Last week, my friend, Dave Goetz, and I spent four vacation days fly-fishing the Madison River near Bozeman, Montana. After two days of warm temperatures and sunny skies, a weather system brought rain and snow. Oddly enough, the worst weather for fly-fishers creates the best conditions for fly-fishing! Clouds and moisture trigger the hatch of Mayflies on Montana rivers. So the most productive fly-fishing of the entire trip came during an hour-long snowstorm! Hundreds of Mayflies littered the surface of the river, and dozens of rainbow trout gulped these flies off the surface. I caught one trout after another on a tiny fly (the size of a small ant!) during the mini-blizzard.
Like fly-fishing, preaching may be the most productive under adverse conditions. As I reflect on twenty years of pastoral ministry, I realize that some of my most productive times of preaching have coincided with the most difficult seasons in my life.
I remembered the heightened sense of God’s presence and the deep conviction with which I preached during my dad’s battle with cancer – especially the weeks immediately preceding and following his death. The life-change I saw take place in my listeners reinforced the conviction that God’s Spirit was working powerfully through my preaching even during a time of personal pain.
I experienced something similar during a stretch when I faced sincere but misguided criticism. It took awhile for the leaders around me to help me figure out that 20% of the criticism was valid and that 80% of the criticism was basically the critic trying to get me to be more like him! The experience was painful. But preaching during this time was productive.
This phenomena reflects the dynamic described by the Apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians 4:7-11. We carry the treasure of the gospel in jars of clay. We carry around the death of Jesus in our bodies so that his life may be displayed. Why does it have to work this way? The answer is “to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us” (2 Corinthians 4:7). That’s why it pays to be ready to preach the word in season and out of season (2 Timothy 4:2). It’s not always pleasant, but it’s productive!
Have you experienced this dynamic in your own preaching ministry? How has God worked through your preaching in difficult times? When is it appropriate to take time off, and when is it appropriate to preach through the pain?
Posted by Steve Mathewson at 9:37 AM on April 24, 2007
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Good questions and thoughts!
Posted by: John Mark on April 24, 2007
Fredrick Beuchner speaks about "stewarding our pain" - a concept I've found very helpful, particularly in the last months as I have preached through a constellation of family crises. During a recent celebration of Communion, I knelt to the floor, instead of my usual "bow", and found myself unable to rise for a few seconds, as the pain threatened to overwhelm me. In those moments of abject helplessness, I offered it all up to God, as a sharing in Christ's suffering, and received a touch of God's tender hand and a taste of heavenly joy. This followed a sermon that the Spirit seemed to have written.
The day before I had taught a workshop on "Prayin g Our Goodbyes and Beginning Again" that had been planned months before the trouble came. Those two experiences were rich in healing for myself - and from all reports, rich in an experience of the Holy SPirit's presence for those who worshipped and learned with me.
There is indeed a place for "preaching through the pain", but I think that it is only as we are effectively stewarding our pain that we can do so. WHen the tears are so close to the surface that the congregation finds themselves caught up in our pain instead of the worship due to our Saviour, we need to remember that in the body of Christ there are others who can preach. When our families are shattered and need our care, we may need to take a time out. And when we, like Elijah, begin to think we are the only faithful people left, then perhaps we need to take some time to let the "angels" God sends us help us to rest and eat and sleep.
An accountability group is invaluable at times like this, as is a close and honest spiritual friend, Spiritual Director or the leadership of our congregation. In my case, an especially wonderful and insightful husband is a great gift. We need to listen to these folks when they urge time off, and seek their counsel when we are not sure whether we are meeting our need to seem "victorious" and when we are being transparently an example of faith walking through dark places.
Posted by: Marie Loewen on April 26, 2007
I appreciate Marie's balanced words of wisdom. Her third paragraph is 'spot on,' and all of us who preach ought to pause and think about it.
Posted by: Steve Mathewson on May 4, 2007