Advice For Aspiring Preachers
My son, John, has expressed an interest in becoming a pastor and the other day, after he heard me preach, he asked, “Dad, do you get nervous and scared when you have to preach?” It was an interesting question and if there was ever a time when the phrase “it gave me pause” applies, this was that time. I thought for a moment and said, “No, John, honestly, I don’t get nervous or scared anymore, I just get excited and happy. But it wasn’t always that way.”
At one time, I was absolutely terrified at the thought of public speaking. Like many people, I was scared out of my mind at the thought of public speaking. Routinely, studies indicate people are as afraid to get up in front of other people and speak as are afraid of death. I saved my required public speaking class in college for my last quarter, of my last year. During that class I received a revelation that has stuck with me since then. If you are not feeling that “butterflies in the stomach” feeling, you aren’t going to do well. Our professor said, “You better always feel that little tickle and twinge in your stomach, if you don’t, that’s when you should be afraid.” Let me explain. That “fluttery” feeling that many people think are “nerves” is actually the feeling of adrenalin pumping into your bloodstream, and if you don’t feel that, you are not going to be “up” to preach. What I do fear now when I have to preach, or speak publicly, is not feeling that excited “let’s go!” feeling. It’s the same feeling I always had when I got up to bat. Let’s go! Let’s do this! That’s an ok feeling to have.
I think a lot of pastors remain “nervous” and “uptight” because their focus is too much on themselves, and not enough on what they are preaching about. When your focus is so much on “doing it right” rather than what you are doing, you will always come off as stiff, formal, aloof and insincere, and, forgive me, but you are just going to be boring. When a pastor is working hard to make sure he has “covered the bases” in a sermon, and hit all the right notes, the sermon feels rote and formulaic. If you have to think too much about playing the piano, you won’t play it well. Similarly for preaching.
Here are some things for aspiring preachers to keep in mind:
(1) Be yourself. Learn from other preachers, but be yourself. Develop your own voice. Nothing is more grating than hearing a young pastor preaching who sounds just like his favorite seminary professor. And, to be honest, what works for your favorite seminary professor, in all likelihood, isn’t going to work for you. Just because your favorite professor used nouns as verbs, and verbs as nouns, and spoke in incomplete phrases and sentences, doesn’t mean you should.
(2) Be prepared. I do not mean you have to feel that unless you have spent thirty hours each week in excruciating study of every possible meaning and nuance of the verb forms in the text, you have no business in the pulpit. No, you’ll learn that good sermons are not seminary exegetical lectures or “musings on every possible meaning of the text.” But, on the other hand, if you have not given good quality “think time” to your sermon, it will show. You will end up saying the same thing, the same way, Sunday after Sunday. You’ll get bored with your sermons. And if you are bored, the congregation will be too. Some pastors try to excuse their boring sermons by claiming that people are just bored with the Word of God. That’s far too facile an explanation.
(3) Be passionate. No, you should not imitate the Pentecostal tongue-speaker down the road at Family Friendly Church of Happy People, but, if you think the “gold standard” for preaching is the guy you saw at seminary standing in the pulpit reading his sermon in a dry, monotone, well, good luck with that. Sometimes, after I have heard a sermon, I want to shake the preacher and say, “For the love of God, man, why are you talking about the most important things in the world, the most serious of matters, matters of life and matters of death, and the greatest and most glorious good news that there ever in a way that reminds me of a person reading stereo instructions 1?” Everyone has their own style, to be sure. Some people are naturally more dynamic and effusive than others, but if you can’t must a bit of passion when you preach, then, that’s a problem to be overcome.
(4) Be clear. Simple is good. If you can’t communicate your message without relying on a lot of jargon, terms and complicated outlines, you aren’t getting the job done. You are not preaching to impress the most learned in your parish. You are preaching to be understood. If you do not have a clear outline for what you are saying, you will ramble and people won’t be able to follow you. Have a point. Make it. And then stop. Start slow, rise higher, strike fire, retire.
