bobfranquiz.com

The Preacher and His Message

Here is my relationship with every message I teach:

Wednesday: I love it, I can't wait to teach it

Thursday: Anticipation building. This is going to be awesome!

Friday: I can't look at it anymore! I hate it. I wouldn't teach this message at gunpoint!

Saturday: It might not be as bad as I originally thought. This might actually be preach-able.

Sunday: I think it went pretty well. I don't know how, but God used it. I wish I would just say what I wrote :)

Monday: I'm never preaching again!

Tuesday: I'm thinking about preaching again :)

What is Deep? What is Shallow?

I believe there's a misnomer in the church. It's the definition of deep or shallow preaching. Deep preaching gets defined as doctrinal and shallow preaching is defined as applicational. I think we have our definitions wrong.

Shallow preaching is when a speaker tells you what the text means, but fails to tells you what the text can do in your life. Throwing out a few Greek words doesn't make preaching deep. Talking about ancient cultures doesn't make preaching deep. A person could stand up and read a commentary and do exactly what some define as "deep" preaching.

Deep preaching is when a Pastor explains what the text means but when proceeds to apply the text to our lives. What creates depth in a message is the connection between me and the text. If no connection is made, then we're still on the surface. The greater the connection to my life, the great the depth of the message.

Does this mean commentaries are shallow? Not at all. They serve a wonderful purpose and I have 100's in my office. But commentaries aren't preaching, they're explaining. And God has called preachers to be more than explainers. He's called us to be equippers. (Eph. 4:11-12)

New Series on Sunday

I'm so excited about teaching this series for the next 4 weeks. There is so much confusion inside and outside the church about God speaking. Does God still speak? How can we know it's really Him? How can I recognize God's voice from my own? All of these questions and more will be answered starting this Sunday!

How Much Yellow?

I color code my message notes and the color I use for scriptures that I'm going to read is yellow (I don't know why I picked yellow, I just did).

One of the things I look at each week before getting up in front of the church is, "How much yellow am I sharing?"

I love sharing stories and I feel storytelling is one of my giftings, but I want to always have plenty of yellow on my pages as I communicate.

I love being a Bible Teacher!

One of the things that I so enjoy about teaching the Scriptures is the time I get to spend in God's Word, thus giving God more opportunity to work in my life.

One of the things I'm talking about this weekend is forgiveness, and as I asked God to search my heart this week I realized there's someone I hadn't forgiven.

I had to forgive, give the situation over to God, and experience the freedom that comes from obey God's Word. I'm so glad I get to teach the Bible week after week. It makes me keep short accounts :)

Exposition

One of the things we've built our church on is the systematic teaching of the Bible. We're a verse by verse Bible teaching church for the most part. We do topical stuff as well (some topics are best covered in a topical manner), but the majority of Sundays, we're working our way through a book of the Bible.

I've been thinking about this since we just finished the Gospel of Mark this past weekend (We started on Easter of last year). I looked and realized that we've taught through 19 books of the Bible since we started Calvary Fellowship 7 years ago. (I have a personal goal of teaching through the entire Bible before I leave planet earth) I'm excited about starting the Song of Solomon this Sunday!

I know a lot of guys aren't into that, citing the need to do shorter series to keep momentum going. I understand that. But I would encourage you to think about teaching through a book of the Bible and see what happens.

Here's what I have found:

1. It disciples people - we have 3 vehicles for discipleship at CF and that's Sunday and those are Sunday, Small Groups, and service. We don't spend a lot of time focusing of "side item" type ministries because they aren't as powerful as these 3.

2. It's what unchurched people expect - This might sound odd, but unchurched people expect Christians to study the Bible. So when they walk into a church service and the Pastor is teaching the text and applying it, there's a comfortability there. I live in an area where 9 out of 10 people are unchurched (this doesn't mean they aren't attending a church right now, it means they're really far from God), so people have no base of knowledge about God to start from. Teaching expositionally has helped us greatly in grounding people.

3. It balances our teaching - We all have tendencies in our teaching. Some are wired more for evangelism, some for discipleship, some for service. But teaching a book of the Bible can give us a balance and allows us to hit topics we'd never think of talking about normally.

4. It teaches people the importance of the Bible - People who see us working through a book of the Bible on Sunday will see the pattern for reading the Bible on their own. Obviously, this isn't foolproof, but I want to model what I want everyone in my church doing daily.

Mileage may vary, but this decision has been one of the core values of our church.

Note: If you do teach expositionally, this doesn't exempt you from needing to use creative elements to illustrate God's heart and will. Boredom doesn't produce godliness :) Both God's Word and our God given creativity working together can reach the heart.

"Keep this in mind: The Teacher was considered wise, and he taught the people everything he knew. He listened carefully to many proverbs, studying and classifying them. The Teacher sought to find just the right words to express truths clearly." (Ecclesiastes 12:9-10)

Preaching Thoughts (Part 3)

It's all about the text!

I love creativity and I love thinking of new ways of sharing old truths, but you have to start with the text. I'm concerned whenever I talk to a leader who tells me he's doing a series of teachings on _________, but hasn't figured out what Bible verses he's going to teach. It's the classic case of the tail wagging the dog.

We start with the text because when you break it all down, that's all that matters.

The lights don't matter...

The staging doesn't matter...

The bumper video doesn't matter...

The graphics don't matter...

None of it matters unless it's there to give us insight into God's Word. I love all of those things and we incorporate those things into our weekly services, but it's the Scriptures that God has promised to bless. It's the Scriptures that God has said He would magnify above His Own Name.

May we be people of the book. And may we then use all the other mediums God has given to us to illustrate it and inspire others...

Preaching Thoughts (Part 2)

The first 5 minutes is the most important part of your message. If you can't grab people's attention and tell them why it was imperative they got out of bed to hear you, it's over.

A great close can't fix a bad opening. A good middle can't compensate for a boring beginning. Why? Because if you don't grab them at the beginning, you've lost them. That's why stories are so powerful.

I love telling stories to open my message because:
- they grab people ("That's interesting. Where's this going?")
- they relate to people ("I've done that before too")
- they put the speaker and the listener on equal footing ("This guy's just like me")
- they introduce your topic in human terms ("I guess the Bible is relatable to my life")

Introductions matter. They decide whether people are going to track with us or sleep...

Preaching Thoughts (Part 1)

The difference between a good message and a great one is the transitions. When you're driving in a car, what makes for a smooth car ride is how well the driver makes his turns. The same is true in teaching. Your transitions are the turns you take to get to your destination (assuming you have one of course :)

The masters of transitions are sportscasters. If you watch Sportscenter (as any self-respecting man does), notice how they transition seamlessly from sport to sport using great transitional phrases, stories, and parallels to move us without leaving us behind or confused.

They'll say things like:

"From pumping iron to the gridiron"

"The Patriots aren't the only Boston team experiencing success this season. The Celtics..."

"From first place in the east to the last place in the west"

I think you get the point. These guys work hard to take you on a journey, share with you the scores and stats you want to know, and leave you informed.

If they care so much about sharing highlights, I need to be doubly concerned about sharing the Gospel and teaching the Scriptures.

Oh No!!!!

Someone in the office just found the first message I ever taught at Calvary Fellowship....

Time to break out the Sledgehammer!!!!!!