Bringing Barnabas to Sunday Morning
How to Encourage Others by Bill G. Bruster and Robert D. Dale, Broadman, $6.95
Reviewed by Steve Harris, pastor, Evangelical Baptist Church, Sharon, Massachusetts
“Encouragement-we all need it, and we need it all the time.” That premise led Robert Dale and Bill Bruster to combine their efforts in a practical and extremely helpful book for pastors and laymen. Subtitled “A Resource for Preaching and Caring,” it offers advice and inspiration for all who seek to be better Christian encouragers, especially pastors who want to deliver that encouragement from the pulpit.
How to Encourage Others finds its success in its unique format. Each chapter focuses on a specific human situation or need: stress, grief, worry, anger, depression, suicide, facing tragedy, developing friendships, family pressures, and reaching spiritual maturity. In the first part of each chapter, Dale, professor of pastoral leadership and church ministries at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, gives background material on the need and “how-to” helps for the encourager. The second half of each chapter presents a sample sermon addressing that subject, prepared by Bruster, pastor of Central Baptist Church in Knoxville, Tennessee.
The two approaches combine to give both helpful counseling tips and fine examples of pastoral preaching. “Our goal in the book,” say the authors, “was to illustrate the strong link between biblical preaching and Christian care.”
Those beginning in ministry will appreciate Dale’s practical helps in approaching some of the most difficult times, including “How do you help a couple whose child has died?”
Another example is his treatment of grief. “Be aware that a ‘ministry of presence’ is crucial; just being there helps so much. Realize that ‘grief work’ takes about six months, and requires six to ten hours of discussion with a caring listener. Learn to be aware of the ‘small griefs’ that people experience, such as a child leaving home for school or the military, the loss of a job, or even the death of a lifelong pet.”
One of the most tangible ways a pastor can encourage people when they hurt is through the Sunday sermon. Pastor Bruster believes it is a ministry too many pastors ignore.
“We do far too little encouraging in our preaching,” he said recently. “The gospel is good news, and encouragement itself is good news. Look at the ministry of Jesus-he did far more encouraging than he ever did condemning. The only folks he really got after were the scribes and Pharisees, and that was for their hypocrisy. The majority of his ministry was bringing words of hope, forgiveness, healing, and encouragement.”
Bruster has found that such sermons, which he deliberately plans at least once every six weeks, bring great dividends.
“When I preach a sermon that addresses real human need or a real-life situation, I find high receptivity. People listen to those sermons. I almost always find an increase in my counseling appointments the following week. They create all kinds of ministry opportunities.”
If the ministry of encouragement is so biblical and so well received in a congregation, why aren’t we hearing more sermons on real-life human needs? In Bruster’s view, it is due to an overemphasis on church growth.
“We emphasize growth, and so often ignore people’s needs,” he claims. “But the two can-and should-go hand-in-hand. My six-year-old son illustrates this. I rarely find myself worrying about his growth. Rather, I am much more concerned with his everyday health. I figure if his health is good, his growth will take care of itself.
“The same is true for churches. And preaching sermons of encouragement is one vital way to foster spiritual and emotional health among your people.”
When preaching on real-life needs, what can a pastor realistically expect to happen? How much can a sermon on depression, for example, really do?
“We cannot cure from the pulpit,” Bruster says. “But we can let folks know that help is available and that we’re willing to face these tough issues with them. That’s an accomplishment in itself.”
How to Encourage Others is a concise book, facing eleven human needs and life situations. Obviously many other areas exist where people need encouragement. Bruster thinks the one pastors and counselors will face most often in coming years is loneliness.
“All kinds of factors are creating more and more lonely people,” he says. “People are waiting longer to get married. More folks are divorcing. People are living longer-leaving widows and widowers facing more lonely years. Loneliness is an area where people need great encouragement.”
The need for ministries of encouragement is great, and at times it seems that the encouragers are few. But those willing to accept that role will find their efforts well worth it.
“Encouragement runs in cycles,” says Bruster. “When we become a Barnabas, a Christian encourager, we never give out. We fill up. Encouragers are a blessing, and they are blessed.”
Dealing with the Disagreeable
Coping with Difficult People by Robert M. Bramson, Ballantine, $2.75
Reviewed by Roy M. Price, pastor, The Alliance Church, Paradise, California
Ever feel run over by a Sherman Tank? Pinned down by a Sniper? Unable to communicate with a Clam? If not, you obviously haven’t been in church work-or any other people profession-very long.
Each of these personality types, plus assorted other thorns in the pastoral flesh, are catalogued by management consultant Robert Bramson in this manual identifying seven types of impossible people and how to handle them. “Whether browbeating others into acquiescence or avoiding distress by sitting on a decision, Difficult People manage to gain control over others,” he writes.
