Conclusion

Why did you read this blog about community sermon-listening? What caught your interest? Were you already aware of your need to reconnect preaching with fellowship? Were you looking for ideas on how to do it? Were you a hesitant reader, knowing that you’d need to reevaluate your sermon-listening practices? Did someone else recommend this blog to you? Are you a preacher looking for ways to achieve community-wide impact in your sermons?

No matter who you are or why you read these blog posts, you’re now faced with a decision. You’ve come to a crossroad in your sermon-listening experience and you must decide which way you’re going to go. The two options are easily understood—either you compartmentalize your life by keeping your sermon-listening and fellowship experiences quite separate, or you commit to integrate the two so that they never take place one without the other. Which will it be? It’s a life-changing decision.

Don’t move on without answering that question. If you want to practice community sermon-listening, you need to make a plan. You need to involve others. The practice is by nature, communal. Maybe, you’ll need to do some work to convince others of this vital need. Take a long-term approach. We’re talking about changing church culture. You’ll need to lead by example.It’s very likely that you’ll meet some opposition. Modern Christians have developed a keen independence. We don’t like to open up. We share a little of our shallow selves, but seldom show real transparency. But real sanctification is a community project. It requires the challenges, trials, disciplines, support, encouragements, and changes that other people bring into your life. That’s what fellowship is.

Real sanctification occurs when our souls are laid bare to the living and abiding Word of God. It happens when God’s powerful Word is read, explained, and applied to the gathered church. That’s what preaching is.

Now, put the two together—preaching and fellowship—sermon-listening and community—sound doctrine and accountability—that’s the recipe for church-wide transformation. That’s what the church must recover. That’s what sanctification is.

Preaching is most effective when people listen together—people who are responsible to care for one another, pray for one another, counsel one another, encourage one another, confront one another, and generally look out for one another spiritually. It’s the community aspect of preaching that makes a sermon a sermon. If we overvalue and overuse the sermons available on the Internet, we risk becoming observers to the sermon event, watching from a distance, detached, and unimplicated by the sermon’s demands.

What you do now will set the spiritual trajectory for you and for your church. May God bless you.

Chapter 5: What Do I Do to Encourage Good Preaching in My Church?

If you’re committed to the church you’re in; if the pastor is not teaching heresy; if the leaders lead the church to practice sound doctrine and you believe there is room to plug in and be involved in a lay capacity, then there are some ways to encourage ongoing growth in the preaching ministry of the church. Remember, no local church is perfect and we each have a responsibility to input into the betterment of one another’s lives. You cannot sit on the sidelines, but need to get in the game, ministering your spiritual gifts and giving input into the lives of other members of the body. One of your tasks is to encourage good preaching. There are a number of ways to do this.[1]

First, pray for the preacher. Pray during his sermon preparation time. Pray as he preaches. Pray that his own soul would be transformed by the truths he’s communicating to others. Pray that the church will share in that transforming process.

David Schlafer reminds us:

There is no more demanding task in ministry than preaching. Your preacher wrestles not only with homiletical techniques, personal strengths and weaknesses, rigorous exegetical requirements, a host of administrative hassles and value conflicts, and only God knows what else—but also wrestles with “principalities and powers” in standing to proclaim the Good News.[2]

John James and Gardiner Spring add to that admonition: “O it is at a fearful expense that ministers are ever allowed to enter the pulpit without being preceded, accompanied, and followed by the earnest prayers of the churches.”[3] Let’s commit to supporting our pastor in prayer.

Second, tell the preacher you’re looking forward to the sermon. Let him know that you’re supporting him in prayer and you’re greatly anticipating his message. Ask him questions of the text and explain how the sermon is going to benefit you. Let him know that you need and want regular challenge from the Word of God. You’ll encourage him greatly and give him even more reason to prepare well.

Christopher Ash explains:

Not all poor preaching is entirely the fault of the preacher; the congregation has a vital part to play. When a congregation makes it clear that they are reluctant to hear faithful preaching, that they want the sermons to be shorter and play a more marginal part in the meeting, when they listen stony-faced and give no word of encouragement, it is very hard for even the most faithful preacher to persevere (although they ought to, as Jeremiah had to). By contrast, a congregation eager for faithful, challenging Bible preaching is much more likely to get it.[4]

Third, make sure that your pastor has time to pray, study and prepare for preaching. If he’s regularly putting together a “Saturday-night special” then you and he together need to find ways to reschedule his week. Your pastor needs to be sustained in his priorities and you may be able to offer ways to relieve him of other less important tasks. Protect him from the distractions of ministry—good causes though they may be—just like the seven newly selected servants protected the Apostles so they could devote themselves to prayer and the ministry of the Word (Acts 6:4).

Fourth, make provision in the church budget for your pastor to purchase the needed resources to sustain his preaching ministry. The church should ensure he has sufficient reference books and commentaries for his current sermon series. He should also own a good Bible software program and computer to speed up his study efforts. The church should make provision for the pastor to regularly attend conferences for pastors or preaching workshops, and should also consider supporting him in any continuing education he believes would be advantageous to his (and the church’s) personal development.

