Preaching From Weakness

August 30, 2010 in Blog, Influence, Pop Culture with 6 Comments

This is Kevin Powell. I don't know anything about him, and he's not on here for any reason other than because he's a handsome fellow.

If you read my post on CEO Jesus, you know that I have a minor obsession with the strengths-based, leadership culture.  And since I’ve recently begun preaching a lot more often, I’ve been reflecting more and more about my own strengths.  If you know me, you know that I struggle with pride, which in a lot of ways is a quest for affirmation/approval from other people.

And whether they’re just being nice or not, a lot of people tell me I’m an excellent communicator.  And I take pride in that because I work hard on crafting my communication pieces – both in the study and the proclamation.

And there’s my greatest temptation to pride.  The gathering I’m leading right now, EPIC, was formed to communicate the truth and power of the Gospel to persons who are (in our vernacular) “dechurched” and “unchurched” – that is, those who have had negative experiences with the Church and those who have never been exposed to Jesus and his Church.  When I craft a piece of communication (whether it’s a small group study, a discussion gathering, a prayer, responsive reading or teaching/preaching piece), I keep in mind that I’m speaking to these persons – using language that, while full of meaning to the believers who are gathered to worship, is also understandable and accessible to a person who is unfamiliar with what’s happening.

 

My problem is that it’s really easy for me to forget that and prepare talks that are meant to impress other Christians.

I can actually do this in real life. What's that? No, I'm not going to show you. I'm not your dancing monkey.We have a lot of visitors to EPIC week in and week out, and a lot of them are ‘church-shopping’ – they’re already believers and are trying to find a church that ‘meets their needs’.  These are also the people who are most likely to come talk to me after our gathering, to tell me what they thought of my communication.  And, God help me, I get (a sick) pleasure when they tell me that I’m better than another minister.

And not only do I feel pressure to entertain, I want to because deep down inside, I want to be the best speaker in town.

Of course that’s fed by the celebrity culture that’s developing in the Evangelical Church at large – we want to find a pastor who’s just like Rob Bell or Erwin McManus or Andy Stanley or Mark Driscoll.  But now consider Paul’s words to the Corinthians:

When I came to you, brothers and sisters, I did not come proclaiming the mystery of God to you in lofty words or wisdom.  For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and him crucified.  And I came to you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling.  My speech and my proclamation were not with plausible words of wisdom, but with a demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith might rest not on human wisdom but on the power of God. – 1 Corinthians 2:1-5*

Yup. Just waiting for something like this to happen in a very public and painful way :)Paul was (apparently) not a very strong speaker, at least compared to some of the other guys he was up against.  And the Corinthians (apparently) were being swayed by other speakers who presented their version of the Gospel more eloquently.  But Paul reminds them in this portion of the letter (beginning back in chapter 1) that the Gospel doesn’t rest on human excellence – quite the opposite in fact.  The Gospel is for the poor in spirit, the broken, the humble, the least of these.  We shouldn’t rely on our skills to proclaim the mystery of Jesus – to do so is to negate the power of the Gospel.  Our communication needs to be full of our own journeys towards (and with) Jesus.  We need to be communicating from places of weakness, where God is working in us, changing and transforming us.  If we’re not, then we’re no better than the so-called super-apostles Paul condemned.

I’m afraid this is a tension I’ll always feel – I desperately want only to do the best job I can, utilize the gifts and talents God has given me to share the power of the Gospel in the clearest and most compelling way possible to those who do not know Jesus.  But I’ll always be tempted to start thinking more about becoming a preaching celebrity and putting on a show for the Christians who are evaluating how well I stack up.

At the end of the day, I don’t want to be concerned with what church shoppers think of my talks.  I want to spend my energy proclaiming the mystery of Jesus’ death and resurrection to those who have not heard.

Am I alone here?  Sometimes I feel like I’m crazy thinking these things.

