You’ve done the work and put in the time.
You’ve prayed, opened yourself to the Spirit’s leading, and studied the text.
A message has formed.
You know what you want to say, which is often the hardest part.
With that sense of accomplishment and forward momentum, you’d think it would be smooth sailing going forward, right?
Sometimes it is. Glory, hallelujah!
But we can still get stuck at several points yet to come.
These pitfalls prevent the sermon from evolving past functional to soul-moving, from a “ticked box” on the to-do list to a memorable message.
This is the third of three posts in our blog series about getting unstuck during sermon prep:
The first tackled the ways we unknowingly sabotage our sermon prep before we even get started.
The second highlighted the ways we make sermon prep harder and more time-consuming than it needs to be.
Today focuses on the opportunities we miss to take our sermons from good to great.
Today is about the “how” of the sermon: how it’s offered so that the message we so carefully discerned can truly land in the hearts of our listeners where the Spirit can do her best work.
The series is not an exhaustive list of all the places we can get stuck. Nor will all apply to you all of the time.
The hope is that by the end of today’s series, you’ll identify some of your most common stuck steps and have adaptable suggestions that will free you, so that you are fully available to receive and offer the joy of the Good News every step of the way.
MISSED Opportunity #1: Neglecting to change things up
We all get stuck in preaching ruts.
Ruts are useful to us as preachers because they reduce our decision fatigue.
We fall back on patterns that work for us which saves us time and energy.
However, for us and our listeners repeated patterns are predictable.
And predictable means boring.
Listeners don’t engage when they know what to expect, when there’s no mystery, no surprises.
We get bored when we’re not challenged to grow by trying something new in our craft.
Here are common places we get stuck in a rut and how to break out of them.
Stuck: Using the same sermon form
A sermon form is the structure that creates a sermonic arc. It’s a type of template that progresses us from start to finish.
Most of us have go-to sermon forms.
Mine is Lowry’s Loop as described by Eugene Lowry in his seminal work The Homiletical Plot: The Sermon as Narrative Art Form (Westiminster John Knox Press, 2001). The emotional arc in Lowry’s shorthand feels like: “Oops!; Ugh!; Aha!; Whee!; Yeah!”
Another is Paul Scott Wilson’s The Four Pages of the Sermon: A Guide to Biblical Preaching (Abingdon, 2nd Ed., 2018) The preacher describes the trouble in the text and trouble in the world; grace in the text and grace in the world.
Both are excellent sermon forms — but their excellence gets diluted if used every time!
Unstuck: Try a new form
If you tend to use one of those sermon forms, try the other.
If you’re not familiar with those two forms read their books.
If you’re not aware that there are many forms available, I commend to you two excellent books.
Determining the Form: Structures for Preaching (Elements of Preaching) ed. O. Wesley Allen (Fortress Press, 2008)
Patterns of Preaching: A Sermon Sampler, edited by Ronald J. Allen (Chalice Press, 1998).
When we learn and apply a new form, we’ll be energized by new ways to offer the sermon, and our listeners will be on the edge of their seats because they’ll be wondering — in the best way — what’s coming next!
Stuck: Telling the same kinds of stories
Many preachers spend hours trying to find a new story to illustrate an important part of their message.
Of those who search, many do so because they’ve run out of personal stories to tell.
Even among preachers who shy away from telling personal stories, they are often scouring the newspaper and the internet trying to find that golden nugget that will save the sermon!
Unstuck: Mix it up
If you tend to use personal stories, switch it up by offering someone else’s story (fiction or nonfiction) found in the public domain or with permission.
If you tend to use other people’s stories tell one of your own now and then, especially if it reveals vulnerability or mistakes you’ve made to draw you closer to your listeners through shared humanity.
Conversely, don’t use a story at all!
Hold up an object as a symbol; show a photograph on a video screen or printed in the bulletin that shows the story instead of telling it; repeat a single line of poetry as a touchstone; ask a choir member to sing the chorus of a song that summarizes your point.
In other words, stories are only one way to illustrate your point.
Get out of your rut by trying a new way to connect the message with your listeners.
Missed Opportunity #2: Preaching Your First Draft rather than taking time to revise
It’s unlikely that you turned in the first draft of a seminary paper to your professor.
We didn’t because upon rereading it, we discovered that our words choices made our meaning fuzzier instead of crisper; our paragraphs needed to be rearranged to unfold the essay’s theme logically; whole sections were redundant and cut.
Why did we go to the trouble?
Because whatever motivates us (good grades; pride; satisfaction of a job well done), we wanted it to meet a standard, and we knew the first draft didn’t get there.
Stuck: We don’t leave time for revisions
Many preachers don’t leave time in their sermon prep to revise their sermons so end up offering listeners a first draft when word choices are still fuzzy, paragraphs aren’t yet placed in an order that listeners can follow, and whole sections are redundant.
Unstuck: Rearrange sermon prep to include time for revisions
On the one hand, no sermon is ever finished. It’s just preached.
We can always do more with it: tweak more, edit more, polish more, etc. At some point, we offer what we were able to create in the time available.
On the other hand, we don’t offer our best work and listeners don’t receive a compelling sermon when we don’t leave time for revisions.
Create a list of minimal revisions you’ll look for each sermon. If you have more time you can add on.
The most minimal revision is this: can you say out loud in one sentence what the sermon is about?
Can you say that same sentence several times without changing it?
If you can’t, then the purpose, meaning, and message of the sermon isn’t yet clear to you.
