Have you ever sat in a congregation on those occasions when you are not preaching and listened to a sermon thinking, “The preacher could have wrapped this up several paragraphs ago and it would have been much more effective.” If so, you’re not alone. You see, in every worship service there well may be someone in your congregation who is listening to your sermon and thinking the very same thing.
It’s important that we preachers so carefully craft our sermons that we say exactly what needs to be said in the time allotted. We need to plan our sermons to have very specific content. And, we need to know when we’ve said enough and stop. That’s right—we preachers need to know when to stop talking, stop preaching, stop reiterating what we’ve already said.
The effectiveness of a sermon decreases with every extra paragraph we say beyond those necessary to get our point across. I’ve made this very topic the one highlighted in my chosen “Featured Podcast of the Week”—Podcast No. 51.
I urge you to click the link on this page that will take you to my Sermon-Coach website and listen to what I have to say on this topic. Once you do, I think you will agree that it is just as important to know when to stop preaching, as it is to know how to design a sermon that will help the people in our congregations with their spiritual formation.
I continue to feel very grateful and am humbled by the many positive comments about my latest book entitled The Sermon Sucking Black Hole—Why You Can’t Remember on Monday What Your Minister Preached on Sunday. This book is now available at Amazon.com by clicking here.
This book gives some solid tips to the people sitting in the congregation to help them remember what you’ve said from the pulpit when they come to worship services in the church where you serve as pastor.
Please click here to visit David Mains’ Sermon-Coach.com website.
You will also find a variety of resources for pastors and congregations at the Mainstay Ministries website. Please click here.
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