The act of preaching
We preach not because it fills a hole in a worship
service. We preach in order to
communicate what God has to say to the people in front of us. We preach the word of God because that
contains the basics of what God wants to say to those listening to us. When we have nothing else to say, and people
expect us to say something, we should always remind people what God has to say
to everyone in God’s word. But we also
need to listen to God to hear what he wants to say to our people
specifically.
We need to remember that we aren’t the only people God is
speaking through. God speaks through
songs, through the Word directly, through life experience, through His
Spirit. We are only one way for Him to
speak. But we need to take our speaking
seriously. We aren’t speaking for
ourselves, although we are only human.
We are in God’s place. That is a
serious responsibility and we need to take it seriously.
Tips for preaching:
1.
Find out God’s message
If we are to take God’s message to our people seriously, we
need to take God’s message seriously. We
find out God’s message in these ways: a. Prayer for guidance, b. Bible analysis
(to know what the text really says without our assumptions), c. Prayer for God’s
emphasis (to find out which part of the text God wants to emphasize) and d.
Preparing how best to communicate to our people. We want our sermon to bring Jesus’ message to
the people in front of us. This means
that we need to hear from God and find the best way to get them to hear it as
well.
2.
Distill the message
Besides whatever else you want to say, find a snappy way to
present it, so people can remember it.
No one remembers a half hour message.
But if you have a single line or a short list of words, then people will
remember that. Summarize your message
into a way people can remember it.
3.
Don’t preach to yourself, but your audience
For those of us who preach to a different cultural group
from ourselves, this is especially important, but we need to remember this with
every audience. If we are preaching to a
“normal” church group, at the very least there are two sexes represented there,
and we should remember them both. We
should remember the classes of our audience, the education level, the
experiences and the suffering of the people in front of us. I’ve changed my whole sermon in the last
minute because I realized that something different would speak to the people in
front of me instead of the people I thought would be there. If I was speaking to myself, I’d use
theology-speak all the time, or a number of technical words. But I am speaking to communicate God’s
message to people, not to speak what makes me feel good.
4.
Hang out with your audience
If we are going to know our audience, and so speak to them,
we have to meet them, get to know them, ask them questions, listen to their
stories. If we only hang out with people
who are like us, we will never be speaking to the people who are unlike
us. We have to go out of our comfort
zone and spend time with people who listen to us who we might never spend time with.
5.
Sometimes we have to speak a hard or even harsh message from
God. That doesn’t mean that we need to
speak to our people harshly. If we have
a hard message from God, recognize it is hard and try to say it in a way that
can still be heard, standing with them, amazed that God would speak so roughly
to us all.
6.
Work from the learned to the unlearned
No one learns anything out of the blue. Much of what we say will seem strange to
people, (if we are speaking God’s word accurately). We need to draw them in to understand new
things with what they already know. This
is why I often begin a sermon with questions.
Not only does this invite people to participate in the subject at hand,
but I can hear what they already understand about the subject. Sometimes I can hear my whole sermon being
briefly preached before I get to it, which is wonderful! It also means that I can hear what others
have to say, and lead them, step by step, to the message God has for them that
day.
7.
Humor
Make an effort to be lighthearted at times. Sometimes a message is so heavy, humor is
inappropriate, but that’s pretty rare (or should be). People can’t handle just straight speech for
longer than five minutes. Something has
to be done to break it up, to lighten the load for a bit. If people can laugh (or be amused), it makes
the next thing they are presented easier to hear, no matter how deep it is.
8.
Repeat
Be sure to say your summary a number of times, both in different
ways and in the same way. We want to
explain what we are going to say, say the message, illustrate the message,
repeat the message, say why the message is important, say the message again…
you get the idea. It’s okay to
repeat. We are just emphasizing how
important God’s message is.
9.
In a sense, this is a summary of much of what I said
before. We all think in stories, react
in stories and get emotional in stories.
As much as I love concepts, a story is often the package that we carry
concepts with us. How often has it been
that we forgot what a sermon was “about” but remember a great story in the
sermon. Tell a story to tell your
message. You may thing that you aren’t
any good at telling stories. But I bet
you tell a story to your spouse about something that happened to you that
day. The Bible is mostly story, and that’s
one of the secrets of its popularity.
Use that strength. Tell stories.
10.
Live your message
Don’t just tell a story, live the story. Be your message. People may not remember your words, but they
will remember what you did, and tell it to others. If you live the most important messages, then
whatever your sermon was about, you’ve done your job.
11.
Ask for feedback
I’ve taken two classes on preaching in Bible school, and I
don’t remember a thing from them. I do
remember preaching a number of sermons, though, and the feedback I received
from these sermons helped me be a better preacher. If
there’s something others think we could do better in our preaching, they won’t
say it unless we ask and act open to listening to what they have to say. It’s hard not to be defensive about certain
things, but it is best just to listen and let them speak. After they are done we can evaluate ourselves
and decide what we can do and what will improve our preaching.
12.
Practice
Like most skills, we learn by doing. If you have people who want (or are willing)
to listen to you, then just keep at it.
You will hone your skills and find your personal voice and speak God’s
message in the best way you can. The
Holy Spirit will recognize your faithfulness and you’ll become what God’s
needs.
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