Well that’s not entirely true. As Andrea MacDougall pointed out in an earlier post, the lectionary is censored, with all the “bad” bits of the Bible painted out. But the idea is there, all the same. The scope and the spectrum of Scripture are canvassed widely, every single Sunday.

For the preacher, then, it seems like there is plenty of biblical fodder from which to choose. Now, in the church I currently go to, the sermons seem to focus primarily on the Gospel readings – and rightly so, I suspect. Sometimes the collection of texts drawn upon seem to have no obvious connection, and not even a less-than obvious connection, in cases. It’s much more straightforward, and wiser perhaps to go with the Gospel presentation!

But it gets me to thinking: what might it look like to preach, not just one text, but a number of texts in conversation? To see how the Old Testament reading feeds in to the New, or how the Gospel might address the sentiments of a Psalm, or some other such conversation?

Too hard, you might say; it’s difficult enough squeezing a message out of single biblical passage! But I reckon there are conversations to be had, lying latent in the biblical text, that might be well worth exploring with our congregations.

Sometimes the connections might seem obvious. Coming up to Christmas, at least, there are all sorts of prophetic sources that are drawn upon to make sense of this coming of Jesus. Sources, it’s fair to say, that did not have Jesus in mind to start with. Just think of Isaiah 9:6-7. And when Paul draws on the Scriptures of his tradition, our Old Testament, there’s an evident conversation going on within his recontextualisation.

But what other biblical conversations might be worth having? This Bible we preach speaks with more than one tone and timbre. What might it look like to purposefully draw on more than one of those voices and observe the way they interrelate?

What do you think?

But what do they hear when they listen to scripture for themselves? I had the opportunity recently to ask that question and listen in on some answers. A few students agreed to help me with a simple experiment. Each had to find a group of people willing to read part of the Bible together and talk about what they had heard. The facilitators were not to teach, simply set up the group, arrange for the Bible passage to be read aloud, invite the participants to share what they had noticed in the passage and let the conversation take its course. The sessions were recorded and transcribed, and forwarded to me with some description of the sort of people who had comprised the group.

All the groups read the same text, the story of Jesus and Zacchaeus in Luke 19:1-10. But they did not all hear the same things! There was a group of young male university students, heading (they hoped!) into reasonably well paid careers. What really got them going was the topic of money. How much of his wealth did Zachaeus give away? Did he have to? Do we have to? We keep hearing about “Good News to the Poor” but what if we’re not poor – is the gospel for us as well?

There were two groups of older women, in different parts of the country. Interestingly, both highlighted the theme of acceptance: Jesus accepted someone that others hadn’t, and the crowd didn’t make room for. The comment was made that you only really accept someone when you go to their home, and see them as they are (hints there of changes in pastoral practice and a denigrating of “drinking cups of tea with old ladies”? But that’s another topic!)

And there was a striking result from a group of young people from refugee families. As each in turn mentioned what they had noticed in the story the list of observations grew, but there was one point that almost everyone in that group cited as important: Jesus knew his name. And, a close second, Jesus actually went into his house.

I had been curious to know what the various groups in their different life stages and social and cultural contexts would make of the Bible. What I saw was what the Bible was making of them! Stirring discomfort in the materially privileged and causing them to wrestle with questions about how their anticipated salaries and careers related to discipleship and salvation; offering to people who feel unvalued and sidelined in a world and even a church that seems to be passing them by the reassurance of Jesus’ acceptance; and in young migrants struggling for identity and belonging in a country that treats them as aliens where no-one knows (and few would bother to pronounce!) their names, igniting surprise and delight in a Jesus who knew the name of the strange man who didn’t fit in with the crowd, and who by stepping through Zacchaeus’s door broke down the divide that separated the little world of that home from the large world of the community around it to which until then he had not been able to belong.

This exercise has impacted my preaching. It has heightened my awareness of the breadth and depth of human experience and the range of realities and needs among those for whom I am attempting to open up the Bibles message. It has made me more attentive to what might seem to me to be ancillary details rather than what I take to be central points of a passage, recognizing that for some those details might be living words that connect powerfully with their situation. And it has reinforced in me the conviction that the Bible is to be read aloud – even if I’m told it would take time out of the “preaching slot”! – because the transforming message for at least some might be in what they hear before the preacher says anything.

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George Wieland is the newly appointed Director of Mission Research and Training at Carey Baptist College. A former missionary and pastor, he preaches regularly in a range of contexts.

