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8 Starts to Avoid in Your Preaching

8 Starts To Avoid In Your Preaching

By Rachel Blom on Dec 1, 2025

YouthLeadersAcademy.com

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The first moments of a sermon shape whether people will stay engaged. These eight common but ineffective sermon starts reveal what preachers should avoid to maintain attention and build trust with listeners.

Scripture: Ecclesiastes 5, 2 Timothy 4, Colossians 4, 1 Corinthians 2, Proverbs 15 (view more) (view less)

Tags: Homiletics

8 Starts to Avoid in Your Preaching

How a sermon begins determines whether people lean in or mentally check out. Certain introductions consistently undermine connection with listeners, no matter how strong the rest of the message may be. These eight opening mistakes:shocking gimmicks, predictable patterns, offensive remarks, long-winded intros, passive openings, dull announcements, self-promoting flair, and unnecessary apologies. These work against effective preaching. Recognizing and avoiding them helps preachers begin with clarity, warmth, and credibility. The headings below walk through each pitfall.

The first minutes of a sermon will determine the overall "success," especially when preaching. If you lose them at the start, chances are you’ll never get their attention back. So how you start your sermon when preaching is crucial. Here are eight starts you should avoid:

1. Shocking Start

I’ve seen preachers use this technique and so far, none of them were successful. Starting with something shocking (a shocking video, quote, song, joke, etc) may seem like a sure way to grab your audience’s attention, but if often backfires for several reason. First of all, after a shock, it’s hard to keep interest for the rest of the sermon. You peak too soon, so to speak. Secondly, the shocking part often has no relation to the topic, so the audience feels cheated and somewhat used and will lose interest. Thirdly, it’s easy to offend or even hurt when trying to shock your audience, which will have obvious adverse results.

2. Predictable Start

There are preachers who start every sermon the same way, with the same sort of story, the same joke, or the same prayer. There was this guy that I’ve heard speak four times, and every time he started with the same lame joke. It even became a sort of running joke in our group, and we never invited him again. Make sure your starts are fresh and avoid being predictable. Don’t overuse the same jokes or stories; believe me, listeners have a fantastic memory for these things.

3. Offensive Start

I heard a sermon once where the preacher started with saying that the only books you should read were The Bible and books about the Bible. Anything else was basically trash (fiction) or completely useless (non-fiction). And believe me, he wasn’t joking. Since I love reading, I was offended, to put it mildly. Needless to say, I didn’t listen to a word he said after that. Offending people is easier than you think. Avoid negative remarks about today’s culture, music, movies, games, etc, before they know you, like you, and know the context in which you’re saying it. They may love the very things you’re denouncing, and while you may completely right, they won’t listen to you.

4. Long Start

Some intros are so long, they become a sermon in itself. I remember a particular sermon in which the introductory story was so long, it ran for at least ten minutes. The story dragged on, and I had lost interest way before the "real sermon" ever began. Keep your introductions short and to the point, then move on to the next part of your sermon.

5. Passive Start

If you want your audience to become captivated, start actively with something that’s easy to listen to, like a story, a narrative or something emotional or funny. It could even be a movie clip. This is especially important when preaching for youth, as their attention span is short in general. Don’t be surprised if you have lost your audience after starting with a long Scripture reading, a long quote (quotes are particularly hard to listen to, since they’re often complicated!) or a long anything. Keep it short, engaging and move on.

6. Announcement-Start

Any preacher starting with "Today I want to talk about…" immediately loses my interest. If you can’t come up with anything better, more original and fresher than that, take a break from preaching until you do. It’s by far the most predictable and boring start ever. ‘Nuff said.

7. Show Off Start

There are these preachers who feel they have to start with demonstrating their oratory skills or their knowledge. They’ll come up with long, flowering sentences, filled with every oratory trick known to man, or stuffed with obscure facts. If you want your audience to dislike you, please go ahead. But otherwise I’d advise you to just be yourself. I’ve seen the other end of the spectrum as well: preachers who almost desperately tried to be cool in their intro, using all the hip words, talking about the latest movies or music, and trying to convince listeners that they were "it." Don’t. Again: just be yourself. Otherwise your audience will know you’re pretending and stop listening to you.

8. Apologetic Start

This is a pet peeve of mine. I hate it when people start a sermon with some sort of apology. They’re sorry because they’re late, because the mic wasn’t working, because they have a stain on their shirt, or whatever. The thing is, when you’re apologizing, you draw attention to stupid details nobody is interested in, and you lose precious time by making people focus on that instead of on you and your sermon. They know the mic wasn’t working, and they can clearly see the stain on your shirt. They’ll assume you didn’t do it on purpose and that you feel bad about it, so you really don’t need to say anything about it, especially not in your introduction. When some minor disturbance occurs, just ignore it and start your sermon as if nothing happened.

Scriptures: 1 Corinthians 2, 2 Timothy 4, Colossians 4, Ecclesiastes 5, Proverbs 15

Rachel Blom (website: YouthLeadersAcademy.com )

View all articles by Rachel Blom

Rachel Blom has been involved in youth ministry in different roles since 1999, both as a volunteer and on staff. She simply loves teens and students and can't imagine her life without them. In youth ministry, preaching and leadership are her two big passions. Her focus right now is providing daily practical training through www.YouthLeadersAcademy.com to help other youth leaders grow and serve better in youth ministry. She resides near Munich in the south of Germany with her husband and son.