Category Archives: Healthy Preaching

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Preaching & the Future of the Church

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A lot has been written about the future and the church in this covid world and what church attendance and engagement will look like in the future.

I think a big part of that and where that ends up will be connected to preaching. And for many of us, for the time being (and a lot longer), that will include preaching to a camera, whether in empty or half-filled rooms or with people watching online.

Pastors know this, but preaching is the rudder of the ship, so to speak, when it comes to church. It is the driver in terms of setting the vision and direction for the whole church. It is the place where we have the most connection and engagement with the biggest group of people.

But, in a post-covid world, that looks a little different than it did in 2019.

But how?

I think some important shifts have happened that preachers need to be aware of.

5 important shifts to preaching in the future.

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1. Focus matters more than time. Any book or blog on preaching or communication will have something about the length of a sermon. Yes, attention spans are shorter today than decades ago. But people are still listening to 3-4 hour podcasts every week, so there is an argument to be made that you can go long.

That isn’t my goal today.

My goal is to make this point: Focus matters more than time. You can have a great sermon that is focused and go for 45 minutes and have a terrible one all over the place, and it is 12 minutes. Time isn’t the factor. It is a factor, but the most important factor over time is the focus of a message.

Is your sermon simple, clear, focused? Does it grab people’s emotions and their minds? Can they walk out with any tangible steps? Do you have a memorable line?

As sermons begin to live longer and people access them in various ways, the focus will need to rise higher than it has in the past. The reality is people will be watching more in homes and listening in their cars.

Focus matters more than the length of time in preaching.

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2. Marry Sunday with the rest of the week. A lot of debate has happened over the years about how much of a sermon should be applied. That isn’t the point of this article.

The point here is how applicable is what you say to the other 6 days of the week, especially because many people will be watching your sermon and engaging with it on a Tuesday night.

I think a big part of the future of the church will have to do with how we equip people to live on mission in their daily lives. Our sermons and content must help people in their relationships, as parents, and as employees and bosses.

How applicable is your preaching?

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3. Helpful content will rule the day. If you scroll through your timeline on any social media channel, there’s a good chance it looks like mine: Lots of yelling.

But the content that will remain and will be the most viewed, I think, will be the content that is the most helpful.

Here’s why this matters for pastors. When our content is helpful, it causes us to think of the people who view it and the struggles they are having. It helps us to see ourselves as servants instead of rock stars. It also helps to take the spotlight off of our church or us and see how we can be, in the words of Donald Miller, a guide to those who are listening.

Helpful content is the most sharable content.

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4. People are longing for meaning. This is connected to #2 but is really important for the future of preaching.

I believe many people will come out of covid with a renewed desire for their lives to matter and make a difference. If 2020 has taught us anything, it has taught us how short life actually is and how we can’t take any day for granted. As communicators and content creators, we can’t miss out on this because the Bible has a lot to say about meaning and our search for it and where to find meaning that lasts.

In a post-covid world, people will be looking more for meaning in their lives.

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5. People are still looking for hope and help. Right now, many people feel hopeless and stuck. If pastors are honest with themselves, many of them do as well.

But this is a great opportunity for churches because we have the hope and help of Jesus.

Each week, each message or video that is created and shared asks: Did I give hope? Did I show where to find help?

I think if we can do that in our messages, people will listen. It will rise above the noise around us. People are more likely to share something that has brought them hope and help. This is why we recommend any book or podcast, or blog to someone.

I think this is also a great grid for us to use when it comes to the messages we preach and the content we create.

5 things pastors need to remember about preaching.

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One Tweak that Took my Preaching to a New Level

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One of my favorite parts of being a pastor is opening up God’s word and preach. To see how God changes people, how He moves them along in their spiritual journeys, and when people have that aha moment of clarity from a sermon.

It is incredible.

Over the years, I have always tried to improve my preaching, but my preaching has gone to a new level in the last year.

And I believe a big part of that is because of the teaching process we have at Pantano.

I didn’t create this, but have greatly benefited and thought I’d share what we do.

The preaching process at our church.

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Like most churches, we plan our teaching calendar out a year in advance. So in August of 2019, we laid out our 2020 calendar of series, topics, speakers, etc. Heading into 2021, because of what 2020 has taught us, we will only plan the first 6 months, so it gives us a shorter runway of topics.

