Reasons to improve sermons

   Why should sermons be retained as a part of a worship service?

   First, Jesus instructed: “And the gospel must first be preached to all nations” (Mark 13:10).  Preaching is needed!  Peter preached; one example is recorded in Acts 2:14-40.  Paul preached; one example is recorded in Acts 13:16-41.  Carried out by many Christians for nearly two thousand years, preaching has even crossed denominational borders, though with countless styles.

   Second, preaching is a spiritual gift.  Paul stated to Timothy, “Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to preaching and to teaching.  Do not neglect your gift…” (I Timothy 4:13-14).

   I do sympathize with people who are discouraged by the preaching in their church.  For example, I am an interactive learner.  A college professor who talked on and on usually did not engage me personally.  Still I would take notes in class, and then carefully study the notes before the test so I would get a good grade.  However, I was not learning much for the long haul.  Whereas when learning from a professor who asked questions, often termed the Socratic method, I would be more actively engaged since I could participate in discussion.  Thus I was far more likely to remember the material.  I need engagement!

   Regarding the improvement of preaching during worship, I offer two suggestions.

   First, make sermons shorter!  It is easy to say, but hard to do.  This is my personal goal as a preacher.  When I prepare a sermon, I immerse myself in that passage for one week.  Thus I become capable of giving a long sermon.  But the listeners have not been pondering the passage all week.  And if too much information is given, they may retain little.  Thus the best I can give listeners is a single message.  And the more I prepare, the more capable I become for giving a smoother and shorter sermon.

   Second, provide other opportunities for interaction.  In my next position, I want to implement a short time during the worship where people get into discussion groups of three or so, and give some insight between one another regarding the Scripture passage.  This is a radical idea, which I have never seen carried out in a worship service.  But I read this suggestion from a woman in a short article on the Internet, and I want to try it.  I think it has the potential of making worship more interesting or fun for many people.

   Even though I advocate shorter sermons and more interaction during a service, the bottom line is preaching is needed!  If you preach, give it your all!

Hunter Irvine

Be yourself when doing ministry work!

    I learned a critical lesson about church in my first youth minister position: Be yourself!

After I resigned that position, I wrote that statement on a sheet of paper, and here over twenty years later I still have that sheet of paper.

   You are a person created by God who is unique from any other person ever created, physically and spiritually.  God wants you to be the person He created you to be!  God abhors sin, since sin only interferes with you being the person He created you to be.  And God does not want church leaders or people in the congregation stifling your unique personality, your God given gifts, or your calling from God.

   I love preaching!  When I preach, it is totally personal, because I am conveying messages from God from Scripture, and those messages are coming from my heart.  Thus in pouring out my heart, I must be “me.”

   Once I tried to be someone different.  My first day of high school, I was a new kid in school since I had gone to a different junior high school in the district where my family use to live.  Taking the suggestion of a friend in junior high, I decided to try and create a new image.  I was going to be cool.  I did not have a plan ahead of time for being cool, but that is what I was aiming for.  Coming up with a last minute plan which I probably could not even have articulated, I started trying to be the strong silent type, since that was my perception of cool, from TV probably.  I was miserable.  Slowly, I went back to being “me,” which is to be joyful and loud.  Trying to be someone different, not only was I miserable, but my attempted image did not help me in a single relationship.  My relationships with other students only were good when I was “myself.”  Great relationships are genuine.

   Likewise, a preacher needs to be totally himself or herself with listeners, so they may know who you really are in order to accept the sincerity of your message.  Be yourself when you preach, and people will have the opportunity to recognize the sincerity of your preaching from your heart.

   God works so we may keep personally improving, and as with any spiritual gift, God works to improve our preaching.  Yet in being yourself, you will be a genuine preacher.

Hunter