Notes from #PreachingRocket with @PastorMark

Mark Driscoll, pastor of MarsHill.com, author of several books, blogger at pastormark.tv.

• Preaching is powerful because the Bible offers to SEND PEOPLE ON MISSION.
• There is no Theology without Missiology.
• God's people are on mission to reach more people to become God's people.
• If not, theology and Christian experience becomes very selfish!
• People are coming to church expecting the Bible just like they go to a steakhouse looking for steak. Be willing to address the harder issues and objections people have to the Bible, i.e. slavery, oppression, genocide. "Alright, let's talk about that..."
• Bible written in common Greek - "plowman's language" meant to be understood by commoners, so that they don't feel stupid and can clearer grasp meaning.
• Explain meaning so that rather than people feeling stupid, they feel invited in.
• Fatherlessness is the plaque on our generation and root of most societal problems.
• Where else can guys go to find answers on how to be a father, man. No where else to go. They need the church!

How to get Better on Preaching:

• Be careful that you don't listen to one preacher so much that you start to become an echo.
• If you listen too much to someone else's voice, you lose your own.
• Study, practice, and discover your own voice.
• Give yourself some grace - times when you'll preach great, then fail. That's part of the process of development.
• The better you can preach one sermon, you can preach more.
• EDIT sermons after you've preached - evaluate but don't over evaluate.
• Broaden your audience while targeting a specific audience - find ways to include those who may otherwise feel alienated, i.e. if speaking to fathers, address women who will be looking for a godly man, "here's what to look for..."
• When you're explaining terms, answering the objections of the hearer, then offering an evangelistic call - this will add minutes to your message. Prepare accordingly, cover less ground.
• Treat people as your flock, people you love rather than your audience/ crowd.

#PreachingRocket with @EdStetzer

Ed Stetzer, Director of Lifeway.com, pastor, author of several books, newest being The Subversive Kingdom.

How to collect resources for Sermons:

• read and save -  scan from magazines/ articles
• Logos Bible Software - would love in Lifehousers would sponsor us purchasing software for each of our pastors, especially upcoming planters (about $800 per package).
• stay online - connected with news & current events
• Be a good steward in preparation - often cannot spend the time that you'd like in preparation.
• Constantly preparing - know what is coming soon so you can glean illustrations and content. Knows about 4 upcoming series - gather for all 4.
• Illustrations help make the Bible relevant to those who don't view the Bible as relevant.
• Stop quoting due to BAD statistics! Pastors are prone to exaggeration because they are prone to motivation.
• Bad statistics undermine your credibility! Curing Christian stats abuse (ChristianityToday.com article).
• Don't use bad stats to motivate people. We need Christian Snopes.com to debunk inaccurate Christian stats. Often stats are thrown off because research is skewed.
• Be as faithful with the stats as the facts and the Bible.

What helped grow you as a communicator?

• To master a craft requires 10,000s of hours
• Find your own VOICE - stop trying to be someone else.
• Don't preach to use the Bible to make your points - hear yourself speak.
• Preach Christ - "take a beeline to the Cross!" -Spurgeon
• ASK: Could a good counselor or advise-giver offer same message/ advise I'm sharing?
• If it's good if you're not a Christian or a follower of Jesus, it is NOT ENOUGH!

#PreachingRocket with @AndyStanley

Andy Stanley, pastor of NorthPoint Church, author of several books, most current is Deep & Wide.

Double-barrell Preaching:

• Myths - dumb it down, can't go exegetical, low content/ substance
• how to keep audiences (young and old, mature and immature) is to keep it interest - APPROACH!
• Key in communication/ preaching is the RIGHT approach - similar to how we learn better approaches in speaking to spouse, kids, etc.
• Let "Guests" rather than "visitors" know that we know they are in the audience - "If you don't consider yourself to be a Christian, you could not have picked a better weekend to join us. Here's why..." If you don't consider yourself religious, don't worry, we're not all that religious either.
• Acknowledge the "ODD" - Christians have become familiar with odd elements of Scripture, i.e. Noah and the Flood. When preaching, and it's odd, address the oddity with the audience. Acknowledge the absurd or the odd, let them know it's okay that it's hard to believe or seems unusual.
• Give them permission "not to believe" - seems counterintuitive. Give permission to not only not to believe, but to not obey! Jesus gave his followers permission not to believe or obey. Many of them did not believe or obey until... after his death and resurrection.
• Foundation of our faith is not the infallibility of the Bible or reliability of each passage but the PERSON of Jesus. 
• "Creation seems odd. Two people running around naked in a garden. There are several creation myths. You may think this is one of them. However, here's why I think that Adam & Eve and the Creation account is not a myth is... Jesus believed it, Paul explained..."
• Avoid saying "the Bible says..." since the Bible is not saying anything as a whole. For people who have a problem with the Bible as the authority, they dismiss any tie to the Bible. But they will accept a specific author, their background, and the collection of letters, books compiled in the Bible rather than the Bible as a whole.
• What is necessary for salvation is not a holistic theology of the Bible but a faith in the Person of Jesus!
• Even Christians don't know much about the authors of the books of the Bible - help people to relate to the author - this is a subtle apologetic for our faith in Jesus.

How do you keep an Unchurched Audience in Mind?

• Stay connected to them through normal life interaction - daily reminder of their struggle, worldview, etc.
• If you are not naturally connected to unchurched people, create artificial community through intentional interactions.
• Stay in touch with the ebb and flow of their lives.

Bring your energy to the TEXT rather than the STORY. How?

• We want people to hear us talk about Scripture in a way that they want to go home and re-read the Scripture on their own.
• Often communicators talk until they get to the point they are excited about and have been waiting to tell.
• Bring that energy to the text of Scripture - where is the tension? where is the resolution of the tension?
• How do you get that energy? Spend time with the text. Pray it. Study it. Believe it. Live it yourself.

#PreachingRocket with @NancyDuarte

Nancy Ruante, Presenter from TED Talks:

• Murder your darling - you may thing they are delightful, but they are only relevant to you.
• Who is the "hero"? Not the preacher but the audience - since they either accept or reject your idea, allow it to transform them or not.
• Your audience is giving you one moment/ one hour. It's only one hour. They should walk away with an "ah hah" moment when they become "unstuck"
•  Change your view - you have a small role rather than being the main event.

#PreachingRocket with @louigiglio @andystanley

Tell the people what's blowing up in your heart." @louiegiglio

If you want ppl to have the same epiphany you had, don't preach research, preach ur experience. @donaldmiller

A topic is not the same thing as a point.

Speak to the broken and you will always have an audience" @JudWilhite

When the idea you're talking about becomes a person you care about, it changes how you communicate it" @reggiejoiner

@AndyStanley

You can't be nervous about your sermon & concerned about your audience at the same time.

When a preacher or teacher is nervous it’s all about them

Don't evaluate yourself by how you did, but by what people do with what you said.

@StevenFurtick who is the founding pastor of Elevation Church. He’s also the author of Greater and Sun Stand Still. 

• Preaching and your worship communicate whatever your values are!"
• "It never returns void" More confidence in God's promise and less in our efforts.
• For those discouraged: Put more confidence in Gods promises, less confidence in your performance.
• To avoid nervousness when speaking, shift your attention from being impressive, to being a blessing
• Bathe yourself in scripture and prayer before you step onstage to speak to or lead your congregation.
• When we ask, "Why do these ppl hate me? Why is this joke not funny to them?..." Recognize, "oh wait, God's word never returns void."
• Don't be provocative just for the sake of provocation
• The more it's about people & not performance, the more nervousness comes from a holy place & not fear.
• God often works most through the sermons that I feel the worst about.
• We don't want to preach to the world and lose our souls in the process
• Steven plans 4 months in advance and finds this keeps things fresh in his mind. 
• Steven is very involved in the creative elements and process of each service because of his passion for that.
• For a successful creative sermon process: listen to the pastor’s vision, let the artists work on what comes to mind from this (separate from the pastor), bring it back to the pastor. This brings a greater vision and sometimes different from what the pastor would do, which can be a good thing.
• The whole worship service is one thing, not separate parts, it is one thing.
• The service is won and lost in transitions.
• Preaching and a worship service communicate what your values are.
• I really appreciated hearing how Steven prays and confesses sin before preaching. Loved hearing his heart on that.
• You can’t preach better than you pray.
• The more preaching is about the people and less about the performance, that’s when passion comes and God shows up.