Fifth, you should attend church faithfully. Just being there week-in and week-out is a wonderful encouragement to your pastor. Inconsistency in attendance can discourage and unsettle your pastor. He can become confused, not knowing whether people have heard the previous sermon or not and what amount of revision he needs to provide for people who missed the last sermon or two. So be there, no matter what.

Kevin DeYoung and Ted Kluck advise:

Go to church. Don’t go for the coffee, the presentations, the music, or the amenities. Don’t even go for the feelings you may or may not get when you go because, no offence, these feelings may or may not be trustworthy most of the time. Go for the gospel. Go for the preaching. Go to be near God’s Word.[5]

And Martyn Lloyd-Jones adds:

A number of people seem to go to a place of worship and to a service in order to go home! Their main idea seems to be to get out and to get home. Why do they go at all? That is the question, I think, that needs to be asked. Why this great anxiety for the service, and especially the sermon, to finish? There is only one conclusion to be drawn: these people need to be humbled. These people are lacking in spirituality, in a spiritual mind and outlook, and in spiritual understanding.[6]

Sixth, thank your pastor directly after the service. Paul says, “Let the one who is taught the word share all good things with him who teaches” (Gal 6:6). So thank your pastor for what you’ve learned. Don’t flatter him or give vague comments about how good it was (if it was). Try to be specific and focus on the biblical content of the sermon rather than just stories, anecdotes, or illustrations. Tell him what you intend to do as a result of the sermon. Report back to him with a progress report, telling him what changes have come about in your life as a result of his ministry.

Seventh, provide constructive feedback on the sermon itself. Your comments can be critical as long as they’re designed to be helpful. Ask your preacher to help you see where he got a particular point from within the passage. This will help to sharpen him up. It will encourage him to stick to the Bible next time, if that’s indeed what’s needed. Remember to be humble and respectful in the way you do this. The manner in which you approach your pastor and the directness with which you can speak with him, will be determined in part by the longevity and intimacy of your relationship with him. Don’t forget, it’s much harder to preach than it is to criticize preaching. So be gracious.

Eighth, treat your pastor fairly. Relate to him as a brother in Christ, a loving friend who cares for him and his family. Mark Dever recommends:

Take care in how you propose change to your pastors. Pray, serve, encourage, set a good example in your own life, and be patient. A healthy church is less about a place that looks a certain way, and more about a people who love in the right way. And love is generally best shown when it’s given in the face of circumstances we don’t like. Just think, Christian, of how we have been loved in Christ![7]

David Schlafer says it even more plainly:

If you have a preacher who may not have had the benefit of good training in homiletics, or who may be experiencing ‘homiletical burnout,’ it is, of course, important to proceed with compassion and sensitivity. Your preacher is a human being, who may well feel somewhat inadequate already. It goes without saying that the opening line of a conversation on preaching is not: ‘Last Sunday’s sermon was lousy!’ or even ‘I have some problems with your preaching.’ Begin instead with a genuine comment on whatever has been preached: there will always be something that can serve as an authentic point of argument.[8]

Lastly, you should consider the future preaching ministry of the church by encouraging up-and-coming preachers. Be on the lookout for young men who show the signs of possessing the gift of preaching and teaching. You may come alongside these men, tap them on the shoulder, and encourage them to develop their spiritual gifts or consider further training. If others in the church affirm their confidence in those same individuals, you could even financially support a young preacher or two so that they can attend Bible college or seminary. Your investment in them will safeguard the future of the church for future generations of wanting sermon-listeners.

Summary

As a sermon-listener you shouldn’t view yourself as a powerless victim nor a bloodthirsty watchdog. You’re a member of the family of God, responsible for your own spiritual growth and that of your family. You’re a vital member in the body of Christ with spiritual responsibilities towards every other member in the church, so don’t abdicate now. Good expository preaching is yours to expect. You have much to contribute in maintaining a solid Bible-teaching pulpit ministry. But a well-balanced approach is necessary.

Be on your guard for false doctrine, but don’t become pharisaic or mean-hearted over the non-essentials. You’ll need to evaluate your own heart in these matters, search your motives, and know for sure why you respond to the preaching in your church the way you do.

Be loving and tenderhearted toward your pastor while he is still learning how to preach, but don’t be naïve if you see him adulterating the Word of God. Your reactions must be based upon biblical mandates, so choose your responses carefully and confidently.

Above all, remember, just because you’re a listener and not a preacher, doesn’t mean that you’re off the hook. We listeners are to create the demand for expository preaching in our churches. We must open the doors so that faithful Bible preachers can supply what we most certainly need.

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[1] Some of the following suggestions come from Christopher Ash, Listen Up!: A Practical Guide to Listening to Sermons (New Maiden, Surrey: The Good Book Company, 2009), 30.

[2] David J. Schlafer, Surviving the Sermon: A Guide to Preaching for Those Who Have to Listen (Boston, MA: Cowley Publications, 1992), 117.

[3] John Angell James and Gardiner Spring, The Duties of Church Members to Their Pastors. A Plea to Pray for Pastors (Vestavia Hills, AL: Solid Ground Christian Books, 2009), 22.

[4] Christopher Ash, Listen Up!, 29.

