By Dr. Francis Akin-John

One of my fellow elders teaches at a local seminary. He sometimes invites me to speak to his students from a pastor’s perspective about sermon preparation, preaching, and church ministry. During a recent lecture, one of the students asked me, “If you could go back and give advice to yourself as a beginning preacher, what would you say?”

I’ve been preaching now for more than 15 years. I don’t know if that’s enough time to make me a Jedi Knight preacher who’s fit to train newbies. But it does feel long enough to think of what advice I would give to myself if I could go back in time.

Here are seven suggestions for new preachers based on self-reflection, as well as from observing new preachers over the past decade and a half.

Preach the Word

This first word of advice should go without saying, which probably means we need to say it a lot: preach the Word. Commit at the outset of your ministry to expository preaching. What is expository preaching? It’s when the preacher makes the point of the text to be the point of his sermon, which is then applied to the congregation.

As I fielded questions from those seminary students, I had a sense many were wrestling with this doubt: “Am I really going to spend 10 or 15 or 20 hours each week using my seminary training to get at the meaning of the text?” I hope they do, and I hope you do too. The longer I pastor, the more amazed I am at how steadily preaching the Word imparts a broad and deep health to the congregation. Let regular exposition be the heartbeat and the respiration that pumps the life-giving Spirit throughout the body of Christ, week after week.

Trust the Word

Let’s take this one level deeper.

Don’t just preach the Word. Trust the Word.

Even when practicing exposit-ion, your heart can subtly lean on other things to affect the con-gregation. You can secretly trust in your humor, age, erudition, background, style, technology, or tattoos to be the thing that really reaches people.

If I could travel back in time and talk to the younger me, I would tell myself to stop trying to be so funny. I still use humor today; it’s just part of my personality. But that humor better serves the text now. God has graciously been helping me to overcome my fear of man and my deep-down desire for people to like me, and he has been replacing it with greater confidence in the power of His Word to save sinners and sanctify saints.

Preach shorter sermons

I sometimes advise young preachers to deliver shorter sermons, 25 to 30 minutes maximum. Why? So they can learn how to get to the point of the text.

We’ve all listened to rambling preachers. I’ve been one myself. Ramblers take us down rabbit trails and meander from one thought or verse to the next, without any clear structure or direction. If the Pastor somewhat bases his sermonic wanderings on the Bible, then the congregation may glean golden nuggets, if they pay attention. But people may just as easily drift off while politely looking attentive.

By preaching shorter at first, you can discipline yourself to get to the main points and not get bogged down or off track. Once you develop ability to clearly communicate the message of the text itself, then slowly start adding time onto your sermons. I started preaching around 30 minutes and today preach closer to 45. But over the years I’ve learned some of the rhetorical skills necessary to keep more of the congregation with me for that length of time.

Beware of the fallacy that longer sermons are by definition more faithful sermons. Sometimes longer sermons are simply more painful.

Talk like a normal person

Understand what your seminary Professors say, but don’t talk like them. Talk like the people in your church. Don’t make your sermons opaque with the theological, biblical, and historical jargon you learned in Bible classes.

I’m not arguing for dumbed-down preaching; I’m urging intelligible preaching. Definitely preach weighty theological truths. But please explain them. If you’re going to mention the efficacy of Christ’s penal substitutionary atonement, then explain to people what each of those precious theological words mean, and do so using the plain language of everyday people.

To the seminarians: think of this as an incarnational homiletic.

Work on apllication

Sermons from freshly minted pastors can sometimes be long on biblical commentary and short on application. Seminary trains us how to exegete the text. But how do we learn to exegete our people and their hearts? It took me a while to figure this out.

Work hard at the art of application. Spend time during your sermon prep thinking about the applications inherent in the text itself. And just as importantly, get to know your people. Love is the secret to good application. As you fall in love with your flock and come to know them the way a shepherd knows his sheep, your application instincts will sharpen. You won’t just be preaching a biblical sermon, or making biblical applications. You will be preaching and applying the Bible to your people.

6. GET FEEDBACK

Nothing will improve your preaching like thoughtful feedback. It’s encouraging to hear that weekly handful of “Good sermon today!” compliments as you stand in the foyer after a worship service. But you also need careful, constructive criticism.

If you have other skilled preachers on your church staff or among your elders, or even insightful non-preaching church members, ask them for regular critique. If you’re a solo Pastor, make friends with other local Pastors committed to expository preaching and evaluate one another. My Pastors’ fellowship listens to and critiques one of the guy’s sermons each month. The practice is helpful to all of us. I didn’t seek preaching feedback in my early days. If I could go back in time, I would encourage myself to put it in place.

7. BE PATIENT

Finally, be patient with yourself. Give yourself permission to grow. There’s no substitute for time in the pulpit to find your voice, develop your skills, and learn from experience to trust in God’s Word and Spirit. If you’re not the primary preaching Pastor in your church, then find some weekly venue for preaching and teaching, like a youth group talk, an adult education class, or an evening service.

Take the long view of your preaching. Don’t drown in despair because you coughed up a hairball of a sermon. Or two, or five. Be humble, retool, and try again.

