Football helps me train preachers.

See, when you speak to me about football—or, ‘footie’—I need to know where your feet are before I can understand what you mean. Are your feet in Ireland, or Brazil, or the USA, or NZ—or in crazy Australia? It must be the most fanatical sporting nation in the world. Within such a small population, Aussie footie fans can be found fervently following a range of footballs. Rugby League, Rugby Union, Aussie Rules, this round-ball game…

And so ‘football’ becomes such a great illustration for explaining the significance of historical context in determining the meaning of a biblical word, or passage. To understand such a meaning, it still depends on where the feet are—especially those belonging to the author and the readers.

But back to the football. For myself, I dabble a bit in most of these footballs, without being a serious follower of any one of them. However, there is a confession in here. The internet has enabled me to reconnect with my days as a theological student in Chicago, 40 years ago. They were dire days to be a sports fan in the city. Then the Chicago Bulls had the gall to draft a guy called Michael Jordan just six weeks after I left town. But it gets worse. Just 9 months after that transformative event in basketball, the Chicago Bears won their one and only Super Bowl—the ultimate prize in the football that is synonymous with the USA.

Another football season beckons, with the Bears playing their opening game of the season later today. I was sorting some books in my study on the weekend, trying to decide on a Bears podcast to which to listen as I did so. One episode caught my eye. It was designed to do so because when I went to read some of the feedback, it was clearly an exercise in scurrillous, corrosive rumour mongering. Here is how one person vented their feelings:

Yikes. Immediately, I found my mind travelling across to preaching.

Let’s break it down phrase-by-phrase…

don’t be content creators

This is what can happen. In my travels with Langham, in country after country, it seems the preaching ministry is afflicted with a similar problem. The sermon is what could be referred to, loosely, as ‘topical’ in that it contains a mixture of inspirational stories and verses on a topic selected by the preacher.

Now, at its best, there is a place for topical preaching. Oh yes, there most definitely is. However, sadly, what I pick up from my traveling and listening, is that it is seldom ‘at its best’. What tends to happen is that the role of the Bible is diminished as the sermon becomes a “hop-scotch to four or five different texts” (Hulst, 29)—with a bit of a “dabble without going deep” (Hulst, 29). This promotes a kind of tourism around the world of the Bible, creating this illusion of being ‘biblical’, rather than taking up residence in a single passage and learning to live there effectively.

Along the way issues related to context can be abused right, left and center—as the preacher treats the biblical text in exactly the way they would not want their own communication to be treated. And the poor ol’ Bible is not in a position to complain, as we are able to do, about how its words were taken out of context!

Furthermore the entire enterprise defaults so easily to an exercise in ‘content creation’—a content cast either in the image of the preacher’s agenda, or the listeners’ needs. Either way, whether or not it is admitted, the Bible is made to say what we want it to say. This cannot be the way ahead.

be reporters

The vocabulary used for preaching—for example, in the Book of Acts—is extraordinary. One of the transformative assignments of my life was on this topic. I have vivid memories of working on it, holed-up for a week in a little room in my father-in-law’s home set among the cornfields of Western Ohio. [STOP PRESS: while I was sorting books on the weekend, our daughter-in-law, Kava, went into labour, giving birth to Charlie Roy, named after that same much-loved father-in-law, dad, grandpa and great grandpa].

But back to preaching. Some experts reckon there are 30 different words used to relate to the speaking/preaching ministry of the apostles in Acts. It is such a rich and diverse world. When we cast the net a little wider, to include the entire New Testament, some of the words that describe the preacher’s task include being a steward, a herald and a witness.

What do words like these have in common?

It sure ain’t anything to do with ‘content creation’—and much more about being a reporter.

It is about receiving something and then passing it on with faithfulness and accuracy. The content has already been created—and there is heaps of it.

The steward (1 Cor 4.1-2) is entrusted with something—”preachers do not supply their own message; they are supplied with it” (Stott, 10). There is no room for distortion or manipulation. The herald (2 Cor 5.18-21) “speaks for the ruler and (their own) voice is the king’s voice” (Stott, 18). A bit like being an ambassador today. The witness is about testifying. “Witnesses testify to what they know” (Stott, 40)—and they do so without exageration or deception. Offering false news, or fake news, is not an option.

When we watch the news, we are taken to reporters on location where a newsworthy event of some kind has taken place. The idea is that they report to us, accurately and faithfully, on what has been said and done. For the preacher, there has been a newsworthy event. There’s been a revelation. The Bible we hold in our hands—written over hundreds of years, by dozens of authors and yet, demonstrably, with a single story holding it all together—is what we are to steward, to herald and about which we are to bear witness, especially in the way it leads people to Jesus. And incredibly, it is able to be translated into every heart language, without missing a beat, so that all the peoples of the world can be drawn into this event.

Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound, that revealed Himself to us in this way.

shameful

Hmmm. I guess that is exactly the word that comes to mind.

I have now unsubscribed

Hmmmm—again. This is the irony. When topical preaching is seen to be the secret of rapport and relevance today, with the preacher’s agenda and the listeners’ needs to the fore, it may well lead to a wider closing of ears-hearts-minds than we anticipate—eventually.

nice chatting

Paul