HeadHeartHand Blog » Preaching

John Piper does the latter in his short new book, Seeing Beauty and Saying Beautifully, which looks at the sometimes perplexing question of if and how we should use eloquence to advance the Gospel.

It’s a question that’s long exercised me because, as Piper points out, the Apostle Paul seems to put oratorical gifts in the “worldly” category (e.g. 1 Cor. 1:17; 2:1). Yet, as Piper also proves, all the Apostles, the Prophets, and even Jesus himself, used various verbal and literary techniques in their Gospel communication.

I suppose I’m extra suspicious because some years ago I was greatly blessed through an incredibly eloquent and popular preacher who I later found out had been living a double, even triple, life. Ergo, any effort to be fancy or clever with words must be wrong.

So, how do we reconcile this seeming contradiciton?

Sovereign Grace
Piper does a superb job of explaining that the Bible does not warn against all eloquence or oratory, but only certain kinds, the kind that uses eloquence as an end rather than a means, and the kind that uses eloquence to promote the speaker rather than the Gospel. He then goes on to argue from the Bible and from three talented Christian wordsmiths – George Herbert, George Whitefield, and C.S. Lewis – that we should pour huge effort into developing our word skills for the sake of the Gospel.

Part of Piper’s argument is that only by working hard to describe the beauty of the Gospel will we actually see it. It’s a kind of virtuous circle; the more we strive for beauty in proclaiming the beauty of Christ the more beauty we and others will see in Him. Saying beautifully will help us savor and see beauty.

Don’t for a moment think that Piper is advocating mere acting, or depending upon human talent for sinners to be saved. No, throughout, Piper is at pains to underline the Calvinist doctrine of sovereign and monergistic grace. God is the decisive cause, and yet He uses our poetic effort.

Poetic effort? You mean, I’ve got to write poems?

Do not fear, fellow word-schleppers. When Piper talks about poetic effort, he’s calling us to be more poetic in our proclamation – to learn how to use words better for the glory of God and the good of sinners. We must exert ourselves, with God’s help, “to find striking, penetrating, imaginative, and awakening ways of expressing the excellencies” of Christ.

And this isn’t just for preachers, it’s for anyone who’s interested in improving their witness through words – spoken or written.

Confused
I’ve always been a bit uncertain about this whole question. I work really hard to be clear, simple, and passionate in my preaching. I strive for appropriate illustrations, quotes, and anecdotes to support my points. I pour a lot of time into memorable sermon points and themes.

But then I wonder: “Am I trying to do God’s work for Him? Am I depending on myself rather than Him?” Maybe I should follow the example of a preacher friend of mine in Scotland who tried to be as boring as possible so that when people believed, everyone would know it wasn’t him but God!

It does seem though that God especially uses men who have great natural gifts in speaking and others who have worked really hard to develop their gifts. It appears that God does bless literary and speaking gifts for the advance of His grace.

Clouds Clearing
Piper has totally cleared away my hesitation on this, mainly thought the superb introductory chapter examining the Corinthian passages that seem to condemn “wisdom of words.” I’m now totally convinced that if I do it for the right ends and in the right way, I can safely and helpfully work on becoming a more skillful verbal artist and expect God to bless that effort for His glory, the good of sinners, and the edification of my own soul.

The most common comment I get after sermons is, “That was very clear.” Which is fine; that’s one of my main aims.” But having read this book, I hope to hear more of, “That was very beautiful.” No, I hope to hear, “HE is very beautiful!”

How To Criticize A Preacher

David Murray — Thu, 05 Sep 2013 11:30:07 +0000

So you’ve heard a sermon and you’re not happy. You feel the preacher got it badly wrong in either his interpretation, his words, his manner, his length, his whatever.

What now?

Well, I’m not going to tell you exactly what words to use. I’m simply going to give you ten questions to ask that I hope will produce the right words and the right way to say them should you ever have to offer criticism to a preacher.

1. Have I understood him correctly? Give the preacher the benefit of the doubt. Ask yourself, “Am I putting the worst possible construction on this?” Perhaps check with your husband or wife, “Did I hear this correctly…?”