All young preachers (and old preachers) should tape 1 Timothy 4:13, 15 to their wall: “Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to preaching and to teaching… Be diligent in these matters; give yourself wholly to them so that everyone may see your progress.”

Did you catch that last phrase? God is calling us Preachers to show progress to our congregations, not perfection. I definitely haven’t mastered preaching, whatever “mastering” means. But by God’s grace I have shown progress over the past 15 years in the public reading of Scripture, preaching, and teaching. And by His grace you will too.

Don’t forget our conference “Healthy Local Church 3” is Wednesday 14th – Saturday 17th of February 2018.

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THE SCRIPTURE PASSAGE MOST PASTORS FORGET ABOUT

Suddenly, that great church which the pastor was enjoying and had been bragging about to his colleagues turned on him and wanted him gone.

Without warning it seems, those precious people who had welcomed him so warmly just a couple of years back have now joined the vicious mob clamoring for the pastor’s head.

That wonderful deacon fellowship which had devoted themselves to serving God’s people and ministering to the needy suddenly arose and announced their intention to oust the pastor.

That sweet family to whom the pastor ministered again and again misinterpreted something he did (or believed something they heard) and began to devote themselves to seeing that he was fired.

Why, Lord? Pastors and their families wonder that.

Many a servant of the Lord has been treated less kindly and more unfairly by the Christians than any business in town would treat an employee they were dismissing.

One unemployed pastor said to me, “If this is the way it is, maybe I’d better find some other line of work.”

Another said, “All I ever did was try to bless those people. Now, look at how they have behaved.

Why?”

Another said, “Why does God allow this?”

In every case, I hear them out, offer them my understanding and sympathy, and then say, “You might want to go back and read your charter again.”

“My charter?”

“Yes. Where the Lord told you what to expect, how people would treat you, and why He would allow it.”

Silence.

Matthew 10:16-42 is the charter of the Lord’s servant.

“It’s the tenth chapter of Matthew, beginning in verse 16 and going through the end of the chapter.

–Why beginning in verse 16? Because the first 15 verses are a temporary, one-time only instruction to the Lord’s disciples as they were about to go out and “try” preaching, then return and report to Him. (Luke 10:17 tells of their return.) But from verse 16 through the end of the chapter, everything the Lord said pertains to us for the rest of this age.

–Jesus said we should expect to be mistreated.

–We should not be surprised when that mistreatment comes from the best people. “You will be beaten in their synagogues,” He said. They actually think they’re serving the Lord.

–Why does the Lord allow this? “As a testimony to them and to the Gentiles.” That is to say, Jesus needs someone to be Exhibit A of His presence in a human life. He needs someone to catch the attention of the outside world so they will hear God’s message. After all, Caesar ain’t coming to your revival, friend.

–The world is watching. (See Acts 16:25. They’re listening, too.) When you are mistreated, the outside world watches in silence to see how you will take it.

–You’re no better than Jesus. The pupil should not expect to be honored above his teacher. They hated Him, they will hate you. They crucified Him, so why do you expect them to recognize your anniversary each year and to acclaim you as the greatest preacher ever? Get real.

–But we are not to fear what they are doing. Three times in this passage, He tells us not to fear.

–We are to be aggressive, to speak up, to speak boldly, to hold nothing back. In other words, we should not be so cotton-picking politically correct. Take a stand, preacher. And if it gets you in trouble, well–that’s what He said would happen.

–If it causes a disruption in the fellowship of a worldly church, don’t be surprised.

–You keep on doing your job. Even to the smallest degree. That cup of cold water is precious to one who needs it. When we give to the Lord’s workers, we share in their reward.

–Speaking of rewards, we in the Lord’s work should readjust our expectations of recognition, appreciation, and honors. Those who work for human rewards get that, but that’s all they get. See what the Lord said of the Pharisees in Matthew 6:2,5,16.

Let Matthew 10 become a vital part of your daily armor…

After thoroughly digesting and assimilating its contents–read it again and again until its instructions and insights and promises become as familiar to you as John 3:16–then share it with your family, pastor. Make your spouse and children aware of what the Lord has said concerning your calling.

Do not go looking for opposition and persecution. Do your job and it will find you soon enough. But do not be surprised. (See the insights of I Peter, particularly 4:19.)

By all means, appreciate a church fellowship which does the right thing. Encourage them in this, and continue teaching them the proper response to and treatment of the Lord’s servants.

Now, look around you, pastor, and find colleagues in the ministry who are having a tougher time than you.

Perhaps you know a pastor who was driven from his church by a little group who wanted to control things. Reach out to him. (When one unemployed pastor said to me, “No one will help. Why don’t pastors help other ministers who are without a church?” I said, “When you were pastoring, how many unemployed preachers did you help?” He said, “I didn’t know it was a problem.” I said, “They don’t either.”)

Keep your eyes on the Lord. Honor Him. He is your Source, your Resource, and your Portion. Your Rock, your Shelter, your Song and your Salvation. The church isn’t, and neither is the denomination.

If you find yourself the victim of innuendo and persecution, go back to Matthew 5:11-12 and live there.

“Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you and say all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in Heaven. For so persecuted they the prophets who were before you.”

When you get to Heaven, you will find that your suffering was pure gold in the Lord’s sight. And that will matter more than anything else in the world. – Joe Mceveer