Once the series is laid out, each series is assigned a creator. This creator lays out the passages, the main idea, and the next steps. While these will often get changed by the team, it is a launching off point. The goal is to hand the creative team and the teaching team a roughly half done series.

This all happens 10 – 12 weeks before a series is taught. So the creative team can begin working on stories, videos, and other elements.

The importance of planning your preaching.

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At this point, the teachers have what they are doing, and so does the rest of the team.

13 days before a sermon is taught, the notes are handed to the teacher’s teaching team for them to be reviewed. This team is made of men and women, all ages and personalities. This team is looking for inconsitencies, places where the teacher didn’t go deep enough or far enough or went too deep into the weeds. This team helps to make sure the sermon makes sense, has a good flow, enough personal stories in it, and makes sure that we speak to each person in our church, to the best of our ability.

This team has saved me many times.

Once the teacher has feedback and this team has about a week to give it, they go back to work, going through the comments on a google doc.

How my preaching went to a new level.

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Then, on the Thursday before teaching, we do a live run-through for our teaching and creative team.

No matter who you are, everyone does it live.

At first, this can feel really awkward because you roll into the room and go. But as we have seen in covid, many of us ended up doing this anyway.

For a communicator, this is one of the best things you can do for your preaching.

Why?

You get the feel of a joke; you get the feel of a story. You can work on your eye contact in the room and as it relates to a camera. The team can give feedback on how things feel, how vulnerable you are if you need more information in a section, or how clear your main idea and the next steps are.

Then, the week after, we give feedback to the speaker for how Sunday went.

The importance of feedback in your preaching.

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Is this a lot? Yes. Has this been worth it? Yes.

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7 Keys to Preaching to a Camera

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If you are a pastor like me, you have spent your whole ministry preaching to a room of people. You feel their energy (or lack thereof), you can read body language to know if they are engaged, you know if you are going too long, if you are connecting or not and then covid hit.

And now, you preach to a camera in an empty room.

What was a relational part of your ministry now feels like a disconnect. You wonder, who is on the other side of that camera, how engaged is your church as they sit in their pajamas, am I connecting with them, are they following along.

While this is a new challenge for a lot of pastors, it is not a death blow. It is a pivot but one you can still utilize to reach people.

Here are 7 keys to preaching to a camera in an empty room:

1. Be prepared. This isn’t just a covid preaching tip but a preaching tip in general, but I think it matters even more, when people are sitting at home and can change the channel. In the digital world, your preparation has to go up. When you preach to people in a room, there is a give and take to the preaching, you can improvise a little bit easier, and it plays well. When you stand in an empty room, there is no feedback to know how that landed with the audience. Because as we’ll see in a minute, eye contact becomes even more critical, you can’t be tied to your notes, but you must know the content so well that you can keep your eye contact as much as possible. This means you must prepare more. As well, you must be shorter than usual, which means more focused preparation.

2. Be clear. As you focus your preparation, you must focus your message. I’ve always been a big believer in a message having one main idea, one point you are trying to drive home, one clear action step. This matters even more now because people are sitting at home and have more distractions than their attention spans or their phones. They have their children, the coffee maker, their computer, etc. Clarity becomes even more of a big deal when you are preaching in a digital world.

3. Go shorter than usual. I used to preach for 35 minutes, but now we are doing 20-25 minutes. I think this is important because what I’m hearing from pastors is that engagement goes down after an hour. Meaning, more people click off your service at the 60-minute mark.

4. Picture people. One of the things I try to do is picture the people I am talking to, the stories I am aware of, the things I know people in my church are walking through. Even imagining what they are doing that moment helps me to speak to what they are doing and walking through. I know some pastors have put pictures of their church in the auditorium, so if that helps you picture them, do it.

5. Eye contact matters (a lot). Even more, than being in a room, eye contact matters. Looking right into the camera matters, especially when you are saying your main point, something difficult or something pastoral. And pastors, the moment you think you are staring at the camera too much, you aren’t. You need to look right at them. This feels so weird, but it is incredibly crucial.

6. Your body movement matter. On a screen, you need to exaggerate in some ways. You are trying to live in a room you aren’t in. It isn’t that you are an actor, but I think it helps to feel this way. It helps to move in some ways that maybe you won’t with people in the room.

7. Be you. Finally, be you. You are their pastor. They aren’t watching some national TV preachers when they watch you; they are watching you. So be you. If you stand behind a pulpit, do that. If you sit, do that. If you get all excited, do that. Simply be their pastor. What has been amazing to me is watching so many pastors in this season and seeing how differently everyone preaches. What a beautiful picture of the church that it takes all kinds, and God placed you at your church, so be you.

