(M)y observation is that the great majority major on information, at the expense of persuasion and inspiration. You can actually estimate this (as I do) by timing how much of the sermon (or how much of the preacher’s notes) are devoted to each function. In extreme cases, a sermon can be 99% explanation of the text with 1% application which can be summarised as, “Go and do likewise.” 

In a previous posting, I reviewed Philip Collins’ book, The Art of Speeches and Presentations – The secrets of making people remember what you say (Wiley 2012), in which he states that all speeches can be divided into at least one of three functions:

1. Information: a speech whose principal function is to leave an audience better informed than they were before you began.

 2. Persuasion: a speech whose principal function is to persuade an audience of a case that, before you began, had either never occurred to them or to which they had been actively hostile.

3.  Inspiration: a speech whose principal function is to inspire the audience to do something that they had previously not considered doing or had been refusing to do or, occasionally, to carry on doing something.

He points all out that while all speeches will have more than one function, one will be dominant; and he states that this function should be persuasion.

What is true of speeches is also true of sermons and, as I have listened to several hundred over these past four years – in churches and from the preachers I mentor – my observation is that the great majority major on information, at the expense of persuasion and inspiration. You can actually estimate this (as I do) by timing how much of the sermon (or how much of the preacher’s notes) are devoted to each function. In extreme cases, a sermon can be 99% explanation of the text with 1% application which can be summarised as, “Go and do likewise.” 

 Understanding the problem

This problem is perhaps understandable for those of us who take seriously the priority of the exposition of God’s Word and authorial intent (as opposed to using the text simply as a launching-pad for the worst kind of reader-response message). However, this can mean an accumulation of a huge amount of information from every possible source in the fear that we night miss something related to the text (however incidental). I was surprised to learn from one pastor I mentor that he had consulted 20-25 commentaries on the passage from which he was preaching.

There are at least three consequences of this approach:

1. Preparation time takes longer.

2. Sermons last longer

3. Application along with illustration is squeezed out.

A personal example

I am only too aware (as were my hearers!) that this has been always been a battle for me so let me share how I have been trying to address this problem of information overload in an attempt to preach sermons that are:

• sharper – focusing on the main point/”big idea” of the passage.
• simpler – I am aware that congregations today are less Biblically literate than they were when I started preaching 50 years ago.
• shorter – I now aim to preach for 30-35 minutes rather than 40-45 (and more!)

(please excuse the 3 alliterative points –old habits die hard!)

Let me suggest two pieces of arithmetic which may help to address the problem of information overload.

– SUBTRACT-

Edit your sermon by taking out information that is not essential. This information may be interesting and it should be accurate and orthodox, but if it does not relate directly to the main point of the sermon, leave it out.

Let me give you a couple of examples from of a recent sermon I preached at Niddrie Community Church where we now worship. The pastors are making their way through John’s Gospel and I was asked to preach on John 11:1-44: the raising of Lazarus. I had preached on this section on several occasions before – in particular, two sermons each lasting 45+ minutes in Charlotte Baptist Chapel, which has a long tradition of expository preaching with a large, mostly well-educated congregation. Niddrie, in contrast, is a mixture of some mature Christians with an increasing number of new converts. So my goal was to preach a sermon that was simpler and shorter.

This, therefore, meant editing out some of the material I had used before. In my notes (I use a full script) I had set the scene at Bethany as follows:

The words “Happy Family” have become abused and over-used.  But in this case they are truly applicable.  In the  village of Bethany, some two miles down the road that led east out of the city of Jerusalem, lived a happy family in a spacious home –  two sisters, Martha and Mary, and their brother, Lazarus, whose name is a contraction of the Hebrew “Eleazar” meaning, appropriately as it will turn out – “he whom God helped.”. 

I edited out the explanation of the name of Lazarus – interesting but not essential (and not part of John’s purpose).

The story also raises the question as to where Jesus was at this time, for the sisters send an emergency message to him informing about the serious illness of their brother. We learn from John 10:40 Jesus had gone “back across the Jordan to the place where John had been baptizing in the early days”. But where exactly was this and, more importantly for the action that follows, how far away was it from Bethany? The commentaries have much to say on the subject – as did I when I first preached on it. But now I simply said that we can’t be sure where Jesus was but it was some distance away and, by the time he arrived back in Bethany, Lazarus had been ”in the tomb for four days” (which is the main point of his “delay”).

Now, taking out this kind of information gives a sharper focus to the main point of the sermon (I entitled it, “Where there’s death, there hope”) so that the listeners are not having to absorb and process non-essential information. It also creates space to now take a second step in addressing information overload.

+ ADD +

For me, using a full script, 1000 words is equivalent to 10 minutes of speaking. (this will vary from speaker to speaker and whether you use full or outline notes, and how much you ad-lib). So, taking out non-essential information, I reduce my notes from 4000 words (40 minutes) to around 2500 (25 minutes). This leaves me space to add two things to the sermon:

1. Illustration. Illustrations serve two functions – oneobvious and the other not so obvious. The obvious function is to provide a window to illuminate the point you are making, a story to illustrate the truth you are teaching. But there is a not so obvious function which is to provide some “mental breathing space”to the listener before you move to the next piece of information you want him or her to absorb. Think of a sermon as climbing a hill in which there are, for example, three stages (as in a sermon with three points). You climb to the end of point 1 and then immediately progress to point 2, followed by point 3 and the conclusion. If, however, you build in an illustration at the end of point 1, it illuminates the point you have made but also proves a plateau for the listener to absorb what has been taught (rather than immediately being given new information). The climber is then prepared for the next stage of the journey.

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