In seminars nationwide, Bramson has developed a special compassion for pastors, who often feel “trapped, frustrated, ineffective, and powerless when confronted by difficult people.”
I asked Bramson why pastors don’t cope well with these people.
“Because they tend to see only people with problems and don’t acknowledge that some are, in fact, difficult people,” he replied. “Pastors tend to think as high idealists-interested in the future and wanting to help others. They overuse that quality and worry too much about distressing or disappointing others. It’s hard to be honest with a disagreeable person if your major concern is not making that person feel bad.”
Bramson and his associates became fascinated with the fact that in almost every group they encountered in business, industry, government, or church, somebody was inevitably seen as being difficult. “Wait till you talk to George. Nobody can work with him.” Or at least, “Everybody seems to feel George is hard to work with, but I get along with him OK.”
For over fourteen years, Bramson, at present a clinical lecturer in psychiatry and behavioral science at Stanford University Medical Center, observed, questioned, and listened as executives and staffers in more than two hundred organizations described the most troublesome people in their working lives. His work has been featured in Time, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, and other publications.
Seven chapters identify and explain the different types of difficult people: Hostile-Aggressives (including the Sherman Tanks and the Snipers), Complainers, Silent Unresponsives (the Clams), Super-Agreeables, Wet Blankets, Know-It-Alls, and Indecisive Stallers. In each chapter, specific case studies help readers easily spot their own situations. Since the book was not written specifically for churches, the earthy language of industry is part of the book’s dialogues. But these true-to-life episodes make the book alive and demonstrate its practicality.
The last three chapters suggest specific coping strategies.
“These methods give you a substitute behavior,” Bramson said in an interview. “They give you something to do and say other than what the difficult person programs you to do.”
Sherman Tanks, for instance, are intimidating and overwhelming, arbitrary and often arrogant. They see tasks clearly and the way to do them as straightforward and simple. They achieve their goals but alienate people along the way.
Bramson said, “Seventy percent of those who face Sherman Tanks backpedal; they get quiet, look down, and ‘eat it.’ Another twenty percent explode in anger. Either way, you’re out of commission. That’s what makes difficult behavior work. It reaffirms to the Sherman Tank his superiority. You’re either weak or out of control.”
In concise terms, the book outlines the coping strategy:
-Stand up to them but without fighting.
-Give them a little time to run down.
-Don’t worry about being polite; cut them off if necessary.
-Get their attention, perhaps by calling them by name or sitting or standing deliberately.
-If possible, get them to sit down.
-Maintain eye contact.
-State your own opinions and perceptions forcefully.
-Avoid head-on fights; don’t argue or cut them down.
-Be ready to be friendly.
Seldom have I been so excited by the usefulness of a secular book in church ministry. Every pastor should have one in the top desk drawer for use as a handbook of guerrilla warfare in the realities of church life.
People-Centered Preaching
Inductive Preaching by Ralph L. Lewis with Gregg Lewis, Crossway, $6.95
Reviewed by Mark Littleton, pastor, Berea Baptist Church, Glen Burnie, Maryland
Why another book on preaching? “Because so many people are sleeping in church,” says Ralph Lewis, the pull-no-punches author of Inductive Preaching.
Most pastors recognize the problem: people stealthily peeking at watches, yawning, or quickly glancing at the door. You want to cry, “Why can’t I sound the call, Lord? Why can’t I keep them interested?”
Then there’s that once-a-year monologue that works. Your words grip the congregation like a velvet vice. They laugh. They cry. Some come forward afterward with excited questions. You go home walking on your own hot air. Then you wonder, Why can’t I do that every time?
Lewis, who served pastorates for twelve years and now is professor of preaching and worship at Asbury Seminary, suggests the answer is in inductive preaching.
If you’re like me, you’ve heard of topical preaching, expository preaching, evangelistic, string-o-stories, inspirational, dull, boring, and el-destructo preaching. What’s inductive preaching?
When asked, Lewis explained, “You start with the concrete, then move to the abstract.” The book, coauthored with his son Gregg, editor of Campus Life magazine, elaborates: “Inductive preaching begins with the particulars-facts, illustrations, experience, examples; deduction starts with assertions, conclusions, propositions, generalizations, or principles.”
In other words, the preacher doesn’t issue a pronouncement until the listeners’ interest has been grabbed and they’re crying, “Tell me!”
How does it work in practice? Throughout the book, Lewis gives examples that always begin with common ground, statements that put you and the listener on the same footing. Experiences, illustrations, and statistics focusing on the real world help listeners identify. They think, This pastor knows what it’s like. They wait for more. What’s the answer? They’re caught.