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5 Ways to Preach a Half Done Sermon

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Whenever I meet with a pastor or church planter, I ask them, “What are you preaching on this Sunday?” I love hearing what series other guys are doing, the creativity. Recently whenever I ask this question, I get blank stares or a response of “I’m not sure, I think I have a title.” Sometimes they aren’t even that far along.

Too many pastors allow the busyness of their lives and ministries to crowd out their sermon prep.

Here are 5 ways to make sure that you are killing yourself on Saturday night to put a sermon together.

Is your sermon half done?

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Don’t schedule it. Many pastors do not schedule when they will work on their sermon. For me, I work on mine in the morning; it is when I am most alert and creative. I block out Monday and Tuesday mornings for this purpose and do whatever I can to protect those times so that I can give my best hours to sermon prep.

Don’t plan. Don’t worry about it. Don’t think about future series, future topics, wait. By not planning, you will make sure that you won’t find great quotes, examples, stories to use. You will also keep from being able to use videos, certain songs that will allow artists to thrive in your church. And, the less time you spend thinking about something, the less passion you will bring to a topic. The longer you think on a topic, passage, or theme, the better.

What if you could have your sermon done before Saturday night?

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Believe that your sermon doesn’t matter. Some of these are connected, but a lot of people don’t think preaching is essential. Whether they hold that people don’t want to listen to a sermon or that they should give a lite “here’s how to make Monday better than Friday was” kind of a pep talk. Your sermon matters. The Holy Spirit likes to show up whenever we talk about Jesus and the hope we have in Him. Lives are changed through the power of opening Scripture.

Unclear on what is the most important thing you do. Too many pastors are not clear on what is the most important thing they do or what should get the majority of their time. Three things occupy the majority of my time:  sermon prep, developing leaders, meeting with new people. I primarily give almost my entire week to those three things. Even when our church was smaller and we didn’t have a staff, that’s what I spent my time on, it’s what I do that adds the most value to our church. If you haven’t already, clarify how much time your sermon will get, give the best of your day to it.

Be lazy. A mentor told me, “Someone pays the price for a sermon. Either the pastor in the preparation or the church who has to listen to it.” Too many churches are paying the price instead of the pastor. Why? The pastor is lazy.

Someone pays the price for a sermon. Either the pastor in the preparation or the church who has to listen to it.

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5 Tips for Preaching a Great Christmas Sermon

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Thanksgiving is over, it’s almost Christmas, which means if you’re a pastor, you are working on your Christmas message.

Many pastors make the mistake of waiting too long to work on their message, trying to be too creative or just not being creative at all, to the point they’re boring.

If you’ve been in ministry for any length of time, you’ve given many Christmas sermons and series. It is hard to continue to come up with fresh material, to surprise your people or say something unexpected.

I don’t know if that’s a good or a bad thing. I wonder if we need to “surprise” our people with something unexpected.

But this Christmas, you will have people who will walk through your door who have never been to your church (or any church). You will have men and women, boys and girls who walk through your door who are giving God one last shot. People who are skeptical, hurting, doubting, wondering if there is a God in the universe who loves and cares for them.

I say all that because there is a lot at stake at Christmas.

Christmas is the time of year where depression and anxiety reach its peak. Divorce rates double over Christmas. Please, please, please, keep these numbers, stories, and faces in front of you as you preach this Christmas.

Ready?

5 Tips for Preaching a Great Christmas Sermon

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Here are a few tips as you prepare and preach a great Christmas sermon:

Before we get to the preaching, just a quick pro tip!

1. Dress appropriately. It is incredible this still has to be said, but no matter where your church is, people tend to dress up on Christmas. People are out as families; people are meeting potential in-laws for the first time (hoping to make a great first impression), families and friends will take pictures together. So dress appropriately. Also, dress comfortably. There is nothing worse than speaking in the wrong outfit. There is also nothing worse than watching someone in a suit too big (or too small) or pulling at their collar because it is tight so make sure that whatever you’re going to wear matches, is Christmas-y and fits!

Now for more of the how-tos of preaching.

2. Understand the pain and baggage people bring with them. When people walk into your church each week, they walk in with a story, a story filled with hopes, dreams, hurt and pain. Christmas has a way of magnifying our stories.

