As the Deer

How can pastors, pressed for time in the weekly demands of ministry, take steps to improve their preaching?  Shrinking budgets make it harder for pastors to attend expensive continuing education events, but there are specific low-cost things they can do to enhance their sermons.

In ‘08 I finished a D. Min. in preaching at Christian Theological Seminary, studying under Ron Allen and Dan Moseley.  My suggestions reflect lessons I learned in that program.

1.  Read five books on the theory of preaching.  These have shaped my thinking:  God Sense by Paul Scott Wilson, Preaching Is Believing by Ronald J. Allen, The Preaching Life by Barbara Brown Taylor, Sharing the Word by Lucy Atkinson Rose, and Preaching As Local Theology and Folk Art by Leonora Tubbs Tisdale.

2.  Read regularly in areas outside preaching.  I prefer non-fiction.  I’ve never been able to follow the ‘read a book a week’ rule, but even if it’s only every other week I finish one, it still stimulates me and provides ideas and illustrations that end up in sermons.  And though I read it less, fiction offers great value too.  Fiction writers help readers imagine geography and sensory experience — a great help in preaching.

3.  Experiment with alternate delivery styles.  If you regularly read a manuscript verbatim, try preaching from an outline instead.  Or (gasp!) experiment with preaching without notes — Joseph Webb’s books can be a help with this.  There is no one correct preaching style, but I would opt for the one that enables you to be more animated and engaged in the pulpit.  And speaking of pulpits, if that’s your usual station, try preaching from outside the pulpit.  There is value in leaving port.

4.  Invite someone to videotape two of your sermons.  Have a small group critique them with you.  If the group includes other clergy, have them bring video sermons too.  Few pastors, I think, have seen and heard themselves preach, and so they have little idea how they appear to others.

5.  Take a Sunday off and visit a church known for good preaching.  In addition to not seeing themselves preach, many pastors probably have little opportunity to hear other preachers live.  It can be an enriching experience.  I don’t think it’s as valuable simply to read someone’s sermon online — that’s like reading sheet music for a song… it needs to be performed.

6.  Rehearse your sermon at least a half dozen times before you preach.  (Paul Scott Wilson recommends 8-10 times.)  I will use our boiler room at church for rehearsal because of the privacy it offers.  Preaching is more than reading an essay aloud — preaching involves embodying a message, and this takes practice.  My sermons have improved since I started taking seriously this need for rehearsal.  Let one of your rehearsals be outside — I often practice mine while walking the dog Saturday night (by then it’s mostly committed to memory).

7.  Interview six of your parisioners.  Ask them about their spirituality.  Ask them what makes preaching meaningful to them.  Listen to your listeners.  There’s a book on this topic, Listening to Listeners (McClure, Allen, et al).  Listen to your parishioners in informal ways too… at the football game, at the coffee shop, in the hospital waiting room.  Their lives are sermons to you.  Good preaching appears in that intersection between what you hear listening to scripture and what you hear listening to your parishioners’ lives.

Be patient.  Change in preaching comes slowly — it’s not a linear thing.  My preaching is better than it was five years ago, but it’s not as good as it could be.  When I listen to a good preacher, I think to myself, “Wow… I wish I could preach like that.  How can I inch forward in that direction?”  This is the attitude to have, the sense there is always a possibility for improvement in the art of preaching.