PREACH! December 7, 2009

There are two questions that every pastor will ask when preparing a message…the first is, “What do these people want me to say?”  WHICH is so dangerous because if this is your goal you will never preach a good message.  Because…

• You won’t be reformed enough for some people…and too reformed for others.
• You will be too serious for some…and not serious enough for others.
• You will use too much Scripture for some…and not enough for others.
• You will come across to some people as too nice…and others as too harsh.
• You will really encourage some people…and really frustrate others.
• You WILL say something at some point that will be completely politically incorrect…will offend someone…and they will let you know.
• People WILL take what you say out of context…and tell others that you said things that you never did actually say.

I could go on…but I think we all know that preaching to impress people leads to a dangerous place in ministry…because we can NEVER successfully please the crowd all the time…and doing so is a recipe for insanity!  (Paul was ON to something when he wrote Galatians 1:10!)

The second question is, “What does Jesus want me to say?”  When what HE is saying gets in our hearts and sets us on fire (Jeremiah 20:9)…THAT is what we must preach!!!

• We must be consumed by Him and not controlled by others!
• We must be obsessed with the Almighty and not with what all the people think.
• We must seek to honor HIS call on our lives rather than “their call” to the church!
• We must share Christ.

We cannot allow the ONE who called us to merely be our “good luck charm.”  You know…we throw together a message and then ask Him to bless it.

We must HEAR HIS VOICE…and then PREACH, knowing people will be offended…people will get upset…but ultimately people will come to Christ and His name will be lifted higher!!!

HIS NAME, not our reputation, should be our obsession.

“How Do You Prepare A Message?” Part Four October 9, 2009

Last post on this subject…

6.    Pay attention to culture.

This should go without saying but what people are talking about should be important to us.

One of the greatest problems I believe the church has is that we are answering the questions that no one is asking.

So what is culture saying because whatever culture is saying Scripture has already addressed that issue. We don’t have to try to be relevant; in fact, I believe the quickest way to irrelevance is to pursue relevance WITHOUT the Scriptures!   People not going to identify with our common ground many times so its up to us to say, “here’s what you are dealing with and here’s what scriptures say.” And show them how real God is through the teaching of his Word.

7.    Inward promotion works best.

This is a conviciton I have in regards to promoting a series. The best thing that we can do in order to reach more people with the Gospel, is teach our church where the services will be heading (which takes PLANNING AHEAD), promote it inwardly and get the people in our church excited about what is coming next.

Please don’t misunderstand…I am not preaching against doing mailouts or billboards or newspaper adds.  We’ve actually tried all of that stuff; however, nothing is more impactful than a church full of fired-up people who are so excited out of their minds about what the church is getting ready to address that they will actually dive out of their comfort zones and take a risk and bring someone else to church with them.

When someone is excited about what is to come that is the best way you can promote what is coming.

BTW…people will often tell me, “Perry…I think you overhype your church.”  WHICH always makes me laugh because…

#1 – If I say I’m excited…then I am freakin excited!  If I say it is going to be the best Sunday ever…it is because I believe it!  I am smokin’ what I’m sellin!  I can’t help but be absolutely FIRED UP about what I get to do!  In fact…I think there is a problem when you CAN’T get excited about the upcoming Sunday…which leads to…

#2 – If the pastor can’t be excited about Sunday…then how in the heck can he expect anyone else to be?  If you are a church leader and/or pastor and can’t get excited about Sunday’s…maybe you are in the wrong church…or even the wrong line of work!

God didn’t call us to be passive…but to be filled with HIS passion to CHANGE the world with HIS Gospel!!!  So…NEVER apologize for passionately communicating about your belief that “Sunday is going to be awesome!!!”

One more thing…whatever you do…do not overpromise and under-deliver.  When you say it…mean it!!

“How Do You Prepare A Message?” Part Three October 8, 2009

Quick review…

• #1 – Get A Word from the Word
• #2 – Listen to other communicators
• #3 – Find your best time and place to prepare
• #4 – Organize a creative process

5.    Work Ahead.

I realize that many pastors are preaching what I call “Saturday Night Specials” because they don’t feel they have the time or they don’t feel they can work ahead.  I would challenge pastors to do everything you can to get your message preparation 2 or 3 weeks ahead of time.  The reason why is simple: it relieves your team and helps them to prepare better.

Seriously you have people that serve in your church, video people, music people, whatever,  that if you simply gave them 2 or 3 more weeks to pray through and develop some ideas you would would be AMAZED at the quality of work they could produce.

One of the problems that pastors have is they think their staff exists to serve them, therefore they will work week of, develop their message by Wednesday, give it to the people who have to help pull it together, completely stress out their music and video crew, make them work 60, 70, 80 hours a week just to get a job done…when if the pastor would repent of his laziness and egomania, the entire staff could serve the Body rather than the pastor manipulating his staff and using them to serve the Body.

When we work ahead it allows things to marinate in our minds.  When we know what we are preaching 2 or 3 weeks in advance, it will literally help us because we become aware of what we are preaching on so we are always thinking about it, always praying about it, we’ll see something online that will refer to it.  Marinating on an idea helps it develop.  One of the things that I try my best to do is to work way ahead so that our staff, specifically our creative arts department, can do their best job possible.

