Small Preaching

25 Little Things You Can Do Now to Make You a Better Preacher

Jonathan T. Pennington

• Publisher: Lexham Press
• Year: 2021
• Print ISBN: 9781683594710
• eBook ISBN: 9781683594727
• Topic: Teologia e religione
• Subtopic: Chiesa cristiana

"Is bigger always better? It's not often that we hear the virtues of the small. Our culture teaches that bigger is better-and that includes church ministry and preaching, too. But what if rather than swinging for the fences, preachers focused on improving their sermons through small habits, practices, and exercises? What if smaller is better? In a world where "small" isn't always celebrated, Jonathan T. Pennington provides Small Preaching, a short book of simple tips that can have revolutionary effects over time. Pennington offers preachers 25 words of wisdom that will help shape their preaching for the better"--

1

Handling Praise Carefully and Gladly

We humans, made in the image of the relational Triune God, need the encouragement and love of others. There was only a brief and singular time when a human was completely alone in creation, and God’s verdict was clear: “It’s not good for the human to be alone” (Genesis 2:18).

Humans—including the small subspecies of humanity who are called to preach—need the encouragement and love of other humans. “The worker is worthy of his wages” (1 Timothy 5:18) applies not only financially but also relationally and emotionally. Praise is a good and natural need. It is a sustaining gift.

Most preachers I’ve observed are hesitant to receive praise and compliments. This is a mistake. But at the same time, the pastor needs to think carefully about how to handle praise in a healthy way.

We can sum up the healthy reception of preaching praise with two adverbs: carefully and gladly.

Carefully. There are a couple of reasons why we must be wisely careful about how we receive praise. First, what Emily Dickinson says about fame applies more generally to all forms of praise:

Fame is a bee.

It has a song—

It has a sting—

Ah, too, it has a wing.2

Fame and praise are fleeting and fickle. Beware of putting much stock in the praise of others. Hold it all at arm’s length lest you be throat-punched when its inevitable cousin criticism shows up.

A second reason we must be careful in our reception of praise is that it is an addictive drug that can blind us to the ultimately important praise—the praise and honor that come from God himself. In Matthew 6:1–21, Jesus teaches at length on the danger of seeking the praise of others. Our problem is not the natural human desire for reward or praise. Our problem is our drive and love for getting praise from the wrong place. If we treasure up the earthly reward of people praising us, we will find ourselves with only that treasure, not a reward from God. Where our treasure is, there our heart is, too. So open carefully the gift of praise.

Gladly. Most preachers are aware of the dangers of praise, and most of us are not going to openly seek praise in a crass and obviously self-promoting way. (Though subtle compliment-seeking and praise-fishing are much more common. Guilty as charged.) This good piety and humility, however, can lead us to struggle to embrace the other, balancing aspect of praise reception: receiving it gladly.

It is good, natural, and beneficial to be the recipient of praise. This is a basic and non-sinful human need. Moreover, as Scripture teaches, we should give honor where honor is due. A preacher who is called and gifted and who labors at the craft of preaching is worthy of appropriate and healthy honor. Only an unbiblical altruism eschews this way that God has made the universe: good begets good; labor begets honor; those who sow diligence should harvest its fruit. So we should not be hesitant or resistant to receive compliments on our preaching. This is a gift not to be rejected. It is good and right.

So what do you say when someone compliments you in person or in an email? I embrace these moments with gratitude and say some combination of these things:

•“I’m glad to hear that you benefited from the message. Thank you!”

•“You’re very kind. Thank you for taking the time to encourage me.”

•“That’s very nice to hear. I need encouragement like everyone else.”

It is not humility to dismiss or deflect the compliment: “Oh, it’s not me! Only God gets the credit!” This dishonors your gift and God’s structure of the universe. When someone thanks you for your sermon, receive this good and beautiful gift, completing the cycle of giving and receiving that God has created.

The way of wisdom is always a knife’s edge; it is easier to fall off one side or the other than to maintain the balanced walk. Our relationship to preaching praise should partake in neither the foolishness of self-aggrandizement nor the false humility of self-degradation. Praise is like food in that neither gluttony nor starvation is good. The wise preacher will look at praise not as an idolatrous source of life but as a gift that enables a healthy life. Don’t be afraid of receiving praise, but handle it both carefully and gladly.