This leads to tentative conclusions and deductions that spiral like a whirlpool down to one final assertion at the end of the sermon. It’s a process of mutual discovery.
Is this something new? Turning to such evidence as the ninety-six preachers featured in Word’s multivolume set of Twenty Centuries of Great Preaching, Lewis demonstrates that great preaching has always used induction as a communication tool. In addition, he points to Jesus, Peter, Paul, and James as biblical models of the use of stories, analogies, and questions to hold their listeners’ interest.
I realized as I read that most of the life-changing sermons I’ve heard fit Lewis’s description of inductive preaching: they put particulars before the principles.
How can this be applied to expository preaching, which so often is propositional, hortatory, and filled with principles? Chapter nine, “Unbeatable Combination,” demonstrates how induction can be used with nearly any preaching form-expository or otherwise. “You simply give the evidence and particulars before making the assertions,” he says.
The idea of involving the listener before making preachments is a sound idea. But where do you get the inductive ‘stuff’? Lewis answers in chapter ten, “In the Study.” He relies heavily on brainstorming. I wondered where all my time spent in Hebrew and Greek exegesis would fit in, and the question remains unanswered. We must remember, however, this is a book on crafting a message, not exegeting a text.
I wish the book had covered “Where does the Holy Spirit fit into inductive preaching?” a question so few preaching books address. Also, I wondered if the book were more concerned about holding attention (thus bordering on mere entertainment) than about teaching the Word of God. No doubt the authors could deal with these questions satisfactorily, but the book provides no immediate answers.
Thus, this probably isn’t a book for those who prefer verse-by-verse exposition, nor will it excite those turned off to using illustrations by the bale. But for those wanting to learn what catches and holds the interest of the average parishioner, this book is a winner.
Grace Is No Excuse for Ignoring Law
Pastor, Church and Law by Richard R. Hammar, Gospel, $18.95
Reviewed by Lynn Buzzard, executive director, Christian Legal Society, Oak Park, Illinois
John C. Bennett once suggested, “The law touches our lives so fatefully that we dare not leave it to lawyers.”
Law has become inescapable, and the church and pastors are inextricably entwined with it. As government regulations increase, as religious ministries expand into social services and education, “church” and “state,” supposedly separate, keep overlapping.
No longer is it merely advisable for pastors to be aware of legal requirements; ignorance of the law can be hazardous to your health and ministry! Labor regulations, securities and fund raising regulations-all impact the church. Even the acronyms are frightening: ERISA and FICA must now join the list of NAE, NCC, IFCA, and ECFA.
Richard Hammar’s new volume, Pastor, Church and Law, is not light reading but is a helpful reference covering an impressive range of issues: taxation, terminations, marriage ceremonies, copyrights, malpractice, legal requirements for starting a church, liabilities of directors and trustees, church property disputes, and labor law problems.
As general counsel for the Assemblies of God, Hammar knows well the confused state of the minister’s knowledge of the law-and the price churches pay for overlooking legal planning.
The volume suffers from the limits inherent in any such compendium: complexities of the law cannot be fully explored, court decisions and legislation are constantly changing laws, and pastors can be fooled by general summaries that may not apply to a church’s particular situation. All of which supports the classic observation that a little knowledge is a dangerous thing; indeed, nothing is quite so insufferable or incompetent as a first-year law student.
But it’s important, at least, to know when you need help. And Hammar’s volume will answer most of the common questions.
Hammar has largely avoided the problem plaguing so much contemporary Christian literature on law, which focuses on what the law should be or what it was in 1789. Hammar explains what it is. On issues where it’s tempting to become partisan, Hammar largely avoids preaching what he wishes the law were.
The danger of such a book for pastors is that they may see it merely as a means of avoiding legal problems-not an altogether unworthy goal. But the relationship of pastor and law ought not to stop there. When Bennett said that law was too important for lawyers alone, he wasn’t referring to law as a device to protect the church. He meant that non-lawyers need to recognize the important role law plays in shaping the values and character of our society.
You won’t get many sermons out of Pastor, Church and Law, nor will your spiritual disciplines be nurtured, but you’ll be a more informed administrator. And perhaps awakening to law will bring greater awareness of our culture and our responsibility, not just defensiveness.
Perhaps the highest acclaim I can give is noting that I was in the process of preparing a similar book, but when I discovered Hammar had published this volume, I saved myself the trouble.
Copyright © 1984 by the author or Christianity Today/Leadership Journal. Click here for reprint information on Leadership Journal.
