5 Things Great Preachers Do To Gain An Advantage

We look at the preaching giants of history in awe and wonder.

How did they do it?

They speak with golden tongues, dispensing endless pearls of wisdom.

It’s almost like they could do no wrong—like they could fart on stage and three people would give their lives to Christ!

Why can’t we preach like that?

Sometimes we wonder if God simply blessed them more than the rest of us.

And maybe that’s it. God does work through all of us in different ways. We all have different roles to play in God’s epic drama.

But in my years of studying preaching, I have come to realize that the pastors we idolize are mortal. They are human like the rest of us.

Yes, God may have gifted them with preaching ability, but there are a few shocking things they do to gain an advantage over others.

1. Beg

They know they can’t do it alone, and beg God for help.

“Pray without ceasing” (1 Thess 5:17)

Great preaching begins with great prayer.

The best preachers know that they are incapable of doing good without the power of God.

Charles Spurgeon understood this. When other pastors traveled to London to learn the secret of his success, he would take them to the church basement.

There they discovered people on their knees praying for the church during every service. Spurgeon called the basement the “engine room” of the church because without prayer the church won’t move.

Prayer is the engine beneath the hood of all great preaching.

When was the last time you spent an hour on your knees begging God to move in your ministry?

2. Cheat

They know the work is more than they can do alone, and cheat off others.

“Without counsel plans fail, but with many advisers they succeed” (Prov 15:22 ESV).

You can’t do it all by yourself. You were never meant to.

Sometimes we romanticize the life of a great preacher as a person who sits with a Bible in holy isolation all week until they emerge from their study on Sunday morning to reveal the wisdom of God—like Moses coming down from Mount Sinai with the Ten Commandments.

As beautiful as that sounds, that’s not the way it usually works.

Most great preachers are far too busy to spend all day in isolation. In fact, like Moses learned (Exod 18), they know they the weight of their responsibility is more than they can carry alone.

Great preachers follow the example of Jesus and recruit others to help.

They have other people who carry the weight of many responsibilities so they can focus on the sermon. People who help balance the budget, clean the toilets, fold the bulletins, answer the phones, visit the sick, mow the lawn, pay the taxes, and more.

They also have people who help them write sermons, brainstorm ideas, collect illustrations, check their theology, and provide feedback.

What responsibilities do you need to recruit people to help you carry?

3. Steal

They know what they don’t know, and steal wisdom from others.

”The beginning of wisdom is this: Get wisdom. Though it cost all you have, get understanding.” (Prov 4:7)

Great preachers know they don’t know everything, so they borrow from other pastors, writers, and theologians.

Most preachers do not have original ideas.

In fact, if you think you have discovered something in Scripture that nobody has ever seen before in over 2,000 years of Christian history, it’s probably heresy.

The Bible has said the same thing it has always said since God inspired the words to be written.

Henry Ward Beecher once said, “All work and no plagiarism makes for dull sermons!”

Please do not actually plagiarize. Give credit where credit is due. But great preachers relentlessly steal thoughts, ideas, and insight from others.

When great pastors prepare to preach on a topic, they read books, articles, commentaries, and watch other sermons on the same subject.

Most of the things they say are not original ideas put in their own words.

Who’s wisdom do you need to steal for you next sermon?

4. Fail

They know the stakes are too high to play it safe, and take risks that often fail.

”And now, Lord, look upon their threats and grant to your servants to continue to speak your word with all boldness” (Acts 4:29).

Great preachers take risks. They try new things. They sometimes fail, but they learn from it and keep moving forward.

God did not call us to play it safe.

Jesus did not call us to a life of comfort.

Great preachers imitate the life of Jesus and the disciples in preaching with boldness.

Sometimes their bold words draw criticism. Sometimes they fail because they were too bold, too ambitious, or asked too much from people who were not ready.

But, like Jesus, it’s often the boldness of their preaching and the boldness of their actions that compels us to follow.

As John Maxwell says, they fail forward.

When was the last time you did something bold for Christ that scared you?

5. Toil

They know God blesses faithful plodding, and work hard.

”In all toil there is profit, but mere talk tends only to poverty” (Prov 14:23)

Great preachers are not lazy. They work their tails off.

They didn’t get good at preaching by playing Xbox all day.

They didn’t build their ministry binge-watching Netflix.

Day in and day out, they committed themselves to the faithful grind.

They studied hard when nobody was watching. They preached hard when the audience was small. They put in the work, and God blessed their efforts.

Yes, pastors can take this too far and wreck their family. Workaholism is a problem, but it’s no excuse for laziness.

You have to find a healthy balance of hard work and rest. Rest on the Sabbath and when you are home with your family with a clear conscious because you know you gave God your all at work.

What do you need to cut out of your life that is wasting your time and making you lazy?