2. Have I given this enough time? It’s rarely wise or helpful to immediately react to what is preached. Your passions will be high, but so will the preacher’s. Not a good recipe.

3. Have I prayed about this? Have you taken time to ask “Lord show me if I’m right here. Show me if this is important enough to take further. Help me to see if this is primary or a secondary matter?”

4. Is this just personal preference or biblical principle? We all have our favorite truths and our favorite preaching styles. Is this about bible doctrines and biblical practice or just my tradition or preference?

5. Have I thought about the best time and way to communicate? Neither Sunday or Monday are good days to approach a pastor about problems with his preaching. On Sunday, his adrenaline is still pumping. On Monday, he’s flat as a pancake. Best not do this in public in front of others but in private. Do it in a calm, gentle, and loving manner. As I’ve learned, do it personally rather than in writing or by email.

6. Am I doing this out of the right motive? Is my love and respect obvious? If it is constructive, designed to serve the pastor, then criticism can be incredibly helpful.

7. Am I focused or just spraying pellets? Never say, “And while we’re at it, that sermon last year….and here’s another thing…”

8. Have I considered the possibility that I may be one of many others doing the same? You may be the straw that breaks the preacher’s back.

9. Am I prepared to listen to his explanation and concede I was wrong? Are you genuinely open to be corrected yourself?

10. Is it in the context of previously expressed appreciation? It’s so much easier to listen to criticism when you know the person has your good at heart and wants you to thrive and prosper. The repeated critic can be much more easily ignored or dismissed.

On the same subject, here’s Thom Rainer with A Note To Those Who Criticize Me.

Best of HHH: 100+ Posts on Preaching

David Murray — Wed, 31 Jul 2013 11:36:18 +0000

While I’m on vacation over the next week or so, I’m taking a break from preparing Check outs and writing a daily post. Instead, I’ll be posting “The Best of HeadHeartHand,” a series of indexes to past blog posts under a number of headings including Counseling, Leadership, Preaching, etc. On Monday, I listed 140 articles on the Christian Life, on Tuesday it was 100 articles of Cultural Commentary. Today it’s over a hundred posts on preaching.

20 Sermon Structures

What Is Sermon Application?

8 Principles Of Sermon Application

The Manner Is The Message

How To Preach A Viral Sermon

Snapshot Sermons

10 Foolish Obstacles To The Foolishness Of Preaching

What Does It Mean To “Preach Christ?”

8 Lessons I Learned About Preaching From Painting My Kitchen

8 Ways Preachers Harm The Depressed

This Is An Outstanding Sermon

Check Out: Big God Theology

Six Audiences

Truthful + Beautiful = Faithful

Dangerous dissection

How To Astonish The World

What Does An Evangelistic Sermon Look Like?

What is evangelistic preaching?

4 kinds of evangelistic sermon

Why is evangelistic preaching so rare today?

4 characteristics of evangelistic preaching

Four (more) characteristics of evangelistic preaching

Normal sermon prep? Really?

Six steps of sermon preparation

20 tips on how to use Bible commentaries

Daily list: 7 tips for public speaking without all the notes

The charity of clarity

7 types of preacher’s block (and what to do about them)

How sermons work

The must-have pastoral skill

Top 10 preaching mistakes

CK2:20 Preaching without notes?

Am I boring you? 7 tell-tale signs

Top 6 struggles of pastoral ministry

Would you turn down Princeton?

David Wilkerson’s heartfelt plea for “anguish”

Sermon prep and the chemistry of fear

Blogging or preaching?

7 easy steps to much faster sermon prep

Pros and cons of consecutive expository preaching

Catchy sermon titles?

Bored with your own preaching?

How to listen to boring lectures (and sermons?)

What Is A Preacher? 8 Positives

David Murray — Wed, 24 Jul 2013 12:31:48 +0000

We’ve already looked at ten negative answers to the question, “What is a preacher?” Today, the prophet Ezekiel is going to give us eight positive answers from chapter 33 of his book.

