Rethink Mission: Inspiring gospel-centered missional churches

Matt Carter at The Lead Conference in St. Louis. Photo courtesy of Brea McAnally.

You would be surprised how many sermons I listen to and wonder at the end, “What was that about?” Often, especially for guys who preach expositionally, we end up trying to say so many things, that we say nothing well.

To help myself with clarity, to ensure that my sermon has a central cohesive theme, and to focus my application (all things I don’t do well naturally) I’ll take my sermon through these seven questions.

Keep in mind that these are not all the questions you need to ask yourself as you prepare; this assumes already that your sermon is true, biblical, gospel-centered, etc.

1. What is this sermon about?
I know this seems elementary & obvious, but you wouldn’t believe how many pastors can’t even tell you after they’ve preached what their sermon was about. What is this sermon about? I’m looking for one primary focus or over-arching theme.

2. What do I want people to leave with?
This seems redundant, but this question helps me further clarify my thinking and better narrow the focus of the sermon. Do I really understand what I want people to leave with and am I making sure that they get that in the sermon? This question takes the answer from question 1 and sets me up to think about application (which I’ll address more specifically later).

3. What issue, tension, or core problem does this sermon address?

4. Why should people stay awake for the next 40 minutes?
Questions 3 & 4 help me bring my one theme into the world of the people I am called to preach to – the listeners. Why should people care and why should they listen?  Am I just passing out biblical facts or will this truth transform their heart and lives in some way?

If my goal is transformation, then I need to preach my one theme as the answer to a core problem or issue. Often guys that love to talk theology and preaching will give the seeker guys a hard time for preaching to “felt needs.”

I understand that critique – preach truth, preach the Bible, don’t just preach to felt needs. But the question you need answer is this: does biblical truth address the real problems of my life and my world. You bet it does. It hits the most important problems I will wrestle with as a human being.

Most likely, if you are any kind of pastor worth your salt, you long to see your people set free from sinful patterns, addictive behaviors, fear, shame, guilt, anxiety, and the idolatry that holds them captive. Preach truth at these problems or issues. Ask: if my people don’t believe this truth, or embrace this, or follow through with this – what will happen?

Why will this truth change them? What will most likely result if they fail to get this?

Answer that question and then tell them. Tell them why it is so important that they are there on this day for this specific sermon. And then here’s the key – tell them in the first several minutes of the sermon.

“Here’s what we’re talking about today, and then here’s why it’s so important.”

You want people to go – “Wow, I’m glad I actually dragged my butt out of bed this morning. This is vital. It really is important that I stay awake for the next 40 minutes.”
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To Be Continued.
Update: Part 2 of this post can be found here.

Tags: preaching

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 27th, 2009 at 1:09 am and is filed under church. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.