Dave Ramsey: America’s trusted voice on money and business. He’s authored four New York Times best-selling books: Financial Peace (which we will be using this summer at Revolution during FPU), More Than Enough, The Total Money Makeover andEntreLeadership. The Dave Ramsey Show is heard by more than 6 million listeners each week on more than 500 radio stations.

• for every hour of presentation - spend 3 hrs of preparation
• Humor is one of the most powerful things you can do as a communicator, especially in a difficult topic. 
• If an audience doesn’t laugh every 7 minutes, you lose them.
• If no one is griping at you, you aren’t doing anything.

Brad Lomineck

• a lot of speakers have information, we're looking for inspiration
• difference happens when people get transformation - key is to be a speaker that leads people to transformation
• Keys to being a great communicator:
• Understand your audience - adapt your message to the crowd, don't be stuck to or owe your message that you're unwilling to adapt
• What are 20-somethings looking for from their leaders: want to be part of something bigger than themselves and working for someone who is working for something bigger than themselves; give flexibility in schedule; authenticity - be real & honest; put them in places where they'll be stretched;
• We've called but not equipped 20-somethings for ministry - need someone to believe in them and give them the tools. They are take on responsibilities that they are not prepared to handle.

#PreachingRocket with @petewilson

Pete Wilson, Senior Pastor/ Church Planter of Cross Point Church (Nashville, TN), author of several books, best know for Plan B.

Message Preparation with a heavy preaching pace?

• Preaches 42 Sundays per year.
• Uses Monday for message prep - why? Write week of message BUT wishes he could prepare several weeks out.
• Writing week of - allows message to "simmer"
• Monday gives him a good start to message prep - doesn't have to worry about it throughout rest of week, be more present in other meetings and with family.
• Outline due Wednesday.
• Monday - manuscript = 7,000 words, cut it down to 1,800 words by Thursday.
• Give permission to write bad thoughts in order to mine good thoughts.

Where do you find the ideas?

• ASK Creative Team - what book are you reading? What sermon series recently impacted you?
• Borrow and use other churches/ preachers ideas - put your own spin on it.
• Use these resources to reinforce any series your developing.

Goal: not to allow success or failure of sermons to be attached to my identity.

• Otherwise, when you give a great message, you're on top of the world & when it's a bad message, you are crushed!
• We get the opportunity to be used by God to see lives transformed.
• That's why we must work HARDER to be better at what we do in communicating & preaching!

Use tools to take main point from message and repackage it all week through Instagram, Facebook, Twitter! Create a water cooler moment so people can talk about it all week.

#PreachingRocket with @CrawfordLoritts

Crawford Loritts, Senior Pastor of Fellowship Bible Church, author of several books & speaker with Art of Marriage.

Key notes/ thoughts:

• Separate yourself from the Craft
• You'll never preach a better sermon than you are.
• Must be a person of prayer.
• May become a communicator who delivers a well-honed message but you won't be a preacher.

Must pursue a life of intimacy with God. How?

• Learn your own voice and cadence to your preaching - become attuned to your own preaching and style
• The more you do something, the more intentional you must be about doing it.
• Preaching is not a transactional gig - preaching because people need to hear it.
• Preaching is a Word from God at a particular moment in history.
• ASK: "God, what are you trying to say to _____ Church?"

I know the two things I have to do - lead and preach. That's my mandate.

• Leadership has nothing to do with corner office or position, but for ASSIGNMENT.
• If there's nothing to do, then you are not a leader.
• Must focus consistent implementation of the assignment God has called us to live through: brokenness, selfless abandon, radical and committed obedience.
• We lead because people want to be like us. We are the model of the desired destination at which people want to arrive.
• Don't shoot to be the best preacher, but to be a great preacher!
• Preachers God used powerfully in history were not necessarily the best preachers or orators, but preached Jesus!

Keys to Great Preaching:

• My life should be the autobiography of Christ during my moment in history,
• Preach Jesus!
• The power of Jesus must be evident in our life and preaching.
• We have the enormous privilege of preaching His story!