How To Improve Preaching
To improve in most disciplines, it takes intentional practice. Preaching is not much different. Some would rely solely on the Holy Spirit to empower their preaching, but often this is a long sermon with repeated phrases. If the Spirit is really quiding every word without preparation before hand, then the Spirit is a poor preacher. I believe in the help of the Spirit during preaching, but some of the preparation comes through hard work in the text. There are two big elements in good preaching: the content and the presentation. I am not really thinking about content here, but more on how to develop a great presentation of the lesson. What can a preacher do to help develop his preaching skills? If it is a just a matter of practice, he is going to practice bad habits. Maybe a preacher should hire a profession speaking coach. Also, often the members do not have the experience or knowledge to tell a preacher what he must improve. What is a good process in polishing the pulpit?
Related posts:
- An Orderly Reading of Preaching Books to Improve Sermons
- Refresh Preaching
- Review of “Strategic Preaching”
- Read “Preaching What We Practice”
- Triangulation in Preaching
About The Author
Love to hear what other people do to improve.
U41xrf Thanks for good post
At the congregation that I attend, there is no designated minister. All of the brothers share in the teaching responsibility; therefore, I am in the regular rotation of delivering messages. Prior to attending this congregation, I was a member of Toastmasters. It helped me to address some bad habits that I had that took away from my presentation. Through many speeches and critiques, I developed into a pretty good speaker. This experience has helped me quite a bit as I stand before the congregation and speak.
So many things can contribute to good preaching. I would have to include these:
An interest in good exegesis including understanding the historical background of the passage. Every passage has a story and people often connect better to a text when they get where it came from, the situation it was written in, etc.
A healthy diet of regular reading. Fiction, non-fiction, etc. This helps you learn how to tell a good story, gives you illustrations, and generally informs people better to preach.
A care and concern for people. You can be a great communicator but if people know you outside the pulpit and think you are arrogant or don’t really care about them, don’t expect them to listen. You can preach a poorer quality sermon but it will be listened to if the people know you love them. I am not saying we should preach poor quality sermons…I am saying that caring goes a long way!
Listen to other preachers. I don’t think we should borrow other preacher’s voices. I think we all have our unique take but when you listen to others you can see how they weave things together. If all you do is preach and never listen it is easy to forget just how bad some things come across and how well other things do.
Be authentic. If you are going to point out flaws be the first to point the finger at yourself. It goes a long way. This should never been done in manipulation or for show but as being genuinely authentic and letting the sermon hit you personally before you lay it on the congregation.
Great thoughts Matt.
I have thought about joining toastmasters or another group a long those lines. I looked into them during my time in Waynesboro, but there were no groups within an hours drive. There will be a lot of those groups in the castle rock area. Maybe I will do this instead of joining rotary.
I might humbly add that one way to improve would be to make a more firm commitment to an expository ‘style’ of preaching. In my mind, expository preaching is the type of preaching mandated by scriptural text (2 Tim. 4:2, Acts 6:4, Rom. 10:17, Matt. 4:4, John 21:15-17) and a preacher might make a greater commitment to this type of preaching and improve. I don’t dear many men in the church today preach in this style though, instead preferring topical or narrative preaching.
One of the simplest yet most effective things to do is to ask people what they thought of your lesson. Once they realize that you are really interested in what they think they will tell you. You may be shocked but it will help you. You have to find the right people to ask who can tell you in a loving way and isn’t known as the complaint department. I regularly ask people and plan to do more evaluations this year. I would hate to know that I spend 8 hours a week doing something that isn’t effective.
Good preaching comes from those who love God, love people, will spend a good amount of time in scripture, are good listeners of culture and current happenings (the theology of a sermon must connect with where the hearers are), and practice public communication. I believe whole heartedly that good preaching only comes from hours of actuall preaching practice. This is one reason why, as an undergraduate, I took every “small church” preaching opportunity taht came my way.
As for the Holy Spirit guiding and powering a preacher while preaching… I certainly believe in this but I also believe that the Holy Spirit can guide and empower our strudy of scripture and sermon preparation if we will bathe that work in prayer.
Grace and peace,
Rex
Great question, Matthew. I’ve also enjoyed reading the good comments here.
Something that is related: Back when I was preaching every Sunday, I adopted the practice of using the Common Lectionary for sermon texts. The change was inspired by an article in Restoration Quarterly by Tim Sensing. His observations and suggestions are really fine, and it may be that the article I have in mind can be found on the RQ website (they have put some of the journal online).
I think many preachers in the Churches of Christ might be surprised to find out that their children’s Bible school curriculum is based on the lectionary. For example, Faith Weaver is. In that case, the preacher is often speaking from the text the children just studied in class. You should see their eyes light up when they realize it. What a great way to ensure that even the kids are listening to your sermon.
But that’s not the main reason I started using the lectionary. What I found is that it forced me to grapple in the pulpit with passages I otherwise would have avoided. Also, because many thousands of pastors use the lectionary, there are a huge number of resources, many of them on the Web, for lectionary preaching. I would guess that there are thousands of lectionary websites and blogs. Too, the lectionary plugs and preacher and the congregation into the Christian calendar, a traditional rhythm that can provide a good bit of balance. With the lectionary, the preacher never has to select a text, but simply chooses one of the few for that week. And you can always break from it when you want or need to.