Introduction to Preaching!
Let me introduce a series of lessons that will cover the gamut of preaching. The Gospel is the most important message on the planet. You, the preacher are a key individual in this heavenly enterprise. Few other people have the opportunity to affect the lives of people in such a meaningful and important way. Yet, sadly too many preachers have become bored with the Gospel of Jesus Christ and are using his name to spread dozens of counterfeit gospels. Too many preachers are tickling our ears with the church’s version of urban myths, questionable fads and shoddy theology.
Jesus gave Peter a directive, “Feed my sheep” (John 21:16-17). This instruction applies subsequently to you and every preacher of the Gospel. Preaching is providing a spiritual diet. Food can be sugared-up colorful junk or quality nutrition. Quality nutrition can be boring and dull or colorfully presented and a taste pleasure. What kind of spiritual diet are you preaching?
Do we Preach Spiritual Junk Food?
Spiritual junk food may be empty-headed, meaningless fluff, weak and clumsy back-yard theology or outright heresy. It may be alluring and thrilling, with glitz, gadgets and gizmos. Some preaching uses techniques of mass hypnosis, so you will give your money and hopefully not notice that you are starving of nourishment. There is nothing wrong with enthusiasm, but theatrics are too often used to cover up a lack of content. Many believers who listen to a steady diet of such superficial preaching don’t realize how devoid of spiritual nourishment they are. They may live in materially rich countries and attend opulent churches, but are on a subsistence diet spiritually, barely surviving, spiritually destitute, and perhaps have never experienced a thoroughly filling banquet of high quality preaching.
Do we Preach Baked Beans?
On the other extreme is what could be called baked beans preaching. It may be nutritious food, but it is dull and boring. This kind of preaching is theologically accurate, rightly dividing the Word of truth, but is dry and dreary. Too many Christians suffer through this kind of monotonous discourse week in and week out. Many churches are fed a kind of dry, lifeless orthodoxy. Orthodoxy (right teaching) is incredibly important. Lay members urgently need to be taught well, how to live like Christ and to discern truth from heresy, but lethargic and lifeless preaching does injustice to the Gospel. The most important message on the planet ought not be treated as a sleepy bedtime story.
Do we Preach Chateau Briand Bouquetier?
There is that kind of preaching that I liken to Chateau Briand Bouquetiere, one of the most superb meals on the planet. It consists of the finest cut of beef with a medley of imaginatively cooked vegetables. It is both nutritious and exciting, and was the most expensive meal on the menu in a fine restaurant I once visited. I have witnessed this kind of preaching too, but it is far too rare. Of the well-known preachers, only a few rare ones preach to this excellent standard, yet it can also be found in thousands of small country churches and even in some, but not all larger churches. That is the kind of preacher I challenge you to become. It is the kind of preaching that will awaken a church and change the world.
Naturally, there is a fault with the food analogy. We can’t eat Chateau Briand every meal. That too would be bad for our health. We need a variety of wholesome meals, including things like fruits, vegetables, salads and even beans occasionally, not just the one kind of meal. What we do not need is nutrient-poor junk food. First-rate preachers vary their homilies. They are not boring and predictable. This series gives a variety of sermon styles and challenges you the preacher to use them all through the course of a preaching season.
Do We Preach or Teach?
I use the word preach throughout this series with reservation. Actually, biblically, the word preach seems to have more to do with presentation of the Gospel outside the church, to the public. The word for what we do inside the church seems to be more accurately teach. However, please understand that I am using the word "preach" in its popular usage, describing what the pastor/priest does during his homily or sermon. People often say in street-speak, "Preach it brother!" By that, they probably mean, "Teach us the things of God with enthusiasm and power." If we are not preaching or teaching from the Bible, we are only giving a motivational speech, an Amway or Reader’s Digest sermon. As fine as those products may be, they are not what we are called to preach in the churches.
How Should You Use These Lessons?
This series greatly expands upon the style of public speaking manuals offered by educational groups such as the Toastmasters International and the material on types of sermons found in the classic On the Preparation and Delivery of Sermons (1870, John A. Broadus). It is designed like a manual to progress systematically from easy to harder preaching styles. However, if you are an experienced preacher just skip ahead and work on those areas where you need more improvement. On the other hand, some lessons like How to Read Scripture Aloud contain concepts that take a lifetime to master. These are such important tasks that even if you are a seasoned professional you may want to review them from time to time.
This series is designed with the assumption that preaching has an important place in the liturgy of your church. One of Jesus' final commands to his disciples was the Great Commission (Matthew 28:19-20) which includes the directive to teach all things that He had commanded the disciples. This may certainly be done in the liturgy of song and scripture readings, but can best be explained in depth, giving real life applications during a sermon or homily. If we devalue preaching, as some churches do, then we fail to recognize Christ's directive to teach everything that He commanded. If the worship service is the time when most people attend, then they may not get that important teaching at any other time of the week. Bible studies and other teaching opportunities are often not as well attended.
There is essentially no difference between a sermon and a homily. Culturally, a homily may sometimes be seen as shorter, but that is not always the case. So, I will introduce the sermonette for the purposes of this series. The first lessons are suggested as sermonettes (5-15 minutes), building gradually to full-length sermons (20-40 minutes or longer if that is your custom). Of course, if your practice is a 10 minute sermon or homily, because your liturgy is also filled with Scripture in song and readings, please adapt the principles found here to your situation. For those whose liturgy is rather devoid of the Word of God, I urge you to rethink your worship services if you have the freedom to do so.
Let’s Look at Lay and Professional Preachers
Lay preachers are usually not formally trained in theology and not paid for their preaching. This series is designed to serve seminary-trained professionals as well as lay preachers. Scheduled sermonettes may also give gifted lay members an opportunity for personal growth or even be used for occasional testimonials. I cannot recommend the practice that exists in some churches, where the astute theologian and the heretical know-it-all are given equal access to the pulpit. I also cannot overemphasize caution when it comes to you who are lay preachers. I urge all lay preachers to be humble about their lack of theological training and to please realize that a little knowledge truly is a dangerous thing.
Don’t get me wrong! Lay preachers are usually wonderful servants of the local church, but are more capable of teaching about living a Christian life than the depths of doctrine. I highly recommend barring from the pulpit any and all who have an axe to grind in regard to heterodox teachings. Love them deeply, but don't let them anywhere near the pulpit. Orthodoxy is very important, because troublesome and harmful ideas are being introduced all over the world by naïve and enthusiastic followers of certain heretical preachers and the rubbish that they teach. Don't teach something you heard a televangelist preach, unless he is one of the few that are real biblical scholars. Many televangelists are poorly qualified and what they teach may be wacky hogwash. Stick to teaching about things you know, like love, and Christian ethics in business and you will be safer. Your faithfulness and loyalty are also important as a lay preacher because so many have been guilty of introducing division while the main preacher was absent.
Some churches include a weekly sermonette given either by a lay person or trainee preacher at the beginning of their worship service, as well as a full sermon from someone more proficient in the Scriptures, such as the paid clergy. Sometimes, the sermonette can be a children’s sermon, which we will discuss later. In smaller churches without a full-time trained preacher, or when the preacher is on vacation, gifted and theologically orthodox members of a lay preaching team may even share the sermon time slot giving perhaps a couple of shorter sermonettes. These do not take the place of consistent preaching from a pastor or priest, whose regular teaching provides continuity and whose biblical training ought to provide depth, but they do offer some much appreciated variety.
Take a break to digest this advice, and when you’re ready, we’ll begin the first lesson. For this and other books by the author on preaching, search Amazon.com using the author’s full name.