[5] Kevin DeYoung and Ted Kluck, Why We Love the Church: In Praise of Institutions and Organized Religion (Chicago, Moody Publishers, 2009), 196.

[6] D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Preaching and Preachers (Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing, 1971), 156.

[7] Mark Dever, What Is a Healthy Church? (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 2007), 123.

[8] David J. Schlafer, Surviving the Sermon, 115.

Chapter 4: What if There Are No Bible-Preaching Churches in My Area?

Choosing a church is one of the most important decisions you’ll make in your lifetime. The implications for you and your family are huge. The decision is more important than which new job offer you’ll accept and which school you or your kids will attend. Whenever you find yourself at one of those “life-altering crossroads” which may require you to move to another location, you must always consider what local churches are in the new area. Is there a church there with an uncompromising pulpit? Is there a church that believes, promotes, and practices the essentials of the Christian faith? Is there a church that will meet the needs of you and your family for years to come? Is it a place where you can serve, learn, and partner in gospel ministry in all good conscience? If there is no such church, you should find another job or different school in another area. Yes, that is a dogmatic assertion, but one that you will do well to follow. Too many Christians find themselves in a situation where they cannot find a good church, simply because that was not a priority in their decision-making process. And the results are often dire.

Now of course there are certain circumstances in which a believer is called to some higher public service or missionary enterprise. In such cases, the Christian must be well prepared for the difficulties of such a commitment. This type of service can only be navigated by the most mature believer who has long been on the Christian road and who has the prayer support of Christian friends and family, mission agency, and other support systems that are designed to provide regular accountability.

In addition, failing health or old age might also prevent Christians from being in regular attendance at a church.

When immobility, overseas service, or some other duty gives good reason to miss church, what can a person do in this circumstance to sustain spiritual input and continued learning? Tim Challies helps:

It may be that there are some people who, for one reason or another, are unable to attend church or cannot find a church were the gospel is preached. In such cases, an online church may be a way for them to hear good preaching and to communicate with other Christians. I do not deny that there is some benefit for them. But here we find that the exception proves the rule. Such people will necessarily long for true church and true community, knowing that the online church is but a concession to unavoidable circumstances. It is never a replacement for the real thing.[1]

The point is that listening to a sermon via the Internet, on a CD, or in some other digital format is always supplemental to real church attendance and fellowship. It cannot be a permanent substitute.

Christopher Ash explains,

When we listen to an MP3 recording of a sermon, we are not listening to preaching, but to an echo of preaching that happened in the past. Listening on my own to a recording can never be more than a poor second-best to actually being there with the people of God in a local church. It is better to listen to the pastor you know, and who knows you, than to hear a recording of the well-known preacher you don’t know, and who doesn’t know you.[2]

No Christian should desire recorded pulpit ministry as a first option, but we admit that there are times when it may be necessary, though not advisable.

If there are no faithful, Bible-teaching churches in your area and you know you or any member of your family are suffering the effects of spiritual malnutrition, there is one thing to do—move!

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[1] Tim Challies, The Next Story: Life and Faith After the Digital Explosion (Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing, 2011), 109.

[2] Christopher Ash, Listen Up!: A Practical Guide to Listening to Sermons (New Maiden, Surrey, England: The Good Book Company, 2009), 12–13.

Chapter 3: What if the Sermon is Heretical?

Some people call a preacher a heretic when he is not. He might take a different view on eschatology, the mode and timing of baptism, the role of women, or the place of sign gifts in the church today. Don’t misunderstand me—these are important teachings to be sure—but they don’t necessarily make a preacher a heretic. Instead, these are the kinds of doctrinal differences that should be placed in last week’s category of sermon evaluation. Depending on your theological stance, you might lean one way or the other on these subjects. Either way, you are not a heretic and neither is the preacher who differs with you.

Others put unquestioned trust in heretical preachers who flat out deny the gospel or misrepresent the person and character of God Himself. I’m not referring to the cults such as Mormonism, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and Islam all of which deny the deity of Jesus Christ; the Roman Catholic Church which promotes the worship of Mary; Hinduism which accepts the existence of millions of gods; Buddhism which worships manmade idols; and other false systems of worship which are obviously corrupt. I’m referring to so-called Protestant preachers who are wolves in sheep’s clothing. They teach the Bible like it’s a moral handbook—a manual for personal improvement. They don’t talk about personal sin or disobedience. They don’t call people to repentance. They don’t speak of the need for forgiveness. They don’t emphasize the death of Jesus Christ as an atoning sacrifice. They speak of God as if He’s just like one of us.

If that’s the kind of preaching that’s taking place in your church, get out! Don’t hesitate. Act now. “Such men are false apostles, deceitful workers, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ” (2 Cor 11:13). The Apostle Peter said, “There will also be false teachers among you, who will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing swift destruction upon themselves. And many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of the truth will be maligned (2 Pet 2:1–2). Dear reader, don’t be one of those people who naively listens to false teaching. Don’t think that you’re immune to its devastating effects. You cannot afford to remain in that situation.