For some, the discipline and detail of extended preparation offers due recognition to the great responsibility of preaching.  Other times it has seemed that the voices promoting the spontaneity of the Spirit’s inspiration have been as loud in omitting to reference those scriptures that promote a Spirit-led order!

The dichotomy is of course patently false. Revelation is not constrained by the moment. Indeed it is arguable that revelation in the moment of delivery is aided by preparation in that it highlights that a departure from what has gone before is being (re)directed by the Holy Spirit.

But perhaps both dynamics are critical convictions for preaching.

Preaching is not complete until proclamation has occurred – in that sense preparation is not preaching on its own.  And yet preaching is an enabling component of worship rather than the goal of worship.  Within the wider context of the worship service as a whole, it operates as a crucial “hinge” on which the door of revelation swings.  Preaching is both a source of revelation and an invitation to response.  It is not alone in providing these functions within the context of worship, but it is never (or should never be) separated from the balance of revelation and response which exists across a worship service.  This dynamic of revelation and response is what marks authentic worship and, within the wider framework of worship, authentic preaching.

However, the act of preparation is as much a revelatory process as preaching an inspired thought in the moment of proclamation.  I love this nugget from Barbara Brown-Taylor which captures this beautifully:

“My own begins with a long sitting spell with an open Bible on my lap, as I read and read and read the text.  What I am hunting for is the God in it, God for me and for my congregation at this particular moment in time.  I am waiting to be addressed by the text in my own name, to be called out by it so that I look back at my human situation and see it from a new perspective, one that is more like God’s.  I am hoping for a moment of revelation…”

Perhaps what we sometimes see is a human response to this seeming tension that operates so as to marginalise the other, out of fear maybe of the consequences of functioning in both?  For one, the act of preparation requires a personal intimacy with God that is too raw to take into the public act of preaching.  For another, the moment of revelation requires a personal risk taking before God (and others) which is too raw to enact within the public act of preaching.  These positions as extremes deny preachers the life-giving immediacy of God at work through the scriptures and in the life of the preacher.

Both convictions sit heavily however and the wrestle to engage God publicly and privately – through preparation and in the moment – become more actively engaged as the insufficiency of living outside this tension is played out in insufficient preaching.

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Brett Jones is pastor to cession|community in the eastern suburbs of Auckland and Assistant National Superintendent (Church Development) for the Wesleyan Methodist Church.  In his spare time he is father to 3 and husband to 1.

When I studied at Carey Baptist College a few years ago, I picked up the idea from a course by Paul Windsor that it is good to preach a series from an Old Testament book, a Gospel and an Epistle each year. He also suggested doing a topical series and taking time to focus on special days in the church calendar, such as Pentecost Sunday.

This year I have taught a fairly long series in the Gospel of Luke (in two parts), a few weeks on the Self-Denial mission material from Tranzsend, a series in the book of Isaiah, and next month I am planning a short series on the Holy Spirit in the book of Ephesians. When we have guest speakers, I don’t require them to fit in with any series I’m doing, and enjoy it when they choose to address a topic I would be reluctant to, such as a guest speaker next month who is hopefully going to speak on “Christians and Sport.”

My question to others is…how do you choose what books/topics to focus on?

Obviously this is a matter for prayer and discussion with leadership, but do you have goals you try to reach as far as variety? What are the factors that feed into your planning?

Part of me believes that it is important what books we teach when, but a bigger part believes that God will get his message across regardless of what book it’s from, if we do the study and seek him.

I would be especially interested to hear from those who have responsibility for the weekly preaching portion of the Sunday service. Blessings.

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Robyn Mellar-Smith is a daughter, wife, mother, grandmother, and the pastor of Epuni Baptist Church in Lower Hutt.

That question struck me as an interesting one to ask of preaching. In our preaching, who do we think is the enemy? Maybe the word ‘enemy’ is too harsh. A softer question might be: what is the counterpoint to my preaching? It seems to me that most preaching is a counterpoint to something. Sermons tend not only to promote a particular way of thinking, but also to counter an alternative way of thinking. By identifying what that alternative is, we are better placed to evaluate and improve our own preaching.

The senior pastor of our church before me was big on defending the Christian faith against non-Christian sceptics. His preaching counterpoint was secular humanism or atheism. So his preaching tended to be heavily apologetic, giving rational arguments for the truth of the gospel. For me, I think my primary preaching counterpoint these days is a staunch Christian fundamentalism that truncates the gospel and reduces theology to a set of rigid, abstract propositions. That’s where I used to be, and having moved away from that personally, I find that it has become the counterpoint to much of my preaching. So my preaching often attempts to broaden people’s understanding of the gospel and connect people to the overarching narrative of the Scriptures.

