Last Sunday was a special day for Katrina and me as we thanked God for the honor of serving The Donelson Fellowship for 30 years.  I had the opportunity of speaking briefly about my philosophy of pulpit ministry.

Nehemiah 8:8 is my working definition of preaching.  It says Ezra read from the book of the Law distinctly, gave the sense, and caused the people to understand the reading.

As a ministerial student years ago, I was trained to preach expositional sermons.  I was told there’s no power within me or within my personality to change lives.  The power is in the living and active Word of God. 

I was told it’s not what I say about the Word of God that changes lives; it’s the Word of God itself.  It’s not my personal opinions; it’s His revealed truth.

I was told to devote my mornings to the study of Scripture. 

I was told I shouldn’t go into the Bible to find sermons but to meet the Sermon-Giver.  And I was told that as He fed my mind with His Word, my sermons would be overflow.

It’s tempting to preach a lot of how-to, positive–thinking, shallow, sentimental, entertaining, trendy, story-heavy, need-based sermons.  And certainly our messages should be relevant, practical, well-illustrated, need-sensitive, and engaging.

But we don’t preach to entertain an audience; we preach to edify a church.  And only the consistent exposition of Scripture, rightly divided, given in its naturally unfolding context, will do that. 

In the providence of God, in the very year I began pastoring The Donelson Fellowship, Dr. W. A. Criswell published a book called Criswell’s Guidebook for Pastors.  That red-jacketed book had a formative effect on me and my work.  Chapter 3 was entitled “The Pastor in His Study.”  Here’s the way it began:

There is a theme in my life that I refer to again and again.  Like the motif in Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony that is sounded over and over and heard in a dozen different parts and variations, so the basic, underlying persuasion of my own pastoral work is this:  Keep your mornings for God….

I keep my mornings for God and I have my study at home.  There is a telephone on my desk, but it does not ring.  At night in the quietness of the shining stars and of the soft gloom of the evening, I can work and study and prepare.  In my morning I can walk into my workshop and there slave at my desk to my heart’s content.

I can pray and I can prepare my sermons.  I can write books.  I can think through the problems that confront us. I can live the life of a king in a castle in my study with its thousands of theological books and with its afforded opportunity to escape from the pressure of the world.  Nobody there but God, and He is waiting for my arrival whenever I come.

When I leave the study, I try to be the servant of the church and of the world.  I visit. I answer letters.  I go to meetings.  I preach.  I hold funerals and weddings.  I administer the affairs of the congregation.  I try to help with my denomination.  I do a thousand other things.  But the time I spend in my study is mine and God’s.  That has extended my ministry and has blessed my life; it is the secret of the enormous amount of work I am able to do….

If I had one thing to tell a young preacher, it would be this:  “Keep the mornings for God.  Shut out the whole world and shut up yourself to the Lord with a Bible in your hand, with your knees bended in the presence of the holiness of the great Almighty.”

W. A. Criswell, Criswell’s Guidebook for Pastors (Nashville:  Broadman Press, 1980), 59-60.

  When I was starting out in pastoral work, I looked up to Dr. W. A. Criswell, pastor of the First Baptist Church of Dallas, as a model.  Criswell was in a class by himself.  He’d been the leading pastor among Southern Baptists for over fifty years, and he was known for his exposition of Scripture.  He once preached a 17-year sermon series through the whole Bible. 

I met him on one occasion.  Morris Proctor and I attended the First Baptist Church in Dallas in the early 1980s.  We got there early, sat on the front row, and took it all in.  Afterward at a reception for visitors we met the inimitable Criswell. 

“Dr. Criswell,” I asked, “in all your years of ministry, have you ever gotten discouraged.” 

He leaned back and smiled and boomed: “World without end!” 

“Well, what do you do about it?” I asked. 

He said something to this effect:  “I always find that the discouragement is something that is in me.  It’s not in the circumstances; they’re under God’s control.  It’s not in the Lord; He’s never discouraged.  So it’s just an unhelpful emotion that gets inside of me; and so I just have to give myself a little tme to push it back out, and I keep on going.”

That was all he had time to say, but it was enough.

Thank you, Dr. C!

(Preaching) may be slow work; it often is; it is a long-term policy.  But my whole contention is that it works, that it pays, and that it is honoured, and must be, because it is God’s own method.  This is the thing to which He calls us, it is the thing into which He thrusts us forth, and therefore He will honour it.  He has always honoured it, and still honours it in the modern world, and after you have tried these others methods and schemes, and found that they will come to nothing, you will be driven back to this ultimately.  This is the method by which churches have always come into being.  You see it in the New Testament, and you see it in the subsequent history of the Church, and you can see it in this modern world.

Dr. D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones in Preaching & Preachers (Grand Rapids:  Zondervan, 1971), 51-52.

The other day I pulled a book off the shelf of my library that I hadn’t opened for over 35 years.  When I’d first read it as a college student, it’d made a big impression on me.  Now, over three decades later, I find it no less insightful.  It’s Preaching & Preachers by the Welsh expositor, Dr. D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones.

I’ve been re-reading it in the evenings.  As usual, the good doctor has a few peculiar ideas sprinkled among the rest.  But I love his high view of preaching.  Here are some excerpts:

The preaching of the Gospel from the pulpit, applied by the Holy Spirit to the individuals who are listening, has been the means of dealing with personal problems of which I as the preacher knew nothing…

It is quite astonishing to find that in expounding the Scriptures you are able to deal with a variety of differing conditions all together in one service…. It saves the pastor a lot of time.  If he had to see all these people one by one his life would be impossible, he could not do it; but in one sermon he can cover quite a number of problems at one and the same time.

It is preaching that lays down the essential principles by which alone personal help can be given…. I maintain that ultimately the only true basis for personal work, unless it is to degenerate into purely psychological treatment, is the true and sound preaching of the Gospel.

