What Do You Want From a Sermon?
I am working with some pastors in NW Iowa on preaching. They are largely from the Reformed tradition — Christian Reformed Church, The Reformed Church in America, and their various Reformed cousins — and have been meeting together for a couple of years with the help of a Lilly Endowment grant to support preachers administered by Calving Seminary‘s Center for Excellence in Preaching. Apparently they stumbled upon my book, Preaching at the Crossroads: How the World-and Our Preaching-Is Changing
We haven’t just talked about preaching. We’re also talking about the changing culture in which we live, the nature of congregational life, the kinds of pastoral leaders we need today, and how seminaries can help prepare such leaders and preachers. But mostly we’re talking about preaching. And where we started was with a simple but often rather vexing question: what makes a good sermon.
We began by inviting folks to name when they had felt that something had really happened in their own preaching that felt like they had gotten it right. That the Spirit had been at work through them, perhaps even in spite of them, to make a difference in someone’s life.
That was a more challenging question than you might imagine. Most of us are a bit uncomfortable talking about God working through us. And preachers certainly don’t want to sound like we’re lifting up our own sermons as a kind of model. We all know how hard preaching is and that when things fall together it’s often as much about our listeners and the Spirit as it is us. But it still was a useful exercise to begin reflecting on our preaching.
We then turned the question slightly and asked, “When you don’t have to preach or even lead worship, but instead are at church simply to worship, what do you want in a sermon?” That’s a valuable question, too, as I think the best sermons are often preached to the preacher first. That’s not to say we preach only our needs and interests, but rather that we need to start with a “felt” question or need. Preachers need, that is, to feel the Gospel connect first to our lives and questions before we can address it authentically to those of others. And we need to connect with our hearer though our experience.
That question occasioned good conversation as well, and I’ll report on that – including my own answers – later this week or next. But what I’m really interested in is asking you the same question: what do you hope for in preaching? What makes a good sermon for you? What needs to happen for you to feel more connected to God and those around you?
I told these preachers that I often use my kids as one barometer. After church, one of them in particular will regularly ask me, “What did you think of the sermon, Dad?” He asks because he thinks I’m the expert. This is what I’ve taught for fifteen years now, after all. But I always answer him the same way: “What you thought about it is actually more important.” And I think that’s true. Because I’ve been culturally conditioned to expect a certain kind of sermon – the kind that has been pretty popular in the church for a couple of generations. But the future of our congregations depends a lot on whether my kids and the rest of their generation think church has something to offer them, and that includes what they think about the sermons. I’ll keep going to church; for me it’s not optional. For them and their peers, it is.
Truth be told, more often than not, my kids find sermons pretty boring. And I’ve wondered whether it’s my job to help them “appreciate” the classical forms of preaching or whether I should simply keep engaging them around what would make sermons more interesting for them. Perhaps a bit of each. But I worry, frankly, that if really try to “educate” them to like today’s preaching all I’m really doing is teaching them that this is the best they can expect. To be bored a fair amount of the time but to be pleasantly surprised, and occasionally even delighted, when a sermon gets them thinking or inspires them. Can we do better?
If we do, I think it’s going to come from everyday Christians being more honest what what they hope for in preaching and worship. So I’ll ask again, what do you want, hope for, and especially need to hear on Sunday morning? What might a preacher do – and I realize worship is way more than preaching but I want to focus on the sermon just now – to help connect you more deeply to God and to God’s world? What can be said or done on Sunday morning that will enrich your spiritual life? I’d really like to know. So would the pastors I’m working with today. For that matter, so would the thousands of preachers who get up every Sunday and say something they hope matters. Thanks for helping us out by responding honestly about your hopes for preaching in the comments.
One last note: Preachers, I’d invite you to resist the temptation to respond so that we can hear from our listeners. I’ll reflect on what they say later and that would be great time to jump in. 🙂
Excellent questions, and much food for thought. I have to admit that I pay a lot more attention to sermons now that I’m a preacher than I used to when I sat on the organ bench. But even with that, I’ve gone from trying to explain what the scriptures meant to engaging some sense of what they mean for us now. The history is in the background, and is often helpful. And instead of giving answers, I invite each listener to seek the answer that applies to her or his particular situation. Some lively discussions spring from comments afterwards, and we can use them to know each other on a deeper level and build understanding that we then apply to areas like evangelism and outreach.
The most important thing a sermon has to do for me is challenge me to live more faithfully, more justly and more compassionate and to give me some tools with which to do just that. I appreciate modern biblical knowledge being shared as part of a sermon, but don’t want to be lectured at, rather engaged in a conversation if you like, a give and take, where the answers aren’t provided but the questions are asked that send me on the right path..
I think a good sermon challenges me to think and maybe feel. It contains an idea or a question I can take away to think about – it might motivate me to see things or people differently, or myself differently, or God differently, or the society around me differently. I am changed in ways I might not fully appreciate at first, but will later through the help of the Holy Spirit. And all of that might not even be what the preacher intends but is what the Holy Spirit intends.
