The Intelligent Christian
Sermon Tips
Right. You've been to seminary. You've learned how to structure the sermon with three alliterate points plus sub-points. You know how to pause for effect. You know when to raise your voice. You know when to stage whisper. You've watched your videos over and over learning your weaknesses and admiring the bits where you think you're really good.
What are your dreams? Spellbinding messages? Scholarly content? People making public decisions and professions when you've concluded? Impress the businessmen who will be writing the cheques? Anticipate the adulation and congratulations when you stand at the entrance and shake hands as the congregation leaves?
Probably some or all of these motivations are there - if you are honest with yourself.
But that's your problem. Use our hints from self-similarity and exercise your self-critical capacity. Motivations can be examined and adjusted from time to time. And should be. Schedule a day a month at least to examine your motivations.
What we are after here are some structural modifications that will greatly increase the sermon's effectiveness. Here are the suggestions:
The Ninety and Nine Principle
OK, notices have been given. The collection's in. (Looks pretty good today, does it?) Everyone's properly ventilated and oxygenated from the hymn. Your turn. You step into the pulpit and look out. What do you see?
A congregation? A sea of faces? A collection of individuals? Recognize everyone? Do you miss anyone? Can you see the people for the congregation?
There are plenty of senior ministers who only preach. That's in their contract. Underlings and understudies do the pastoral care. We all know these great public speakers. Are you one of them? Do you aspire to be one of them? If you do, then you might benefit from going back to the initial conditions of the sermon system. The place to start is John Chrysostom.
This might be a good time to review Pastoral Theology and Ezekiel 34. It is all too easy to give speeches to the ninety and nine and ignore the one lost on the hill far away.
Front-end loading
Recently I have listened to several sermons given by one of the young curates at All Souls, a large London evangelical Church of England church. Overall I have been impressed. However, I think he would be a lot better if he prepared his sermons back to front.
How do you prepare your sermons? Think this through. Twenty minutes is about the length of the average attention span. It may be less when listeners are immobile, as they are sitting listening to a sermon. Yes, the hymn before the sermon gets everyone standing who are able to stand and the singing ensures a supply of oxygen during the sermon. However, you can still put them to sleep.
This young curate is very good at getting the attention of his listeners in his introductions. Good illustrations, plenty of self-effacing humour, tight presentation. All the right stuff. However, at about the half way mark he loses the punch and as the attention of the congregation is nearing its limit he too seems anxious to close, drifting into jargon and cliche.
The suggestion is pretty obvious. Just like the wine the Lord made at the wedding feast of Cana (John chapter 2), keep the best till the last. When preparing, work from the end towards the beginning so your concluding statements are tight and hit home. When both you and the congregation are running out of attention you will drone on if you have not adequately prepared. And this is very important for the next suggestion.
Eye contact
Your seminary undoubtedly told you about eye contact. Move your eyes across the congregation constantly. Look each person in the eye at least once. If the architecture of the building requires it then move not just your eyes but also your head and shoulders. If you are a mobile preacher then walk around facing different areas from time to time. And, of course, if you get nervous looking people directly in the eye then just look at the top of their head instead. They can't tell the difference and you will have your effect.
That sound about right? Uh huh. Now let's try something different. Let's apply the ninety and nine principle.
During your sermon look at every person in the congregation and search for that one person for whom coming into your building was their last shot at life. If no one talks to them today they will leave and commit suicide. Seek them out. With your eyes. With your heart. Find them. Preach for them knowing you are their last and only chance. Focus your well-prepared conclusion on them.
And when the sermon is over, don't head for the door to greet your friends. Make a beeline for the stranger to whom you represent the hope of Jesus Christ.
Content
I was once given a tape of a sermon which had been spoken at a London church by a well-known London evangelical minister. ('You must hear this sermon, it's terrific!') When I listened to it I thought to myself, this sounds very familiar. And it was. It was close enough to make me think it had been plagiarized. It may well have been copied from a tape of one of the ministers at All Souls in London. All Souls tapes all their sermons and they are widely distributed. I know the minister who preached the original and there is no way he would ever copy someone else's work.
It makes me wonder about the other preacher, however. In business it is vitally important to stay close to your customers. You have to know what their needs are and you have to know if another company is whispering in their ear. This principle applies to ministers. The best preaching is Bible teaching - good old fashioned Bible exposition geared to the people you know and prepared with much effort, usually twenty hours or more for a good sermon.
Copying another preacher's sermons is on a par with students buying their term papers. It is cheating, pure and simple. Stay clear away from internet sales and subscriptions for sermons. Expose (Ephesians 5:11) preachers who buy or plagiarize sermons. A writer writes what s/he knows and knows well and a preacher preaches what s/he knows well. For the preacher, that is the Bible (with a working knowledge of the original languages), the congregation, the community and the world. In preaching there is no substitute for preparation.
Jesus is Lord
'Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.'