Jeff Ling

Lost: A Novel – Fast paced story, well written and well read. Michael Robotham uses a surefire formula: tragic detective and a child, both lost in their individual ways. The detective because he’s going through a temporary amnesia after being shot and left for dead in the Thames along with the estrangement he feels from his own children, the child because she’s feared dead but the detective is certain she’s alive. Great characters here, especially the interaction between the detective and a psychologist trying to help him recover his memories. (The language is rough so be forewarned.)

What does a drug lord and John Eldredge have in common? A book. One wrote it and the other requires his gang members to read it.  Nazario Moreno González is the leader of a violent drug running gang in Mexico called La Familia Michoacana. As part of their recruiting the gang targets those in rehab programs for drug addicts.  In an article in today’s Washington Post, Alfredo Garcia, relates the “help” offered to addicts:

For recruits, the cartel turns to addicts in drug rehabilitation clinics, helping them overcome addiction before forcing them to join the group. Family values and religion are emphasized during the recruitment process, which includes daily group prayer sessions and mandatory readings.

Some of the required reading includes John Eldredge’s book “Wild At Heart”.

It appears that Nazario has been inspired by Eldredge’s description of a “muscular Christianity” and the masculine notion of awakening the warrior in men. Of course, John’s view of this is a far cry from Nazario’s. The Post reports:

Eldredge did not find the misuse of his text to be unusual, saying that such has ‘been true of ideas, language, books and movements all throughout history.’ People have always attempted to ‘shroud and try to cloak or distort their practices by draping it in religious language,’ he said.

Still, even though John was originally angry that such a violent criminal element had made use of his material, he could see the possibility of God using the situation for some genuine life change among the gang members.

Eldredge said he has had mixed feelings about the group’s use of his book. “You know, at first I was shocked and angry,” he said. “But after I had thought about it, I thought that I’m delighted that ‘Wild at Heart’ has found itself into their cult because hopefully it will bring change.” (Washington Post)

We can all pray that he’s right!

This is the final post on J.C. Ryle’s Simplicity in Preaching. It’s could be the most important because Ryle comes on so strong at the end about essentials that if not enacted render all he has said beside the point!  So, a quick review:

Four prefatory remarks the book opens with:

• “To attain simplicity in preaching is of the utmost importance to every minister who wishes to be useful to souls.”
• “To attain simplicity in preaching is by no means an easy matter.”
• “When I talk of simplicity in preaching, I would not have my readers suppose I mean childish preaching.”
• “Finally let me observe, that it is not coarse or vulgar preaching that is needed.”

5 Hints for Simplicity in Preaching

• “If you want to attain simplicity inpreaching, you must have a clear knowledge of what you are going to preach.”
• “If you would attain simplicity in preaching, you must use simple words.”
• “If you would attain simplicity in preaching, you must seek to acquire a simple style of composition, with short sentences and as few colons and semicolons as possible.”
• “If you would attain simplicity in preaching, aim at directness.”
• “If you would attain simplicity in preaching, make abundant use of illustration and anecdote.”

Now, let’s look at how he concludes. First, he states flatly that this is not going to be easy. It will really take work.

“Let me add to all this one plain word of application. You will never attain simplicity inpreaching without plenty of trouble. Pains and trouble, I say emphatically, pains and trouble….  I entreat my younger brethren to remember this. I beg them to make time for their composition of sermons, to take trouble and to exercise their brains by reading. Only mind that you read what is useful.”

Ryle lays a heavy emphasis on reading in a way that is productive. He urges us to read “good models” and “good specimens of simplicity in preaching.” For those in his day he directs them to use the English Bible because of the language used. (What would be recommended today? NLT? Message?) He goes on to stress reading the Puritans, especially “… John Bunyan’s immortal work, the Pilgrim’s Progress. Read it again and again, if you wish to attain  simplicity  in preaching.

” Do not be above reading the Puritans. Read such books as Baxter, and Watson, and Traill, and Flavel, and Charnock, and Hall, and Henry. They are, to my mind, models of the best simple English spoken in old times. Remember, however, that language alters with years. They spoke English, and so do we, but their style was different from ours.”

Bishop Ryle was all about relevancy in language while being uncompromising in truth!