(5) Be real. Don’t assume a “pulpit voice” or “stained glass voice.” I understand back in the days when there was no possible way to amplify a voice, other than to raise it, how and why our pastors developed a booming pulpit voice. And let me say this: If the little old lady in the back row with a hearing problem, can’t hear you clearly, then for her sake and others, speak up! Don’t stand there and mumble and speak softly. But on the other hand, if you sound entirely different in the pulpit than when you speak in real life, you will come off like a fake. If you don’t naturally pronounce the Almighty’s name as “Gawwwd” in real life, then don’t do so in the pulpit. Get the picture?
(6) Be practical. Your hearers deserve messages that are down to earth and practical, not esoteric exercises in lofty rhetoric and literary devices. This is not to say you have to be a slob with the language to do a good job, but if your sermons are out of reach of most of the people in your congregation, then ratchet it back a few notches. Don’t be a slob, but don’t be a snob. You are not there to impress people with your clever turns of phrase and rhetorical flourishes. You are not trying to win a debate contest, or a drama contest. You are preaching, and nothing attracts people to church more than good, clear, practical sermons that speak to where people are in their daily lives and experiences. That’s not my idea, that’s what our Lutheran Confessions say. Our Lord and Master Jesus Christ Himself is the model preacher in this regard.
(7) Be a speaker, not a reader. I know this is a sore point among many pastors, but if you are reading your sermon manuscript in the pulpit, you are not communicating as effectively and as clearly as you do when you are actually talking to your congregation. A manuscript read in the pulpit is a barrier between the pastor and the congregation. They are hearing you read an essay, not preach a sermon. Notes and outlines? Sure, but a sermon is a sermon, not a written essay. Afraid to “go without a manuscript”? Work to get over it. Practice more. Break the manuscript habit. Leave your manuscript in the sacristy, take a brief outline into the pulpit and go for it. If there is something so profound in your sermon that you are afraid you will forget it in the pulpit, then if you do forget it, it wasn’t worth remembering . You’ll remember to say what you most need and want to say. You’ll learn how. Don’t develop a dependency on the crutch of having a manuscript in the pulpit.
(8) Be a pastor, not an entertainer. I’ve seen way too many pastors working hard to get a chuckle out the congregation, telling insipid little stories that have nothing to do with the point of the text, and trying to amuse, titillate or entertain “the crowd.” And it works. Let’s admit it. It works. You can pull the heartstrings of the little old ladies and cause the men to clear their throats. You can go for the cheap and easy emotional reaction, but our calling is to be pastors, not entertainers, to be preachers, not comedians, to be messengers, not manipulators. I’m saddened when I see pastors going for the cheap laugh. Pastors proclaim Law and Gospel. Pastors point to Christ. If your sermon is talking more about yourself, than about Jesus, then please, don’t preach. Don’t underestimate how much your people come to hear a Word from God, not a word from you, or about your family, or about children, or your dog, or the latest interesting movie you’ve seen, or book you’ve read, or what your professor in seminary said when you were there. When I hear a pastor gushing on about himself in the pulpit I find it hard not to shout out, “Oh, would you please just shut up about yourself and tell me about Jesus?!?” Seriously, I don’t want to hear about your seminary experience. I want to hear about Jesus. I want to hear what the Bible readings are all about, and how they apply to my life and what a difference they make. I want to hear about God, not about you. I want to hear about my sin and about my Savior, not you. No offense, Rev. Pastor, but Church is about Jesus Christ, not about you.
What advice would you have, either as a preacher, or a hearer, for an aspiring preacher?
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!
I can really only second the excellent advice you give here, Paul.
But I would add praying before entering the pulpit (and of course, right at the beginning of the sermon writing process and all the way through it).
Here’s a prayer a retired pastor, Peter Kriewaldt (he wrote one of the essays in ‘Women Pastors?”) shared with a discussion list here in Australia just today. It was apparently memorised by a lot of pastors in the LCA:
Lord Jesus Christ, head of your Church,
let me discern your will and your promises.