*For the record, I don’t have room here to discuss how this passage has been abused in recent years by certain super-apostles in the contemporary Church.

  • http://facebook.com/profile.php?id=82404404&refid=22 Ryan Flanagan

    You're definitely not crazy! I actually consider myself like Paul b/c I also have trouble speaking eloquently and have Biblical knowledge mostly from sermons I've listened to and Sunday school back in the days. Most recently, an extended family member and I were able to talk about their marriage. I was able to relay to them what God has done for me as an individual and my marriage, without getting into specific verse-citation.​ It's really interesting you write this because I've now noticed that I am blessed with "book smarts" and have usually lacked "common sense," but now recognize I lack "Biblical book smarts" but have "Biblical common sense" from my life experiences. Thank you JR!!!

  • http://facebook.com/profile.php?id=82404404 Ryan Flanagan

    You're definitely not crazy! I actually consider myself like Paul b/c I also have trouble speaking eloquently and have Biblical knowledge mostly from sermons I've listened to and Sunday school back in the days. Most recently, an extended family member and I were able to talk about their marriage. I was able to relay to them what God has done for me as an individual and my marriage, without getting into specific verse-citation. It's really interesting you write this because I've now noticed that I am blessed with "book smarts" and have usually lacked "common sense," but now recognize I lack "Biblical book smarts" but have "Biblical common sense" from my life experiences. Thank you JR!!!

  • http://www.thefuerstshallbelast.wordpress.com Tom1st

    Nope. You're definitely not alone. And I like what you said about pride being, on some level, a desire for affirmation. That resonates with me, too.

    I think one of the bravest things we can do is acknowledge our own movitvations...especially motivations tied to spiritual things. When I confess or at least recognize that I want to be the best speaker in town or have the biggest church in town, I at least am forcing myself to face the raw reality of who I really am.

    But I also think one of the hardest things is for us (especially those of us who struggle with spirituality related pride!) to realize is that sometimes those motivations and desires aren't always bad. I want to be the best preach not only because I like the affirmation, but ALSO because I believe it glorifies God. I want to have the biggest church not only because the recognition it would bring, but ALSO because it means we're doing soemthing for the Kingdom of God.

    It's the fact that these desires are a mixed bag that make them hard to deal with - they're not all sinful, but they're not all pure either.

    Thank you for your honesty and vulnerability. I love being on this journey with someone who knows my struggles personally.

  • Darryl

    Definitely not alone. I spoke at a church this past Sunday, filling in for an out of town pastor. I think that just about everyone in the church came up to me afterwards and told me that I was, in their words, amazing, brilliant, the best speaker they had ever heard. One well-meaning woman even said that I gave their pastor competition, that he needed to step up (I have to admit that this made me a little uncomfortable).

    On a related note, and remembering everything you said, part of what I struggle with right now is this: if I'm so brilliant, why won't any church touch me?

  • http://facebook.com/jrforasteros?refid=22 Jr Madill Forasteros

    "Conservative" and "Liberal" are words that have lost any sort of useful meaning. At SBU lots of people thought I was 'liberal'. Three months later, when I started at Mizzou, most of my friends thought I was very 'conservative'.​ The words typically just end up meaning "i don't agree with that person".I don't mean to trivialize your concerns about the direction the Church is headed, only to say that those categories aren't especially helpful. Calling names isn't going to help us, which was one of the big problems I had w/ MacArthur's approach in the first place.

  • http://facebook.com/profile.php?id=504026416 Jr Madill Forasteros

    "Conservative" and "Liberal" are words that have lost any sort of useful meaning. At SBU lots of people thought I was 'liberal'. Three months later, when I started at Mizzou, most of my friends thought I was very 'conservative'. The words typically just end up meaning "i don't agree with that person".I don't mean to trivialize your concerns about the direction the Church is headed, only to say that those categories aren't especially helpful. Calling names isn't going to help us, which was one of the big problems I had w/ MacArthur's approach in the first place.