The Secret to Joy 2.24.2022

     The old saying goes “do something you love, and you will never work a day in your life.” I believe that this truism needs one further caveat. Do something you love so much that you want to be the best at it, can think of nothing else, and are willing to put in the work to be constantly improving. That might seem a bit extreme, yet this commitment is ultimately the secret to the joy of preaching. 

    Throughout February we have had an insider’s look at what it means to be disciplined and creative throughout a long ministry. You might have expected joy to be the first secret. For any task worth doing joy is the outcome of sustained excellence. You may want it, but you can’t have it if you are not willing to put in the work. If you want the miraculous haul of fish you need to work the night through and then finally, act in obedience to Jesus. If you want to build a ministry which lasts, make sure that you use the best, flame-resistant materials because your work will be tested. Build upon the right foundation and do the work to get better year after year. Pretty soon you will realize that all that work is done with a whistle in your heart, if not on your lips. 

    My hook this month has been The Secret To…and the secret is, that there is no secret. There is no shortcut. There is no alternative to working hard and doing the best that you can do this week. Then, put that one behind you and work hard next week, then the one after, until the Inspector comes to see how well you have built upon the foundation. 

We are not all gifted in exactly the same way. For some of us the most joyous time will be that in the study reading, writing, exegeting, editing, working, and reworking until our best is ready to be preached. For others, the time in the study is necessary wood-chopping so that the fire can blaze brightly in the pulpit. Some of us hit the long ball. Some of us are solid line, drive hitters. Some have more natural gifts, others run out every ground ball and jump over the foul-lines every time they leave the field. We are not all the same, but we do have the same charge:

1 I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: 2 preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. 2 Timothy 4:1–2 (ESV)

There is no greater joy than doing well that which the Master has called us to do. You have the skill. You have the creative impulse. You have the discipline to endure difficult times. Do the work. Preach the Word. Feel God’s pleasure.

The Secret to Discipline 2.17.2022

    This week’s post will continue the theme we have been following throughout the month of February. Everyone who is called to preach the Gospel is called to a challenging life. While the calling may be unique a professionally challenging life is not. Many of us watched the Super Bowl this past Sunday. Professional football is challenging. Joe Burrow likely needed some quality time in an ice-tub after being sacked 7 times. Odell Beckham Jr suffered what appeared to be a non-contact knee injury which is kind of ironic in a game where hitting and getting hit is a part of the risk taken. 

    So preaching and professional football are both challenging though the challenges are different. Other professions share mental and emotional risks of ministry though they are not spiritually motivated. An attorney must master an arcane body of literature and apply it to a unique situation, convincing a possibly skeptical audience (the jury) that their client is either guilty or not guilty, depending on whether they are prosecuting or defending. Doctors must continue to read an exploding body of literature to remain conversant with emerging diagnostic and therapeutic methodologies. It is tax season. Accountants are reviewing their understanding of the tax code and investing energy in mastering any new information relevant to their clients. In another interesting development from the athletic arena we saw, just this weekend, Olympic athletes were bewildered, and events were postponed in the Winter Olympics because it snowed! Some challenges are mysterious, others obvious. 

    Any vocation, any task, any craft, any calling, if it is to be done with professional excellence requires discipline. Discipline in preparation and discipline in execution. None of the secrets to a fulfilling ministry that we are considering this month are much of a secret. They are not mysterious. They do not come from luck, and they are replicable. Longevity comes from a commitment to excellence over the long term. Athletes prosper in their prime and then retire before they get hurt or their performance falters. There is a point at which an ever-increasing body of experience cannot overcome the inertia of being unable to physically execute. This need not happen in the preaching ministry. So long as you work to stay fresh and engaged with the culture you will be able to find something to say and an effective way to say it. 

    Creativity works much the same way. As we grow older in ministry, we find that some tasks which took many hours in our twenties are accomplished in well-invested and properly planned minutes. Growth, wisdom, and experience nurture the creative process because we have an ever-expanding menu of items for comparison and illustration as well as incorporating new methodologies without becoming overly dependent upon them. 

    The key to these processes is discipline. Discipline provides the space needed for growth. Discipline anchors us to the fundamentals, the basics of our craft allowing us to safely discover new ways and means to proclaim the gospel. Experimentation without discipline can become unfocused flailing. It is the discipline of preaching Sunday by Sunday, message by message, week after week, that keeps us focused on the end product and the desired outcome of informed disciples.