Ryle expands his reading to include the “best models of modern English that you can get at.” He recommends such notables as William Cobbett, (a political radical) John Bright, Patrick Henry and Shakespeare.

But Ryle returns from the literary heights to remind preachers of those things most important. Five in particular:

1) Talk to your flock.

“On the other hand, do not be above talking to the poor, and visiting your people from house to house…  We must talk to our people when we are out of church, if we would understand how to preach to them in the church.”

2) Aim to change hearts.

“Let us beware of fireworks in our preaching. “Beautiful” sermons, “brilliant” sermons, “clever” sermons, “popular” sermons, are often sermons which have no effect on the congregation, and do not draw men to Jesus Christ. Let us aim so to preach, that what we say may really come home to men’s minds and consciences and hearts, and make them think and consider.”

3) Preach the Gospel!

“All the simplicity in the world can do no good, unless you preach the simple gospel of Jesus Christ so fully and clearly that everybody can understand it. If Christ crucified has not His rightful place in your sermons, and sin is not exposed as it should be, and your people are not plainly told what they ought to believe, and be, and do, YOUR PREACHING IS OF NO USE.” (His emphasis!)

4) Preach with Passion

“All the simplicity in the world, again, is useless without a good lively delivery. If you bury your head in your bosom, and mumble over your manuscript in a dull, monotonous, droning way, like a bee in a bottle, so that people cannot understand what you are speaking about, your preaching will be in vain.”

5) Pray!

“Above all, let us never forget that all the simplicity in the world is useless without prayer for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, and the grant of God’s blessing, and a life corresponding in some measure to what we preach. Be it ours to have an earnest desire for the souls of men, while we seek for simplicity in preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ, and let us never forget to accompany our sermons by holy living and fervent prayer.”

The fourth hint Ryle offers in his booklet Simplicity in Preaching is this:

“If you wish to preach simply, use a direct style.”

This might seem trivial to some but Ryle urges us to refrain from relying on the common use of “we” instead of “I.” For instance:

• “Today we want to look at Galatians.” vs. “Today I want to bring a message from Galatians.”
• “We now consider some of what Jesus said…” vs. “Today, I want to explain to you what Jesus said about…”
• “If you have not put faith in Christ, we urge you…” vs. “I urge you today…”

Silly? No. Ryle’s point is that we simply have no right to speak for anyone other than ourselves.  When we use the term “we” it can be vague or even misleading. Who is the “we” you’re speaking for? You and your family? You and the leadership? You and your denomination? Or is it you and the people listening? In any event, who do you have the authority to speak for?

“When a man takes up this style of preaching, he is often told he is conceited and egotistical. The result is that many preachers are never direct and always think it humble and modest and becoming to say ‘we’…. When He visits the sick, or teaches his school, or orders bread at the baker… he does not say ‘we’ but ‘I’. Why, then, I should like to know, can he not say ‘I’ in the pulpit? What right has he, as a modest man, to speak for anyone but himself?”

Now this is as issue that we in the post-modern west don’t deal with as much. We are fairly direct people. Many preachers would well to have a little less “I” in their messages! But there is a valuable reminder to be drawn here from Ryle. The particular issue he is addressing was one more peculiar to his time but the broader principle which certainly applies today can be found in the following sentence:

“In this particular do not imitate Chalmers, or Melville, or certain other living pulpit celebrities.”

Just as in Ryle’s day, we have our own group of pulpit celebrities! (Love that term.) Via books, podcasts, webcasts. mp3s, conferences, You Tube and a host of other mediums, our celebrities are available to us. Whether it’s John Piper, Mark Driscoll, Alistair Begg, Thabiti Anyabwile, or any of the many celebs of our day, we always run the risk of becoming imitators of men rather than authentic messengers working out of our own skin. God has given you a unique voice. Of course you should pray, study and work on improving your delivery. But let it be your delivery. Avoid copying the mannerisms, vocal inflections, or catch phrases of others. Be direct and be yourself.

I’m sharing a summary of  J.C. Ryle’s  book, Simplicity in Preaching and this post focuses on his second hint for obtaining simplicity, “Try to use in all your sermons, as far as you can, simple words.”

