{"id":1452,"date":"2020-06-30T00:03:59","date_gmt":"2020-06-30T00:03:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fousquaremultiplycentral.contraststaging.com\/?p=1452"},"modified":"2020-12-09T20:15:43","modified_gmt":"2020-12-09T20:15:43","slug":"jordan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/foursquaremultiply.org\/en\/jordan\/","title":{"rendered":"Don’t Waste Your Preaching: An Interview with Jordan Rice"},"content":{"rendered":"

Redeemer<\/em> City to City met with Jordan Rice to talk about the importance of contextual preaching\u2014and how to actually do it.<\/em><\/p>\n

City to City: How would you define \u201ccontextualization\u201d?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Jordan Rice: I would define contextualization as using the gospel to answer the questions that people actually have\u2014to approach a text first seeking Biblical truth and a commitment to what God has revealed to us in scripture; then, answering the questions that people actually are asking in this present time.<\/p>\n

Take, for example, a text about Jesus and the leper. It\u2019s a great theological truth that Jesus became unclean so that we can become clean, or that Jesus would touch the untouchable. Those are great theological truths. But no one is asking questions about leprosy because it\u2019s a foreign concept to us. Contextualizing that passage is answering the question, \u201cWhat makes you feel unclean? What would make you feel like you\u2019re not touchable, like God doesn\u2019t want to come near you?\u201d<\/p>\n

What would you say is the goal of contextualizing preaching?<\/strong><\/p>\n

The goal of contextualized preaching is that the hearers would have this road to Emmaus experience where they say, \u201cDid not our hearts burn<\/a>?\u201d<\/p>\n

Take a concept, like money for example, and giving. Contextualizing how you preach about money means showing people what they actually struggle with when it comes to money and how the gospel addresses what they\u2019re struggling with.<\/p>\n

Most people don\u2019t give because money for them represents either security or significance. Deep down inside they actually believe that if they have this certain amount in their bank account, then they\u2019ll be secure or, alternatively, that if they have this much money then they\u2019ll finally be significant. The goal of contextualized preaching when it comes to money, for example, would be helping people see that the reason they don\u2019t give is because they really don\u2019t believe the gospel. That they would walk away with their hearts burning, not just a command of what they need to do.<\/p>\n

Recently, I preached about prayer. Nine out of ten people say that prayer is monumentally important for their spiritual lives. If you ask those same ten people, \u201cWell, how practical is your prayer life?\u201d People on a scale of one to ten generally rate around a three. There\u2019s this huge disconnect between the value of prayer perceived and the actual value of prayer that they\u2019re employing.<\/p>\n

Preaching about prayer means showing people that part of the reason we\u2019re not flourishing in our prayer lives is because we approach prayer in a way God never intended. If I approach God as a genie in a bottle\u2014then when I rub the bottle and God doesn\u2019t do what I want him to do, I decide this prayer thing is worthless, so why continue doing it? If I approach prayer as a performance, and I\u2019m not really that good at it\u2014if I\u2019m stumbling over my words\u2014I\u2019m going to discard it. Part of contextualization is showing people your approach to prayer has been wrong all along. You\u2019ve been approaching it like either a genie in a bottle situation, or a performance, and neither one of those were what God intended for it to be. That\u2019s a tension we want people to feel in that moment: \u201cI\u2019ve been approaching it all wrong.\u201d We put a marker in our message saying, \u201cIf we were to end this message right here, how angry would people be?\u201d<\/p>\n

They\u2019d be pretty angry, because we haven\u2019t given them the answer for what God\u00a0does<\/em>\u00a0intend for them, how God does intend for them to approach prayer. In those moments we feel like we\u2019re doing a good job contextualizing. That we\u2019re now answering the questions that they truly have. People need to know, \u201cHow do you resolve this tension from me. I\u2019ve been approaching prayer all wrong. Now how do I do it?\u201d Contextualization is answering that question in a way that they can receive it.<\/p>\n

How do you assess whether a sermon is contextual to your audience?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I write people\u2019s names at the top of my sermons. One of those people is someone I just met at a coffee shop, or at the laundromat, and that person hasn\u2019t been to church in a long time. They do not understand the stories in the Bible. They couldn\u2019t pronounce half of the books in the Bible. They don\u2019t have a theological education. They\u2019re very, very new to the faith. I write their name down and as I go through the message I ask myself, \u201cHow does\u00a0this<\/em>\u00a0person hear this message? Can they follow along? They don\u2019t have to agree with it, but will they understand everything that we\u2019re saying, and are there specific points in this message when I\u2019m talking directly to them and I\u2019m putting it right there in their lap?\u201d<\/p>\n

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I write people\u2019s names at the top of my sermons. Someone I just met at a coffee shop, or at the laundromat, that hasn\u2019t been to church in a long time. As I go through the message I ask myself, \u201cHow does\u00a0this<\/em>\u00a0person hear this message?\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Then there\u2019s a second person who\u2019s a nominal Christian, who\u2019s been around church for a little bit, maybe sleepy in their Christianity, not necessarily living on mission. They\u2019re just following Jesus in a way that seems suitable to them. We try to make sure that there\u2019s enough material in our messages that actually challenges people to live a life worthy of the gospel and speaks to them even in their doubts and their disagreements with church or the Bible.<\/p>\n

