Five Quick Preaching Tips

I just got back from a preaching conference.

Even though I’ve written books on preaching, and I’ve been writing at ProPreacher.com about preaching for many years now, I’m always trying to soak up as much knowledge and as much wisdom as I can from other people because preaching is something that takes a lifetime to master, and I don’t even pretend to be the expert.

I’m just somebody on the journey trying to learn and grow as much I can along with you and sharing what I learn.

So here are a few of the tips and a few of the big highlights and takeaways I had while I was soaking up what I could from this conference.

1. Clarity is kind

Think about that. Being clear in your preaching is kind.

If preaching is about loving God, loving people, and taking a message from God because you love God so much and want to share that love with other people, then when we are clear in what we say, when we help people easily get from point A and follow us along in our preaching until we get to point B, and we do it in a clear and easy way for them to understand, that’s kind to them.

That is a loving thing to do for your audience.

It’s mean to them and makes it harder for them when we don’t put in that extra work to be more clear, when we don’t put in that extra work to make sure that we’re bringing them along with us.

Be clear, and be kind, and that is a way to love the people who are listening to you.

2. Pride is a threat

Pride is one of the biggest threats for a preacher.

You’re standing on stage in a position of power and a position of honor, often raised up on a platform in front of an audience of many people. That has a way of getting into your head and swelling you up with pride thinking that somehow you are awesome, that everyone would want to come and hear every word that you care to speak to them.

One of the speakers at the conference told the story of the triumphal entry of Jesus. And you know the story.

Jesus rides into Jerusalem on the donkey, and he gets the king’s welcome, and people are waving the palm branches saying, “Hosanna,” and they’re welcoming Jesus triumphantly into the city.

The speaker said, “Hey, a lot of times when we preach, we get this idea and put ourselves in the place of Jesus riding in like we’re the king who has come to deliver goodness to all the people, and we forget that what we really are is the donkey.”

Our job as the preachers is to carry Jesus to the people.

Too many preachers put themselves in the place of the King, and they soak up all that praise and glory thinking it’s for themselves, and they forget that they’re just the donkey.

Our job is to carry Jesus to the people, to bring his message to the people.

It’s not about us and our glory. It’s about God and his glory.

We cannot forget that. But for so many pastors, pride comes before fall. So many pastors let that swell them up. They get a big head and think that they can do no wrong, and that’s when their ministry and their credibility as a speaker falls apart.

3. Growth is slow

A lot of us want to become a preacher or speaker, and we think that we could just jump up there and start doing it right away.

We want to instantly be as good as those people that we’ve been watching who have been doing it for 30 years. That just doesn’t happen.

We’ve got to stop comparing where we are now to where someone is on their journey 30 years ahead of us.

Growth comes slow.

You see, the way that God works isn’t in the instant, on-demand way that we see in our culture a lot today. Most of the time, the way God works in his economy feels slow to us.

Growth is more like fruit. You plant the seed, and it takes time. It doesn’t happen in a day or overnight. It slowly grows, and eventually, you see the fruit. Then eventually, that fruit yields more fruit, and then you see an abundant harvest. But it takes time.

If you want to become a better preacher and a better speaker, you need to realize that it’s not going to happen overnight.

You can’t just microwave your way to instant expertise in preaching. You have to take your time.

It’s going to take one sermon after another after another after another, and eventually, as you keep going and keep practicing and keep working on your skills and keep seeking God and growing in your relationship with him, then you’re slowly going to see that fruit. You’re going to see that harvest come.

Getting a little bit better every single day eventually yields a huge harvest.

4. Joy is contagious

Now, this isn’t something they taught at the conference necessarily, but it’s something I noticed as I was observing and learning as much as I could.

One of the cool things about this conference I went to is it was small enough where at that end of the conference they gave some people an opportunity to get up on stage and to deliver something that they had prepared, or something that they were working on, just a small portion of it.

These people were at all different levels of experience, some people who never got on stage, who rarely ever got an opportunity to speak, and people who’ve been doing it every single week for years.

One of the biggest things that stood out to me between the people who grabbed my attention and the people who, quite honestly, I had trouble focusing and paying attention to was that the more engaging people had this sense of joy about them.

They were smiling. You could see on their face. They were loving the stories that they were telling. They were excited about the content that they were sharing with other people.

You could see their joy. You could see that passion and excitement for the message that they were about to deliver.

This is something that I’ve been teaching and saying for a long time. You need to have the message so welled up deep inside you, so absorbed into who you are, something that you are so passionate and excited about that you just can’t wait. You have to explode that message at everybody else.

When you have that sense about you, it makes your message so much more engaging.

There were people who rarely ever got on stage that were nervous. They were shaking and stumbling over their words a little, but they just had this joy on their face about the opportunity to share this message, and that made their message more powerful than the more polished but dry people.

Joy is contagious. As somebody sitting in the crowd, you can’t help but be excited, to walk away from that message more joyful, and to find it more enjoyable when that speaker is excited and happy about the opportunity to do what they get to do.

5. Speak from your scars, not your wounds

This is important.

A lot of times, we share stories about some difficult times that we’ve gone through or some hard things that have happened to our life.

These are sensitive stories, things that you wouldn’t often tell someone when you first met them. But when you’re up there preaching, you’re being vulnerable, and you’re opening up your chest to let people see who you are and the things you’ve been through.

So when you tell stories about your scars, it’s good and helpful. It can be a great illustration for your sermon.

But when you talk about your wounds, you’re opening up about things that are too fresh, things that just happened to you.

If you get up on stage, and you preach a sermon about something just happened maybe just a year, a few months, or even two years ago, and you haven’t had the time to really process it, you haven’t had the time to really deal with those hurts, pains, and struggles. You’re still are in the middle of it.

When you show your wounds to people, rather than them being able to relate to you and say, “Yes, I can understand. I’m going through something like that right now,” instead, they’re going to see that fresh wound, and they’re going to come running to your rescue. They’re going to want to help you. They’re going to feel bad for you.

All of a sudden, you are now in the way of the message. People are more concerned about you and the fact that you obviously are still hurt from this. You are still dealing with this and haven’t fully processed it yet. So they’re going to want to rush to try to help you, and they’re not going to be as affected and helped by the message you’re trying to deliver.

When you open up and show them a wound rather than a scar that has healed, you’re hurting the effectiveness of the message rather than using your story as an example to how God helps you overcome these things.

Your job is to deliver what he wants you to say, not to stand in the way and become the focus of the entire sermon.

When you deliver those messages that are too fresh, you’ve got to be careful because people focus so much on that story that they won’t see the rest of the greater story of what God has done, what God is doing, and what God could do in them if they are going through a similar circumstance.

There it is. Those are some of the things that I took away from this conference. I hope that you got something out of it too.

I’m always trying to keep learning, and I hope you are too.

That’s kind of the point of what I’m doing here. I want to keep learning. I want to keep sharing what I learn. And I would love to hear from you.

What are some of the things that you’ve learned? What are some of the best preaching tips that you’ve heard?

These are some of the things that I’m learning, and some of the things that I’m working on. I’m not the expert. I’m just a fellow person on a journey, and I would love to hear what you have to say too.