By simple words Ryle isn’t suggesting a “See Jane run” kind of preaching. Rather, his emphasis here is that we use language that is common in everyday use. Remember, your goal is to be understood and useful to your congregation, not to impress them and wring compliments from them. Ryle urges preachers to avoid what “the poor shrewdly call ‘dictionary’ words.’” In Ryle’s day the rates of illiteracy were much higher than our own and being able to communicate with those whose language skills were limited was a real challenge. So Ryle suggests staying away from words that are:

• Abstract
• Scientific
• Pedantic
• Complicated
• Indefinite
• Very long

He states:

“They (the words above) may seem very fine, and sound very grand, but they are rarely of any use. The most powerful and forcible words, as a rule, are very short.”

It is interesting to read Ryle go on at length a bit about the superiority of strong pure Saxon words over French and Latin. The writing certainly reflects the day he lived in! He quotes a Dr. Gee from his work entitled “Our Sermons” in which the author speaks to this issue of complicated words:

“Talk of happiness rather than felicity, talk of almighty rather than omnipotent, lessen rather than diminish, forbidden rather than proscribed, hateful rather than noxious… call out and draw forth rathe than evoke and educe, dude instead of homo sapiens…”

Okay, I made that last one up.

Come to think of it, our problem with a lot of our post-modern, conversational preaching may not be that we use words that are to complicated. Still, for those of us who want to demonstrate the breadth of our vocabulary, the pulpit is not the place to do it.

I love to preach. I really do. I can hardly think of anything more fulfilling outside of my personal time with God. Being able to speak the truth of God’s Word in love to His people is a priceless gift. That said, boy I could use some work.

I know that often I’m just too complicated. I try to stuff too much into a message and often make the mistake of thinking that everything I find fascinating in a text will be equally fascinating to everyone. If preaching were compared to firearms, I’d have to admit that I am often more like buckshot than a bullet.

Enter J.C. Ryle.

I picked up Ryle’s little booklet Simplicity in Preaching and it has been a great tool for reflecting on my own approach to preaching. A mere 22 pages in length, it is brimming with wise counsel. For the next few days I’ll share a summary of the book’s main points and hopefully some of you may find it as helpful as I did.

What Ryle offers here are what he refers to as “hints” for preaching. There are five of them and I’ll tackle one a day. For now let’s look at the four prefatory remarks the book opens with.

1) “To attain simplicity in preaching is of the utmost importance to every minister who wishes to be useful to souls.”

This nailed me right out of the gate! Do I wish to be useful to God’s people? I know that we have first an obligation to the truth of God’s Word and our obligation is to preach that Word with integrity that compromises nothing and does not cater to the fear of man. But then the question must be asked: “Do I want to be understood?” The danger is that we often want to just be admired, to enjoy the process, to be entertained by our own verbosity. Ryle quotes Quintilian, “If you do not wish to be understood, you deserve to be neglected.” Great truth must be served in a manner that finds its mark in the hearts of those who listen. I need to be useful to my flock, not use my flock as an audience for my self.

2) To attain simplicity in preaching is by no means an easy matter.

It’s been said that it’s easy to prepare a message that lasts 2 hours. The hard thing is the message that lasts 20 minutes. Why? Again, it’s the difference between buckshot and a bullet. I can cover a ton of material to explain a concept but the abundance of material (and there is no end of that!) is not the measuring rod of success.  Effectiveness happens when truth finds its home in the heart and mind of the listener.  ”To make hard things hard is in the reach of all but to make hard things seem easy and intelligible is a height attained by very few speakers. ” – Archbishop Usher

This takes hard work. Being simple is not about “dumbing down” the truth. It is about crafting your words to provide the clearest message possible. Ryle quotes an old Puritan as saying that “the greater part of preachers shoot over the heads of the people.”  I’ve seen that look on Sunday mornings! Have you? A couple of Ryle’s comments:

“It is an extremely difficult thing to write simple, clear, perspicuous, and forcible English.”

“In fact, to use very long words, to seem very learned, to make people go away after a sermon saying ‘How fine! how clever!, how grand!’ all this is very easy work. But to write what will strike and stick or to write that which at once pleases and is understood, and becomes assimilated with a hearer’s mind and a thing never forgotten – that, we may depend upon it, is a very difficult thing and a very rare attainment.”

Like I said. I need some work…

I’ll share the last two prefatory comments tomorrow and then jump into Ryle’s hints for preaching with simplicity.