Now be careful. If the preacher gets it wrong by mistake and then puts it right when corrected, then he’s not a necessarily a false teacher. He is a heretic, however, if he holds obstinately to teaching that which the Bible shows to be wrong. A heretic is one who teaches error persistently and dogmatically, and seeks to persuade others.

Christopher Ash says,

The way to listen to these sorts of sermons is to stop listening to them! That is to say, we ought to move away from that kind of church and find a church where they believe and teach the Bible faithfully. We will not look for an exciting church, where the preaching entertains; we will look for a faithful, Bible-teaching church.[1]

In most Western-world locations, you’ll be able to find a church that teaches the gospel faithfully. That church might not agree with you on every single aspect of church practice, but at least they believe in the one true God, they love Christ, they confess their sin, they proclaim the Good News, they have a desire to understand the Word of God, and are determined to live in light of it. Maybe the preacher isn’t the best communicator in the world, but at least he’s a man of God who loves the truths of Scripture and is trying his best to teach them. That’s the church you need to be a part of. There’s no such thing as the perfect church, so don’t hold out for it. Instead, weigh up the church’s overall commitment to Scripture and make a determination based upon the essentials of the faith.

But what if you’re in one of those locations in which there are no faithful, gospel-preaching churches? I’ll answer that question next week.

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[1] Christopher Ash, Listen Up!: A Practical Guide to Listening to Sermons (New Maiden, Surrey, England: The Good Book Company, 2009), 28.

Chapter 2: What if the Sermon is Biblically Inadequate?

It could be that your pastor is a very good communicator. His voice is easy on your ears. In fact, you’re quite happy for him to speak for an extra 5–10 minutes each sermon. He’s funny, keeps your interest, and leaves you feeling encouraged and enthusiastic about the week ahead. But the more you’ve listened to his sermons you wonder if he has a good grasp of the passage he’s supposed to be expounding. No matter what Bible text he’s preaching from, he’s repetitive and seems to hark back to the same few moral lessons every time. You find yourself asking, “Where did he get that from?” When you get home and reread the sermon passage, you realize that the message was not derived from the text and almost all of your questions about the Bible passage and its application remain unanswered. What do you do in this situation?

As sermon-listeners, we have a responsibility to expect solid Bible teaching from our pastors. If they’re not committed to exposing the Scripture to our view, then they ought not be our preacher. You should carefully evaluate the pulpit ministry in your church. Is Bible preaching and teaching a priority for the pastor, the elders, and the congregation? Does the reading, explanation, and implications of Scripture set the trajectory of the church? Is the change-agent in the church the living, active, powerful Word of God? Is the Bible the sole authority in determining God’s will for the members of the body?

If you have answered, “No,” to these questions, you’ll need to investigate some personal heart issues before you tackle the problem of biblically inadequate sermons.

First, ask yourself: Am I listening to my pastor’s sermons with a critical spirit? Am I waiting in the wings, hoping for the chance to pounce on him and “catch him in something he might say” (Luke 11:54)? There were some people in Jesus’ day who acted just like that. They were called Pharisees. They were such sticklers for every little detail of the Law and their system of applying it, that they couldn’t see the forest for the trees. Their understanding of God, faith, the coming Messiah, and the gospel Jesus proclaimed was clouded by their self-determined idea of what was true righteousness. As a result, they couldn’t listen with open minds. They closed their minds to the truth the Master Preacher offered. And they developed a critical spirit towards Him because He didn’t preach the way they thought He should. So evaluate your heart. Are you being too critical?

Second, ask yourself: Do I expect my pastor to agree with absolutely everything I already believe? Do I think that his thirty-page doctrinal statement must be an exact match to mine? Do I believe that every area of my Bible knowledge is complete?—“I have arrived at a perfect understanding of all theological debate, and anyone who disagrees with me is just plain wrong.”

In both cases, you’ll need to reevaluate which doctrines are central to the Christian faith and which are not. You’ll also need to consider which doctrines steer core church practices and which are not so significant in the big picture. In addition, you might consider putting your prideful disposition to rest and realize that no preacher gets the less important details right all the time—not even you (Jas 3:2).

Now, do not swing the pendulum too far in other direction either. Don’t have such low expectations for your pastor that he can regularly misuse Scripture, miss the point of the passage, show contempt for sound exegesis, fail to apply accepted hermeneutical practice, and get away with it, unchecked. Remember, community sermon-listening involves mutual accountability. You cannot afford to be so gullible and credulous that the content of the sermon doesn’t matter as long as the pastor makes you feel accepted and loved.

Of the three kinds of bad sermons (dull, biblically inadequate, and heretical), the biblically inadequate sermon is the toughest to diagnose and treat properly. Much wisdom is required. Every case will be quite different. Often your solution for this problem comes down to what options you have before you. If your church is teaching a doctrine or practice that you do not believe is biblically justified, and there is another church in your area which offers an alternative more closely aligned with your understanding of Scripture, then you should switch to that church. But be careful because there are many areas of practice and teaching that ought to be weighed and your decision will be based on many factors. There is a big difference between theological pickiness and standing up for essential sound doctrine and praxis. You don’t want to end up like A. W. Pink who in his last years would not fellowship with any Christian and resorted to an exclusive-styled worship service that involved just him and his wife. On the other hand, you don’t want to follow the masses of naïve churchgoers who attend shallow church services without any concern for sound doctrine.