The "Secret" to Creativity. 2.12.2022

 

    Do the work. There are times when the creative juices just won’t flow. Like a tree whose sap is slowed by the freezing temperatures of winter, there are times when you will sit at your desk in your study, and nothing moves. Your mind will be numbed by the weather or perhaps other issues have claimed some of your prime brain cells. 

    Last week I was working mostly at home. I cleared little snow and spent a couple of hours at my desk in my study tidying up the week’s work. My sermon was done, and I was putting the final touches on Sunday School. I put myself under a time budget. I was going to relax Friday evening. (I sort of watched some old movies that evening).

    Here it is Friday morning again, a week later, and I am behind. I’m just starting my blog. Sunday School is untouched. Monday was so busy that I did not complete my sermon till Tuesday. Then I needed to prepare for a funeral, for which I will depart in the next 90 minutes. Time is short and a deadline looms. I have just a few moments to compose this preliminary draft of this week’s blog. There are several factors that help make this brief amount of time fruitful. 

1. Working from a plan. I did not begin with a blank sheet the title and date are right in front of me. 

2. Resolution to grind.  I have, right now, 40 minutes to devote to this 1st draft.  If I did not come up with an idea, if something did not slip into my mind I was not going to stop until I had at least done a little preliminary research. If you can’t plant seeds, turn over the dirt. If you can’t lay bricks, mix mortar. If you can’t finish, then at least start!

3. A clear understanding of my limitations. I’m smart enough to know what I don’t know. I realized many years ago that you don’t have to rely on flashes of genius if you are willing to work hard. Much of what is thought of as creativity is actually determination.

4. The first word and the final word should not be the last word. Draft. Review. Revise. Edit. Clarify. Shorten. Expand. Contract. Eliminate. Add. Most of us are not Mozart. Be Bach. Arrive early, be flexible. Incorporate variety into your routine. 

    The point I am trying to drive home is that quality often arises from quantity, and creative work is first completed work. You must be extremely gifted to rely on the first thing you think, write, or say being brilliant. It may not seem like a creative act but working diligently at your craft is, in fact, the first creative act. 

    There is an entire tool shed filled with tools to help us work more effectively and creatively. We read books not only for information but to generate an artistic feel. Reading the words of others helps us to find our personal rhythms and voice. We have reference tools because we want our words spelled correctly, defined accurately, selected carefully, and ordered grammatically. Because what we say and write is on behalf of Christ and in service of His Church, we are realists. We don’t write impressionist sermons. We don’t generally produce stream-of-consciousness articles or lessons. We are not just writing or speaking to be heard or read. Our goal is life-change, and our creative impulse is driven by a desire to communicate clearly and accurately what the Scriptures teach. Creativity requires taking the abiding Word and addressing the ever-shifting cultural currents which surround us. We didn’t invent the cultural water or create the overwhelming social swells; we are just teaching people to swim. 

    There will be times when you do not feel like it. There will be times that your brain is thought out. At these times you can at least prepare the tools. Oil and sharpen the blades that you will need to cut straight and accurately. If you cannot create--at least work. The longer you do this the less you will rely upon the muse arriving at a whim and the more focused you will be in showing up, clocking in, and doing the work. 

    A concluding thought: for most of us, there is no secret to creativity. The secret is that it takes hard work to become a master craftsman at any craft. I have preached many sermons in 40 years that were great first drafts that should never have been preached. Some of my creative impulses have been wrong. The cure for bad first drafts is second drafts. The cure for poor creative impulse control is discipline. It is no secret what God can do if you and I are willing to work diligently to be sound workmen.

Process 2.3.2022

 As I write this morning I have already read many of the accolades and tributes written about Tom Brady. He announced his retirement February 1, 2022. Tom Brady defined professional football in the 21^st century. Recent college graduates cannot remember an NFL season in which Tom Brady did not participate—and excel. The tributes this week focus on statistics and winning percentages. Winning is important, that is why the score is kept, and statistics are often a good general guide to that success. The best tributes I have read so far have been focused on the question “how could Brady keep playing so long at such a high level.” Statistically speaking 2021 was his best season at the age of 44. It is this longevity which has resonance beyond football. 

Every single person I know is getting older. Forty-four is old in athletics, but in most professions that is when someone hits their prime. It is also the potential thresh hold for burnout. It is not uncommon for individuals at the very top of their game to spectacularly flame out as the pressure of doing their job well destroys them. One of the words that cropped up around Tom Brady’s professionalism was the word Process. Oh how I love that word and the concept it describes. Tom Brady did not run the fastest. He did not have the best arm. He was not very nimble. He maximized the skill-set he had to become the best he could be. He made the intangible attribute of process the defining characteristic of his approach to his profession. 

