Joe McKeever

Stuff Growing Preachers Will Enjoy

One --

Charlie Dale, pastor at New Orleans' Grace Baptist Church, has just sent a post-Easter message to everyone on his e-mailing list with the following:

"The church is full of hypocrites! It must be true because I've heard it all my life. Well, for those who decry the church being filled with hypocrites, I have good advice for you. Go to church on the Sunday after Easter. The Sunday after Easter is the lowest attended Sunday all year. The church won't be full of hypocrites because the church won't be full of anybody. If the past is any indication, our own church building will be one-quarter full. This is your opportunity to fill the church with genuine, authentic, pure-in-heart people like yourself; therefore, you'll out-number the rest of us hypocrites! We'll even read Christ's own preaching against hypocrisy from Matthew 6:1-18 this Sunday."

Charlie ends with this: "This opportunity only comes once a year. Don't waste it." He adds this post-script: "Note to hypocrites: Don't worry. We know that we're still in charge."

Good stuff, Charlie. One thing you can be assured of: those who show up this Sunday will possess a good sense of humor!

Two --

Recently a friend said, "Tell me what to do, Joe. Sometimes in the introduction of my sermon, I get so carried away with what I'm going to preach, that I end up preaching the entire thing right then. Instead of reading my text and going about it in an orderly way, I dump the whole thing on them up front."

I smiled and said, "Well, not to devastate you all in one blow, but the answer to your problem is called ‘preparation.'"

I hastened to add that I was talking about a certain kind of preparation. "When you get your sermon planned out, then take a walk and preach it to yourself. I cannot tell you how many times preaching my sermon out loud in advance has saved me from many an error."

Preach it not one time, but numerous times before Sunday, I suggested.

In relating that to my pastor friend, my mind went back to over 30 years ago when I made that discovery. Until then, I had written out my sermons the same way a person might pen an essay or even this type of article. That is, I dealt with the message as though it were all about writing and not about speaking. And then I found Clyde Fant's book "Preaching for Today." It changed everything.

Three --

The next day after that conversation with my friend, I looked through my library at home for that book, worrying all the while that I may have given it away as I've handed hundreds of volumes to preacher friends in the last few years. But, thankfully, there it was.

"Preaching for Today" was published by Harper and Row in 1975. I have no idea where I bought this copy, but Dr. Fant autographed it for me on June 23 of that year. Veteran pastors will recall that Clyde used to pastor the First Baptist Church of Richardson, Texas, and served as professor of preaching in Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary among other places. He is co-editor of "20 Centuries of Great Preaching" (all 13 volumes) with Dr. Bill Pinson. (I love that series, but will probably give it away too...to some pastor who would really appreciate it....speak up now if that's you!)

I pulled that book off the shelf, then re-read the entire thing in search of the passage where Fant told me to rehearse my sermon by preaching it out orally in advance. To my astonishment, most of the section which changed my preaching and gave me a lifelong appreciation for that book consumed all of one page. (John Piper begins one of his books by saying, "Books do not change lives, paragraphs do. And in some cases, sentences. And frequently, it's just a word." That's not an exact quote, but conveys his point.)

Clyde Fant says, "How often a preacher practices on his congregation -- and learns five minutes before the end what he should have said in the first place!"

The remedy, he says, is to practice the sermon in your study. Personally, I prefer to take a walk in the early morning hours and talk the message out. Sometimes, I've been known to take a drive in the country for that purpose.

Preaching the sermon out loud, in advance, and privately does a lot of things for the preacher. In my case, as I proceeded through the message a dozen new ideas would present themselves, all clamoring to be inserted at various places. Walking in the dawn air, thinking of my congregation and praying for the Father's lead, I would talk through those ideas and discard most. Some, I would find, were dead-end detours (rabbit-chasing we call them). I recall being so grateful that I found those detours in advance so I would not be diverted on Sunday morning, but could seal off those exits and stay on course.

Preaching the sermon out loud, in advance, privately, showed me at what places I was boring myself (and sure to bore the congregation!), where I desperately needed further study or a good illustration, which parts of the sermon were too loaded and thus unbalancing the rest of the message, and what I was forgetting.

In time I learned to help my preaching by asking a series of questions about an upcoming sermon:

Where is the cross in this message? Where is Jesus? Is it too long? Too short (yeah, like that was going to happen)? Too difficult, too simple? Could a visitor learn how to be saved? Is there anything for the longtime believer in it? And, perhaps most of all, what am I going to ask the people to do as a result of this message?

Four --

I'm finally getting to what started this article. I want to share some gems from Clyde Fant's book. (Keep in mind, pastors, that by going to your favorite online used-book source, you can find "Preaching for Today" for a pittance. I recommend www.alibris.com.)

"...the rhyming sermons of Wycliff's day were intended to entertain and gain popular approval." (p. 37) Who knew this? I didn't.

"I do not enjoy many advantages over the apostle Paul, but there is one unique advantage which is mine: I am here and now, and he is not." (p. 45)

"Confessing his humanity is the only way the preacher can prevent complete despair in his ministry." (p. 52)

"I will not debate whether pride (hubris) or sloth (acedia) is the chief sin of the ministry. (As a matter of fact where there is one there is frequently the other.)" (p. 53)

After dealing with the crime of boring sermons, Fant says, "Nor, it should be added, is (the Christian life) one of perpetual excitement.... The kingdom does not come with much grinning." (p. 56)

The fourth century preacher John Chrysostom was frequently interrupted in his preaching by applause, which he detested. Finally, in exasperation, he announced to the church that from that moment on, all applause from the congregation would be prohibited. "This announcement itself brought the house down with applause!" (p. 62)

Fant quotes J. Edgar Park: "An expert is an ordinary man far away from home, and a saint's reputation too often depends upon the silence of his family." (p. 70)

He quotes Spurgeon, who once told his students that preachers who were admired for being deep reminded him of a well: "You look down into a well, if it be empty it will appear to be very deep, but if there be water in it you will see its brightness. I believe that many ‘deep' preachers are simply so because they are like dry wells with nothing whatever in them, except decaying leaves, a few stones, and perhaps a dead cat or two." (p. 151)

I dread ending this -- you can tell -- but will leave you with my favorite of all the delicious tidbits sprinkled throughout this wonderful and helpful book.

To inspire patriotism in the common man, Napoleon had a story he loved to tell. "Once he came upon a soldier who had one arm and still wore his uniform, on which was displayed the Legion of Honor. ‘Where did you lose your arm?' the emperor asked. ‘At Austerlitz, sire,' the soldier replied. ‘And for that you were decorated?' ‘Yes, sire. It is a small token to pay for the Legion of Honor.'

"'It seems to me,' Napoleon said, ‘that you are the kind of man who regrets that he didn't lose both arms for his country.' ‘What then might be my reward?' asked the old soldier.

"'Oh, in that case I would have awarded you a double Legion of Honor.' And with that, the old soldier drew his sword and immediately cut off his other arm.

"For years the story circulated and was accepted without question until one day someone asked, ‘How?'" (Pp. 76-77)

Think about it.

Thank you, Dr. Clyde Fant, wherever you are, faithful friend. "Your works do follow you."