You are such a natural Charles.’

‘Ah, but sir, you do not see the thousands of hours I have studied and laboured, prayed and pleaded, scoured books and commentaries, begging the Lord to equip me to preach his Word with power and simple words. You only see the pulpit, and hear the sermon, yet you miss the candlelit nights of God wrestling my heart tp the ground to say ‘Son, I must preach this through you tomorrow.’

– Charles Haddon Spurgeon 

 

While some modern people think preaching is something that belongs to some bygone era and leaders in churches should just be having nuanced dialogue with their audience as to not offend, etc., they are wrong (can I say that?). Throughout history Christianity has had preaching at the centre of what it does. The church was literally born out of a sermon (Acts 2), and moved forward based on sermons (there are 19 recorded in the Books of Acts), that both equip the church and call prophetically out to a culture of corruption to realign people’s lives with the accomplishment of Jesus and the life of the Spirit.

This is what God has called people to do all through the Bible, whether it’s the Prophets, or the Early Church: The world can be changed through preaching – whether to thousands in a mega-church setting, or a sermon given to a small group of people in an underground church in China, or Vietnam, the Spirit uses them to transform people.

I am both nervous and hopeful when I look at modern preaching. I am nervous because I see preachers who are theologically accurate but often not all that compelling and communicators who have a lot of passion and skill but aren’t saying anything – while Paul calls us to be both theologically deep and passionate. I get this from the best definition of preaching I have found in the New Testament where Paul says preaching is: “Proclaiming… the testimony of God” (1 Cor. 2:1).

Don’t be afraid to teach theology and the Bible 
He says our sermons should be about “the testimony of God”. While topical sermons are amazing and very helpful, and I am not opposed at all to preaching and teaching that teaches people practical things about life from a topical vantage point, I think even those sermons should be rooted in the biblical text. If you are preaching on money, make sure you are launching your main ideas off a Christ-centered text that shows people you are exegeting ideas from the bible, not using the bible as a proof-text for ideas you want to share. This not only gives your people good theology but teaches your people to live their life in the right chronology, not bringing their ideas to the text, but deriving their life from what the text says.

In this, you don’t need to be afraid of preaching sermons that have deep content theologically and philosophically. Recently, I preached a sermon on thirteen things the cross of Jesus accomplished for us, for one straight hour, there was only one quick song and the sermon in the whole service. I used deep quotes, and lots of notes, and framed it as a lecture. The feedback is it was one of the best sermons I have ever preached. You can watch it here. The key was I illustrated it in real life and took deep concepts like propitiation, expiation, gift righteousness, and justification and rooted them in the real life issues of the audience.

Some preachers need to hear this point loud and clear because they are communicating funny sermons, or dress the part, or have the right lights and music around them in a church service but are not saying anything deep, or theologically profound at all. They are not discipling their people to love and serve and depend on Jesus, but on them as a communicator, hoping to draw only an emotional, but forgettable, response from their people.

Don’t be afraid to speak to culture
Paul’s whole letter to the Corinthians addresses issues and questions they are dealing with in their real life in an ungodly culture. You should always preach sermons not only to the people in your church, but their neighbours and friends and co-workers who don’t believe in Jesus at all. The task of a prophet has always been to speak to the idols of the heart of both believers and non-believers. The more you do this, speaking to the issues of agnostics or atheists or Buddhists, the more they will start to show up at your church. Jesus whole teaching ministry was to seek and save the lost. “I didn’t come for the righteous, but sinners” he said. If your teaching ministry isn’t framed around the same goal you have only done half of your job as a preacher. Sermons are meant to teach the church (of course!) and disciple the thinking of un-churched people too, calling both groups to repent and find their life in Jesus not themselves or their religion.

Some preachers need to hear this, as they are speaking biblical truth, but they aren’t applying it to the non-Christian culture around them. They aren’t speaking to real life issues, thinking the bible isn’t about those, but only talking in theological terms, expecting people to go and figure out their own application, as an old model of preaching used to teach people in seminary. But this just isn’t true and is a silly expectation in a post-christian world like ours, where most people have not read a bible at all.

Don’t be afraid to work hard – and thus be passionate!
When I sit and listen to a preacher, I wonder how long they spent working on this sermon. Not as much around the content, as that usually isn’t that bad, though sometimes that is weak as well (basically a nice talk about ‘God’ – whoever, or whatever that is – and you doing your best in life, etc.,), but around the delivery. The preacher is too dependant on their notes, lacking eye-contact, or the preacher seems to be handing an audience ideas (information-transfer) not rooted in their own life. The only way I can explain the better route is that the preacher really needs to own their content; like feel it in their soul wherein it is seen to be bleeding out of them as they preach and apply and illustrate from their everyday existence. To do that you must be willing to work harder than you have ever worked before.

My process for a full decade was to preach the sermon out loud every Saturday night for three and a half hours until everything was perfect. So I really believed the content in my soul. That’s what a great and true sermon looks like. That means your family, staff, friends, etc., must sacrifice time with you for the sake of your audience. If you can’t make the sacrifice needed you likely won’t ever preach great sermons. But of course, that is like anything in life you want to be successful at.

I explore all of this and more in my brand new online preaching course which was just released a couple weeks ago: The Art of Better Preaching, which you can get here! Hopefully these thoughts and that course are helpful as you work on yourself for the sake of the gospel being communicated to as many people as possible!