Eat this, Speak that

In the lineup of scriptures about preaching, Ezekiel 3 is a barn burner! God sends Ezekiel to people who don't want to hear from him, with a message that isn't at all good news. Then in chapters 4 and 5, He goes several steps further by making Ezekiel himself the sermon illustration. When I read it this morning, I found myself hoping Ezekiel was having an excellent Sunday, enjoying his heavenly reward which surely must be HUGE because: laying on one's side for 390 days while shaking your fist and preaching deserves a whole lotta somethin', you know?

While uncomfortable to read, Ezekiel's story has truckloads of truth for present-day preachers. This was my take-home today:

1. We are blessed that we live in an era when the message we have been called to preach is by definition "good news". What joy! I don't want to forget to be thankful that I am not preaching death and destruction and I need to be unapologetic that the good news comes packaged up with some hard truth.
   
2. Some people will still not like hearing the good news - but we preach anyway. Ezekiel 3:11
   
3. It's harder to speak to those who are familiar to us. Ezekiel 3:3
4. Sometimes the battle for confidence in speaking comes down to: who do am I going to fear the most? Ezekiel 3:9
5. In order to be effective communicators of the Word of life, we have to have swallowed what we're selling. Ezekiel 3:1-2

One small, obscure chapter. So much rich instruction for those who want to preach His Word, His way.

Happy Sunday, Ezekiel!

Bo

'Splainin to do

Here's a simple fact that many (many, MANY!) speakers in church settings forget: most people are not really very familiar with the Bible. And that's okay. In fact, that's great - it means they're right where they should be. HOWEVER, I once heard a speaker allude to six different Bible stories in 40 minutes without explaining a word of what she meant. She said things like...

"You know, like David at Ziklag..."

"I felt just like Mary , bringing my oil to Jesus' feet..." (seriously, how weird does that sound if you don't know that story - especially considering that most people unfamiliar with the WHOLE Bible associate Mary as the mother-of-Jesus and don't realize there are at least four other Mary's mentioned.)

"I want to pass my mantle on to you...the Elisha's in my world."

Really...truly...people are not very Bible literate. Even in churches that do that cool Bible chant before every single message, not everyone is going to immediately remember every story. And even if they do remember the story, they may not understand exactly what you're saying when you tell them you responded like David at Ziklag, you know? Finally, it can make people who are new to Christianity or just new to an obscure Bible verse feel unintelligent or alienated from the discussion...and that's bad.

The Word is powerfully sharp. Therefore, quickly mentioning Bible events, verses or illustrations without explaining the point of application can be like hacking away at a sliver in someone's hand with a chainsaw. In 2 Timothy 2:15, Paul tells young Timothy how important it is to divide and portion out the Word of God in the right way. That remains true for us today.

Know the Bible. Use it well. But make sure and explain yourself.

Still learning,

Bo

Irony is...

I'm speaking this weekend and it makes it so much harder for me to blog about speaking. That seems ironic to me, but maybe I'm misinterpreting the word. I think that the problem is not just the time schedule, but the focus re-shifting that throws me off.

Which leads me to this thought: I don't know how pastors who speak every week do it. It's so much prep and prayer time, so much development and research, just so...much. Perhaps when you are responsible for a message that often, you have to let go of some of the perfectionist tendencies and trust God more with the content. Perhaps. Or maybe pastors just have to get really good at raising up teams of people who can carry the load and feed the sheep well. I'm thankful that our pastor leads that way and I've tried to be that same kind of leader. More important to me than being a good speaker is being a good speaker-raiser-upper (is too a word). I want to give lots of people the chance to discover the gifts that God has placed inside of them. And I'd like to help them in ways that I would have liked to have been helped back in the day.

This weekend I'm speaking on a new topic for me and it's one I'm a little nervous about because it doesn't immediately sound very happy, but I think it's really important: endurance. In terms of raising a family it's a character trait that will be required by 100% of all married people and all parents. No relationships in life will last without endurance. And as I've studied, I'm amazed at how much the Bible has to say about how essential it is to our lives.

I'll let you know how it goes.

Oh, also: if you're someone who speaks every week, tell us how you do it!

Happy Wednesday,

Bo

How to Build a Great Thesis

So, when I develop a thesis for a message, I ask myself a few simple questions - not necessarily in this order:

1. Is there a pre-assigned series or message theme? I used to worry about trying to tailor a message around a specific theme - it sounded very confining. But now my feeling is: the more details that are determined ahead of time, the easier it is to hone in on a thesis that will lead to an effective message.
   
2. Who is my audience? What are their primary needs right now? Answering these two questions is SO important. It will not only help form your thesis, but also your illustrations and general tone. These are the questions that change your goal from "speak a great message" to "partner with the Holy Spirit to help change lives." Knowing your audience is a big stinkin' deal and will be covered in another post.
   
3. Within the borders of this topic, what has made the most impact in my life ? It's hard to preach what you haven't lived yet. For me, in our Great Escapes series, I wanted to hone in on the great stuff that I have experienced - and everyone can - when I decided to pursue and embrace the presence of God.
4. If this audience only remembers one transforming truth from this talk, what would I want it to be? What would Jesus want it to be? This is really the money question and you should be able to answer it in one or two sentences. In my experience, the more I pray about it, the simpler and clearer the thesis becomes. Weird, huh?
   

Once you have a clear, concise thesis you can start to build the rest of the message. It's amazing to me how a workable thesis opens the door to all kinds of creative thinking and Holy Spirit inspiration. When you have a clear destination marked on the map, you can make great travel plans - but when you don't know where you're headed, it's hard to figure out how you're going to get there.

I know there's more involved in developing a thesis, but I want to keep it simple and automatic. If I've missed something, feel free to add it in the comments!

Developing a Thesis (it really does matter!)

If you can't write your message in a sentence, you can't say it in an hour.

--Dianna Booher

It took me years to discover the powerful tool that is...dun dun DUN: The Thesis. A thesis by my definition (which may be entirely wrong, but it's what we're going with because I'm the one eating cookies and writing this blog) is a one or two sentence description of what your message will say. When all the stories and scriptures and word pictures are boiled down into one spoonful of soup, what will the audience take home? My senior pastor, Ken Johnson, has helped me understand this so much and he generally insists that we present some sort of thesis well in advance of our messages. I've been in sermon-planning meetings where he will ask for a description of where someone is headed with their message and if they go too long he'll kindly say, "You're going to have to narrow your thesis." And he's right.

Think of a thesis as a sharpening tool. It helps the speaker focus everything she's developing on the main purpose of her message. It's so easy to let stray illustrations or examples find their way into a talk because we really like them and want to use them - but if they don't add anything to the power and focus of the thesis, then they actually can dilute the whole thing. People who don't get opportunities to speak often really need this kind of focus and discipline because it's tempting to try to say everything you might not get a chance to say again soon. On the flipside, those who speak every week also need a thesis because it's easy to fall into the trap of letting messages string together in one long train of thought rather than planning each one as a mini military-strike. I've been in both camps and I can tell you that I wouldn't want to share even a five-minute testimony at this point in my life without first developing a thesis.

So, I hope I've convinced you of the "why". Next: the "how".

Focusing on focus,

Bo