Christmas has a way of magnifying our stories.

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Arguments that are decades old will come up, broken relationships, divorces, abuse. They will sit at tables with empty seats because of those broken relationships, bad decisions or death.

Many of the people that will sit in your church and mine did everything they could to get to your Christmas Eve service and hold it together. They are stressed, run down, tired, partied out, wondering if their kids are thankful, wondering if they will fail Christmas with their family, worrying about the next year and what it will bring.

They need a moment to catch their breath; to know you hear them; to know God hears them.

3. Tell the Christmas story. Let’s be honest; as a pastor, the Christmas story can be hard because you know it, other people know it, which makes it difficult to keep it fresh and relevant.

The Christmas story is about hope.

And right now in our world, if there’s something that people need it is hope.

If you take what I said in #2 seriously, you should be able to come up with a whole host of ways to bring hope into peoples lives.

One of the struggles I’ve had is that people walk in expecting the Christmas story and I want to surprise them. The reality is, it’s Christmas. So talk about Christmas.

4. Surprise people with the Christmas story. Going along with the previous point, there are so many ways to surprise people and tell them something about Christmas that is unexpected or they didn’t see.

You could talk about doubts people have, the importance of names and stories by walking through a genealogy, talk about God’s presence with us.

The list goes on and on.

One exercise that might be helpful is to make a list of all the questions people have about Christmas and baggage they are carrying in. Then make a list of all the things we learn about God through Christmas.

This exercise should give you years worth of Christmas sermons and series.

5. Be brief and to the point. Lastly, be brief.

While people came to church, they don’t want to spend the holiday at church.

My Christmas message is often the shortest one of the entire year.

That’s okay. People will forgive you. Your volunteers will thank you.

Remember, this sermon is just part of the marathon of your preaching ministry, not the end of it.

5 Tips for Preaching a Great Christmas Sermon

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3 Tips for Preaching the Book of Daniel

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I just wrapped up a series on the book of Daniel. You can see the sermons and resources here.

Because I get asked a lot by pastors about sermon prep, putting a series together, making the Bible relevant, I thought I’d share three tips to preaching the book of Daniel.

Why?

The book of Daniel is not one that many pastors preach through. In researching it, I found most people who preach through Daniel stop at chapter 6. I’ll be honest; it’s tempting to do. The first six chapters are filled with narrative, extraordinary faith, prayer, and God doing incredible miracles. The last six chapters are filled with visions, revelations, images that are debated and a lot of head scratching.

1. The book is about God, not Daniel, the end times or your church. Yes, the book of Daniel has a lot about the end of the world (especially if you are a dispensationalist), but spending your time on this does a disservice to the book and your church.

The word king or kingdom is used over 150 times in the book of Daniel. That is the theme, that is the battleground of the book. While it’s tempting to focus on Daniel and his life and faith are an essential part of the book, the book is about God and his power. The book is about the temptation to worship something or someone other than God.

2. Don’t get stuck in the weeds. Daniel, like the book of Revelation, is filled with a lot of images. These images are fascinating, confusing and debated. One of the things we decided at the beginning is that we wouldn’t get into the timeline debate that centers on Daniel. You can see how we handled chapter 9 (which is one of the most hotly debated passages in the Bible).

Are there people in your church who want to debate the end of the world, when Jesus returns, who the anti-Christ is? Yes. What we asked was: What are these passages trying to tell us? For us, they came back to who God is and what His character is, so we focused on that. What do these passages tell us about God, because that is what God was communicating with Daniel?

3. Tell people about God’s character and power. Preaching through Daniel, especially when you talk about the lion’s den and furnace, for those who are skeptical about God, these are passages that make you scratch your head. I had multiple conversations with people wrestling with, “Do you believe that happened?”

These passages, the images in the visions and dreams are about the power of God and his character, who He is.

Your church needs to hear those things, and it is an excellent opportunity to show the relevance of them.

Many sermons today, and I’m all for this, are based on felt needs and speak to what the people in your church are struggling with and walking through in their lives. Focusing on who God is, while not a question they are asking, is the question they need answering and is the hope to what men and women are struggling with when they walk into church.

This power not only catalyzed the faith of Daniel but can do the same thing for your church.

One of the most significant examples of this is how much Daniel prayed in the book. While I was preparing for the series, I missed this, but as I was preaching through it, it stood out boldly in the book.