1. The preacher is a sinful man
Six times in chapter 33, God called Ezekiel “son of man,” and many other times throughout the book. Though called to a prominent position, he was a “son of man” and therefore a sinful man. A preacher is not an angel, nor a perfect specimen of humanity, but a flawed human being liable to errors and mistakes from time to time. The best of men are still men at their best.

2. The preacher is a called man
The preacher is not only called by other men and women (Ezekiel 33:2), but also by God (v. 7). Preachers must not be self-made and self-sent but God-made and God-sent.

For the preacher, that means that he doesn’t give up at the first sign of difficulty. If God has called, he must run with His message.

For the hearers, it means that the way we listen and respond to the preacher’s message is an extremely solemn matter. Jesus identifies himself so much with His sent messengers that He says, if you receive them, you receive me and my Father (Matt. 10:40).

3. The preacher is a laboring man
“Therefore you shall hear a word from My mouth” (v. 7). The preacher doesn’t just preach his own ideas or open the Bible, flick through the pages, and hope that a verse “pops out.” He labors in word and doctrine (1 Tim. 5:17). He seriously and earnestly prays to God for his text, theme, points, explanations, illustrations, applications, and quotations. He does this at the beginning, the middle, and the end of the process.

This study is usually a long and often laborious process. Sometimes making bricks looks more attractive. This is why Paul says to Timothy: “Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth:” (2 Timothy 2:15).

4. The preacher is a watchman
“I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel” (v. 7). A watchman is someone who is looking out for danger. He has his eyes and ears open. What’s he looking out for? He’s scanning for physical, spiritual, emotional, moral, relationship, cultural, and ecclesiastical threats. He is in a Defcon 1 state of high-alert.

5. The preacher is a trumpet man
He sees the sword and blows the trumpet so that people escape with their lives (v, 2, 3, 8). While in Ezekiel’s day there was a literal sword and trumpet, the New Testament identifies the Word of God as the preacher’s trumpet (1 Cor. 14:8, 9). That trumpet has two notes, one warning of death (v. 8), the other promising life (v. 12). The preacher must blow both notes publicly, clearly, loudly, constantly, and compassionately.

6. The preacher is an accountable man
If preachers fail to warn, sinners will die of false confidence. If preachers fail to give hope, sinners die of despair (v. 10). The result is the same, sinners perish in their sins, but God requires their blood at the preacher’s hand (v. 6). If God does not call the preacher to account in his conscience while he lives, He will call him to account in the divine court when he dies.

7. The preacher is a limited man
The preacher is accountable for blowing the trumpet but not the results (vv. 3-4). The preacher is limited, he cannot secure the safety of one single sinner. All he can do is blow as faithfully as he can. If people do not heed, he must not feel guilty. He has done all he could, he has delivered his soul (v. 9). If I was responsible for the results, I’d go insane with the responsibility and the burden.

8. The preacher is a happy man
Joy of all joys, there are times when the trumpet is sounded, when sinners hear, when sinners believe, when sinners take the necessary actions, when they repent and believe the Gospel, by the grace of God, and they seek and find salvation in Christ (v. 5). There is no greater pleasure, no greater happiness on earth. No wonder John said, “I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in the truth.”

What is a preacher? 10 wrong answers

David Murray — Mon, 22 Jul 2013 11:32:57 +0000

There are so many false ideas out about what a preacher is meant to be. Some common misconceptions are:

An entertainer: someone who is there to make me feel happy.
A curator: someone who is there to manage the museum and make sure nothing ever changes.
A lecturer: someone who is there to teach, to transmit religious facts and information, but not to change my life.
A pundit: someone who offers Christian commentary on important current events.
A socializer: someone who is friendly and socially skillful, who won’t embarrass us at weddings and funerals.
A social worker: someone who fixes all my family problems.
A ritualist: someone who we use for baptisms, communions, etc., and as long as he gets the form and routine right at these events we’ll tolerate him in between times.
A manager: a sort of ecclesiastical CEO who is adept at managing people and paper.
An angel: someone who gets everything right, who never makes a mistake, who prays and preaches perfectly on every occasion without ever offending us.
A psychologist: a cheap therapist to help with my emotions.