Here is the lesson, preacher. We are not all eloquent. We do not all have the same physical skills or equipment. Not every preacher grows up in a supporting home Church eager to help him succeed in ministry. Not every preacher works with supportive and capable local leadership. Some of us get bad breaks. Some of us are the preaching equivalent of Mr. 199, a sixth round draft choice selected as a project. Tom Brady, judged on his original skill-set was not on the radar. Process. Discipline. Determination. Preparation. Tenacity. These cannot be measured. Often their presence or absence are only noticed because of the results. 

I describe (and encourage and teach) a process-driven method of preparing to preach. We might describe Tom Brady’s method of playing quarterback as Process Driven Quarterbacking. Refining a process takes many years. To others,  defining, refining, honing, dialing-in that process can seem like tedious, pointless, drudgery. Till the results begin rolling in. A consistent level of excellence. Reliable and predictable inputs and outcomes. Stability. Resilience. Mental flexibility and toughness. 

Process maximizes skills which can be improved and de-emphasizes those that erode over time. (If you can’t throw the ball as far, throw it quicker. If you have trouble organizing your thoughts, start sooner). 

Process elevates the importance of repetitive, cumulative, routine, behaviors in order to improve “game-day”. We tend to judge the end product. The sermon. The game. Process invests our time and talents and treasure in the hard preliminary work where improvement occurs. Sports is a helpful source of analogy and comparison here because virtually every sport begins with a baseline of  elementary ground principles the “fundamentals” which are the inalterable foundation of the game. Baseball comes down to throwing and catching. It does not matter how far you progress in the sport it will always come down to those fundamentals. Block. Tackle. Go to your left. It is actually possible to identify a sport by the catch-phrases which encapsulate the fundamentals. 

Process-driven preaching is a relentless search for the fundamentals of preparing and delivering biblical sermons, and honing those fundamentals into repeatable, achievable, yearly/monthly/weekly/daily routines. Tom Brady was not great merely on Sunday. His greatness as a player was built hour by hour, day by day, week by week of relentless, process-driven attention to detail. If you want to be the best preacher you can be and maximize the talents God has given you becoming process driven will revolutionize that pursuit. 

Creating a process for your working life is organic. It grows from your own gifts, abilities, weaknesses, strengths and interests. Using basic, common-sense methods of organizing and structuring the work of ministry you focus the best of your time, when you are most energetic and most focused on the process of studying and preparing to preach. 

Most of those who preach consider Sunday morning worship to be “game time.” The Sunday message is rightly the focus of our weekly efforts. If this is the case, how we prepare, the process we go through each and every week is central to the outcome. Process thinking focuses on several related concepts.

Routine

Process driven preaching is routine. To be effective the preacher blocks out the same basic times each and every week for long-term and short term preparation. Long-form reading, stud, and thinking insures that there is always more in the well to draw from. A routine is communicable to your Elder’s, staff, friends, and family. It should not take very long before everyone knows what your routine is and if you communicate wisely they will understand why you follow such a routine. 

Repeatable

A routine is only effective if it embodies repeatable activities which lead to reliable outcomes. Returning to the lessons of Tom Brady, practice only makes perfect if it is perfect practice. Learning how to follow repeatable practices with respect to exegesis, sermon crafting, writing, editing, and time allocation are essential to repeatable routines. 

Rigorous

Good sermons require hard work. Systematic study, deep thought, careful writing, relentless editing. Process Driven preaching means working hard a preaching, every single day. You’re not always working on a specific sermon but you are always working on your preaching. Every book, blog, newsletter, or article you read may have impact on something you say from the pulpit in the future.

Preaching can change the world. That change is only possible when we who are called to preach are fully committed not only to the Sunday preaching event but to all the behind the scenes behaviors which will yield solid, Biblical sermons which are powerful enough to shape the minds of believers and clear enough to provoke a faith-response from unbelievers. 

It is always possible that this will happen by accident. It is also possible that God can use my sub-par efforts to change someone’s life despite my sloth. Why leave it to chance.? If a guy like Tom Brady could work hard and enhance limited skills to become the best he could be, why would you or I, tasked with preaching the unsearchable riches of Christ do anything less?