Preaching Tips by Mark Driscoll

Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry coming to you from Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston.

No Compromise Radio is a program dedicated to the ongoing proclamation of Jesus Christ, based on the theme in Galatians 2, verse 5, where the

Apostle Paul said, but we did not yield in subjection to them for even an hour, so that the truth of the gospel would remain with you.

In short, if you like smooth, watered -down words to make you simply feel good, this show isn't for you.

By purpose, we are first biblical, but we can also be controversial. Stay tuned for the next 25 minutes as we're called by the divine trumpet to summon the troops for the honor and glory of her

King. Here's our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth. Welcome to No Compromise Radio ministry. It is

New England, it is Tuesday, it is raining, and Steve is here. I am shocked at all three.

I am the world, you are the children. We are the children.

I think, who was that? Was that Bruce Springsteen? We are the world. Who was Bruce Springsteen? Who was, see,

I can't. To make a better day. So let's start again. On No Compromise Radio today, we should probably start with a slogan after that intro by Steve.

Always biblical, always provocative, always in that order. We want to try to provoke you to study the

Bible, to learn more about the free grace of Christ Jesus. And we, don't we love talking about Bible topics and getting under the skin of people?

Well, I'm more of a get along to go along kind of guy. I prefer to -

You said go along to get along. Or get along to go along. Go along to get along.

That's my line. I'm the one who's supposed to - Mangle metaphors. To tip my hat. Yeah, mangle everything else.

Bar the Nelly car. We used to have a store, I think it maybe is still there in Omaha, Nebraska, called

Mangelson's. Well, that explains a lot. So if you need your metaphor mangled, come to Mangelson's.

Yes, discount Tuesday nights. It's a Tuesday guys there. So we have a interesting topic today,

Steve. And I think we're going to use an article written by someone I rarely talk about for many reasons that we maybe get into later.

But I don't usually talk about this guy because he's not really on my radar. And I don't usually prefer to talk about him, but I think this will be good for our listeners today.

As we look at this recent blog post by Mark Driscoll. And he says in November 7th, on November 7th, 2011, in his preaching blog on Pastor Mark TV or whatever his blog is, 16 things

I look for in a preacher. Okay, 16. Okay. Now, before you read it, before you look at anything here in the blogs,

I know you haven't read it yet. I have. Tell me some things that you would look for in a preacher. Cause we've done shows on this. What do you look for in a preacher?

Well, skilled to teach. You know, I want him to have skillful teaching. I'd want him to rightly divide the word.

I'd be looking for him to go verse by verse through a book. I'd be looking for a sound exegesis.

I'd be looking for something who, somebody who does not go out of his way to make the Bible boring because it should never be boring.

And I'd look for somebody who preaches with passion and conviction. Okay, good. Now you have not read the article yet.

Let me give you a little background. There's going to be kind of this American Idol version of a preach -a -thon at Mars Hill.

And Driscoll is going to be a judge. So if you're a judge, judging. Is he going to be

Paula Abdul? You are so bad. You are so bad.

Well, I just meant in the affirming kind of sense. Oh, in that sense. Okay. I was wondering, how are we ever going to get no compromise to being national radio?

International radio show with comments like that. Now I have a goal. Wait a minute. It is international.

We're nationwide, internationally. Our sponsors are, you know, like Nike and Wonder Bread.

They're not going to enjoy that kind of thing. When did they start sponsoring us? They send their checks of sponsoring straight to my home address.

I thought our patron saint was some guy in Hoboken. Oh, you know what? I just was listening to S.

Lewis Johnson and he said that the Catholic church no longer considers St. Christopher a saint.

Really got demoted? How do you get demoted? I don't know. Maybe too many accidents involve those. Oh, he used to be a saint.

So how about this? Let's say we've got some young preachers at Bethlehem Bible Church, and we do, and we have them preach and we critique their sermons.

What would be some particular things you'd look for in those sermons? Well, I mean,

I'm big on structure. You know, I just like there to be an outline that you can follow.

I'd like them to basically explain the text. But more than that, I would, you know, there's a little bit of a leap from being able to explain the text, which shows that you understand it, to actually being able to preach the text.

What is the point you're trying to make or the points that you're trying to make? And so, you know, a good intro, good outline, good closing.