2

Handling Criticism Carefully and Humbly

If you’re going into the role of preaching expecting unending gift baskets and ticker-tape parades from grateful congregants telling you how much better you are than their last pastor—well, I’m not sure what to say except that maybe a career in metallurgy or something else far away from pastoring might be a better bet for you.

I imagine few preachers really expect perpetual praise. Nonetheless, when criticism comes—especially from unexpected people and at already-down times—it surprises and hurts us. And not only does it cause us personal pain, but also, I suggest that how you handle criticism will most often be the deciding factor in whether you survive at a church and in ministry overall. How you handle criticism is that important. Criticism that doesn’t make you stronger will definitely kill you. To ensure that criticism makes you stronger, handle it carefully and humbly.

Carefully. Preaching is a performance, not in the negative sense but in the broader meaning of discharging or executing a public task or skill. It is inherent to preaching that you are putting your very self in front of people for scrutiny. So it is unavoidable that your ideas, your positions, your abilities, your mannerisms, your clothing, and your skills will be evaluated. And sooner or later (usually sooner), someone is going to say something critical, large or small, fair or unfair, based on insight or ignorance.

Whatever the form, time, type, or source, you should handle criticism carefully. This means, first of all, decide that you will not respond immediately. Maybe you see the cranky old guy coming toward you across the sanctuary for his weekly criticism appointment. Or maybe it is a tiny comment heard thirdhand from someone you thought liked you. Either way, in that moment, take a deep breath and imagine yourself in a posture that is open armed, not fists raised. Don’t fight back. Don’t defend yourself. Develop the self-control to not get triggered in the moment. If all you can say back is “Okay,” then that’s enough for now. If it is appropriate and you can in the moment, it may be even better to respond with “Thank you. I’ll think about that.” A gentle answer turns away most wrath, but a harsh response stirs up more criticism.

Then, when you have a chance to think, carefully and prayerfully consider the criticism in all its aspects—source, form, and content. Imagine the criticism as a virtual object (not a person) outside of yourself that you can examine, turning it over and looking at it from all sides. Some criticisms can and should be immediately thrown out the window. (And don’t go out to retrieve them.) Some criticisms are on point and should be examined more. Some need to be stripped down to a nugget of truth to heed. But you must carefully consider the criticism with the studied eye of wisdom. Blindly ignoring criticism and letting it guide your every move are equally foolish and dangerous.

Humbly. God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble (Psalm 138:6; James 4:6; 1 Peter 5:5). This creation-deep truism is repeated throughout Holy Scripture for a reason: lack of humility is destructive. Arrogance (and its wimpy brother, defensiveness) is the opposite of who God is and how his world works.

There is no place where humility is needed more or where its purity is tested further than in the smelting fire of criticism. So when you face criticism, welcome it with humility as a guest and a gift.

The first step in humbly receiving criticism is to see it as an opportunity for growth. I know this is hard, and that’s why I said you must objectify the criticism. This will give you the psychological space to learn from it what you can. Ask, “What is true about the content of the criticism? What can I do better?” Alternatively, “What can I not change about myself and learn to live with?”

Pressing further, use it as a window into your own soul’s health: “Why does this particular criticism upset me? What fears, insecurities, or shame does this evoke in me?” Once you can start to do this level of humble and honest soul work, real growth can take place. Humility tills the soil of your soul, and criticism can be the manure that fertilizes robust growth.

If after this self-examination there is an aspect of the criticism worth pursuing, in humility go to a few trusted friends and ask them what they think. Is this criticism something to consider more, to learn from, to prompt a change? God will give great grace to this kind of humility in community

The life of the preacher contains moments of great joy and satisfaction and moments of self-doubt and pain. Criticism from others can be devastating and haunting. I’ve noticed how even a small critique can lodge in my soul like a popcorn husk in my gums, providing constant irritation and provoking obsessive work to remove it. Failure to handle criticism well will destroy us and, thereby, our ministries. But it doesn’t have to be so. Even as we can grow in homiletical skill, we can grow in learning to handle criticism carefully and humbly.

3

Band of Brothers Preaching

On October 25, 1415, Saint Crispin’s Day, English King Henry V stood before his army of roughly 9,000 near the village of Agincourt, intercepted by a French force of 36,000. Shakespeare retells Henry’s famous speech to his men inspiring them to rejoice and bravely go into the day’s battle because they would always be remembered, either by their scars or in their deaths. Henry proclaims that all who did not fight at the battle on Saint Crispin’s Day would be jealous of “we few; we happy few; we band of brothers.”