Third, I put the name of one of our small group leaders who\u2019s a mature follower of Jesus. And as much as they would love to see new people come to faith, as much as they would love to see sleepy Christians wake up and be challenged, they also need to learn things that they didn\u2019t know before. On Easter, people are very happy for you to point the sermon directly at new people. But mature Christians don\u2019t have the same library that I have and they expect me to read well and read deeply. There has to be something in the message that they did not come in knowing and that challenges them as well.<\/p>\n<\/div>

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How do you address folks who are new to the faith and aren\u2019t biblically literate?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019ve always believed that every Sunday at our church there\u2019s someone who has been invited twenty times and has said, \u201cNo,\u201d nineteen times. This time he or she said, \u201cYes.\u201d They\u2019re scared of church. They haven\u2019t been since they were six years old and they don\u2019t know who Paul is, let alone agree with what Paul says. When we have opportunities to speak to them, I don\u2019t want them leaving saying, \u201cI didn\u2019t understand the sermon. He\u2019s quoting a bunch of stuff about a bunch of people I\u2019ve never heard of before.\u201d<\/p>\n

So I start my sermons with those people in mind. I\u2019ll say, \u201cThere\u2019s a man named Paul. He wrote this book called Ephesians and it\u2019s a letter to a church that started in Ephesus. In a lot of ways, their church in Ephesus was just like this church that you\u2019re sitting in today. It was a church that started from scratch, and there was so much energy in this vibrant and beautiful city, and they had some of the same challenges that we have today, and here\u2019s what Paul gave them as advice.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now, even though I\u2019ve taken a minute and a half to say something that I probably could\u2019ve said in three seconds, I\u2019ve invited these new people on the journey with me. And ultimately I\u2019m not changing the biblical recommendations. I\u2019m not changing the biblical commands. I\u2019m giving people the unadulterated truth of the gospel. However, I\u2019m giving them an onramp to come and be a part of this journey with me. I think preachers lose so many people just by presuming that we are speaking in a church full of Christians.<\/p>\n

Another goal of contextualized preaching for me is preaching in such a way that people are saying, \u201cMan, I wish so-and-so were here to hear this.\u201d What that does is it unleashes evangelistic energy in your people. Now they know you would treat their friends, their non-believing neighbors and relatives, with respect and communicate to them in a way that makes sense to them and not offend them unnecessarily.<\/p>\n

The gospel offends. That\u2019s totally fine. But we preachers offend people so many different ways unknowingly and unnecessarily that our people may not want to invite their friends to church. So I\u2019m encouraged when people say, \u201cMan, I really wish my neighbor was here. I really wish my coworker was here. We were just talking about this thing and the way this pastor put it was so perfect and I\u2019ll never be able to repeat it that way\u201d or \u201cHey, I gave your podcast to one of my friends, and they\u2019re not even a Christian, and they really dug it, and we had a great conversation about it after.\u201d<\/p>\n

Making the biblical authors and texts understandable for people is just an on-ramp for them to be able to hear the good news of the gospel.<\/p>\n

How has preaching in the same congregation for the past three years shaped you?<\/strong><\/p>\n

The critical feedback of your people definitely shapes you. You hear how people are processing the material you\u2019re preaching. One of the messages we\u2019ve preached recently was on the power of our pasts. We looked at Peter and his amazing pedigree of faith and how he had done all these things, seen the risen Jesus, but in Galatians 2 we see him going right back to what he was brought up in. Even though in Acts 10 Jesus tells him, \u201cHey, rise, kill, and eat. Don\u2019t call anything unclean that I\u2019ve called clean,\u201d in Galatians 2 he\u2019s going right back and doing the opposite. There\u2019s something about our past that affects us and we can\u2019t just ignore it if we really want to be mature followers of Jesus. In that message I talked a lot about \u201cexcavating\u201d our past and the narratives that might be going on in our head.<\/p>\n

A lot of the feedback I\u2019ve got to that was pushback saying, \u201cMan, that\u2019s just a really heavy word, \u201cexcavate.\u201d It sounds like you\u2019re coming with a bulldozer.\u201d<\/p>\n

You do a lot of learning on the fly. I\u2019m more cautious now. What\u2019s changed is I\u2019m more cautious about word choices, because just one small word can become something that\u2019s almost too difficult for people to even process. I can unintentionally present something in a way that people tune out.<\/p>\n

Any other thoughts on contextualization?<\/strong><\/p>\n

While there\u2019s always a need to answer the questions that people are actually asking, there\u2019s also a need to preach through books of the Bible sometimes to hit topics that you wouldn\u2019t necessarily hit.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not going to get into the war of topical versus expository preaching. But there\u2019s something beautiful about topical preaching, addressing topics that you know people desperately need to hear and something beautiful about preaching expository messages through an entire book of the Bible and just letting the Holy Spirit use that book for our benefit. For the preacher that\u2019s always thinking about contextualization, sometimes being in a book and hitting a topic that you would not ordinarily hit is exactly what you needed.<\/p>\n<\/div>

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Jordan Rice is the church planter and pastor of Renaissance NYC Church in Harlem, and the Regional Director for NYC for Orchard Group. He was also part of City to City\u2019s Incubator program. He lives in Harlem with his wife and two sons.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>

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