But again, lots of passion, some thoughtfulness in terms of application or illustration, you know, that kind of thing.

Okay, good. And I think it goes without saying, and I think maybe you alluded to it earlier or directly said it, Christ -centered message.

Right, yeah. Well, I mean, anything that comes from the Bible necessarily ought to be Christ -centered because if all the

Bible speaks of Christ, how could you get around that? Okay, good. How about, well, you know what?

I have other things that we can look at, but let me just read the beginning here. 16 things I look for in a preacher. And he said qualifying days coming up on Mars Hill, 50 or so elders at Mars Hill, training men to preach, sometimes when he's out of the pulpit,

Mars Hill. Hey, he could be out of the pulpit every week with 50 elders, right? Well, he could be.

One a week, you know, and just. I think they've got different campuses and so they beam his image to other places.

Hmm, they don't beam him, just his image. Yeah, just his image. Okay. I was trying to say something about Star Trek in my mind, but it probably wouldn't have come out well.

So here it says they'll have 30 minutes each with a shot clock and buzzer. They can bring only a

Bible with them on stage. Well, by the way, I do think it's interesting how they call it a stage.

When I try to call that platform there a stage, I usually correct myself because on stages you perform and on platforms you preach.

I'm with you. Okay. And then it says, this will be fun for some of us. For our

Mars Hill version of American Idol for Preachers, I'll play the part of Simon Cowell minus the deep

V -neck and British accent. I guess Mark will have his usual livery on that is a

Mickey Mouse shirt probably. So it'd be like, I'd expect to hear that kind of preaching in a barn or something like that.

Join me on the judging panel will be so -and -so runs Resurgent, so -and -so runs

Acts 29. And Randy Jackson. And executive elder who oversees everything. In anticipation of this event,

I made a list of 16 things that I'm looking for in a preacher or teacher's sermon. So we're gonna look at this today on No Compromise Radio.

16 things that Mark Griskell looks for in a preacher. And by the way, let's just, to mix our metaphors again, let's just tip our hat.

Now let's tip our hand and say, at least I'll tip my hand. I'll show you my cards ahead of time.

I usually don't promote Mark Griskell's ministry. And for the most part, I think these 16 things are pretty good on the outset.

But when you look at them a little closer, I think they're pretty man -centered. So I'm gonna just tell you that ahead of time.

Yeah, a little man -centered. Hey, haters. Hey, hater, you're a hater.

All right, so the first one. Tell me about Jesus. Do we like that one so far?

I like that one, yeah. Yeah, and he said here, if you don't mention Jesus a lot, you need to do something other than preach and tell me that Jesus is a person, not just an idea.

Help me to know not only Him, but also to like Him. How does that part work?

You know, that is kind of tricky because as you get to know Him, you either like Him because the

Spirit is working in your life or you don't like Him because the Spirit's not working in your life. You can't make somebody like Him who doesn't like Him.

And if you already, in other words, presuming that Mark Driscoll is a Christian, which I'm willing to presume, then you should like Him just by virtue of the fact that you're a

Christian. How would you not like Him? Well, I don't know about this Jesus guy, but I'm a Christian. Help me to like Him.

Yeah, I don't get it. Yeah, I can't help anybody to like Him. The way you do like Jesus and love

Him and honor Him and respect Him and adore Him and worship Him, and the list could go on and on with verbs, is to hear about Him proclaimed.

And so to know Him is to love Him, assuming that the Word of God is quickened by the

Spirit. Steve, do you think it's fair to say that the gospel, you have to get saved by more than the gospel, but never less?

I'm just, now before you say anything, here's where I'm going. Salvation is more than the gospel, but it's never less.

And here's what I mean by that. Even though Romans 1, verse 16 talks about the gospel as the power of salvation to all who believe, only when the

Spirit of God attends the preaching of the gospel are people saved. Because when you just read the gospel, when you talk about the gospel, people don't get saved unless the

Spirit of God attends it. So what I'm saying here, Steve, is unless the

Spirit of God is attending to the preaching to get to know Jesus, they'll never like Him.

That's exactly what you said, but I said it in a longer version. Yeah, I'm not gonna say that that was a leading question, but I was basically cornered and then opened up a fire with a shotgun, so.

I think that was Tuesday, guys, snort. Snortalicious. Okay, so tell me about Jesus.