Prepare my heart and open my lips
that I might rightly proclaim your Word.
Preserve me from indolence and lack of enthusiasm.
When doubts assail me, do not let me struggle on my own.
Guard me against the danger of preaching to others
and not listening myself.
You have called me as your messenger and witness.
At your word I shall do the work you have given me to do.
Good post.
The “pulpit voice” can take on many guises. There was a chaplain on my deployment who attempted (probably subconsciously) to inject a kind of cherubic, peaceful tranquility in his voice during the service. Kudos for wanting church to sound like “church”, but he came off like one of those cherubic, programmed voices that you hear on telephones or relaxation tapes — the that overemphasize the wrong syllables. It was like night and day when you talked to him after service.
I’m putting in a nomination for you to be a homiletics prof.
Good stuff.
in Christ,
jW
I recently considered a move to the chaplain corps. The public speaking wasn’t what stopped me. It was all of the other things that came with the job mentioned in your previous post regarding advice to new pastors in http://cyberbrethren.com/2009/12/04/advice-for-seminarians-and-new-pastors/.
Now THAT was terrifying
BTW I’m still considering but its definitely given me food for thought.
That’s a good start. I would also share with your son these maxims from Dr. Harold Buls:
Collected by Prof. Harry Buls
and found in his exegetical notes.
Always dress the changeless Word and Gospel in attractive garb. That’s what is meant in Matthew 13:51-52. Avoid stagnant repetition.
Nothing keeps people with the church as does good preaching.
Apply yourself entirely to the text. Than apply the entire things to yourself.
Preach the Word. Keep at it whether convenient or not. 2 Timothy 4:2.
Stand up briskly. Open your mouth. Quit soon.
Do everything for people’s growth. 1 Corinthians 14:26
Avoid generic sermons.
Good, prayerful exegetical study is the pastor’s weekly refuge and the hearer’s oasis.
The New Testament lies in the Old concealed. The Old Testament lies in the New revealed.
Three rules must be followed consciously for good preaching:
Scripture interprets Scripture.
The intended sense is singular.
Never exceed the point of comparison in simile, metaphor or parable.
If you can’t preach repentance, you can preach nothing.
A child is entranced by a good story-teller. Let him be your model.
A sermon should be as textual, as simple, as clear, and as logical as possible.
What is grammatical in Scripture is theological and vice versa.
The Christian is simultaneously a saint and a sinner.
Faith alone justifies but faith is never alone.
A Christian is a free agent, subject to none (Gospel). But a Christian is also a dutiful servant, subject to all (Law).
Fifty years ago the composer of these Notes heard the sainted Dr. Theodore Engelder preach on the theme: “We Need Repent of our Shabby Repentance.” It still lingers in the writer’s memory. Good sermons stick.
The post-communion prayer in the service includes: “Give us faith in Thee and fervent love toward one another.” That says it all.
God’s law can only curb outburst of sin, show man his sin and guide the Christian in godly living. It cannot make people better, more spiritual or more godly. Only the Gospel can and does do that.
Never waste peoples’ time with sermons which neither warn nor comfort.
When our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ said: “Repent ye” He meant that the whole life of the Christian should be one of repentance. (First of the 95 Theses in 1517)
“Both to the Greeks and to the barbarians, both to the wise and the simple, I am a debtor to preach the Gospel.” Romans 1:14.
No seminary professor ever “produced” a good preacher. He merely led the student to the trough. The student himself under God’s grace and from what he found at the trough is personally the preacher he is by God’s grace and good, hard work. (Buls)
With a name like John McCain, maybe politics is your son’s calling. Instant name recognition, and he wouldn’t have to be that great a public speaker.
One minor point: To entertain means to engage the mind. In that preaching should be entertaining.
McCain: I can’t accept your premise that the word “entertain” means this in its practical and daily use today. I certainly agree with that preaching should “engage the mind” but the word “entertain” is not the word I would choose to use to make this point. I would prefer we speak of a sermon being “engaging” rather than “entertaining.”