Several times we’re told, “Daniel prayed as was his habit” (or something similar to that). That’s important. When Daniel came up against struggles and power, he prayed to a God he trusted and had the power to save him.

Daniel is a book every pastor should preach through. It is so relevant to our day and age as we struggle to live out our faith in a culture that is opposed to it. It is a book that reminds us of the God we serve and the power He has.

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The 1 Thing Most Christians Miss

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When you think about God, do you think of God’s love for you or God’s disappointment in you?

Do you think of God’s love for you or God’s disappointment in you?

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Stop and think about it for a moment.

If you’re like most people and me, you don’t have to think very long to decide the answer; it’s God’s disappointment, his anger.

I’m becoming more and more convinced that Christians would live differently, our culture and churches would be different if we understood God’s love for us.

We read passages like Romans 8 and how nothing can separate us from the love of God and shrug. Then when we sin, we feel far from God and wonder why we don’t feel close.

We read how God sings over us in delight in Zephaniah but aren’t sure what that means or even how that would feel.

I had a conversation with a friend recently who gave me some pushback on my preaching. He told me that I spent too much time talking about God’s love and not enough time talking about God’s wrath. In his words, the gospel is what we have been saved from and what we are saved to, and I spent the majority of my time in a sermon on what God has saved us to.

The reality for many (especially in the reformed tribe) is to focus solely on God’s wrath and make little mention of his love. The Bible doesn’t say God is wrath. It says “God is love.”

The Bible doesn’t say God is wrath. It says “God is love.”

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I want to return to the question at the top. Is there a verse in the Bible that says God is disappointed in you?

Most people live like there is, but there isn’t.

Now, the Bible has plenty to say about life apart from God, sinful desires, giving into temptations and not letting go of past hurts. The Bible has plenty to say about shame, regret and other sins and negative emotions.

But it doesn’t say that God is disappointed in you.

Make no mistake, if you think God is disappointed in you, that will drastically impact your life.

If God’s love or God’s wrath is prominent in your mind, that determines so much of your life.

If God’s love or God’s wrath is prominent in your mind, that determines so much of your life.

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Back to my friend.

The reality is that I do spend more time on God’s love for us and what we have been saved to.

For a couple of reasons:

1. Jesus spent a lot of time on that. Many times, Jesus would talk with someone and end by saying, “Go and sin no more.” That is future-oriented.

How to be a future-focused preacher.

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2. The Bible is full of hope, and that’s what people walk into a church looking for. Every Sunday people walk into a church looking for hope and help. They may not say that, but that is what brought them there. The beautiful thing about this is that is precisely what the Bible has for us.

The Bible is full of hope, and that’s what people walk into a church looking for.

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Now, to be clear before I get emails. When the text calls for it, talking about God’s wrath is something we do at our church (we spent almost a whole year in Romans once). It is in the Bible.

I’ve learned though that regardless of whether or not you have a church background, believing in God’s wrath is not difficult. Believing in His love is.

The 1 Thing Most Christians Miss (and It’s Big)

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Guest Post: Sticky Sermons Academy

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If you had to guess, what do you think is the number one reason unchurched people choose a church to attend?

It’s not the music. It’s not the lights. It’s not even the kid’s ministry – at least at first.

It’s the preaching.

Thom Rainer and his team did research in this area and discovered that 90% of unchurched people gave the preaching as the reason they chose a church. WOW!

Gallup did research in this area, too. They determined that sermon content is what appeals most to churchgoers. More specifically, churchgoers are hungry for sermons that teach Scripture and are relevant to life.

All that to say, the sermon is important in SO many ways!

But I know the struggle and the grind that comes with preaching.

I understand that you’re busy. I understand that every week can be drastically different – sometimes making your sermon prep process a jumbled mess. Oh, and Sunday comes every week. And that fact, in and of itself, can be stressful when you’re working from scratch every week.

And heck, that’s just weekly prep work. There’s so much more to preaching.

Sermon writing is often a grind, right? And surely you feel the pressure to bring it with a sermon perfectly crafted that will keep people listening, stir them up a bit, and see them respond in some tangible way week in and week out.

*Insert cheesy TV voice* But wait, there’s more!

Good sermon delivery often feels so subjective that you don’t even know where to start in order to improve. And if all that weren’t enough, preaching can be painfully isolating. Then, add the overwhelming number of cultural issues our people are facing and struggling to deal with… And let’s not forget about our ever-changing methods of communication that present great opportunities for the furthering of the gospel message but can often be overwhelming to church leaders.