This may seem like a bit of a negative way to think about preaching, as a counterpoint to an alternative way of thinking. But I have found that identifying my preaching counterpoint has helped me become more self-aware as a preacher. It has also helped me make adjustments so that my preaching is not too one-sided; I am trying to interact with other counterpoint views and perspective that I may otherwise ignore.

Does this idea of a preaching counterpoint ring true for anyone else, and if so, can you identify what yours is?

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Reuben Munn is Senior Pastor of Shore Community Church on Auckland’s North Shore, whose teaching features on the TV programme Connection Point on Shine TV.

The church gathered is primarily a gathering of the saints for worship, fellowship, and edification. It is a sign of the gospel to the principalities and powers that God is calling forth a new humanity. As such, we preachers primarily preach to feed the sheep. This is multi-faceted with three elements: 1) To deepen their desire to worship by preaching the Triune God that their faith is deepened and they are drawn to adoration and service; 2) To urge and equip people to love their brothers and sisters and a desire to use their gifts to serve and build God’s church; 3) To equip believers for the challenge of being missionaries in the sphere into which God has called them – their family, work, social networks. We hope our preaching sees fruit of the Spirit bud in their lives, overflowing into worship and action for the gospel to build the church and mission as they leave each Sunday.

If that is so, where is the place of evangelising from the pulpit? Some would argue evangelism happens away from the church pulpit, outside the church whether one on one, intentional evangelism, small groups (e.g. Alpha), or in the flow of ‘normal’ life as people ‘gossip the gospel.’ The church is the place for those who respond, for believers, where they are fed. While I fully agree that evangelism should be done this way, I don’t think that this means the church should be an evangelism-free zone.

Another approach is that evangelism is for the ‘expert’ like a Greg Laurie, believers’ bringing their friends to hear the gospel from the evangelist. This is great to a point, but does not mean that the preaching of the gospel for conversion should not be a natural part of church life.

A third approach is to have special event-services on a regular basis to which members of the church can bring an unbelieving friend. This would involve a well thought out seeker-friendly service, wonderful hospitality, and a sermon that seeks the articulate the gospel with clarity, conviction, ‘gentleness and respect.’ Pastors who feel ill-equipped can utilise the evangelist and the church prepare well with prayer and preparation. This is great and should be a part of regular church life – but is it all that we should be doing?

Another approach is for preachers to preach the word in a systematic manner and allow the text of the day to speak, and the gospel to flow from it, and perhaps an appeal for conversion, when the Spirit leads. If this is a regular part of a sermon with a seeker-friendly environment, then a believer in the church can bring a friend anytime, knowing that they will hear something of the gospel. This requires the preacher sitting with the text imagining that their hearers are primarily the people of God gathered, but with a thought to those who are present that are not believers. It is great if preachers know in advance that unbelievers are coming, so training their people to let the preacher know is helpful. I believe that a good preacher can preach in such a way that challenges the saved and unsaved alike, but it is not easy.

The truth is that all of the above and more is required. Ideally, the church breaths mission and evangelism, with both corporate life and individual lives drawing people to God. I challenge us all as preachers to give thought to this question to ensure that the clarion call of the gospel is ringing out of in and from our communities of faith. NZ needs it more than ever.

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Mark Keown has been a Presbyterian and Baptist Pastor and is currently Senior Lecturer in New Testament at Laidlaw College. He is married to Emma (Minister, Glenfield Presbyterian). His works include What’s God Up To On Planet Earth and Congregational Evangelism in Philippians. 

I loved using illustrations that have widespread appeal and relevance. Turns out everyone identifies with rainbows and traffic jams, and sometimes experiencing them on the same day.

I loved integrating my youth into the message by talking to them and about them, in their presence.

I loved hearing one of them share a short talk over communion; I sense a koru fern unfurling and potential beginning to be recognised, if I can borrow a metaphor from one who saw the same in me!

I loved having a couple of youth stand up next to me and give testimonies to their time at Easter Camp and their initiatives for the future in our youth ministry.

I loved feeling like a proud mum while doing this!

I loved reading from ‘The Jesus Storybook Bible’.  This resource is just so good for how ‘every story whispers his name’ and even the adults enjoy it!

I loved exegeting the Word of God and seeing His power become real and tangible among people I serve and am served by.