One more: Don’t be afraid to BEGIN with the world of the text. You do not need to come up with a cute story from our current life and then somehow connect that to the text. Rather, start with the world of the text (and that is the context of your hearrers – they just heard it!) and then move out from that world to their lives (or said another way, help them see their lives in that world). Let them see that God’s story IS their story, that HE has drawn them into this story and given it to them as their own so that they may live as His people in this passing world, waiting for the joys of the age to come.
My son, John, has expressed an interest in becoming a pastor
How wonderful! Thanks be to God!
Christine
on #7 – “Speaking not Reading” I’ve gone back and forth on this one. Sure it works well for some people. But I’ve done it both ways, for years, and keep coming back to reading a manuscript. There are pros and cons to both methods. But I just can’t get past: I want to say things (not just 2 or 3 important things) a certain way, and find that I don’t or can’t when I am off the manuscript. This is the word of God we’re talking about here – it’s worth being carefully prepared. There is something more formal about a manuscript, and informal about not using one. I like formal. There are other reasons. Granted, I work hard to read in the most conversational tone possible. Still, I’m sure the difference is noticeable. And, as a hearer: give me a well-prepared, doctrinally sound sermon that is -read- any day over something less that isn’t. Maybe you don’t always have to make that choice. Good for those preachers. But let’s not beat ourselves up on this point. Some of us who preach from manuscripts do it for well-thought-reasons, not as a “crutch” or of pure laziness.
Thanks for the comment. I know the advice to lose the manuscript is a hard to hear. My advice is take an outline, at first you may want to use a very full outline, but gradually work yourself down to only the essentials. Main points, sub points. Pastors are so afraid they won’t say that “perfect turn of phrase” or say it “just so.” I’ve been a grateful listener to sermons and preachers. There is simply no way preaching from a prepared manuscript, reading it in fact, no matter how skillfully read it is, that can compare with preaching directly to the folks, without eyes darting down constantly. I’m well familiar with all the good reasons people give for reading their manuscript and I remain quite entirely unconvinced. I know it is discomforting to those who read their manuscripts, but….I’d simply encourage you and other manuscript-readers to be confident that you will remember what you want to say the most. This was a key insight shared with me by several superb preachers who were models of NOT using manuscripts at the seminary when I was there: Robert Preus, Kurt Marquart and the “preacher’s preacher” – George Kraus. These were not men who regarded preaching with less gravitas and seriousness.
Agreed with Pr. Chryst on #7. The key, I honestly think, is that manuscripts work just fine if they are written to be spoken; it’s when they are written to be read that they become a bit of a barrier. You don’t need complete sentences in your sermons. They’re not natural in spoken English. We use fragments all the time – and they are perfectly clear. So if the manuscript is written to be spoken and the preacher uses it correctly (without burying his nose in it, but to to keep on track and get in everything), I don’t see it as a barrier to decent communication. Frankly, with the exception of one or two preachers that I can think of, most attempts without a manuscript that I’ve personally experienced were failures in terms of what was actually delivered: illogical rambling, unfortunate misstatements, and unbelievable omissions.
They were also very talented men. Not every preacher has the same gifts.
I preached for years from outlines – ranging from thin to detailed. I was quite “comfortable” with it, and can even preach without notes if I have to. I’ve just come to a reasoned conclusion that it’s not the best use of my particular set of talents (and time, frankly, which is a factor for preachers) in this particular context.
I’m familiar with all the reasons given FOR preaching without a manuscript. But I’m still not convinced it’s best for all preachers, and particularly for me. Most? Maybe. Some, for sure. I just think your advice on this point is a little too one-size-fits all.
The rest of it… I completely concur.
Terrific advice! Here are the first two of Grindal’s 15 commandments of preaching
1. Did Jesus need to suffer and die for this sermon to be preached? If not, don’t waste your time or ours with it. It’s probably just clean mental health for religious people.