If it’s not clear to you, it won’t be to your listeners.
Yes, in the moment of preaching the Spirit may nudge you to move in a slightly different direction, but even jazz musicians before they are moved to improvise, have the melody and emotional arc planned and stick to it.
To learn additional ways to revise, I commend to you other blog posts on this subject, and the many writing books readily available on basic editing.
Missed Opportunity #3: Ignoring Tools Literally at Hand
The most important tools we have to work with couldn’t be closer at hand: our breath and bodies.
We spend so much time preparing the words, we forget our bodies offer those words and are equally as important.
We miss out on a big opportunity to let our words flow for all they are worth when we don’t the importance of our bodies to the importance of our words.
Stuck: We don’t prepare our bodies
When we don’t warm up our bodies and voices ahead of time, we’re missing the most readily-available tool we have to make our whole selves available to offer God’s word.
Vocalists, instrumentalists, actors, storytellers—all warm up their bodies before they perform because their bodies are the medium through which they deliver their message.
They prepare their voice so it is available for its full range. They practice breathing at full capacity in order to project the sound (miked or not). They ensure their muscles are loose and relaxed and not tensely creating anxiety or pulling them out of the moment of performance.
All is equally applicable to preachers for the act of preaching.
Unstuck: Warm Up (Even briefly!)
Practicing yoga or Pilates or following a stretching sequence from head to toe for just ten minutes as part of our Sunday morning routine can bring us to a more relaxed and present state.
Body Warm-Ups
Rolls. Roll your neck and shoulders slowly in one direction and then the other
Scrunches. Focus one at a time on shoulders and face. For shoulders, scrunch your shoulders up to your ears. For your face, scrunch it as tight as you can. For both, hold the scrunch for three seconds then drop. Repeat three times.
Cat-Cow. Stand and place your hands on your knees, or kneel on all fours. Take in a deep breath as you curl your back up into an arch like a cat. Exhale while reversing, dropping your belly to the floor (though why this is called “cow” in yoga I have never figure out!). Repeat three times.
Vocal Warm-Ups
Massage your facial muscles, especially your jaw and forehead. Let them relax.
Pretend like your chewing a big wad of gum to move your jaw in every direction. Smack your lips to warm them up.
Say your favorite tongue twisters as fast as you can with exaggerated enunciation.
Each of us must work within the physical or medical limitations we have, but even within limitations, there are many ways to warm up body and voice.
Find the ones that work to bring you into a relaxed and ready state.
The Spirit will have so much more to work with!
Missed opportunity #4: moving onto the next sermon without reviewing the one you just preached
It’s like leaving money on the table.
With all the things on our plates and the relentless schedule of the next sermon to prepare, who has time to review their sermons?
Even if we have the time, who has the guts?
And yet our already-preached sermons are our greatest source of insight about both the clarity and delivery of our preaching.
Stuck: It’s vulnerable
Watching our sermons is incredibly vulnerable.
It’s vulnerable to discover what can be worked on.
Many of us don’t like to look at photos of ourselves, let alone remember why the camera doesn’t lie!
Who wants to discover that we sway, or don’t make eye contact, or that we didn’t articulate an idea as well as we thought we did!
Ack!
It’s also vulnerable to notice what’s already working.
Many preachers are as reluctant to give God thanks and themselves kudos for what they did well as they are to face what needs improvement.
Unstuck: Pray for courage and humility
In either case, courage and humility are a preacher’s best friend.
Pray for the Spirit’s courage to face the truth, for good and for not-as-good.
Pray for humility to know we are loved and called just as much, regardless of the good and not-as-good.
Still stuck?
Perhaps a spiritual director or therapist can help you uncover your fears around self-appraisal—and provide tools for stepping into a space of detached reflection without judging your worth.
Stuck: Not knowing how to spot or address the good and not-as-good
Like many of our listeners, we listen to a sermon and feel that it was “good” (or not as good).
But can we define why?
Can we do the kind of analysis that helps us know what rhetorical devices or organizational choices or delivery techniques to repeat, avoid, and tweak next time?
Until we can articulate what makes a sermon “good,” it’s difficult to learn from ourselves and others, and nearly impossible to apply the techniques of preachers who are more adept.
Unstuck: Define and apply a Standard
At Backstory Preaching, we apply this definition of an effective sermon to every sermon we appraise, whether it’s our own or another’s:
An effective sermon offers a clear message of Good News—authentic to the preacher, relevant to the listener, holding their attention, and inviting transformation.
You may have your own definition.
Either way, we need a standard by which to appraise our execution, as witnessed on the recording, against our intentions for meaning, depth, clarity, relevance, overall communication (through words and body), and impact.
Start with determining a standard.
Use BsP’s or your own definition of an “effective” or “compelling” sermon, and compare your sermon with it.
Then, watch great sermons. Follow preachers your appreciate.
Apply your definition to what they do. Ask at each point of the sermon why it worked and what you can learn that applies to your own preaching.
Reviewing and appraising our own sermons (and others’) is one of the fastest ways we can improve our preaching, for the glory of God and the welfare of our listeners.
Not sure how to do all that?
Join Sermon Camp!
Over 6 weeks, we practice a process for sermon prep that addresses the various pitfalls, time-sinks, and missed opportunities addressed in this blog series.
And we support you in crafting sermons that meet the criteria defined above in the definition of an effective sermon,
We’d love for you to join us so you can save time, get unstuck, and take your sermons from good to great.