Of course, there are elements of truth in some of these ideas. The preacher must teach, he must at times offer spiritual commentary on our culture, he must get involved in people’s problems, etc. But these are not the primary functions and these are not the categories and terms the Bible uses to describe a preacher. We’ll look at some of these biblical terms in the next few days.

How to Preach a Viral Sermon

David Murray — Thu, 16 May 2013 02:10:06 +0000

Most viral videos share at least two things in common: “discussability” and “relatability.” So says Video CEO Analyst Brian Shin in Here’s why these 6 videos went viral.

“Discussable” means that it contains something shocking or surprising, which compels viewers to share it with others.

“Relatable” means that it has a deeply human element which we connect with emotionally and want to share with others.

As you read on, “simplicity” also emerges as an important factor; viral videos have a clear structure that’s easy to follow and remember.

That sounds like some helpful criteria for a sermon doesn’t it: ”Discussable,” “relatable,” and “simple.”

Do our sermons prompt discussion? There’s nothing more surprising or shocking than grace! So why do most sermons send people to sleep? Perhaps we’re not preaching grace. Or maybe our sermons answer too many questions, producing passive listeners. Why not pose more questions, leave them unanswered, and challenge hearers to seek their own answers from the Word and from one another?

Do they connect with the heart? Many sermons are not “earthed.” They float above hearers’ intellectual level, or they just don’t sound like “real life.” They may be full of theology, logic, and argumentation, but the emotions remain refrigerated.

Are they as simple in content and structure as possible? I’ve written on this before in A plea for profound simplicity. The most important book I’ve ever read for sermon preparation was William Zinser’s On Writing Well, especially pages 7-23. In fact if I had the choice of choosing two pages from any book, that I wanted every preacher to read it would be pages 10-11 in Zinser’s book where he takes the knife to a manuscript!

“Discussable,” “relatable,” and “simple.”

And who knows, with God’s blessing, maybe “viral” too!

Snapshot Sermons

David Murray — Thu, 14 Mar 2013 11:09:37 +0000

“Sum up four years of your life in a 60-second video.”

That’s the challenge Huntington Willard, director of Duke University’s Institute for Genome Sciences and Policy, has set his doctoral students. In addition to their dissertation, they are to submit a “snapshot dissertation,” 30-60 second video summing up the hundreds of pages and thousands of hours they’ve poured into it.

You can hear the squeals already, can’t you? I have two friends who completed scientific doctorates, and over the years I must have asked them a dozen times each to explain their work to me. Despite many glassy-eyed hours, I’m still none the wiser.

“I’ve always been convinced of the need for scholars to be able to speak ‘in plain English’ to people outside of the academy,” said Willard. “I teach [students] to imagine explaining what they’re learning to their parents or grandparents.” It’s all part of Duke’s Scholars and Public initiative to forge greater connections between the academy and the community.

For the same reason, no matter how much it makes us squeal, preachers (and teachers) should be “forced” (or should force themselves) to sum up their sermon (or lesson) in one sentence. For example, here’s a “Snapshot Sermon” on Psalm 2:

As God offers peace to his enemies before He defeats them, embrace His Son of Peace before He becomes your Judge.

The main points of the sermon were:

The Lord has multiple enemies (1-3)
The Lord will defeat His enemies (4-9)
The Lord offers peace to His enemies (10-12)

We want to compare the snapshot sermon with the main points and ask:

Is it comprehensive? Does the summary cover all the main points of the sermon?
Is it unified? Do the different parts make up one whole or just lots of disconnected parts?
Is it simple? Remove passive voice, complex clauses, technical language, etc?
Is it short? Can I say this in fewer words without sacrificing the meaning?
Is it purposeful? Does it explain the point, the end, the aim of the sermon?
Is it worth it? Sometimes this exercise reveals that for all the good things in the sermon, there’s actually no real substance in it or no great point to it.

Apart from preventing some sermons being preached that should never be preached, this exercise also reveals if we’ve really mastered our subject. It also helps the preacher hone his material, cutting out anything that doesn’t connect with and support the snapshot. In the act of preaching the snapshot helps the preacher to achieve disciplined focus, forward momentum, and fitting climax.