If there is no other church in your area and you believe that the teaching in question is sufficiently serious so as to impact many people and is doing serious harm to the spiritual growth of many, then you might need to consider a direct approach. The responsibility of the preacher is to preach the Word. If he consistently misrepresents the authorial intent of the passage, then he is doing God an injustice. David Schlafer suggests:

“You may need, at last, to confront the preacher, gently but firmly, privately or with the support of duly constituted lay leadership. Preaching is, after all, a primary pastoral responsibility. An intervention of sorts, leading to clarified expectations and accountability, may be appropriate. Perhaps such a confrontation may even lead to changes in other pastoral responsibilities in order to make more time for preaching.”[1]

If you and your elders undertake such a process and the preacher agrees that his messages have been falling short of biblically informed content, you have won him over. Pray that he would make the necessary changes to his preaching practices. If he doesn’t agree, your elders will need to decide what to do next. If the elders believe the situation is serious and have the conviction to follow through, they may dismiss the pastor and replace him with a man who desires to cut the Word of God straight. If your elders come to the conclusion that the pastor’s teaching is just fine, then you should go back and check your own motives one more time—is it you who is being too critical? Or are your concerns biblically valid? If it’s the latter, and if you have a viable alternative, then it’s best for you to transfer your membership to another local church. If there is no other Bible-teaching church in the area, keeping reading this blog. We will deal with that problem in the next two weeks.

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[1] David J. Schlafer, Surviving the Sermon: A Guide to Preaching for Those Who Have to Listen (Boston, MA: Cowley Publications, 1992), 116.

Chapter 1: What if the Sermon is Dull?

In some cases sermon-listening in church can be frustrating, difficult, or sometimes downright impossible. What do you do when the sermon is boring? What do you do when the preacher is not teaching the truth of Scripture? What is the appropriate response to a dull sermon, a biblically inadequate sermon, or a heretical sermon? And how can you know the difference?

Let’s remind ourselves that the preacher is not singularly responsible for maintaining his preaching ministry. We listeners also share in that responsibility. The Apostle Paul commanded young Timothy, a preacher: “Until I come, give attention to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation and teaching” (1 Tim 4:13). Good advice, but what if the cities in which Timothy ministered didn’t want that kind of ministry? What if they threw him out of town? Well sure, he’d keep on preaching, but he’d take his preaching elsewhere. That’s what the Apostle did on numerous occasions (Acts 13:50–51; 14:5–7, 19–20; 16:39–40; 17:8–10, 13–14; 17:32–18:1). He left the disinterested (and often, angry) group and found a new group who wanted to hear what he had to say. So the necessary implication is that the congregation must desire the reading and teaching of God’s Word, otherwise it will not and cannot happen.

Now, I am not a proponent of congregationally lead churches, but there is an element of congregational buy-in when the elders and pastors determine what their corporate commitments are going to be. Therefore, the church’s demand for biblical preaching is just as important as the pastor’s commitment to supply it.

So how will you create a demand for good Bible preaching and what will you do if it’s not delivered in your church? In order to know how to respond to poor preaching let’s divide it into three categories: dull, biblically inadequate, and heretical.[1] I’ll treat these three categories in this and the next two blog posts.  First, what do you do if your pastor’s sermons are dull?

What if the Sermon is Dull?

Let’s face it—some preachers are a little dry. They could use a few more illustrations, incorporate some humor, take their noses out of their notes, and better engage with the people before them. The Bible is not dull but some preachers unknowingly make it so by their demeanor. Maybe they’re deliberately trying to emulate Jonathan Edwards’s monotone style in an attempt to not be like the “worldly” preachers of today. Maybe it’s their own personality (or lack thereof) that makes it difficult for them to speak with any kind of enthusiasm. Maybe your pastor is a wonderful man who engages quite “normally” in person but transforms into a mind-numbing bore in the pulpit.

Some preachers are not organized communicators. They process information differently than the rest of us. It all makes sense in their own mind, but when it comes to passing it on, the logical movements of thought are not apparent to many in the congregation.

Make no mistake, in this category of bad preaching, I am talking about communication, not content—style, not substance. In fact, often the sermon content is great! The substance of the sermon is biblical. The preacher is a careful student of Scripture. He puts in many hours of diligent study. He prays over his sermon and depends upon the Lord to bring about significant change in the lives of his hearers. But simply stated, his sermons are either boring, overly academic, encyclopedic, chaotic, unstructured, or hard to follow. Not even PowerPoint could help. His cake needs a little icing.

The first question to ask is this: Are your expectations fair? Remember, your pastor cannot compete with the rockstar-preachers of today. He probably doesn’t have a creative team behind him, making him look good. He has probably served the church in many ways throughout a very busy week and cannot devote as much time to “icing the cake” as even he would like. So check your own heart on this issue. Be sure you’re measuring your pastor by a right standard! If you expect him to emulate your favorite pixel-pastor, or if you want your ears tickled, then maybe it’s your own heart that needs to be realigned.

