My friend Adam George and I meet together at my house every Wednesday night to discuss our lives and pray together. The other week we started talking about preaching. A few years ago I preached at my home church Leek Pentecostal Church, for a brief time (where Adam and I both attend). Eventually I felt it was right to step down from that platform because I was also pursuing worship leading and getting familiar with being part of our worship team. Adam and I discussed this and I explained that something I used to over-emphasize in my mind during my preparation time before I used to preach was the structure. Some of the good qualities of building a structure around what I was going to say were, 1.) Predictability People kind of knew what they were going to get out of my messages. 2.) Confidence I knew where I was going and could essentially read my sermon off the sheet I'd 'prepared' and things would go really smoothly. Everyone would be happy and I'd be like "Okay, cool, that was a success!" The approach of building a structure does admittedly carry good qualities and some people manage to do it for the rest of the life of their ministry! But as my friend Adam George and I continued to talk about this vast topic we moved on to highlight some of the qualities of 'going with the flow', or to put it in other words, preaching 'spontaneously'. These were some of the conclusions we came to. 1.) Sensitivity When you go with the flow people there may be someone in the congregation who specifically needs a word of encouragement from God and your diversion in being sensitive to the Holy Spirit in the room will meet that need. 2.) Captivation A conversation with someone is always more captivating than having a script being read to you. - People enjoy not knowing what's coming up next and are kept on the edge of their seats in anticipation... So we had a good natter about it and came to the conclusion that preparation is important but it should never stop you from putting all your heart, soul, mind, and strength into what you're feeding people, in fact there may be times when you might not need to say all you've written down. If you're a preacher, take note of this. As you gaze into the eyes of the congregation, is what you're saying hitting home? Admittedly there will be the select few people who'll always be more captivated by what's happening around them than anything you have to say, but nonetheless, captivation is something I've taken into consideration and realized to a greater extent the importance of, not just in preaching but in all areas of communication.
I think it's fair to say when preparing my talks, I used to value visual aids more than the actual content of a sermon. I think this was partly because I love a good photograph. I love a good painting. I love a good piece of art. The other reason, ironically, was because I saw the importance of captivation. I guess it just took me a little while to realise I could display a sense of vibrancy not just in the things I could SEE, but in the things I SAID. People did find my illustrations funny, and I still have a deep desire to see more video and imagery in sermons, but I now realise that in those days I deeply underestimated the power of the tongue. Maybe to some extent we're all just having a dabble in learning the true power of our words??
I was talking to God when I went for a walk to Rudyard about all this stuff the other day, and God was showing me the simple truth that the more I practice what I say, the better I get at it. The more I do something the better I get at it. But let's not just leave our gifting to fate and every now and again practice the thing we love and are called to - let's get deep into it. The beauty of simple truths is that their simplicity doesn't underestimate their power. I love it when I'm listening to a sermon and what that person is saying is so simple to me that I feel like I could have said it in my sleep. And that's the mistake we make if we think that we can't say something that is to easy to comprehend. You may even be rehearsing some thoughts in your head today that sound like the most elementary thoughts anyone you know has had all year. And they may be, but that doesn't cancel out the fact that those inspirations are pure GOLD. Simple truths are so underrated and, in my opinion, one of the biggest fear factors today when it comes to any conversation or communication is that what you have to say isn't worth listening to. I reckon in many cases this is what leads people to scripting their sermons, even their lives! Get over the performance, because what's already there may well be what we all we need to hear.
to be continued_