Yes, but we don't have to get anybody to like Him. We don't convert people. We don't change their minds.

I don't think preaching does that. We have a goal that we want people to, I don't even like the word like.

I want them to love Jesus in the way that God has commanded. Okay, number two, have one big idea.

Hang all your other ideas on one big ideas, otherwise you will lose me or bore me. Comments, Pastor Steve.

Well, I think that's fine as long as the text that you're preaching has one big idea.

If it has more than one big idea, then be prepared to be bored because I might have to go with two big ideas or maybe three.

Hey, what's a big idea? Maybe, yeah, that's right. Maybe there's more than one idea. For instance, with parables, most of the time there is one idea, but sometimes when there's a parable, there are two big ideas.

So what are we gonna do there? What if there's a passage that has five imperatives? I guess you say something about the big idea there, but hey, what's the big idea?

Here's what I don't like. And here's the recurring theme here. I think in Mars Hill's ministry and here in the 16

Things I Look For in a Preacher, don't lose me. Don't bore me.

You're going to see a theme in the 16 Things I Look For in a Preacher. Too much theme on who

I am listening versus we need to preach for the glory of God. And if the people like it, great.

And if the people don't like what we're talking about, Jesus Christ, the gospel, the word of God, then as we say here in Bethlehem Bible Church, we'll miss them.

Yeah, a lot. Some people maybe not as much, but I mean, the other thing,

I think you're right. There's a lot of me -centeredness in this, but the other thing I think is what's really startling is how many of these ideas would be drawn from scripture?

Let's just kind of analyze that. I mean, so far I would say, tell me about Jesus is from scripture and then have one big idea.

I don't think that's a scriptural idea. No, I don't think so. Although our preaching styles, yours and mine, lots of times you do have one idea.

Boil everything down in terms of a message. I mean, I did that on Sunday. Here's another one, number three, Mark Driscoll.

I think this is exactly what Steve was just talking about. Too me -centered and not scriptural.

Get my attention in the first 30 seconds without being gimmicky. Get to work. Don't blah, blah, blah around, chit -chat or do announcements.

This will make me start checking my phone, get my attention and let's get to work.

I have a question. What kind of pastor, when the Bible's being preached, checks his phone?

I shut my phone off before the service. You know, quick story. I was in a class once.

It was a Bible class. Somebody actually got a call and answered the phone during the class.

Maybe his wife was pregnant. No, it was a lady. It was the craziest thing I ever saw her kissing.

Because she just started talking on the phone during class and I was just like, I was sitting kind of close to her and I was like, maybe you might want to go outside.

But hello, could you please buy Apple at 139? I mean, who does that?

I mean, you've listened to me preach a few times. Have you ever sat there and going, I think

I'm just gonna check my email? Well, you know what, Steve? That's why we don't give the BBC wireless password to people because then they'll be checking all the time.

What's interesting here on this one, get my attention the first 30 seconds without being gimmicky. I don't like gimmicks when

I preach. I think that's fair to say. Steve doesn't either. I do try to tell people, this is why you should listen.

This is why it's important to listen. It's the Bible. They should listen, but I'll try to help them. So getting people's attention through a biblical concept, showing the need, showing the reason to listen, showing why the topic is important.

I do all that, but what if someone, Steve had no skill at all preaching, and he was the guy that a young Charles Spurgeon walked into here, who totally blew the intro, but the powerful word of God was attended to by the spirit and still saved.

In other words, you can blow it as a preacher, but the word of God is so powerfully energized by the spirit at the good pleasure of God, when it's time to save,

God can save people through anyone. No, no, not these days. Because if you're just boring, people are just gonna check their email and their iPhones and go to the internet.

Sorry, I just, I don't go for that. Get my attention in the first 30 seconds without being gimmicky.

Number four, bring me along theologically. So far I'm with him. Yeah, a hundred percent.

And emotionally. How do I bring people along emotionally?

That's hard to do. Some passages, I guess, are more emotional. Some are more intellectual.

Some are convicting. I don't know. But when I prepare my sermon, Steve, I never think, how do

I bring people along emotionally? Raise your voice, grab my attention, and bring the living word of God.

I do. I'll put little notes in parentheses, like be funny here, be on the verge of tears here, kind of like a script.