John Newton cautions: “There are hearers who make themselves, and not the Scripture, the standard of their judgment. They attend not so much to be instructed, as to pass their sentence. To them, the pulpit is the bar at which the minister stands to take his trial before them.”[2] Fellow listeners, let’s not have unfair, extra-biblical expectations.

The second question to ask yourself is: Have you consistently prayed for your pastor and his sermons? Consider how you might better support him in prayer as he crafts his sermons and delivers them. And pray for yourself, that your reaction to his sermons would not be determined by his delivery style, but rather by the Scripture itself.

The third question is: Has the congregation allocated sufficient time in the week for your pastor to prepare adequately? Your pastor can experience overwhelming ministry demands. How have you protected your pastor’s sermon preparation schedule? Are you expecting him to do too much throughout the week? “Preaching is the fundamental component of pastoring,” says Mark Dever, so, “Grant your pastor time during the week to prepare good sermons.”[3]

The fourth question is: Are you a good sermon-listener? Did you prepare well? Did you read the passage ahead of time, reflect on the topic, ask questions of the text, and consider personal application? Did you take good notes during the sermon and allow them to guide your discussion points afterwards with family and friends? If your pastor is a faithful preacher, focus on the content of his sermon, not his delivery. Make sure you go home every week with something from the sermon that is right and needed for your heart and soul. This is not a suggestion. This is your responsibility.

The fifth question is: Are you encouraging your pastor each time he shows signs of improvement? If he is a young preacher, he’ll grow in confidence and will become a better speaker. Give him time and room to cultivate his preaching abilities. Depending on your relationship with him, you may be able to help your pastor complete a preaching course or receive help from a more seasoned preacher. Be careful with this, because sometimes your attempts to help and encourage can come across as negative and critical.

The sixth and final question is: Are you thankful that your pastor is a faithful man of God? If you’ve found a pastor who loves God more than he loves you, you’re in a good spot. He might not be the most scintillating speaker, but he loves God and faithfully proclaims the gospel of Jesus Christ. He tries his best to teach sound doctrine. He spends more time in prayer than practicing his inflections. Thank the Lord for this man and devote yourself to his ministry. He might not be flashy but he’s the man God has placed in your life to shepherd and lead you.

Next week, I’ll discuss what to do if your pastor’s sermons are biblically inadequate.

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[1] These three categories of poor preaching are discussed in Christopher Ash, Listen Up!: A Practical Guide to Listening to Sermons (New Maiden, Surrey, England: The Good Book Company, 2009), 27.

[2] J. Todd Murray, Beyond Amazing Grace (Webster, NY: Evangelical Press, 2007), 163.

[3] Mark Dever, What Is a Healthy Church? (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 2007), 68.

Chapter 6: Pastor, Preach with Sermon-Based Small Groups in Mind

The sermon should reverberate around the church long after the final “Amen.” Pastor, you can facilitate ongoing response by providing resources that ensure the sermon’s momentum keeps rolling.

J. Todd Murray describes John Newton’s practice as the Curate of Olney in Buckinghamshire. Newton recognized that most of his listeners were illiterate. He would walk through his village and hear the uneducated workers reciting and chanting to one another rhyming stories and poems, called ‘tells,’ as they worked. Newton realized that he could write new, spiritual ‘tells’ for the people of the church. They might not be able to read but they could certainly memorize these new ‘tells.’ Newton took the sound doctrinal truths he preached on Sunday and turned them into poems. It was these poems that eventually became known as Newton’s great hymns.[1] It all started with a pastor’s desire to help his congregation meditate on Bible teaching throughout the week.

What can you do today to make sure the sermon keeps on preaching?

First, spend thirty minutes on Monday morning preparing discussion questions for the mid-week sermon-based small groups. By Monday morning, you would have received feedback and questions from listeners that will help you to formulate thought-provoking discussion points based upon their insights. The questions should be open-ended discussion questions. The idea isn’t to test the people on their sermon retention, but to elicit implicational conversations. You shouldn’t introduce new ideas—this is not an opportunity for you to say what you couldn’t get out on Sunday. There should be discussion surrounding interpretation and theology, but the questions should always lead to application. Depending on the type of passage your sermon was based on, this might be easy or hard, but think it through carefully, and help your people to consider the implications of every sermon. If the passage doesn’t call for action, it might call for correct thinking, or a right understanding of God. These are still applicational.

Sometime before Monday evening, these discussion questions can be made available on the church website and/or sent out by e-mail to the small group leaders.

Second, you should promote mid-week sermon-based small groups as a necessary ministry of the church. Every Christian should be involved in some form of organized discipleship, fellowship, relationship-building, life-on-life, or small group ministry. To not be involved in such a group is a rejection of God’s instruction to “stimulate one another to love and good deeds” (Heb 10:24). Indeed, it would be a rejection of all the “one another” commands of the New Testament. Anonymous attendance on Sunday morning doesn’t constitute body-life, so your people need to be involved in more than just that. A small group could choose to study another passage or a different topic altogether, but this doesn’t maximize the impact of the Sunday sermon—the very ministry we say is central to the life and practice of the church.