I loved how the organisational nightmare came together just fine on the day; why did I spend so much energy stressing?

I loved preaching twice, back to back, and repeating the same joke only to get a different response!

I loved hearing how people were surprised to enjoy a youth service so much!

I loved the morning tea afterwards; does anything beat homemade baking?  Probably not.

I continue to lead my youth service each week and that continues to test and encourage my thinking and teaching style.  But I look forward to these chances to preach in the morning service and am grateful for the opportunities.  What do you continue to love about preaching?

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Laura Giddey is youth and young adults pastor at Shore Community Church (in Albany), and makes excellent brownies

But as I’ve rested and had fun with my family these last couple of weeks, and exegeted the writings of Tom Clancy and John Grisham, I have also enjoyed the chance to slow down and reflect. One of the things I have been thinking about is the rhythms of my life and ministry and our church, and whether I am living and leading in a healthy way.  It’s especially made me think about the rhythms of preaching.

Those who occasionally preach may not appreciate this, but for those of us who preach regularly or carry the primary responsibility for that in a local church, preaching drains us. At least it drains me. And that’s not because I’m not primarily gifted for that task or don’t enjoy it – I find in fact that one of my greatest loves in ministry is preaching. It’s simply that the task of proclaiming God’s Word demands much from me.

I think Reuben Munn from Shore Community Church summed it up best at a recent conference I was at with him, when he said preaching regularly is like giving birth on Sunday, only to find out you’re pregnant again on Monday! Although I have found that if I am preaching the next three or four Sundays in a row, I am carrying each of those messages around inside me, each of them with a different due date!

And over time, that on-going rhythm of studying and shaping and communicating drains me. That’s where I have been in the last few months leading up to this sabbatical – feeling like the tank was getting low, the gauge was close to empty and it was time to pull over and refuel. And what I’ve found is that I notice that sense of emptiness most in the creative side of preaching. Even when I’m drained, I can still dig into a passage of God’s Word and get excited about what I find. But it’s in the challenges of communicating those truths – in the application and illustration and creativity – that’s where I notice that my tank is running dry and I need to take a break.

So short of taking a sabbatical every second week, how do those of us who preach regularly build rhythms into our ministries to give us the breaks we need to refuel? I have some key rhythms operating in my life already:

• I preach about two thirds of the Sundays from Feb to Christmas, which means that one out of every three Sundays I have the privilege of sitting at the feet of someone else. That not only gives me a break, it feeds me spiritually as well.
• In addition, I have personally found it extremely helpful to try and place two of those team members side by side in the preaching schedule, so that I get two Sundays off preaching in a row, even if that means I then have three or four on.
• Annually, I generally prefer not to preach over January. It’s a great opportunity to allow others to preach, while I prepare for the coming ministry year and enjoy some time with the family.

But I’m sure there are other ways of approaching this issue; other rhythms that people find helpful for taking breaks and restoring their souls. I’d love to hear from other preachers, especially those who carry the primary teaching weight, as to how they take a break and refuel when they need to.

Do all things without grumbling or questioning, that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding fast to the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I may be proud that I did not run in vain or labor in vain. (ESV)

What did it mean for God’s people to live in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation? In this naming of the 1^st century Philippian context, Paul chooses words used, for example, to describe the bent shape of dry wood that, once straight and true, has become distorted, perverse and warped. Philippi was a Roman colony populated in part by war veterans, the general population of which was endowed with Roman citizenship. Without doubt a powerful “crooked and twisted” alternative gospel, focused on worshiping the Emperor as lord and saviour was widely proclaimed in the city.

But the phrase Paul chooses is not entirely new. He is only too conscious of its significance in the ancient story of Israel’s people wandering in the wilderness. In Deuteronomy 32:5 Moses had written of them: “They have dealt corruptly with him; they are no longer his children because they are blemished; they are a crooked and twisted generation.” And again in Deuteronomy 32:20: “They are a perverse generation, children in whom there is no faithfulness.”

It was hard to be faithful to God in 1^st century Philippi. It had been hard to be faithful to God in those wilderness years. Paul brings two narratives together as he writes about “living without blemish in the midst …” (2:14)

And of course there is a third narrative which actually governs Paul’s thought – that of the gospel events of Messiah Jesus. In Philippians 2:5-11, Paul has portrayed Jesus as the utterly faithful one who having taken the form of a servant, “humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him …” In his humility, Jesus incarnated a radical alternative to grumbling Israel. In his exaltation, he became a radical alternative to pretentious, false lords such as the Roman Caesar.