Well you got my interest so in the middle of a day with “a million” things to do Im going to respond to your question. I came to the Lutheran church as an adult from more fundamental backgrounds. So I am always fed by words of forgiveness and compassion and Gods love for each of us. I appreciate that reinforcement in every sermon and then I appreciate an understanding of the particular scripture for the day at gives it a deeper meaning by exploding on the greek or more original meaning. For example this Sunday our pastor talked about how the greek word for the difference in Johns and Jesus baptism is the same word that was used when the “panel” was torn in the temple when Jesus died.Maybe my explanation is limited but that was my understanding and it helped me to understand more about Jesus and the Spirit in our lives. Hope that makes sense to you. And thanks for your challenging and interesting ideas.=
The sermons I find most meaningful are those that are simple (as opposed to complicated and wandering) and clear about the theme or main point of the message. It helps to have real-live stories that illustrate the point(s) being made and show how the idea works in actual practice. I appreciate having a title for the sermon printed in the bulletin – one that helps me know the preacher’s intent and that jogs my memory for later. And I look mainly for a single “nugget” out of the sermon that I can take home to apply to my daily life. Of course the latter is the Spirit nudging me personally about something. Nonetheless, I need a sermon that encourages and challenges me to grow spiritually – to apply some truth to my life the rest of the week.
Thank you for saying that the message must be meaningful to the preacher first before he or she tries to share it with the congregation. If the preacher isn’t moved and changed by the truth being shared then they have no business preaching about it.
Thanks for “In the Meantime”. As a lay leader in our church I have found it helpful many times.
Maybe the whole premise of one person sermonizing is misconceived and never should have been. The concept of one person being an orator and oracle is probably misguided. I don’t believe early church meetings were conducted in such a way. I believe there was much more room for discussion and participation. Nowadays church is a business and ministers are a job. God has become a commercial enterprise and people aren’t buying the product. Jesus probably never imagined what tortures would follow his torture.
I’m glad you have a place to describe your experience.
I like a sermon to explain the Gospel lesson in language I can understand. It is helpful to me if our Pastor will relate the Gospel lesson to something from her life experiences. That shows me that she has had the same or similar things happen in her life; that her life isn’t perfect. She shows us by example how she puts her trust in God and lets us know that she truly believes that God is there with her through the good and bad. I guess that I’m not just talking about the Sunday sermon here. I co lead a women’s Bible study with our Pastor once a week. That gives me more of an opportunity to ask questions if something from her Sunday sermon isn’t quite clear to me. Reading the daily devotions from The Word In Season is also helpful, as I have already read the Gospel lesson ahead of time and the devotion that accompanies it. Thank you, David for giving us much to think about each day!
Explain to me the background and setting. Explain how some of the translations may have changed the meaning. Tell me the history and what the conditions were at the time of the gospel. Then challenge me in today’s terms. Sometimes I need to be told I’m loved. Sometimes I need to be reminded that I’m “accepted”. Sometimes I need to be shown a different angle or point of view. Challenge me to grow in my knowledge of the Bible. The sermon is the main source of information for my learning. We don’t have a good Sunday School or Bible class at our church and they don’t appeal to most members of our church. My favorite sermons have been from former pastors who were farmers or grew up in farming families. They related most of their sermons to the farming way of life which was great for us suburbanites. Several guest preachers have preached sermons I remember because they somehow drilled into my being. Maybe changing the style of delivery around helped that come to be. I think the most important part is to show some passion and show me you believe in what you are saying. I don’t need over the top “fire and brim stone”. Just some passion from the pastor.
Thanks for all these blogs and Daily Bread. I feel I’m growing from them in my everyday walk with Jesus.
I THINK!!! I want the sermon to make me question ‘my’ faith while giving me a door to open to find the answer.
As an aside – I once heard a preacher say that a sermon should be about two things, about God and about 10 minutes.
I am an organist. One of the ministers I worked with said to make it short. If you let them go early, they are like kids out of school and they will love you forever.
First, please, a good story. It’s the stories I remember and help me feel like I know you, my pastor, a little better. The story doesn’t always (and probably shouldn’t) have to be about your own life or experience as a pastor. In fact, those stories that begin, “I was making a call to a…” sometimes bug me. But, personal stories when I know we share something in common, like keeping score in my marriage about whose doing the most laundry, or being touched by a kind gesture from one of our kids, those can be endearing. Those stories not only make a point (like keeping score is a bad idea, and blessings come from unexpected sources) but also build our relationship as coworkers in the body of Christ. You are set apart as pastors and that is right. Your sermons are one way we can still get to know you. Third person stories can have a similar relationship building effect because now you and I have shared the same perspective… I guess story is an invitation to be together somehow.
The second thing I like in a sermon is a bit of Lutheran theology. I’ve been around long enough to appreciate some “inside baseball”. Also, as a career development consultant, some of the things I’ve been taught, by you, David, and by my pastors, come in handy, especially with clients who are floundering around trying to figure out God’s plan for their life.
Finally, let me say this… as a musician, I have, over the years, worked in many denominations, and at one point, 20 years ago, I was hearing 3 sermons each Sunday all based on the same scripture… Lutheran sermons are the BEST!
Wow! Thanks for the question as I was having a similar conversation with my (pk) 13 y.o. daughter…as she was raising the question as to why she has to come to church (other than because we make her do it). She is the only one of her age….mostly retirees in the congregation….unfortunately, she doesn’t find the sermons compelling (who needs another sermon from their mom?)…again, thanks for raising the question and I look forward to further reflections.