There are few matters more foundational to pastoral ministry than preaching, and few matters more common to the Christian experience than being preached to. Most pastors will preach thousands of sermons over the span of their ministry, and most congregants will listen to thousands of sermons over the span of their lifetime. This means we should think about preaching often and well!
In this article, I’ve simply collected some random thoughts on the subject and have alternated them so that half are for the ones preaching the sermons and the other half are for the ones listening to them.
In my experience, sermons tend to grow in quality more by subtraction than by addition. Often, one of the best things a preacher can do to improve his sermon is to strip away 20 or 25% of his content as a final step in the preparation process. It’s far better to preach a sermon that is shorter but more focused than one that is long but unfocused. Less is usually more. As Carl Trueman once said, “Many a brilliant thirty-minute sermon was undone by the preacher carrying on to the fifty-minute mark.”
Being obviously attentive as you listen to a sermon can be a great gift to the preacher. The preacher gains more than you may think from your looks of appreciation (or disgust), your attentive eyes (or tired ones), and your quiet amens (or groans). In this way, preaching is an interactive medium in which the congregation serves the pastor even as he serves the congregation.
The appropriate length, style, and format of a sermon can change over time and between contexts. We should expect that sermons preached at an Anglican Church in Sydney, a Baptist Church in Topeka, and a Dutch Reformed church in Cape Town will differ in many ways. De Witt Talmage once cheekily said this: “Jonathan Edwards preached the sermons most adapted to the age in which he lived; but if those sermons were preached now they would divide an audience into two classes—those sound asleep and those wanting to go home.” The challenge of any preacher is to preach the sermons that are suited to his congregation and not some other.
It is good to listen to a sermon with an open Bible, for it falls to the congregation to ensure that every word the preacher speaks is consistent with the Scriptures. Furthermore, the preacher assumes you will have an open Bible so you can follow along with him. This is difficult to do when you did not bring one or will not open it.
The best sermons have some kind of narrative flow to them, a way of logically and sequentially moving from introduction to conclusion. Yet sermons often have stretches in which they fail to progress in any meaningful way, and this is usually because the preacher has lost his focus and launched into an excursus that is redundant or off-topic. One of the best ways to improve a sermon is to look diligently for such portions and remove them. The preacher can simply ask himself, “Does this portion advance my sermon?”
Many people prefer to use a Bible app on a phone or tablet rather than a printed Bible. That is for each person to decide for themselves. However, we must all be wary of being distracted during the sermon by buzzes and notifications—something a printed Bible has never done. Also, we must be wary of using that app to do Bible research during the sermon, perhaps even fact-checking what the pastor has said, searching for alternate perspectives, or following rabbit trails. The listener’s first task is to listen.
A sermon that is too short can fail to adequately address its text, yet a sermon that is too long can undo in its length much of what would have been accomplished in brevity. A preacher has to know when to stop for the sake of his listeners. “The trouble is we preach audiences into a Christian frame, and then we preach them out of it. We forget that every auditor has so much capacity of attention, and when that is exhausted he is restless” (De Witt Talmage).
Every new preacher needs to begin somewhere, and the best place is usually in front of a friendly congregation. His first sermons are not likely to prove to be his best sermons, and neither are they likely to equal the sermons of a more experienced preacher. Do your best to be the kind of person who can listen to a poor sermon, derive as much benefit from it as possible, and encourage the one who delivered it. Do your best to be the kind of church that offers lots of patience, opportunity, and latitude for men to become good preachers through repeated practice.
“Kill your darlings” is a standard piece of advice for writers that applies equally to preachers. When we prepare a sermon, we often create many more words and ideas than we can possibly use. Sometimes the “hard cuts” are the most necessary cuts, even when they are vivid illustrations or clever explanations that, though brilliant, do not quite fit the topic. In the end, there may be as many great ideas edited out as there are in the final sermon.
Be wise and timely when it comes to offering negative feedback on a sermon. Be humble as well, for in preaching, a man bares his heart and soul. Remember that he put 15 or 20 hours into preparation and may know more about the text than you do. At the very least, give him a few hours or a few days before pushing back. Conversely, be prompt and immediate when it comes to offering encouraging feedback.
Humor is a gift and one that can be used well or poorly in preaching. Less is almost always better than more, and shorter is almost always better than longer. People are more likely to remember (and pity) a joke that falls flat than one that lands well, so be sure to count the cost.
It can be good and wise to take notes during a sermon; however, it is never necessary. It is important to understand that God works in us through the sermon as we listen to it, so that what we remember or don’t remember of it afterward is no gauge of its impact on us. To quote Jonathan Edwards: “The main benefit obtained by preaching is by impression made upon the mind at the time, and not by an effect that arises afterwards by a remembrance of what was delivered.” It could be that the most formative sermon you’ve ever heard is one for which you have no memory.
One of the most unnecessary yet still-heated debates is the one about preaching from a manuscript, preaching from notes, or preaching from an outline. Preaching is tremendously important in the New Testament, yet never once does it address this matter, and that ought to tell us that we have a great deal of freedom. The history of preaching tells us that preachers of all kinds have had their ministry blessed by the Lord. So let every man try his hand at each and then choose the one that best matches his ability and capacity. Let no man judge another for the one he has chosen.
There are thousands of books written to guide pastors in the art of crafting a sermon, yet few have been written to guide listeners as they hear those sermons. To that end, Christopher Ash’s Listen Up! A Practical Guide to Listening to Sermons is well worth reading.