2. Never speak of yourself in the tub, shower, or in bed. It’s hard enough for parishioners to follow a sermon without imagining the preacher in the altogether.
Here are the rest:
http://www.workingpreacher.org/theologypreaching.aspx?article_id=84
I would add “Know your audience.” This is the first rule of communication. For a pastor it means being engaged in the life of the congregation. I think the hours of “visiting” should be equal to or exceed the hours of sermon preparation. The desk and computer are not your friend in preaching– the living room, nursing home and hospital waiting room are.
I endorse Pastor Weedon’s gift of freeing the preacher from the tyranny of the “opening illustration.” Yet, there can be a sufficient relationship between pastor and preacher to share a moment with each other– just because. This to be governed by point (8).
The caution of point (8) I must take to heart because it is my worst habit in preaching– a very little goes a very long way here. One must avoid the internal desire to relate to your people because you need it– it is, of course, not about you.
I wish to support point (7). I only use a manuscript for funeral sermons (too much emotion to hold the outline in my head). I have found that the mistakes in delivery (forgetting a transition that makes a logical break– causing me to back up and correct it) are more than outweighed by keeping my hearers’ attention. Preaching is oral communication and not written.
Summary of my advice to an aspiring preacher is: Know your people. Know what you want to say. Say it.
PS. Of the two “best” sermons I ever preached– One was written out completely and heavily edited. The other was completely oral and I could hardly remember what I said until I saw it later on video. God’s in charge and your not– and that’s a good thing.
If I may be bold to suggest one more: Be brief.
People’s attention spans are just not what they used to be. Though you should not shirk the truth in the face of an angry congregation who may just want to get home, the best and most ingrained sermons are those which were 6-8 minutes. I’m not kidding.
Using a manuscript or notes becomes much more difficult when one gets old enough for reading glass or bifocals.
Here is a blog article by Pastor McCain that I think is also essential in light of today’s strict Law Gospel preaching paradigm.
http://cyberbrethren.com/2008/10/03/preaching-about-sanctification-and-good-works/#comments
MM
@Chris
Hi Chris @ #15,
Folks will sit down and watch with rapt attention a hockey or football game for three hours. People don’t have short attention spans; they only have trouble dealing with metaphysical topics and the solution for that is a longer sermon – and not necessarily one that titillates the senses.
I have thought about being a Pastor. However, I too feared public speaking, struggling with knowing if I am really called or not, not having enough witty stories about my life, not knowing the Bible well enough, and changing my entire life and my wifes. I think most people who consider being a Pastor probably have these things run through their mind. I definitely appreciate Pastors and what they do. I have been encouraged by another Pastor I know, who had a fear of public speaking to the point where he would totally lock up, but with Gods help he is a Pastor today. Reading your points make me feel a bit more encouraged. For now, I am happy with helping my Pastor and serving in the church in a different role. I hope that one day I can take a more active role in teaching, perhaps in Bible study groups or Sunday school.
Excellent advice…I get so tired of every sermon having a modern movie or sports story in it. Sometimes these illustrations unnecessarily extend sermons and distract from the main point.
“Don’t underestimate how much your people come to hear a Word from God, not a word from you, or about your family, or about children, or your dog, or the latest interesting movie you’ve seen, or book you’ve read, or what your professor in seminary said when you were there.”
If I could have one wish about the church granted, it would be this:
Pastors will have so much faith in the Word that they will preach it unadorned, plain, and simple, believing that it will do its work if they simply preach it because it is God’s word and not the word of man.
I was converted to Lutheranism because I read Luther’s explanation of the the Word of God. If I had attended some of the local Lutheran churches–where pastors are as likely to preach Rick Warren and the latest football game as the Word of God–I would never have become a Lutheran.
Great post, Paul. I would add that all aspiring preachers should use the LSB one-year lectionary. Spend you hours of preparation with Luther, Gerhard, Loy, and Walther. You will be a Lutheran preacher before you know it.
If you can, don’t use a manuscript. The sermon will be far more engaging and memorable for the congregation. Your outline should be the appointed text for the day. Preach the Word–God has made great promises about its effectiveness!
I’d be curious about average sermon lengths. The 6-8 suggestion above wouldn’t work for me. I use about that much time offering a theological/historical introduction to the text. My sermons average 23-25 minutes. Luther advises not to exceed 30 minutes.
@Chris
I’m sorry, but this is simply not the case! My own views have been expressed extremely well by T. David Gordon, in a section called “The Almost Universal Desire for Briefer Sermons”:
When something is well done, we do not complain about its length. … When we experience a thing that is well done, we get caught up in it, become lost in the moment, and lose any sense of the passage of time. When a public speaker has something important to say, and says it in a well-organized manner that enables the audience to perceive its significance, the reaction is similar. People do not look at their watches, clear their throats, stretch, and do a number of other nervous exercises indicative of their boredom. But if that public discourse is litless, rambling, disorganized, without clear purpose, and uninspiring, ten minutes seems like an eternity … People may very well have a reduced attention span, but even so, they have no difficulty giving attention to a discourse they deem important and well organized … Sermon length is not measured in minutes; it is measured in minutes-beyond-interest, in the amount of time the minister continues to preach after he has lost the interest of his hearers (assuming he ever kindled it in the first place).
T. David Gordon, Why Jonny Can’t Preach (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Publishing, 2009), 28-31
I group up in a place where the majority of the congregation were ‘working class’ and smallholders — people from modest educational backgrounds. But they had been brought up for generations on meaty preaching and devout, orthodox piety. It would be rare to hear a sermon under 30 minutes, occasionally they would exceed an hour. But the preaching was of a high quality, well prepared, textual law & gospel preaching that spoke to each man & woman in the pew. No one ever complained, not even this (then) teenager. Had the pastor stopped after 10 minutes for fear of losing the people’s attention, then they would have complained — they had waited for a whole week to hear a sermon, some had travelled some distance for it, so they didn’t want Sermon-Lite. I still don’t.
Oops… posted too quickly. I didn’t mean to say that T. David Gordon expressed my views. Rather, I agree wholeheartedly with T. David Gordon’s view!
I was guest preaching a funeral, not in my called parish, and as I prepared for the service I noticed in the pulpit was pasted a note writ large quoting John 12:21, “Sir, we wish to see Jesus.” That little Word of Scripture now reminds me of my task every time I prepare a sermon.
@Vernon
The chaplain corps is not really the work of a parish pastor. Based on my experience, those who do not conform to the banal sense of generic, utilitarian theism meet with harsh resistence and resentment. For the faithful Christian (both pastoral and lay), it has more of the feel of a missionary or evangelist than parish life… which becomes more extreme during demployment.
The chaplain corps is where many people consider Mormons a christian sect and you can have a Christian Scientist as your Chaplain supervisor who is the co-head pastor of the post’s protestant service. Many times, a faithful Lutheran finds he has more in common with the Roman Catholic chaplain than anyone else (which is not ideal to say the least).
There is good reason why people do not want to enter the chaplaincy. I have witnessed first had what a trial by fire it is. Most of the mainline denomenations, Lutherans, and Roman Catholics are woefully under-represented… for a good reason! And yet, the reasons why it is so tough are exatly the reasons why faithful, stalwart chaplains are so badly needed.
Your readers will find a lot of good resources at the blog Six Minutes. One of the books recommended there is James C. Humes Speak Like Churchhill. Stand Like Lincoln. I worked through it this summer and found it very helpful. One simple, but very effective, tip from that book was simply to stand and wait for people’s attention before speaking.
You can find more good stuff at the Decker Communications blog and web site. Decker would encourage you to get off the manuscript, not because it makes it easier to listen to your speech, but because it is easier for people to believe that you believe what you are saying, and therefore they listen more closely. (His book is entitled You Have to Be Believed to Be Heard.) Other factors like eye contact and body language also play a role.