert or have the occasional social time together. But what the church should do for its youth most of all is foster spaces for meeting God where they can be trained to listen for God and commune with Him in silence, in prayer.

These are just the highlights. Read the whole thing here. If you have time, take in some the content in the comments section as well.

Billy handles himself superbly. Returns wit for wit without compromise. Have a look:

Part 2

Who are the prominent pastor-preachers today that can go head-to-head with a top-notch comedian/social satirist and not come out with two black eyes and a bloody nose?

There was an excellent post at Desiring God a few days ago called “Embracing the Ordinary“. The posts consists of a quote by Carl Trueman in Republocrat followed by six implications – three for churches and three for pastors. First, Carl Trueman:

[The] Lord has blessed the church of today with some remarkably talented individuals who have been used to do remarkable things. The danger is that, in focusing on such men, we create unrealistic expectations. The evidence that the church models developed by these men can be transplanted with success elsewhere is highly equivocal; more likely, their success is rooted in God’s using their own remarkable gifts and contexts—the right men in the right place at the right time for something great, if you like. The life of Don Carson’s father, outlined so movingly in his Memoirs of an Ordinary Pastor, is more likely to be closer to the norm for most churches and pastors than that of Redeemer in New York (38-39).

Bingo! This, as I have pointed out ad nauseum, is the major failing of Willow Creek’s “Leadership Summit” event. The “leaders” they present as authorities bear little to no resemblance to the average attendee of the event. Unless you are trying to build an empire with the same look and size (which is actually the goal of many), it makes no sense to idolize these leaders.

They are the exception, not the rule and by defining leadership success by their accomplishments implies that a majority of pastors and other leaders are losers and failures.

The post at DG then considers these six implications (Shortened here. Read the full post for the expanded points):

Three Implications for Churches

1. Listen (attentively and expectantly) primarily to your pastor’s sermons
2. Listen to extraordinary preachers (unless he’s your pastor) sparingly
3. Lower your (likely unrealistic) expectations of your pastor. While he may not be (and likely isn’t) extraordinary, he is (for you and your church) likely the right man in the right place at the right time.

Three Implications for Pastors

1. Broaden your diet of your favorite preachers
2. Be content being an ordinary pastor and preacher
3. To give you proper perspective (and deep encouragement) as you aspire and cope with your newly embraced “ordinariness,” read Carson’s Memoirs annually

Posts like this is one of the reasons I continue to read content at Desiring God written by John Piper and others. Piper’s church is  mega-church size without mega-church BS. Theologically, you may have a few bones to pick with him, but you have to admit that there’s a refreshing lack of mega-church thinking.

There is far too much free-lance pastoring going on, and that’s where this post hits a bit of a paradox. Desiring God and other large ministries put out so much content, with increased influence being the primary goal. Still, I like the “proceed with caution” attitude displayed in the post.

Sometimes people need to be told “That’s a nice thing to say, but that guy’s not your pastor,” and also “If you want him to be your pastor, here’s the address of his church and a membership transfer form.”

In Matthew 28 Jesus tells his disciples to “go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.” Disciples making disciples – this is what Jesus has sent us to do.

But this is more than a one-trick assignment. We are not called merely to bring people to the front door of faith, usher them through it, and then circle back to gather more recruits.

The task of disciple-making is at least threefold and is accomplished not just in getting new people “into the fold”, but also caring for them while they are there, and retrieving them when they wander off – leaving the other 99 in relative safety, depending on the terrain and prevalence of predators.

Focusing on getting people into the fold is what we’ve tended toward -  a remnant of “sign on the line and get saved” Evangelicalism perhaps.  And while new community is formed with the making of new disciples,  deeper community is found only as we pursue the other two aspects of disciple-making.

These other two – care for and retrieval of – are by far the more difficult and time-consuming, and for that reason they are more often neglected.

My favorite weeks are the ones when I’m preparing to preach. Last week was one of those weeks.

During the week Darryl Dash posted a “preaching cheat sheet” based on Haddon Robinson’s book “Biblical Preaching: The Development and Delivery of Expository Messages”

I have two of my own that I, like Darryl, have posted beside my desk. One is based on John Piper’s article The Marks of a Spiritual Leader, the other is from a section of John Stott’s book “Between Two Worlds: The Challenge of Preaching Today“. You can view these three resources either by blog post or PDF by using the links below posted below.

Haddon Robinson (blog post | PDF | order the book)
John Piper (blog post | PDF)
John Stott (blog post | order the book)

Now, go work on a sermon… my next one is in two weeks. The passage is Galatians 6.

From John Piper’s article The Marks of a Spiritual Leader, here’s a section where he seeks to give some of the essential characteristics of a good teacher. These have been helpful to me in preparing to preach and teach.

• A good teacher asks himself the hardest questions, works through to answers, and then frames provocative questions for his learners to stimulate their thinking.

• A good teacher analyzes his subject matter into parts and sees relationships and discovers the unity of the whole.

• A good teacher knows the problems learners will have with his subject matter and encourages them and gets them over the humps of discouragement.

• A good teacher foresees objections and thinks them through so that he can answer them intelligently.

• A good teacher can put himself in the place of a variety of learners and therefore explain hard things in terms that are clear from their standpoint.