Okay, I don't really do that. I just. See, I had him for a minute. You guys can't see this, but Mike was like, really?

You can really do that? I'm thinking, what's your name, little girl? Your job here, he says, is to do the nerd work and bring it to life.

Now, first of all, I don't know how nerd work is bringing it to life, but I cannot make the living word of God that's alive and active more living and more alive.

I can't do that. I preach the foolishness of preaching. I proclaim the word of God and I let

God settle it. That's Martin Luther. When Luther said, how did you start the Reformation? He said,

I wrote the word, I sung the word, I prayed the word, and I preached the word, and then

I went and had a beer with my friend Amsdorf. Wait, he says right here, he says, raise your voice, grab my affections, and bring the living word.

Well, I like that last part, bring the living word. Bring it, give me the high heat. That part would be good, but what if I don't, what if I have a voice that's hoarse, or I have a really squeaky voice?

They say that Edward's voice was fairly high pitched. Well, I mean, just imagine, I mean, are there times, you know, during a sermon where it would be completely inappropriate to raise your voice, you know, to kind of like scream?

Have you ever heard anybody do that? Where you just go, that was really odd that he sort of screamed at that point? I usually don't listen to screaming preachers.

But I've been in a few where all of a sudden the guy got really super animated, and I just go, it must be the old

Avendroth thing where it was weak point, shout. Yeah, see, that's exactly right. Weak point, shout.

I like raising voices, I like lowering voices. You can even hear Paul in Acts with a loud voice,

Paul said. I don't mind that. All right, today we're looking on No Compromise Radio at 16

Things I Look For in a Preacher, critiquing, I guess, friendly in a sense, because I, like you,

Steve, think that Mark Driscoll is a save man. I think he's charismatic, and I think he's

Arminian at times. But I just don't think, I think this is too man -centered overall.

So we're just talking about this. We're gonna get some blasts on this one. Yeah, I don't know if anybody who likes Driscoll would listen to No Compromise Radio.

Well, I guess we'll find out. I don't know, we don't carry any of his books. It's kind of like Tim Keller, Mark Driscoll.

People will say, pastor, you know, what do you think of Tim Keller? What do you think of Mark Driscoll? And I have the same thing that I say every single time.

Do you know if we have any, do we carry any books at the bookstore or the book table written by those men?

Oh, no. I said, I wonder if there's a reason for that. There is a reason for it, because let's even use the paradigm good, better, best.

Why do I wanna push that stuff? Genesis one is a poetry. Don't like it.

Don't like it. As we say here, no compromise, Landon. No likey. No likey. Okay, Pastor Steve.

Yes, sir. Tell me how you think this next one grabs you. Around the throat.

Make me like you, trust you and respect you so that I can't dismiss you. How do you do that as a preacher?

You smile a lot. You look kind of longingly into the congregation's eyes.

Look, you people really need to like me. I don't know how you do that.

Make me like you. Here's what I would say though. I don't know how to do that. Well, flip it around, and I think it makes a little more sense.

Don't let me not like you. In other words, don't give me reason to dismiss. Here's a classic thing.

I remember this in preaching class, seminary. A guy gets up and he says, he goes, well, I'm gonna tell you guys something that you already know, but just kind of bear with me.

I mean, why would anybody listen to a sermon like that? So you could do that, and that would be the opposite of this, because now you're just saying,

I don't have to listen to you. So, I mean, it gets back to securing interest, and you don't want people to disrespect you or discount what you're gonna say, but you can't make somebody like you.

You just can't do that. Yeah, make me like you. That reminds me of the story of Vesalus Johnson, who said he really admired men who go to seminary and so gut it out, so stick to it.

Even though they can't preach, even though they don't have the gift of teaching, they wanna teach the Bible so badly that they go to seminary for three years to try to stick it out, even though when they stand up and talk, they just, the right things cannot come out of their mouth.

He said, I respect a man like that. Steve, I was doing a conference in Indiana just a while ago,

Kirby Myers. Name dropper. Name dropper. Head knocker, nose dropper, eye winker.

And - Hi, Kirby. Well, when you mentioned somebody's name who's low on the totem pole, is that really name dropping?