Three narratives inform this portion of Paul’s letter to the Philippians – that of Israel, that of Jesus and that of the Philippians themselves. And these three impel Paul to conclude by reflecting on a fourth narrative – his own. His aim is that “in the day of Christ I may be proud that I did not run in vain or labor in vain. Even if I am to be poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrificial offering of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with you all. Likewise you also should be glad and rejoice with me.” (2:16-18)

The apostle exhibits a storied imagination as he writes – the story of Israel, of Jesus, of his 1^st century friends in Philippi, and finally of himself. It is up to us now to live faithfully in response to God’s Word as we also seek to be God’s children in our times and places. We must add our story to theirs.

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Rod Thompson has just commenced as National Principal/CEO of Laidlaw College in Auckland. He is passionate about family (he and Rosanne have recently become grandparents for the second time), the Bible, theology, art, music, history, culture – and red wine in moderation.

For many years West had embraced an all-age approach to church life, including Sunday mornings.  Yes, you read that right.  In a church of 70-odd on a Sunday, the kids were in the service the whole time.

While I applauded West’s inclusiveness and clear valuing of children, I was pretty sceptical about how a preacher could feed such a broad range of people, week-in, week-out, without missing people at either end of the maturity spectrum.

Three-and-a-half years later, I’m not just a convert, but an evangelist, for all-age preaching, all the time.  It’s not easy, but I’m a better preacher for it, and the benefits to the congregation, in both preaching and community cohesion, certainly outweigh the difficulties.

All-age services offer the kind of deep community that including everyone fosters and the regular exercise of generosity this level of inclusion requires, and both these benefits mean I get really good bang for my buck in leading this community.

All our kids know a dozen adults outside their family who obviously think the world of them.  It takes a church to raise a child, right?  They all know that church is a place for them, where they are important (they each have jobs) and so is their growth.

Our aim is to have something in each service that is ‘for’ most groups of people.  We are also very clear that there will be parts of the service that are not ‘for’ you.  There will be action songs some adults feel silly singing, there will be boring talky bits that aren’t aimed at the youngest kids, there will songs that aren’t your favourites and YouTube clips that shoot over your head.  But isn’t this true in any church?  At West explicitly remind each other that generosity to other people, in allowing them space for things we don’t enjoy but that connects them to God, is worship in itself, and to be embraced.  And we get regular practice at this, week in, week out.

But what about the poor preacher, whose congregation ranges from babies and pre-schoolers not known for their love of sermons or quiet, to people who are eager to be stretched after forty years of following Jesus?

My approach is usually to think and write content for mature Christians, but present it creatively in ways that invite younger humans and younger Christians to engage with big ideas.  On a good day, this means that both ends of the spectrum are reached by the sermon.

We all use images, stories, evocative language to illustrate the points we make.  The trick to an all-age preaching lifestyle seems to be to make that imagery three-dimensional.  Instead of just telling a story or describing an image, here are some things I’ve tried:

• read a carefully picked, excellent kids’ book, with the pictures scanned for the screen, and weave it into the sermon as the main illustration;
• get adults and kids to be characters in a story, or even parts of a diagram, acting it out impromptu;
• do a demonstration with props (think of the ‘rocks in the jar’ demo you may have seen);
• do a brief craft activity that brings it all together;
• or just have a great picture or prop to make the image jump out: hold a fishing rod while talking about fishing.

You’ve probably done all of these at some point in your preaching to adults – it’s not rocket science, just methodical fleshing out of normal preaching practice.

This is not the dreaded slavery to trendy YouTube clips or dependence on technology that conscientious preachers rightly worry about.  It is simply making our existing imagery three-dimensional, more accessible to those with younger minds or non-auditory preferences.

All-age preaching has been great for stretching my skills.  It makes me a more thoughtful, creative preacher, because I can’t rely on purely oral sermons where the congregation works hard to keep pace.  I do some of those – not every sermon has to be for every person, in our approach – but more often, I preach sermons that have the same content as one intended for an attentive adult audience, but with the imagery made manifest in a way that broadens the accessibility.

In giving children access to our preaching, we accidentally include a lot of adults who might struggle to engage with purely spoken sermons, or who don’t have years of churchgoing to help them navigate them.

Could preaching to minors be a master class for you and your congregation?

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Thalia Kehoe Rowden is an awesome parallel parker and the pastor of New Plymouth West Baptist Church, a place of shelter, faith and laughter.