Pastor, we defend the necessity of expository preaching, but we negate that commitment by failing to prioritize any applicational follow-through after the sermon. As a result, your twenty hours of sermon preparation, the financial contribution to your salary, and the preparation of the congregation to hear the sermon are all wasted on forty-five minutes of listening that often ends without community-oriented response. Why not maximize the impact of your sermons by asking your small groups to reflect on the implications of each sermon?

You’ll need to help your small group leaders in the process. Meet with them three or four times each year to monitor their progress. Give them instruction on how to conduct their groups. Ensure they’re not taking over with an independent teaching role within their group. Teach them how to plan for discussion. Help them to involve everyone in the conversation. Teach them how to lead people to pray together.

You’ll need to encourage your small group leaders. Help them to see the spiritual growth of the overall church family. Review what you have all studied and applied together. Help them to see that their long-term commitment is vital to the life of the church.

Finally, take part in a sermon-based small group yourself, not as the leader, but as a regular participant. This way people will see you as one who also values Christian fellowship. Your example will speak volumes and other sermon-listeners will follow your lead. To begin with, some group members may be intimidated by your presence, but they will soon loosen up after they see you contributing as a regular person working to apply biblical principles just as they are. Don’t be tempted to take over the group leadership. This is not a time to finish your sermon. Refrain from giving further instruction. You have had your chance to speak into their lives as the preacher. Now it’s time to take part in the body-life of the church as an equal. Let people minister to you. Let them ask you about your personal application. Request their prayers for your obedience. Take part in the discussion as one who is committed to community aspect of church life. Your people will have a realistic appreciation of you and will join you in church-wide sanctification. Paul Tripp believes a church should require their pastor to attend a small group he doesn’t lead. He comments that the pastors who do this all report how spiritually beneficial it has been.[2]

Summary

Pastors are called to preach, but preaching is not an end in and of itself. The result of preaching is the dissemination of the gospel, the equipping of the church, the sanctification of the saints, and the proclamation of the glory of God. With these ends in mind, pastor, consider how you might increase the impact of your sermons.

Church growth “experts” suggest all manner of techniques that are “guaranteed” to bring success. Don’t fall for them. Their butter knives and plastic utensils have no power over the evil one. Pick up the sword, preachers (Eph 6:10–17). Ensure that your preaching is expository in nature. Pray for church-wide impact. Expect great things from God. Preach with clarity and encourage implicational thinking in your congregation. And consider sermon-based small groups as a way to maximize the preaching of the Word of God in the life of the church.

As you enter into the next phase of your preaching ministry, allow Donald Sunukjian to encourage your soul:

Biblical preaching is the best thing we can do for our ministries, and it’s the best thing we can do for our own personal lives. To drink deeply of the Word of God, to saturate ourselves with its truths, to have our lives changed by its transforming power, and then to stand before God’s people, proclaiming with joy and confidence, “Look at what God is saying to us!”—who could be called to anything greater?[3]

Men, you have been called to the most important occupation in the world. No one undertakes a task greater or more vital than yours.

Paul instructed his son in the faith to preach. Receive his words as if he was speaking directly to you:

I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by His appearing and His kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires; and will turn away their ears from the truth, and will turn aside to myths. But you, be sober in all things, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry (2 Tim 4:1–5).

Let me rephrase the words of Martyn Lloyd-Jones in order to impress these things on your heart:

You are there to deliver the message of God—a message from God to the people. You are “an ambassador for Christ.” That is what you are. You have been sent. You are a commissioned person. You are standing there as the mouthpiece of God and of Christ to address the people. You are not merely there to talk to them. You are not there to entertain them. You are there to do something to them. You are to produce results of various kinds. You are to influence people. You are not to influence a part of them. You are not only to influence their minds, or only their emotions, or merely to bring pressure to bear upon their wills and induce them to some kind of activity. You are there to deal with the whole person. Your preaching should make such a difference to a man who is listening that he is never the same again.[4]

Dear pastor, will you commit to this most vital of all tasks? Will you commit to teach sound doctrine in every sermon? Will you commit to bring the Word of God to bear on the souls of men every time you address the congregation? Will you plead with sinners to repent and trust Jesus Christ for their salvation? Will you impress upon saints the need for personal holiness? Will you teach the people the truth found only in the Scriptures? Will you call them to genuine Christian fellowship? Will you lead them to minister to one another? Will you model this community project called “sanctification”? “For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart” (Heb 4:12).

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[1] J. Todd Murray, Beyond Amazing Grace (Webster, NY: Evangelical Press, 2007), 17.

[2] Paul David Tripp, Dangerous Calling: Confronting the Unique Challenges of Pastoral Ministry (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 2012), 79–80.

[3] Donald Robert Sunukjian, Invitation to Biblical Preaching: Proclaiming Truth with Clarity and Relevance (Grand Rapids: Kregel Publications, 2007), 15.

[4] These words are adapted from Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Preaching and Preachers, 53.