Whew. I’m sweating and it’s only Tuesday!

But what’s the point of all this?

I’m glad you asked. We have been hard at work putting together the most helpful, practical, and transformative resource we’ve ever created. And we’ve been doing it all for you.

It’s called Sticky Sermons Academy.

Sticky Sermons Academy is an online course and private community designed to help you preach memorable sermons week in and week out.

By diving in and giving yourself to the process, you’ll walk away with:

  • A sermon prep process that is for YOU and YOUR context – not mine or someone else’s.
  • A plan to get FAR ahead on your sermon planning and the tools to do it effectively.
  • A proven framework for sermon writing that adopts the elements of story so people will listen and respond to your messages.
  • Storytelling skills that will empower you to tell stories and anecdotes in the most effective way possible.
  • Sermon delivery techniques to focus on, work on, and improve on that will take your messages to a noticeably other level.
  • The how-to of preaching the gospel in every sermon and addressing cultural ideas in a gospel framework.
  • Strategies, tactics, and the how-to of extending your sermon past Sunday through digital communication channels – i.e. social media, email, blog, video, audio, etc.

And on top of this, we have a bonus section of video interviews where we dive into the many angles of preaching sticky sermons with pastors and church communicators of all church sizes and contexts. We’ll even be adding more in the future.

We believe that Sticky Sermons Academy can be a gamechanger in your life if you commit, work hard, and give yourself to the process.

Enrollment is now open!

Click here to learn more and enroll.

Also, you can get $50 off the course for the first 24 hours (this expires Wednesday, March 7th at 11am Eastern).

Just enter the coupon code FASTMOVER at checkout.

___

Brandon Kelley is a pastor at The Crossing on the east side of Cincinnati. He is the co-founder of RookiePreacher.com and the author of Preaching Sticky Sermons. You can connect with him on Twitter @BrandonKelley_.

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When You Preach a Bad Sermon

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There are all kinds of reasons for a bad sermon.

It could be poor delivery, incorrect theology or making a passage say what you want it to say, not what it actually says. It could be that your sermon was bad because you went too long and had 2-3 sermons wrapped up into one.

Most of the time a bad sermon is preached because the pastor is unprepared.

This can happen because they didn’t give priority to sermon prep. They let their week get away from them, and they were scurrying around on Saturday trying to figure out what to say.

Many times a pastor is unprepared because he hasn’t edited his sermon and has too much information.

Every sermon you preach will leave things left unsaid. Why? Because people can’t handle a running commentary or an hour long sermon.

I remember a pastor saying once, “Tim Keller needs 32 minutes for his sermon, and you aren’t Tim Keller.”

Tim Keller needs 32 minutes for his sermon and you aren’t Tim Keller.

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There’s a lot of truth to that.

And honestly, most weeks I say too much. A few weeks ago in one of our services I circled the airport and refused to land the plane, went 10 minutes longer than I should have and said more than I needed to. (As a side note, if you do preach too long you should walk back to your kids’ ministry and apologize to the workers, as they feel it more than anyone else in your church).

When that happens, it is important for a pastor to evaluate why that happened.

Here are some questions to ask yourself:

4 questions to ask yourself when you preach a bad sermon.

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Did I give adequate time to sermon prep this week? It is easy in the busyness of a week to crowd out sermon prep. Meetings, counseling, family responsibilities, budgets, all of it screams for your attention. As a result, any pastors find themselves waiting until the last minute (Saturday night) to work on their sermon. Your sermon must get priority in your weekly calendar and schedule. You need to do it when you are most alert (which for most people is the morning).

Was I focused when I stood in front of my church? This is difficult. You arrive at church and there is a lot happening. Not only at church with your volunteers, staff or technology issues, but you also have everything that happened that week in your church, your world and your family.

I think pastors need to think through a Sunday morning routine that helps them to prepare their hearts and minds. What music do you listen to on Saturday night and Sunday morning? What is your prayer routine like? When do you read through your notes? I lay out my weekly rhythm here and what my Sunday mornings look like.

Did I preach more than one sermon? This happens more often than I’d like to admit and is a lot harder if you don’t preach every week.

In any given passage you could preach 2-3 themes. Many times when covering a longer passage, there are a lot of themes. A pastor must edit down and determine what he will and will not zero in on. Sometimes this means that you not only don’t cover everything, but that you might need to take that chapter and make it four sermons instead of one. Your people will thank you because you will be clearer.