From Preaching & Preachers by D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1971), quotes from pages 37-40.

There’s an interesting article in today’s New York Times about Broadway actors trying to learn their lines, especially when scripts are rewritten and changes are made to the dialogue.  Many actors insist a prompter sit on the front row or behind the curtain to whisper out forgotten lines.

Last season, one of my favorite legends, Angela Lansbury, used an earpiece during a Broadway play “It’s not something you ever want to do, but if we’re going to play important roles at our age, where our names are above the title on the marquee, we’re going to ask for some support if we need it,” said Ms. Lansbury, who is 84.

She went on to say, “In the early days of theater, there was a ‘prompt corner’ with a person ready to throw the line to any actor.  In the electronic age, some 80-year-old performers wear earpieces.  And all of us lose ourselves in a play at moments.  Laurence Olivier did at the height of his career.  This is part of theater.”

But another noted actress, Mary Martin, ran into problems with her earpiece.  It kept picking up taxi signals.  Must have made for some interesting dialogue!

Well, I prefer preaching with a minimum of notes, and so far, I’ve resisted having a prompter.  If I wear an earpiece, it’s only for sound checks, not sermon prompts.  I do hope I have an internal earpiece connected to the Holy Spirit, who is pretty good at prompting us as to what to say.  But, still, an effective sermon depends on good mental preparation.

I do often pencil little prompts or codewords in the margin of my Bible,  If I have extended quotes or passages, I’ll tack them onto the page with a little bit of scotch tape.  But for the most part, I minimize notes.

I have a lot to say about this, as preaching noteless sermons has been a lifelong study of mine; but the most basic fact to consider is this – the Scriptural text itself represents the sermon notes we need.  That’s the genius of expository preaching.  If one’s message unfolds naturally from the text in expositional fashion, the inspired paragraph itself provides the prompts.  One just works his way through the paragraph, coming to ideas as presented in the Bible in logical, sequential order.

When preaching from Philippians 4:4-7, for example, the outline is right there in the text itself.  Nothing to memorize.  Nothing to remember.

• Verse 4 tells us to rejoice.
• Verse 5 says be gentle.
• Verse 6 commands us to prayerful instead of anxious.
• Verse 7 promises that if we do those things the peace of God will guard our hearts and minds.

So you have four verses, four points (or three commandments and a corresponding promise), and nothing to remember:  Be joyful, be gentle, be prayerful, be peaceful.  It’s all right there on the page ready to be unfolded.  The purpose of the sermon is found in the point that runs through the paragraph, and the major headings of the sermon unfold as one works one’s way through the passage in expositional fashion.

(I have a lot more to say on this subject, but I’ll have to consult my notes and get back with you later).

I’m already looking forward to next year (2010), when I am going on writing-hiatus for awhile.  A person can’t minister from the overflow if his spigot is bigger than his reservoir.  We can’t say, “My cup runs over” if the input lines are reduced and there’s a hole in the mug.  Gauges get low.  Batteries die down.  Brownouts occur.

All of which is to remind us of the old adage: 

If you’re output exceeds your income, your upkeep will be your downfall.

There’s a new survey of 2,525 randomly-sampled American congregations that shows some interesting results.  This survey, conducted in 2008 by Faith Communities Today 2008 (FACT 2008), found:

• Less than half of American congregations reported growth in the past five years of two percent or more.  This is a decrease from past surveys.
• Only 35 percent of congregations described themselves as spiritual vital and alive.
• Only 36 percent reported having a clear mission.
• Only 19 percent reported excellent financial health.
• Three out of four congregations have experienced conflict in the past five years, especially over styles of worship.
• 44 percent of congregations with traditional styles of worship reported growth.
• 60 percent of those with a more contemporary style of worship experienced growth.

What is survey says to me is this:  We have to work hard at staying fresh, relevant, unified, and facing forward.  Worship, worship styles, and worship services must be attractive to the up-and-coming generation whom we’re trying to reach.  Trends are not traps.  Not all change is good; but never changing is fatal.  We’re to be ministries, not museums.  We’re to be firm in our faith, but fexible in our flightplans.

• Be strong and courageous, and do the work.  Do not be afraid or discouraged, for the Lord God, my God, is with you.  He will not fail you or forsake you until all the work for the service of the temple of the Lord is finished—1 Chronicles 28:20
• He who goes out weeping, carrying seed to sow, will return with songs of joy, carrying sheaves with him—Psalm 126:6
• As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is My word that goes out from My mouth: it will not return to Me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it—Isaiah 55:10-11
• Therefore, my beloved brothers, stand firm.  Let nothing move you.  Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain—1 Corinthians 15:58
• Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up—Galatians 6:9
    

There’s been a major change at the way people use their cell phones in restaurants.  I recall being in a particular restaurant a year ago, and I was amazed by the fact that everyone who was dining alone was simultaneously talking on a cell phone.  It was their way of providing themselves with dinner companions.  Even some people who had dining companions were talking on cell phones.

Last Friday night at a similar restaurant I looked around and didn’t see anyone talking on a cell phone. They were all texting—scores of thumbs going at all speeds between bites and drinks.

Texting is very biblical; it has  divine origin.  God has sent us a lot of texts in the Bible.  For example the book of Proverbs is the original Twitter.  In 140 characters or less, the Lord sent down His short bursts of insight and wisdom, which we call the Proverbs.  Each of the individual verses of Proverbs is like a Tweet from the Lord—His divine Short Message Service.

Tomorrow I’m preaching from Proverbs (click here for the sermon), and I can’t think of a better way of explaining this book to today’s audience than describing it as God’s infallible Twitter account to each of us:  Heavenly rules for earthly living.  It is Texting at its best.