“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.” (John Stott)

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.

Read More