He seemed a likeable person. Then when the young man started to preach, the impression his initial words made was one of sincerity and humility.
There’s no question that his listeners were following him. There were frequent “Amens!” And, when he finished giving a personal illustration of his own failure and brokenness, some even stood to their feet and applauded. His sermon was no more than 25 minutes, and he not only stuck to his text, he made it come alive.
I’m sure most people would say his message was very good if not exceptional. I would like to be in agreement—except that I don’t think anyone’s life will be all that different as a result of hearing him preach.
I know I harp on this a lot, but preaching’s bottom line is changed lives. And I don’t think anyone that morning will be all that different as a result of what was heard. In short, there wasn’t a “transformation factor.”
Granted, I don’t know how I’m all that qualified to judge the results of this person’s message. But that’s just my point: His words were so general that there was no way to measure their impact. Unfortunately, that’s true of most of the sermons I hear.
I don’t know how many times I’ve written this, but early on in the sermon-preparation process, a preacher needs to determine not only the “Subject” his or her sermon is about, but the specific “Response” he or she wishes from the listeners. With this young man’s message I would speculate that it was to “Hope in the Lord.”
What that means or how the listeners were to make that happen in their lives was never made clear—at least, not for me, as I listened, it wasn’t. In other words, not only did the young preacher offer no clear expected “Response,” he didn’t offer any “How Tos.” He gave no suggestions to help the listeners make the truth he was preaching come alive in their own lives.
So, I left the service thinking, I hope there’s someone along the line who helps this young man, because he has real potential as a preacher. That’s important, Lord, because if he doesn’t improve, the best he’s going to get from listeners is “That was very good” or “Very interesting” or “Very helpful” or “Very challenging.” But, he’s not going to know the joy of seeing lives transformed because of powerful words spoken by one of God’s well-taught servants!
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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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