“How Do You Prepare A Message” – Part Two October 7, 2009

Continuing from yesterday…

3.    Find your best time and place to prepare.

One of the things that a communicator must discover is that we are completely unique in our preparation process…we have to find what works for us.

When I attended college many moons ago it became very evident to me that I did very well in early morning classes; however, after 12:00 my A-D-D and my desires to take naps often got the best of me!  I am most likely to be “on my game” when it comes to preparation between 7:00 and 12:00…after that I am useless most of the time!

Thus, today my preparation time takes place in the morning and I guard that time like a pitbull.  I do not allow meetings to take place in the mornings.  I very seldom do breakfasts for anyone because the morningtime is my time where I am the freshest and able to think the most clearly in regards to what God wants me to say.

I mentioned time, let me also mention place.  When we study we’ve got to separate ourself from distraction- give your cell phone to your assistant, put it on silent, do not twitter.  From the time to time we need to get in a different environment-go to a coffeeshop, sit at a picnic table in a park.  Do whatever it takes to find your best time and place to prepare.  Do not schedule meetings, do not apologize, you’ve got a job to do to communicate to the people God has placed in front of you and we’ve got to find our best time and place to prepare.

4.    Organize a creative process.

I used to do “week of” sermon preparation and planning and it was one of the most stressful things that I’ve ever participated in my life.  One of the most harsh realities that a pastor faces on Sunday night is the next Sunday is coming really fast.  So I’ve organized a creative process that helps me in my planning.  It has to do with two parts.

1)    Content. Our creative process always begins with scripture.  We do not begin with, ‘There’s a cool song we’d love to do so let’s organize a sermon around that. “ We do not say, “I have a really cool illustration so let’s find a bible verse that fits with the illustration and revolve a sermon around it.” Correct theology must drive our methodology and once again what we communicate must always begin with scripture.

The other thing I do under the content is I bring others into a meeting to discuss the scripture passage because there are people at different stages of life that will see scripture through a different lens.  You would be amazed at some of the conversations that take place in some of our meetings for example I will bring in women who point out, “You know what Perry, that is the fourth sports illustration you’ve used this week.  It’s not really connecting us.”  Or…I’ll bring in singles and ask how they believe this passage applies to where they are in life.  In fact…I will bring in people that may be different on some minor theological issues that I would happen to think of  because I want to take an all-around view of scripture.

Here’s the problem: Leaders, this takes work. It takes organization.  It takes effort but if you want to teach the scriptures where you can connect with everybody, teach it in a smaller group and ask their opinions on it first.  If you have the ego for it…

2)    Creativity.  Once we get the message ready then we try to organize the branding of the series and the days around it.  Once again, I get different people in this mix.  We brainstorm and we think BIG! What needs to be done musically? What needs to be done video-wise?  I have a rule: no negative people in this meeting.  We don’t need anybody to play the devil’s advocate.  He doesn’t need an advocate and I don’t want anyone on his team around my table.  When you brainstorm, you’ve got to have people in the room with a willingness to check their ego at the door.  Because many times it takes about 9 really bad ideas to produce 1 really great idea.  People have to be willing to speak their mind and say what their thinking which means checking their ego at the door.

“How Do You Prepare A Message?” Part One October 6, 2009

One of the questions most asked of me by church leaders and people around NewSpring is how do I go about preparing a message…

When NewSpring Church began I realized that as a communicator I have between 35-40 minutes (okay maybe 55, or even 60) to speak to the people who attend one of our services every week and to say something that is given to me by God that will impact their lives.  I also realized that part of my job as a communicator was to make the message as engaging and memorable as possible.  So, I have an seven step philosophy on message preparation that I feel has served our church and our staff well.  This week I will share the seven steps that we take.

1.    Get a word from the Word.

I have an intense conviction when it comes to preaching–a preacher has got to speak from the overflow of what God is doing inside of him…which means we must have consistent time with God where we are on our faces seeking Him for what he wants to say to us because it is out of our victories and out of our pain that we communicate the most passionately and therefore connect intimately with the people that God has called us to lead.

The overwhelming majority of the series ideas that I have preached here at NewSpring Church have come out of my personal time with God.  Now, let me be very clear, I do not use my quiet time for message preparation.  However, I always have a pen and a paper nearby so I can jot down a note and come back to it later…because the purpose of my personal time with God is for me to connect with Him, not to prepare a message.

The best thing we can do as a communicator is communicate what God is setting our hearts on fire with because then we don’t have to produce the passion– God produces the passion inside of us.

2.    Listen to other communicators.

From time to time I will have people ask me, “Hey Perry, do you ever use other people’s stuff?”  I answer, “HECK YES!”

However give me a second to unpack that…first of all I will not preach another person’s message word for word.  However, if I’m listening to a communicator and they say something to their church that resonates in my heart and my spirit then I will not hesitate to use that same phrase, that same quote to the people I am preaching to.

I believe it is arrogant for a pastor or a church leader to hear something meaningful or impactful said by another church leader but comes to the conclusion, “I can’t say that to my church because it is not an original thought birthed inside of me.”  One of the greatest tragedies that a leader could do in speaking to his church is actually think that he has to be original in everything that he preaches and teaches.  God has given us the gift of other leaders and communicators who say some incredible things and we should listen and be unafraid to share what God uses in their voices to impact our hearts and our congregations.

And by the way…the person who claims to be completely original in their communication and vision has a problem with lying!!!