Why not try it…and listen for the squeals.

A Balanced Preaching Menu [Video]

David Murray — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 12:35:09 +0000

Are you serving up a balanced diet to your congregation? In this video I give a brief summary of ten kinds of sermon (email and RSS click here to view video)

Doctrinal Sermons
Theistic Sermons
Apologetic Sermons
Controversial Sermons
Practical Sermons
Historical/Biographical sermons
Experiential Sermons
Topical Sermons
Evangelistic Sermons
Discriminatory Sermons

Previous videos in the How Sermons Work series here.

10 Foolish Obstacles to the Foolishness of Preaching

David Murray — Tue, 12 Feb 2013 12:30:23 +0000

God chose the foolishness of Gospel preaching to save them that believe (1 Cor. 1:21). The Gospel message is foolishness to the world. But so is the Gospel medium – preaching. Who in their right mind would choose a regular 30-45 minute monologue from one sinful man to many sinful hearers to communicate the most important message in the world?

God would and did.

And he did it knowing that this method of communication would upset many people and cause them to find many foolish reasons for not listening. Some of the foolish obstacles I’ve come across (in myself and others) are:

1. Patchy grammar: Thankfully most people’s English education was as bad as mine and don’t notice too many of my grammatical faux pas, but there are always a few Grammar Girls (and boys) in every congregation. One misplaced preposition and down come the shutters.

2. Boring voice: Drone, groan, mumble, stumble, yawn. Is he trying to send us to sleep? Yet even the most attractive and varied voices eventually sound “meh” to regular hearers. Wouldn’t it make more sense to have a different voice every week?

3. Pastoral mistakes: Sometimes we can make a blunder in a personal relationship, an email communication, or at a social occasion which prejudices a hearer’s mind against us for a long time or even forever. We could be preaching the best truth in the best way but we’re still the worst preacher they’ve ever heard because we stood on their toes somewhere along the line.

4. Text choices: Why does the preacher never pick my favorite texts? Why does he never preach from my favorite book? Why does he always preach from such simple texts? Why does he always preach from such difficult texts? I’m not going to listen until he preaches on…

5. Preaching style: There are probably hundreds of preaching styles: fast, slow, loud, quiet, teachy, preachy, passionate, reasonable, sad, happy, smooth, jerky, etc. We all have our peculiar preferences and rarely do we find such a peculiar preacher.

6. Pulpit mannerisms: Why does he keep fiddling with his glasses? Does he think spinning his wedding ring will help spin this terrible sermon? Why doesn’t he look at us? Why does he keep staring at us? Has he only got one arm? Hands in his pockets again! Why does he grip the pulpit – is he about to faint or something? I wish he’d quit sniffing/coughing/frowning/grinning…

7. Verbal ticks: How many times did he say “in other words” today? Or “as I was saying” or “literally” or ”finally.”

8. Christian Cliches: Can he not find another way of saying that? Does he have to use the same phraseology as every other time he preached on this? He says that in every sermon. Where’s his imagination?

9. Too young/old: Yes, before the preacher even opens his mouth, the old people might close him down because he’s so young, or the young people might tune him out because he’s too old.

10. Personality clash: I just don’t like him. He rubs me up the wrong way. He’s too cocky. He’s too defensive. He’s too apologetic. He’s too aggressive, etc.

It’s amazing what obstacles preachers have to overcome. One slip-up in any of these areas and some people won’t give a minute of attention to the sermon that took you 10-15 hours to prepare. Although we pray every time we preach, that God would prevent anything we say or do getting in the way of the message, yet it will inevitably happen. It’s amazing anyone at all gets saved.

Why did God choose this method? Why not send a perfect angel with a perfect message delivered in a perfect manner? Wouldn’t that have been wiser? More effective?

God chose this method to demonstrate that the Gospel, not the preacher or his preaching, is the power of God unto salvation. He chose one of the most foolish methods and some of the most foolish creatures to reach multitudes of foolish sinners with a “foolish” message. And he did it this way in order to magnify His wisdom and power (1 Cor. 1:22-31).

We get grace. He gets glory.