This speech has continued to inspire, including when it was broadcast across radio sets in England during the dark days of World War II. The speech has also lent its phrase “band of brothers” to many a story, including the account of a company of paratroopers, led by Major Richard Winters, who landed at Normandy and fought all the way to Hitler’s headquarters, the Kehlsteinhaus. The deeply felt camaraderie that comes from living together through trials is one of humanity’s core transformative experiences.

At the risk of sounding overly dramatic or triumphalistic, I want to inspire us pastors to think about ourselves as a preaching band of brothers. To preach as a band of brothers means you reorient your preaching life around an intentional interdependence. I am inviting you to recognize that to scale the monumental task of the preaching life, we need a close-knit group of like-missioned people working together. We need more than our respectful congregants and staff. We need a group of other preachers in our lives who are of one company. We need this few, this happy few, this band of brothers, and we need it not just at annual conferences but on a weekly basis.

What I mean is that preachers should develop habits of working together on sermon preparation through sharing illustrations, outlines, and applications. I mean that preachers should cultivate patterns of regular dialogue with other preachers. Band-of-brothers preachers can share resources and plan to preach parallel series at their own churches, thus gaining from the synergy of wrestling with texts together. This means neither independence nor overdependence but a truly banded, interdependent approach to the life of preaching.

Why should we do this? I hope it is immediately apparent that such an approach—as uncommon as it has been in recent decades—is a great source of encouragement, stimulation, accountability, and growth. The sum preaching of the preachers will be stronger than the individual parts. The bond of the band of brothers is stronger than even the strongest preacher’s gifts and abilities. Certainly, some in such a group may feel intimidated because some will be more talented and have more to offer than others, but this is okay. This is how life always is. If our vision is truly for the advancement of God’s kingdom and not our own self-aggrandizement, such a uniting together to strengthen all is good and beautiful.

For some time, I experienced an ideal version of this with the network of churches in my city. Built into this system was a commitment to preach through the same series and texts each week. We shared commentaries and other resources, and we gathered weekly to discuss our ideas and plans. Each sermon was the work of each preacher—don’t plagiarize, please!—but each sermon benefitted from the group’s collective wisdom, interpretive wrestling, and homiletical moves. I often had a breakthrough at these meetings or got a choice line or quote from my brothers laboring with the same text toward the same looming Sunday morning.

For most preachers, this ideal situation is not a possibility. That’s okay. There is still great potential for gathering together a small band of preachers. First, this can be done in a broader area. Find a group within fifty miles, cast the vision for this, take the lead in organizing it, and make it happen. Many pastors would be very willing to give half a day to gather together with other like-minded people and get help thinking through and improving their sermons. This would require some planning ahead of sermon series, but the effort will more than pay off. If meeting in person does not seem possible, make it happen digitally. Gather together some brothers f...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Introduction
• The Person of the Preacher
• Chapter 1: Handling Praise Carefully and Gladly
• Chapter 2: Handling Criticism Carefully and Humbly
• Chapter 3: Band of Brothers Preaching
• Chapter 4: Pastoring as Conducting
• Chapter 5: Be God’s Witness, Not His Lawyer
• Chapter 6: Distinguishing between Preaching and Teaching
• Chapter 7: Encaustic Preaching
• The Preparation for Preaching
• Chapter 8: Manuscript Writing as Thinking
• Chapter 9: Sermon Writing as Sculpture
• Chapter 10: Snack Writing
• Chapter 11: The Rhythm of Education and the Jigsaw Puzzle
• Chapter 12: Kill Your Darlings
• Chapter 13: Iceberg Preaching
• Chapter 14: “This Sermon Stinks”
• The Practice of Preaching
• Chapter 15: The First Minute of a Sermon
• Chapter 16: The Last Minute of a Sermon
• Chapter 17: Preaching the Church Calendar
• Chapter 18: Preaching the Cultural Calendar
• Chapter 19: The Power of Predictions
• Chapter 20: Every Sermon a Story
• Chapter 21: Make Music in Your Sermon
• Chapter 22: Always Exposition?
• Chapter 23: The Unexamined Sermon Is Not Worth Preaching
• Chapter 24: At Weddings and Funerals, Be a Guide
• Chapter 25: Stealing as Sub-Creating
• Conclusion
• Acknowledgments