Do I believe God will still work if I don’t say everything that is in my notes? Recently in a sermon, the person doing the slides asked me after the first service if I was going to skip two pages in the second service. I asked what he meant, and he said, “You skipped almost half your notes.” When I got to that part of my notes, I knew I didn’t have time for it. This means a pastor must feel okay with what he did and did not say. You don’t have to share everything. If you missed something crucial, write a blog post or share a video on Facebook.

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8 Questions to Ask Before You Preach a Sermon

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Preaching is hard work, but it is joyous work. Ask anyone who preaches on a regular basis and you will find someone who loves the process of preaching, prepping a sermon, thinking through a series creatively and then standing up to communicate God’s Word to a group of people. It is an awesome task and responsibility.

In light of that, here are eight questions you should ask yourself before getting up to preach a sermon:

8 Questions to Ask Before You Preach Your Next Sermon.

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1. Have I studied enough? It is easy to study too much for a sermon, but it is equally easy to study too little. So much happens in a week; so much has to happen. Life happens for you personally as a pastor and in the life of your church. There are meetings, appointments and opportunities that call for your attention. Then there are all the ways you can waste time as a pastor.

You should never step up to preach until you are prepared. This means you will sacrifice some opportunities to give enough time to the task of preaching. How much time that takes and when that happens will depend on the person, the series, the church size and ability. You should not step up to preach and be unprepared. There are weeks you will feel inadequate. In fact, that will be most weeks, but unprepared should not be what you feel.

Yes, you could always study more. You could tweak more. Many times you need to stop studying and spend time with people or take a nap. Pastors are notorious for overdoing it in sermon prep.

2. Have I prayed enough? Have you confessed your sins, prepared your heart to preach, prayed through your notes and for the people who will be there? Have you asked God to move on your behalf? Don’t just ask for a crowd. God is interested more in movement than a crowd (I believe).

3. Do I care about this topic? You won’t feel passionate about every topic to the same degree. Some will come easily, some will be your soap box topics and sometimes you will preach a passage because it is the next thing in the book of the Bible you are preaching through. Sometimes you will preach on a topic because your church needs to hear it.

Another way to think about this is, do I care enough about the people in my church to tell them what they need to hear this week? Not in a mean, berating way, but in a loving, shepherding way.

4. Is this relevant to my church? This can be tricky, but you need to think through how a topic is relevant to your church. What do they think about the topic? What is their pain point as it relates to the topic? Sometimes this is obvious, and sometimes this takes more work on your part as a pastor.

5. Has this passage and topic impacted me personally? This is like #3, sometimes you are impacted deeply by a truth you are going to share, sometimes you aren’t. The Word of God needs to do its work in you before you stand up to preach. You need to preach from the overflow of your time with God, not regurgitate a commentary. One of the best things that can happen in a sermon is when you say, “Let me share how this has worked in my life or heart this week.”

6. Do I know what I am trying to communicate? This seems obvious, but I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard a sermon and it became obvious that outside of a verbal Bible study, the speaker had little idea what he was trying to communicate. Here is one of the most important words in sermon prep: edit.

Edit is one of the most important words in sermon prep.

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Do your best to nail down your sermon to one line. That’s all most people will remember. This is hard work because some weeks it isn’t obvious. You owe it to your people to do that hard work.

7. Do I know what I want people to do with what I’m about to say? Going along with having your sermon be about one thing, you aren’t ready to preach until you can articulate, “In light of this truth, here’s how we should live.” This isn’t to put a burden on your church but to show them and help them apply the truth of the Bible. Don’t end with, “I’ll just let the Holy Spirit bring about the application for you from what I just said.” No lie, I heard a guy say that once. Your goal is not a how-to self help talk, but your people need help applying something, seeing through the fog of their life to see how the Bible impacts them.

8. What barriers will keep people from applying this to their life? We all have barriers to the Bible, believing God, believing in God, and applying truth. During the week think through what those barriers will be to what you will preach. What will keep someone from applying this text? Why will someone walk out and disregard what you say? Talk to them, talk to that. Say, “You might be thinking ____.” That person will think, “He is talking to me.” Maybe talk about your struggles to apply something. This will show a human side to you that your people will love.

There are more questions you can and should ask before preaching, but these will hopefully get you started.