I don't know, Kirby's kind of the king of, you know, that certain portion of Indiana. Anyway, I did a men's conference and there was a guy sitting kind of in the front row with this little chalet, this little,

I don't know, it was a small little conference center. And he had his arms crossed, give me the look, looked like he had served in Afghanistan.

And it was basically the look of what you got. Now, I thought to myself, here's how

I'll win that guy over. We're gonna be friends because he's almost kind of like a New Englander, but if I preach the

Bible with a high view of Christ Jesus and try to stick to authorial intent and then not be a coward and back down from tough truths, he's going to end up liking me.

And by the end of the conference, he was videotaping the messages to send to his son in Iraq or wherever his son was.

But he still had his arms crossed. And I talked to him afterwards and I said, I love winning over guys like you, but here's how you win him over.

Not by bro -cream, not by. Can you even buy bro -cream anymore?

I think you can. You are a child of the 50s, I'll tell ya. Not by some arm and hammer toothpaste, but by preaching the word of God.

Preach the word of God. Steve, you hear me say it all the time. If there's some little five foot two guy with a squeaky voice, and he's kind of a girly man from the world's perspective and stands up and brings the word of the living

God, I say, to quote Jim Rohn, man's game. But if there's Hulk Hogan up there talking about the love of sappy

God and sentimentalism from Mother's Day warmed over twice, doesn't give me the word of God, I think that guy's a sissy.

Well, you know what? It's funny, because we're talking about sissies and manliness and all this other stuff. The nutritious goal.

But you know what? The truth is, I remember what Rick Holland said once. He goes, you know what? And this, again, was in a preaching lab.

He just looked at us all and one guy had just preached and he said, you know what? I could tell you were kind of afraid and that maybe we weren't gonna receive this or maybe it was gonna not be too moving to us.

He goes, slap us with it. We all need the word of God. Just give it to us. I think women are the same way.

When the ladies in the congregation, when they know that you're boldly proclaiming, they respect that. I don't think anybody respects a guy who's just kind of like, well, let me give you four possibilities on what this text might mean and you just kind of multiple choice your way through it and we'll all just agree to love one another at the end.

Nobody gets that. I am totally with you. Today on No Compromise Radio Ministry, Mark Driscoll's 16 things

I look for in a preacher. Overall, I would just rephrase it. You know, if I had enough time, Steve, I was gonna redo all these to put my own list together to kind of just tweak them in the right way.

Maybe we could do that in a few weeks. I don't know if you'd have 16. Would you have 16? I don't know, but I wouldn't say make me like you.

I would say boldly preach the word of God and don't be surprised if you win new friends.

With you. How's that? Winning friends and influencing people through the Bible. All right, number six. I actually like this one.

Half, avoid Christian jargon and explain your terms. The average person has no idea what fellowship means or even

God for that matter. So tell us what you're talking about and don't assume we have your vocabulary. Here's what

I think, Steve. Don't you think that we could phrase it this way? When you use Christian jargon, explain your terms.

Absolutely, and just stop there. I mean, the average person has no idea what fellowship means. I think people would have some kind of idea what fellow,

I mean, fellowship isn't that bizarre. If you say koinonia, you know, then you're gonna have to, you know, fellowship?

Come on. But, you know, the bigger problem is the average person. You know, he almost presumes here that the audience you should be looking to preach to are unsaved people, that that should be your target.

And I would not agree with that. Well, when I say propitiation, I often explain it.

Or if you say justification, then you explain it. But you bring the people up to the level of the vocabulary of the

Bible. After all, so many books of the Bible were written and the people they were written to, like Ephesians, most of the people were blue -collar people and a bunch of them couldn't even read or write.

Yeah, I'm with you 100%, but this, tell us what you're talking about and don't just assume we have your vocabulary.

Well, I agree with that. I just think he's kind of shooting a little low here. All right, if you're a preacher, preach the word.

We'll look at next Tuesday a few more things that we look for in preachers. Amen. No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Abendroth is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston.

Bethlehem Bible Church is a Bible -teaching church firmly committed to unleashing the life -transforming power of God's word through verse -by -verse exposition of the sacred text.

Please come and join us. Our service times are Sunday morning at 1015 and in the evening at six. We're right on Route 110 in West Boylston.

You can check us out online at bbchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.

The thoughts and opinions expressed on No Compromise Radio do not necessarily reflect those of WVNE, its staff or management.