New pastors soon learn that even as the words of the sermon come out of their mouth, there is often a second track playing in their mind—a track that is making observations about what is happening in the room, thinking about what is happening later in the day, or sometimes even expressing doubt or mockery. He will need to learn to silence, ignore, or hush that internal voice (often by using a third track through which he pleads God’s help!) so he can focus as much of himself as possible on simply preaching the Word.
Most pastors are well prepared to preach on Sunday morning; many listeners are not well prepared to listen on Sunday morning. Be sure to get the sleep you need to listen well. Be sure to read through the bulletin to understand the flow of the service. If you can, read the text before heading to church so you can begin thinking about it well before the sermon begins. If it is the pastor’s task to prepare the sermon, it is your task to prepare yourself to listen to it.
The preacher must put a lot of thought into what he brings to the congregation versus what he leaves in the study. He needs to decide how much he shows his work and how much he simply shows the results of his work. Word studies are important, but often not useful to the listener. The three or four varying interpretations of a text are crucial for the pastor to work through, but not for the congregation. The grammatical constructions may be fascinating to the preacher, but yet be confusing to the hearers. Most of this work needs to be done in the study, but little of it needs to be spoken to the church.
The Puritans would sometimes speak of “improving upon” a sermon. This did not indicate that they intended to make the sermon better, but that they wanted to take action to make it more effective in its transforming effect within them. This would often involve returning to the text to pray through it, discuss it, examine themselves according to it, or otherwise give it the opportunity to call them away from sin and toward holiness. We would do well to follow their lead and diligently improve upon the sermon. We can do this personally, as a family, or as a small group.
One of the hardest moments a preacher can face is when the congregation either laughs in glee or squirms in awkwardness at something he has said or done, yet he doesn’t know what it is. Usually, the best thing he can do in this moment is to ignore it and press on.
To preach is always to take a risk—the risk of publicly saying something that is false, foolish, or downright humiliating. It is good for a congregation to admit that and to respect and commend those who are willing to accept that risk.
There is a great difference between a Bible study and a sermon, yet many preachers tend to confuse them. Here are some ways to distinguish them: In general, a Bible study is teaching while a sermon is preaching; a Bible study is aimed at the head while a sermon is aimed at the heart; a Bible study is meant to increase knowledge while a sermon is meant to increase holiness; a Bible study is helping people to know what a passage says while preaching is appealing to people to live out what a passage says.
There are many benefits that come to Christians as we hear the preached Word: We grow in knowledge of what is true and what is false; we are renewed so that we are put back on track in ways in which we have slipped or stumbled; we are sanctified so that we put sin to death and come alive to righteousness; we learn both the importance and the method of personal devotions and develop a deeper commitment to it; we learn to be a godly example to others. There is tremendous benefit that comes to us as we simply sit under the ministry of the Word week by week.
Most sermons benefit from having a clear structure, and preachers often rely on “points” to accomplish this. But the word “points” is neither interesting nor informative. Preachers may consider framing their sermons in different ways so that instead of using points, they use headings, steps, scenes, statements, instructions, questions, purposes, and so on. Any of these may be more helpful to the preacher as he frames his sermon and to the congregation as they listen to it.
A good sermon introduction can motivate people to listen, while a poor one can cause them to tune out even before the sermon has properly begun. Preachers would do well to consider H.B. Charles’ instruction on this: “Don’t start every sermon the same way. Be creative. Use different doors to get into the house. Tell a story. Raise a question. State a problem. Use a strong quote. Describe the background of the text. Do an object lesson. Try multimedia. Mix it up. Practice diversity. Change the way you come at them, especially if you preach to the same congregation each week. Practicing variety in the introduction is a simple but effective way to stay fresh in the pulpit.”
We live in a world in which everything is evaluated and rated. We are all critics now! Yet we must be careful not to relate to sermons as if they are just one more form of content that we can upvote or downvote, assign a rating to, or write a review of. Rather, we must listen to preaching as if it is the Word of God that reviews us as it searches our hearts, bares our motives, and calls us to be ever more conformed to the image of Jesus Christ.
A pastor can always be tempted to measure his preaching ministry according to his most recent sermon (similar to the way all of us can measure our devotional life according to our most recent time of personal devotions). But a preaching ministry must be measured over years and decades. As is so often the case in life, we tend to overestimate what can be accomplished through one sermon and underestimate what can be accomplished through a decade of sermons.
The congregation cheapens preaching if they gather to hear the preacher and the preacher cheapens preaching if he preaches to satisfy his listeners. John Stott says this well: “A concert audience does not come to watch the conductor but to listen to the music; a church congregation should not come to watch or hear the preacher, but to listen to God’s Word. The function of the conductor is to draw the music out of the choir or orchestra, in order that the audience may enjoy the music; the function of the preacher is to draw the Word of God out of the Bible, in order that the congregation may receive his Word with joy. The conductor must not come between the music and the audience; the preacher must not come between the Lord and his people. We need the humility to get out of the way.”
Every preacher needs to continually remind himself of the awe and wonder of being able to stand in the pulpit to declare, “This is what God says.” Despite the difficulties and discouragements, preaching is a joyous task and one that is always a high honor. Just about every preacher can testify to the joy of sensing the pleasure of God in preaching. Kent Hughes says, “There is nothing quite like it—the Holy Spirit filling one’s sails, the sense of his pleasure, and the awareness that something is happening among one’s hearers.” This is profoundly humbling and encouraging—a true spiritual thrill and an undeserved honor.