Chapter 5: Pastor, Preach with Application in Mind

Michael Fabarez likes to word his preaching outlines in terms of application points—namely, commands. He suggests, “Framing your main points in the third person allows the hearer to sidestep the issue and apply it to someone else.”[1] In addition he recommends that you “move the wording of your points out of the indicative mood (the way things are) and into the imperative (a call to the way they should be).”[2]

For instance, instead of using the following outline for Isaiah 6:1–8,

1.     A Young Man’s Vision of God (6:1–4)

2.     A Young Man’s Vision of Sin (6:5)

3.     A Young Man’s Vision of Cleansing (6:6–7)

4.     A Young Man’s Vision of Service (6:8)

Fabarez believes the outline should be turned into a list of imperatives, such as,

1.     Elevate Your View of God (6:1–4)

2.     See the Ugliness of Your Sin (6:5)

3.     Embrace the Cleansing of Forgiveness (6:6–7)

4.     Dive into the Challenge of Service (6:8)[3]

See how the each point clearly indicates a course of action for every listener. In order to achieve further symmetry, you might also utilize the following “E”s in alliteration:

1.     Elevate Your God (6:1–4)

2.     Expose Your Sin (6:5)

3.     Embrace Your Forgiveness (6:6–7)

4.     Extend Your Service (6:8)

If you are preaching for change, you are going to present these applicational challenges anyway (probably in your conclusion), so why not make them a part of the preaching outline? The outline remains faithful to the structure of the passage, but its contemporary implication is made more evident in the preaching event.

Maybe you’re hesitating at this point, concerned that you might be perceived as a confrontational authoritarian. Maybe you don’t like the idea of always presenting commands. Maybe you prefer to hide behind the softer, generic third person to avoid becoming “preachy.” But “the simple truth is, if you are called to be a preacher, then you must preach! If you do not you will degenerate into something truly worse. You might find yourself sliding into the ambiguous ‘Neverland’ of Bible-talker or spiritual advisor.”[4] Do not suggest conformity to the likeness of Christ. Do not advise it. Preach it!

The Apostle Paul wrote to the church in Thessalonica: “We proved to be gentle among you, as a nursing mother tenderly cares for her own children” (1 Thess 2:7). Paul showed genuine care for his audience and didn’t discharge his preaching ministry with dictatorial glee or angst. Yet, he still saw himself as a man with a message from God and he didn’t shrink from declaring the whole purpose of God (Acts 20:27). Remember, to be humble. You’re not preaching your own message. You’re God’s representative. Preach implicationally, expecting God will bring about church-wide sanctification.

But be warned, while it’s sometimes helpful to phrase your sermon outline in implicational terminology, there are inherent dangers in manipulating the sermon too much to achieve some kind of pleasing sermonic result. Artful alliteration does not always aid, and isn’t always apt. If you find yourself forcing a structure on the text, simply to satisfy some personal desire for grammatical harmony, then you’re going too far.

The goal is to preach the implications of Scripture. But Mike Fabarez writes, “More heresy is spread in the preacher’s attempt to apply Scripture than in his presentation of Scripture’s meaning.”[5] “Our shoddy handling of the text’s application in fact can nullify our rigid handling of the text’s meaning.”[6] “The same vigilance we demonstrate in interpreting a passage’s meaning must be shown in interpreting its significance.”[7] If you’re going to lead your listeners to certain implications in the sermon outline, you better make sure they’re in the text.

For instance, if you are preaching from Ephesians 5:25: “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her,” do not force a preaching outline like this:

1.     Husbands, take out the garbage for your wife

2.     Husbands, work hard to provide for your family

3.     Husbands, spend quality time with your wife

4.     Husbands, be wise with your money

5.     Husbands, lead your wife in the Scriptures

These points are certainly applicational. They’re all commands. They’re expressions of a husband’s love for his wife. They’re good things to do. But they are not in the text! If you concentrate on such pointed instruction, you fail to preach the point of the passage. In addition, you run the risk of missing other ways in which a husband may choose to love his wife and you reduce the Christian life to mere rule-keeping. This kind of preaching will not produce mature Christians. Of utmost importance is making sure that the application is, in fact, based on the text, and is appropriately applied to your hearers. Bryan Chapell states, “Preachers who cannot differentiate between a scriptural mandate and a good suggestion drain biblical power from their ministries. You must make sure the Scripture—not you—demands what your application requires.”[8]

In spite of these warnings, preach implicationally. If your listeners leave church not knowing how the Bible should impact their life and thinking, they won’t be able to discuss it with each other, and community-oriented sermon-listening won’t occur.

Writing about Calvin’s preaching, T. H. L. Parker remarks, “Expository preaching consists in the explanation and application of a passage of Scripture. Without explanation it is not expository; without application it is not preaching.”[9]

Pastor, do everything possible to implicate your congregation with clear biblical principles which they can discuss, pray over, and encourage one another to apply to their lives.

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[1] Michael Fabarez, Preaching That Changes Lives (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2002), 62.

[2] Ibid., 63.

[3] Ibid., 63–64.

[4] Ibid., 64.

[5] Ibid., 39.

[6] Ibid., 40.

[7] Ibid.

[8] Bryan Chapell, Christ-Centered Preaching: Redeeming the Expository Sermon, 2nd ed. (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 2005), 232.

[9] T. H. L. Parker, Calvin's Preaching (Edinburgh: T & T Clark, 1992), 79.