• A good teacher is concrete, not abstract; specific, not general; precise, not vague; vulnerable, not evasive.

• A good teacher always asks, “So what?” and tries to see how discoveries shape our whole system of thought. He tries to relate discoveries to life and tries to avoid compartmentalizing.

• The goal of a good teacher is the transformation of all of life and thought into a Christ-honoring unity.

Download as a PDF.

More wise words from John Stott about pastors and their people:

A pastor caring for his people, “is not satisfied that Christ dwells in them; he longs to see Christ formed in them, to see them transformed into the image of Christ, ‘until you take the shape of Christ.’(NEB)”

In response, a congregation should, “neither flatter him because they find him attractive, nor despise and reject him because he is not… Instead, a congregation’s attitude to their minister should be determined by his loyalty to the apostolic message.”

“In the church today there is far too little deference to the apostolic word. Frequently, what interests a contemporary congregation most is the teacher’s technique, mannerisms, or voice, how long he preaches for, or whether they can hear him, understand him and agree with him. And often when the sermon is over, they love to criticize it and pull it to pieces.

Certainly, people have cause for criticism if the preacher is unfaithful to his commission, if he makes no attempt to preach biblically, or if he is not himself subject to the apostolic word.”

The pastor’s attitude in the process should resemble Paul’s in that, “He should be preoccupied with people’s spiritual progress and care nothing for his own prestige… He should not use them for his own pleasure, but be willing on their behalf to endure pain.”

- John R. W. Stott – “Only One Way: The Message of Galatians”

The entirety of chapter 10 of Eugene Peterson’s “The Contemplative Pastor:Returning to the Art of Spiritual Direction” is worth further exploration since it deals with small talk. What’s that you say… you didn’t think Peterson would be a fan of Seinfeld?

He may or may not be, but endless, mindless, pointless chatter is not what he’s talking about in this chapter.

I have to admit that sometimes as a pastor I feel the need to turn ordinary conversations into “spiritual” conversations. There is sometimes a guilt experienced in the aftermath of a coffee meeting or an evening spent with people from my church in which the conversation never made its way past the ordinary things of life. But this is more guilt than conviction; more a capitulation to a perceived requirement than a failure to act on what I know to be right.

“Pastoral work,” says Peterson, “is that aspect of Christian ministry that specializes in the ordinary. It is the nature of pastoral life to be attentive to, immersed in, and appreciative of the everyday texture of people’s lives – the buying and selling, the visiting and meeting, the going and coming.”

There are always crisis situations to attend to but most people, most of the time are not in crisis.

“Small talk: the way we talk when we aren’t talking about anything in particular, when we don’t have to think logically, or decide sensibly, or understand accurately. The reassuring conversational noises that make no demands, inflicts no stress. The sounds that take the pressure off.  The meandering talk that simply expresses what is going on at the time.”

This is about the only way I do person meetings. No agenda, no point list, no “desired outcome” – just start talking and see where it goes. But I’m not sure that this is working, insofar as I haven’t tried going prepared, with an agenda and a desired outcome. Something to try perhaps – being more “intentional” – but I don’t think I can bring myself to do it.

Being intentional, to me, means being available, being involved, trusting God providence to supply opportunity. Seeing what happens, watching where it goes, making my contribution (by the grace of God and the guidance of the Holy Spirit) and then repeating the cycle. Time will be the judge of the effectiveness of this strategy.

Peterson’s childhood pastor was the opposite – the only thing he ever wanted to know was how your SOUL was doing. The pastor’s refusal (or inability) to engage in any other kind of conversation implied that most of Peterson’s life was being lived at a sub-spiritual level. “Vast tracts of my experience we ‘worldly’, with occasional moments qualifying as ‘spiritual’.”

Not only is this practiced by some, it is expected by many. Back to Peterson’s earlier quote about the Pastor as court jester.

“I never questioned the practice,” he continues, “until I became a pastor myself and found that such an approach left me uninvolved with most of what was happening in people’s lives and without a conversational context for the actual undramatic work of living by faith in the fog and drizzle.”

I don’t have a 5-year plan – I don’t have a 1-year plan… I question whether I can legitimately say I have a plan beyond next week. I rely on serendipity as much as intentional action. I am wary (and weary!) of manipulation – of me or by me.

Stay tuned…

Eugene Peterson:

“Prayer is not work that pastors are often asked to do except in ceremonial ways. Most pastoral work actually erodes prayer. The reason is obvious: people are not comfortable with God in their lives. They prefer something less awesome and more informal. Something, in fact, like the pastor. Reassuring, accessible, easygoing. People would rather talk to the pastor than to God. And so it happens that without anyone actually intending it, prayer is pushed to the sidelines.

And so pastors, instead of practicing prayer, which brings people into the presence of God, enter into the practice of messiah: we will do the work of God for God, fix people up, tell them what to do, conspire in finding shortcuts by which the long journey to the Cross can be bypassed since we all have such crowded schedules right now. People love us when we do this. It is flattering to be put in the place of God. It feels wonderful to be treated in this Godlike way. And it is work that we are generally quite good at.”

– The Contemplative Pastor:Returning to the Art of Spiritual Direction