Young preachers, your first few sermons are always terrible, no matter who you are.
If you think your first few sermons are great, you’re probably self-deceived. If the folks in your home church think your first few sermons are great, it’s probably because they love you and they’re proud of you. If it’s a good, supportive church there’s as much objectivity there as a grandparent evaluating the “I Love You Grandma” artwork handed to them by the five year-old in their family.
So your first set of sermons, unless you’re very atypical, are probably really, really bad.
So what?
The great thing about Christian ministry is that Jesus doesn’t start all over again with his church every generation. He gives older men in ministry who shape, disciple, and direct younger men in ministry. This includes (although it’s not limited to) critiquing your sermons.
Your sermons will be critiqued. You want them to be critiqued, and harshly.
Now you don’t want them critiqued harshly by your congregations (and a critical attitude toward your pastor’s preaching, church members, is not a fruit of the Spirit). But you want them critiqued, and you want them critiqued now.
Your sermons will be highly critiqued early on in your ministry, when you’re still being shaped, or you’ll just be left alone.
The great preachers you hear or that you read about in your church history books are not almost never those who were preaching great sermons from the very beginning of their ministries.
Great preachers are the ones who preach really bad sermons. The difference is that they preach really bad sermons when they’re young, and are sharpened for life by critique.
Mediocre preachers are those who start off with sermons that are, eh, pretty good, but they’re never critiqued and thus never grow.
So if you’re early on in ministry and you preach a bad sermon, so what? You’re in a train of previously bad preachers that extends from Moses to Aaron to Simon Peter to about every good gospel preacher you’ve ever heard with your own ears.
Your bad sermon says nothing about your future. If you’ve got folks in your life saying, “Hey, that was a really bad sermon,” that does indicate something about your future, so praise God for it. It’s probaby a sign that God has something for you to say, for the rest of your life.
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October 31st, 2009 | 12:23 pm | #1
Yes this very true and l like it. But question is what is good preaching to day? l think this is very important.
October 31st, 2009 | 2:21 pm | #2
This is wise. I remember my first sermon–planned for 22 minutes, howled out in about 6. Even if it made sense theologically it was miserably delivered. Yet the church in her charity praised me up and down, doubtless to encourage me staying in the business. I’m struck by the enormous effort that would be required to continue improving as a preacher, and how easy it would be, after some years of practice, to mail it in and still be thought well of by a parish (I don’t preach Sundays now, so forgive that these reflections are from afar). I’d be curious to hear something on how preachers stay hungry to improve, network to draw constructive criticism from peers and so on in the middle and latter portion of their careers.
October 31st, 2009 | 8:57 pm | #3
This is scarcy, because I only have three sermons. And I have delivered one of them twice.
November 1st, 2009 | 6:55 pm | #4
Where is the “sermon” in scripture anyhow? 1 Cor 14:26-33. That is not to make light of a preacher proclaiming the text of scripture, but I do not see that format in scripture. Paul certainly used that format, but it was evangelical in nature. Their is liberty however. I have never seen people grow more than in a participatory setting where questions can be answered while dealing with the text. That does not mean it is “emergent” either. Food for thought!
November 3rd, 2009 | 11:14 am | #5
[...] Read the rest of his “Two Cheers for Bad Preaching” here. [...]
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