In my week, Monday begins a new sermon preparation process. As one friend said recently, “As soon as I wake up on Monday morning I feel the next sermon tapping me on the shoulder.” Application is one important aspect of this preparation. As I work on sermon structure and content I am also stockpiling a list of potential avenues for personal and corporate application. Although it is time consuming and mind engaging, I don’t find this part of sermon prep particularly difficult. What is more difficult, in my view, is how to deploy the application.
One of the traps that preachers get into is a predictable routine. In the event that the preacher is organized he is often a bit too organized–and predictable. Surely you have heard sermons that have a story on the front end, the outline introduced (3 whatevers that ensure faithful….) and then the working through each of the points, a list of application points at the end, a quote, a plea, and then a prayer. Week after week these boiler plate sermons are served up with the creativity of a cafeteria lunch.
My plea is this: mix it up a bit.
If some preachers were baseball pitchers they would have the same routine with every batter: fastball, curveball, cutter, change-up, repeat. This may work the first time through the line-up, but eventually decent hitters are going to start teeing off on your predictability.
In the pastoral scope parishioners won’t tee off they’ll tune out (or maybe nod off?). With all the work pastors put into their study and sermon prep, this is not what we want.
So what do you do? How do you mix up your pitches, as it were?
Here are some suggestions:
1) Surprise People: This is obviously one of my big points here. If in the last three weeks you have spent a considerable time on application at the end of a sermon then mix some in each of the points.
2) Use Rhetorical Questions: I have found in the hearing and giving of sermons great benefit to asking questions. With this you are endeavoring to engage the listener’s mind. When you ask people a question, most of the time they try to answer it. Even if they are wrong, it is worth it. It also helps to create the atmosphere of a dialog. As a preacher you are having a one-way conversation with your congregants.
3) Build Theological Constructs and Force Implications: It is a travesty that some preachers ignore doctrine. A close second behind that is to ignore the heart-stirring, life-changing implications of that doctrine. How does this glorious biblical truth inform and transform you?
4) Be Transparent: There is a balance here that requires wisdom: However, to act like a distant lecturer is to not pastor the people. We are fellow pilgrims, sinners on the: way to the celestial city. Feel free to show how the gospel of grace impacts you.
5) Use Thoughtful Illustrations: A well thought out illustration to make a point is worth big homiletical capital. Two to three minutes of well-crafted illustrations can yield hours of collective spiritual reflection among your people. I try to hang my sermons all of their lives (kitchen, workbench, office, gym, road, dinner table, etc).
6) Show how the Passage Identifies and Answers the Human Condition—at the outset: Bryan Chapell made his fallen condition focus famous in his book Christ-Centered Preaching. Basically, you show how the passage identifies sin and then answers it in Christ. If you have a clear point here on the front end then most of your application will flow from this river.
7) Stockpile Application during the Week: It is a good idea to keep a notepad or file handy so that you can write things down as you marinate in your passage through the week. I often come back from running (jogging) with multiple things that need to get written down. Most of these make the sermon.
8.) Talk to Church Members about the Sermon during the week: You would be surprised at how much you glean from other people as you share the main point and implications of your developing sermon. Recently a brother gave me some items that struck him as he thought about it and I used it in my sermon. Later that day I saw my wife’s sermon notes on her Bible and she wrote that down. I smiled and thanked God for his use of the body. This pays big dividends. (You may also enjoy Mark Dever’s sermon application grid, I have found this very helpful.)
9) Pray for wisdom as to how and what to say: This goes without saying (and often without praying). If you want to be used…ask in prayer.
10) Ask for feedback from trusted, straight-shooting folks: I love the people around me who do not mince words. These folks shoot straight and help me see what is helpful and not so helpful.
At the end of the day it comes down to being thoughtful and intentional. Anyone can be predictable, but this probably doesn’t serve our people very well. Be creative. Through some application in tight if the folks are leaning out over the plate. Mix in some off-speed if they are too eager. Challenge them with something outside if they are leaning back. Just don’t be predictable. Remember, just like a pitcher you have an objective: throw strikes.
