Brokenness Can Add Passion
Brokenness Can Add Passion
We are exploring how to express more passion in your preaching. The first post in this series is here. In this post we will consider that brokenness adds passion to your preaching
The year 2006 was a crossroads for me. I had been serving the same church in Southern California for 23 years. We had just completed a six and a half year relocation that involved purchasing of land, planning a new facility with multiple buildings, and raising millions of dollars. I burned out, physically, emotionally and spiritually. As a result of some of my choices during that time, the church decided that I should not continue ministry in that congregation.
I spent the next months in counseling, individually and with my wife. My denomination also required that I go through a restoration process. And I also met regularly with 7 men who committed to walk with me through this season of my life.
After a year of reflection and growth, my wife and I decided that I should make myself available for call to a congregation again. Even as I filled out the forms, I wondered who would call a failed, broken person to their church.
God At Work
Little did I know that a church near where I grew up and where our families lived was considering calling a new senior pastor. The search team dedicated one meeting to prayer as they considered my name, as well as others. This conclusion ruled the evening: we don’t know yet who our next pastor will be, but we know that the next pastor we have will be broken.
Fascinatingly, they considered that a plus. They wanted someone broken to better relate to their church and community.
What Is Brokenness?
I love this quote:
Brokenness means the shattering of our self-will, so that the life and Spirit of the Lord Jesus may be released through us. It is our response of humility and obedience to the conviction of the Word and the Spirit of God. Brokenness is a lifestyle of agreeing with God about the true condition of our heart and life, as He sees it.
How Brokenness Adds Passion
Brokenness can add passion to your preaching in several ways.
- First of all, when you are broken, you gain humility. The word “humility” means “to rank yourself under” I a way similar to what we see in the military, where colonels rank under generals, majors under colonels, captains under majors, etc. To humble yourself means that you willingly do what Paul said to do in
Philippians 2, when he said we should have the same mindset as Jesus Christ, Who, being in very nature[a] God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;
7 rather, he made himself nothing
by taking the very nature[b] of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
8 And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
by becoming obedient to death—
even death on a cross! - Secondly, broken people are more likely to have compassion for people who fail. I know this was true for me. I became patient to a greater degree after failure with those who had failed.
- Thirdly, a broken person often has greater faith. I preach the Good News better now than I could before, partly because I know what forgiveness and restoration are like.
- Fourthly, broken people are thankful people. People who have been broken stand amazed at God’s gifts.
The bottom line is that brokenness can add passion to your preaching if you learn its lessons.
How Do You Experience Brokenness?
There are a variety of life’s experiences that will add brokenness to your preaching. Very few of us go through life without enough that will break you, if you are willing to submit to what the Spirit is doing in your life. Here is one person’s experience:
