Better Preaching

I never saw myself as a long winded preacher.  The folks in my first church bragged about my sermons telling me they had never heard such short sermons.  And if brevity is the hallmark of a good sermon, my five minute sermons back in those days were surely good ones.  It is not that I did not want to preach longer, I just ran out quicker than I planned.  However, as the years went along, my sermons did get longer.  Before it was all said and done, there were surely folks who were saying they were too long.  Nothing is worse than listening to a preacher who keeps running by stopping places.  Like many others who have stood in the pulpit, I am guilty of that preaching error.

 

Time has little to do with good preaching.  Good preaching is mostly about what happens before the preacher gets to the pulpit.  Of course, this is not to say that the actual delivery and preaching of the sermon is an unimportant thing, but a way of pointing to the importance of prayer and preparation.  No preacher preaches his best until prayers have been prayed.  The prayers that make for good preaching are not the prayers asking God to bless the prepared sermon, but the prayer asking for guidance and help in the preparation.  The praying that makes for good preaching is the prayer that seeks the Word which God wants to say on the Sunday which stands waiting. 

 

And, while there are some who can get up in the pulpit, throw open the Bible in a random fashion, and read a sighted text from which to preach, it never has been that easy for this preacher.  There are books on preaching which make suggestions about how many hours should be spent in the study for every minute of preaching.  Mostly what those guideline suggest is that a good sermon takes time to get ready for the pulpit.  Praying for the preachers we see and hear preaching is never a bad thing to do.  They need the prayers of the pew sitters and the pew sitters need to be partnering through prayer with the preacher.  It all works together for better preaching.