Preaching: How do you work to keep your preaching fresh?

Jackson: I think the way we keep it fresh is to use the newspapers or the magazines of the day and ask yourself the question: what is the biblical text that gives the answer to this problem? For example, now we have The Da Vinci Code coming out. Also, the Federal Marriage Amendment is getting ready to happen; how do I share that? How do I deal with the concern that parents have that their kids will be molested, abducted etc., that’s all over the news? There seems to be a rising interest in justice in terms of the media. What I mean by that is all the judge shows, all the Law & Order kind of criminal shows, says that deep within the psyche of Americans there is a need to have closure and a sense of “have I got my due?” What is the appropriate biblical way to look at that?

So you could take a lot of issues of our day and have an amazing hearing. In your preparation think about what is preoccupying the minds of the people we are serving? What are the deep issues they are grappling with? Periodically go out in the community talking to people -- not introducing yourself as a preacher -- and asking them questions about certain things you want to preach about, but asking them questions about how they see it or frame it. For example, if I’m in a cab I may ask a guy, do you think about spiritual things? Well, what kind of spiritual things? And then they will begin to tell me their worldview. And then just ask questions to try to understand where they are. I think that would help us understand what are land mines to communication.

The people we are talking to have a certain worldview. I came to discover, by the way, the average unchurched person today has his or her own unique theology. Meaning they have their own understanding of how the world fits together; they maybe even put their own sacred texts together. They read a little bit from the Bible, a little bit from Hinduism, a little bit from here, and they have a real clear picture of the things that mean something to them. I never had a clue. That means, though, that I’m going to get a hearing from them. I used to preach in such a way that I would say Mohammed is not the way, Buddha is not the way -- yet that’s the quickest way to shut these people down. So by listening to people that I encounter, finding out a little bit about their worldview, it really helps me fashion what I’m saying to meet the changing needs of our culture.

Preaching: What are some of the most valuable insights you’ve learned over your years as a preacher and pastor?

Jackson: I guess the biggest thing I wish I had known as a young pastor is the power of the scriptures themselves and the need for us maybe to restate what would seem to be obvious. I think I didn’t understand that early on. So as I’m trying to communicate or pull nuggets out of a passage, I would often start at a higher place in terms of understanding, beyond the ability of people to apply the Word where they were. I made a mistake of trying to impress people with information instead of impacting people with a call to do something with the information.