I have a passion to help make Pastor’s more effective at preaching and teaching across Canada in whatever way I can. Often the church drops the ball on excellence when it comes to this area even though it is such an essential part of reaching people in our cities, towns and communities.

Churches seem to often settle. Messy rooms, bad art, and mission drift. But also, often in regard to the preaching ministry. Here are three things to keep in focus if you’re a preacher:

1. Content: preach from the Bible. We have enough 7 steps to a better this, and 4 steps to a better (like this blogpost!) – because in a world of so many messages it is helpful for us to know we can have a few practical take-aways when reading a blog. But preaching is not blogging. I am not saying never to have a number of practical points in your preaching, but know that the Bible isn’t that. It is story, exhortation, encouragement, theology, philosophy, psychology, etc., but it comes to us in a form that we can journey through with people without having to boil it down to edible, simplistic, sound bite points. And when we do that we often do damage to the text itself, forcing it into pithy sayings and tweetable ideas. So preach through the Bible. Your people need more Bible and less pop-psychology, business principles and 3-point sermonettes. There should also be a world of theological construct behind what a preacher brings to his people, in addition to anything he actually says. Which means, if you don’t love theology, commentaries, historical reconstructions, reading footnotes in German, then maybe consider another gig. (Side note: don’t bring your people into the footnote, German world with you, just bring the results to them).

2. Form: your people want / your city needs you to not just teach but preach. Information is great and there is a great deal of teaching we need in the church because theology is important but we need preachers! People who do what Paul did when he went into the cities of the ancient world – bringing the biblical story into conflict with the gods of the time and the worldviews and lifestyles that hold people captive. Making it live. ‘Logic on fire,’ as Martyn Lloyd Jones called it. Don’t just explain but exhort and call people to something because what you are explaining is really true!

Strike the balance between discipleship (developing Christians) and evangelism (reaching non-Christians) every week, and in every sermon. This means being theological and interesting at the same time. One of the plights of preaching across Canada is that it’s boring! Some times in a church sermons are interesting, or in good form, but empty of content – this is a dangerous mistake, and one which must be corrected and shaped. But there are also many times that a communicator has great content (pages and pages of it!) but puts everyone to sleep. Give people a break during your sermon. Give them opportunities to lock the ideas into personal stories or word pictures. Edwards did this a lot. As did Spurgeon, and Lewis. Read Mere Christianity. Lewis doesn’t go a page without rooting his philosophy in practical pictures from real life.

3. Work hard – some communicators in churches just don’t work hard enough. They have an idea that their people owe it to them too show up and listen to them every week. This is deadly. We must work tirelessly every week to disciple our people and reach new people, with the understanding that they don’t owe us anything. We fight for every convert, and preach every sermon like it’s our last.

This means 3 things:
Pray: we need to pray hard around what God actually wants to say to our people and our city through a given text. We need to listen to that and be obedient to preach it even if it’s hard.

Study: leaders are readers. Read everything you can so you can draw on everything from film reviews, to psychology papers, to theological treatments on themes, topics and ideas as you prepare each week.

Memorize: preachers I have talked to who watch me preach often say “well I’m just not wired like you, I need more notes!” They are usually surprised when I tell them my preaching process. I prep during the week in between meetings a little bit but most of my reading for sermons is done at home. I cart a suitcase of books to and from work every day. I then take what I’ve read and prayed on and thought about and write it out word for word on Fridays, creating a 12 page manuscript. On Saturday evening at about 5PM I say good night to my family and work at home to bring the manuscript down to a few pages and then I go over and over those pages memorizing them until about 11PM. I then get up at 5AM on Sunday and go to a coffee shop to continue through the ideas before the 8AM service.

Bottom line: hard work. Lots of hours. Lots of reading. Lots of writing. Lots of dedicated time. Most of which is over and above your “40” hours a week as Pastors. Nothing is just handed to you. Obsess about your ideas and the crafting of your sermons. Your church and your city deserve it!