Going Deeper (Part 2 of 5)

What do some people mean when they say they want messages to go deeper?

Number Two: Intellectual Depth

I listened to a REVEAL workshop on preaching that made this point: Most of your spiritually mature and most bibilically literate members want to learn something new about the Bible every week when they come to a worship service. Of course, that's challenging because (1) they know so much already, (2) different people don't know different things, (3) so much information is readily at hand these days, and (4) you don't want to get so detailed or esoteric you lose all the folks that aren't yearning for this. 

I remember meeting for coffee a couple of years ago with a member who told me he wanted my messages to go deeper. Reflecting back on that conversation, this is what he was looking for. But then he said, "But that's not what my wife wants." I had the feeling I was going to disappoint one or both of them every week.

All that being said, I am firmly committed to offering more intellectual depth to my messages, and I love it when one of our long-term members tells me they learned something new that week. Examples from the Jonah series include my comments on the improbabilities of the Jonah story from a couple of weeks ago which included my original Psalm (no one said intellectual depth has to be humorless) and some of the "word studies" in recent messages (e.g., the message on fear).

Going Deeper (Part 1 of 5)

While a lot of us pastors were pulling out our hair over the "we want to go deeper" mantra sweeping our churches of a couple of years ago, pastor Scott Chapman and his staff team set out to find out what their folks meant when they said they wanted to go deeper. What they came up with is similar to some of the conclusions I eventually came to over the last couple of years. And what was, admittedly, a frustrating thing for me to hear has become a deep desire for my own preaching. Chapman's team identified five things their members meant when they said they wanted deeper messages. Here are my personal reflections on all five.

Number One: Biblical Depth

Chapman writes: "No matter how thoughtful, passionate, or persuasive our messages may be, they are only as powerful as our ability to connect the hearer to the heart of Scripture." The REVEAL research suggests this is also essential for spiritual growth that results in life change.

So what does developing greater biblical depth look like for most people? What are they really asking for? It means the message needs to...

• Process the richness of the original context
• Lead people through nuances of the text
• Connect the passage to other parts of Scripture."

In my opinion this is best accomplished when preaching through books of the Bible. It can be done by covering a passage in depth in a topical series, but imagine how much of the Jonah story would be missed (i.e., the richness of the original context, the nuances of the text and Jonah's place in the larger story of the Bible) if we weren't spending a number of weeks covering the book. You may have noticed already, but one way my preaching has changed in recent months is that we're covering more books of the Bible and I'm doing more Bible "teaching" in the messages. In actuality, it's my favorite way to preach and suits my gifts and wiring best. And I truly believe it will have the greatest impact for life change.