What are you doing right now to get better at preaching? Do you have preaching goals?
Maybe you have a goal to finish your sermon by Fridays, or plan transitions more skillfully to make it easier for listeners to follow from beginning to end, or incorporate ten minutes of prayer into your sermon prep.
If so, your sermons will certainly benefit and your listeners will be brought closer to God in the process.
As important as goals are, however, there’s something even more important underneath.
Our intentions.
We often focus on goals more than intentions. As preachers, we need both.
Intentions Create fulfillment from the moment we begin to act
Goals are quantifiable.
They can be measured. They have markers, a starting point, milestones, and an ending. They are partially or fully achieved, or they are not.
Goals are rewarded when they are met and can be externally recognized by others.
But goals in and of themselves do not produce fulfillment.
Intentions, however, do because they are rooted in our values.
And every time we act in accordance with our values—whether we accomplish a goal or not—we feel good.
Rooted in values, intentions give direction and purpose to our life.
They guide us in the way we live, move, and have our being throughout a day, week, conversation, or sermon.
They point us in the direction of how we want to be. They are not quantifiable but qualifiable, not checklist-able but reflect-able.
The reward when intentions are met are internal, and that is enough.
Intentions may give rise to goals or they may not. They don’t need goals to be real; they are sufficient unto themselves.
Intentions are part of us.
We find satisfaction and even joy in life when our choices are consistent with our intentions.
Living consistently with an intention rewards us from the moment we start to exercise it.
The interaction of values, Intentions, and goals
When we can name our intentions as preachers, we are more likely to preach consistently from our values—and then we find the goals consistent with them.
Here are examples of preachers’ intentions and some goals that may arise from them.
Intention: Be vulnerable to the Word of God during my sermon prep so that I am changed by it.
A value is wanting to be molded to become more Christ-like.
A goal is to always ask myself who I am in the text and what God’s hopes for me are.
Intention: Be aware of what is happening in the lives of my listeners and the way the text intersects with them.
A value is exercising compassion for my listeners and their particular struggles.
Goals:
Pray daily for my listeners.
Watch the news channel many of them watch at least three times this week.
Ask at bible study about the problems in their lives they wish God would help them solve.
Intention: Preach the love of God that dignifies and values every human being.
A value is exercising the self-sacrificial love of Christ that gives us the courage to lift up the dignity of every human being.
A goal is highlighting the most vulnerable in the text who are most like those who are vulnerable today.
How to Discern Intentions and Goals
It’s usually easiest to start with what is observable—what we do—and then ask questions about what’s underneath the behavior.
EXAMPLE 1: STRESSFUL SATURDAYS
For example, if we observe that we’re stressed on Saturdays because our sermons aren’t done yet, ask where the source of the stress is: What do we wish were different?
If the answer is that we wish we could take our full Sabbath day on Fridays and spend time with our loved ones on Saturdays, then the intention is to value our mental and spiritual health and commitment to our loved ones.
The goal then might be to rearrange our schedules or decline a reappointment to a committee in order to free up time so we finish our sermons by Thursday.
EXAMPLE TWO: SERMONS THAT RESONATE
We might want to make our sermons connect more with our listeners.
Ask yourself where that hope comes from.
The answer might be that it comes from knowing the value you’ve found in finding yourself in God’s narrative, and because you care for your listeners, you hope they find themselves in God’s narrative, too.
The intention, then, is to help listeners see themselves in the text.
The goal might be to make an exercise of writing out for yourself the truth you find in the story or the biblical characters that is still true today. Or to create a web of connection between the text and the world your listeners inhabit so you can draw those connections into your sermon.
Practicing the Intention is the Reward
Every time we practice our intentions we are rewarded.
By practicing our intentions while engaging in the creative, spiritual art form of sermon prep and preaching, we are fed and energized regardless of the outcome.
Satisfaction, joy, and energy for preaching increase—and by God’s grace, creates a self-fulfilling vocation.
Wanting to Get intentional about your preaching life?
What about your intentions? Your goals? The ones unique to you and your preaching setting?
You can identify and develop them with support by working with a Backstory Preaching Mentor in the only preaching continuing education and formation program that’s guaranteed.
Discern whether you’re called to be part of Backstory Preaching Mentorship, 2023-2024.