Pain! That's a word that describes what it's like to dig through the archives of past sermons. What was once considered "my best sermon to date" is now looked down upon as "oh, I can't believe I used to teach like that." Those of us that have been teaching for some time know what it's like to be in an empty room cringing with dusty transcripts of old sermons in hand while hoping that nobody ever finds out that you once preached this raggedy old thing. Hopefully we feel that way because there has been improvement in one's preaching and teaching, not necessarily because the sermon was actually that bad. But chances are there were more than a few that were worthy of being stored at the local city dump.
In Alexander Strauch's book, Leading With Love, he presents a few helpful suggestions on how teachers and preachers of God's Word can improve. I was excited to see this in print because it affirmed a few things I was doing and gave me some other ideas to improve. As pastors we are held accountable to God for being teachers of His Word, therefore we must strive to improve in this area.
Strauch suggests that we:
1. Lay out a clear biblical philosophy of teaching and preaching the Scripture.
He does not expound or give any examples on what a philosophy of teaching and preaching might look like, but I have some thoughts on what he may have been referring to. Philosophy may likely include the necessity of expository preaching, the necessity of sermons that center around Christ and the gospel, a mandate to preach both Old and New Testaments, a commitment to declare the whole counsel of God, a refusal to bow to the contemporary influences of psychology or postmodernism, etc.
2. Listen to the expository preaching of excellent preachers and teachers, and make their tapes or CD's available to others.
3. Always be building a library of Bible study tools to help you study the Scriptures.
These resources should include at least a good Bible, concordance, Bible dictionaries and quality commentaries. Strauch rightly notes that many of these resources are on the web for free.
4. Call a seminary or Bible college and ask the professor of homiletics for suggestions. Or take a homiletics course.
My thought is that most people won't do this, but there are many good books available on preaching as well as delivery.
5. Listen to yourself (audiotape or videotape).
Ouch! If you've ever done this it can be painful but good for those of us that struggle with pride. You might be surprised at the amount of UMs and UHs you dish out. What was said in 60 minutes may have been able to be said in 45 if those verbal pauses were eliminated. Then there's the distracting habits of playing with a wedding ring, raising and lowering/raising the microphone or moving the portable music stand back and forth. All these plus much more can be "caught on tape" and used as evidence to throw you in jail for being such a terrible preacher.
6. Have someone close to you evaluate your teaching and preaching.
I've done this before and was pleasantly surprised at how much better the teachers and preachers I mentored improved. It helped me too! Actually, an evaluation gives everyone a little mental process to walk through ahead of time to see if they have studied, prepared, organized, explained and applied scripture appropriately. On the evaluation I've used I had about 20 or so questions that we would walk through to help us improve. Questions range from delivery to content to clarity and then some. Each speaker was evaluated by his peers and then given feedback to in order to improve.
7. Abound in love.
This is a great place to get started if you desire to improve in preaching and teaching. I would simply like to add a few more things that have helped me.
8. Study scripture like crazy.
The Bible is one giant revelation of Christ woven together by the Holy Spirit. The more you study it, the more you realize how it all ties together. As you build new sermons, you'll continue to grow and you'll have your own resources to draw from. As you study it all and teach it all, those that you shepherd will begin to see how it all fits together. But that won't happen if you don't study all of scripture.
9. Be well read.
Good Christian books are a great resource. Sometimes we get in a rut and will say the same things in the same way with same tone of voice with the same passion with the same whatever. Christian authors may declare an identical truth that you were attempting to say, but perhaps they've used a thesaurus and said the same truth with more power or color. Perhaps there was a truth about a certain doctrine or parable that you had not seen but through their writings they were able to disciple you and pass that on. Whatever the case, be well read.
It's said, but I've talked to teachers of God's word who have said, "Oh, I hate to read. It's so boring." I'm not sure what they were reading, but there are plenty of exciting, interesting and soundly biblical books out there that would serve them well if they would find them and read them.
10. Pray and ask God to help you grow.
Always depend upon the Lord. We live, move and breath because He sustains our live. Likewise, we can only grow in this areas with His help.
In Alexander Strauch's book, Leading With Love, he presents a few helpful suggestions on how teachers and preachers of God's Word can improve. I was excited to see this in print because it affirmed a few things I was doing and gave me some other ideas to improve. As pastors we are held accountable to God for being teachers of His Word, therefore we must strive to improve in this area.
James 3:1 (NASB) Let not many of you become teachers, my brethren, knowing that as such we shall incur a stricter judgment.
Strauch suggests that we:
1. Lay out a clear biblical philosophy of teaching and preaching the Scripture.
He does not expound or give any examples on what a philosophy of teaching and preaching might look like, but I have some thoughts on what he may have been referring to. Philosophy may likely include the necessity of expository preaching, the necessity of sermons that center around Christ and the gospel, a mandate to preach both Old and New Testaments, a commitment to declare the whole counsel of God, a refusal to bow to the contemporary influences of psychology or postmodernism, etc.
2. Listen to the expository preaching of excellent preachers and teachers, and make their tapes or CD's available to others.
3. Always be building a library of Bible study tools to help you study the Scriptures.
These resources should include at least a good Bible, concordance, Bible dictionaries and quality commentaries. Strauch rightly notes that many of these resources are on the web for free.
4. Call a seminary or Bible college and ask the professor of homiletics for suggestions. Or take a homiletics course.
My thought is that most people won't do this, but there are many good books available on preaching as well as delivery.
5. Listen to yourself (audiotape or videotape).
Ouch! If you've ever done this it can be painful but good for those of us that struggle with pride. You might be surprised at the amount of UMs and UHs you dish out. What was said in 60 minutes may have been able to be said in 45 if those verbal pauses were eliminated. Then there's the distracting habits of playing with a wedding ring, raising and lowering/raising the microphone or moving the portable music stand back and forth. All these plus much more can be "caught on tape" and used as evidence to throw you in jail for being such a terrible preacher.
6. Have someone close to you evaluate your teaching and preaching.
I've done this before and was pleasantly surprised at how much better the teachers and preachers I mentored improved. It helped me too! Actually, an evaluation gives everyone a little mental process to walk through ahead of time to see if they have studied, prepared, organized, explained and applied scripture appropriately. On the evaluation I've used I had about 20 or so questions that we would walk through to help us improve. Questions range from delivery to content to clarity and then some. Each speaker was evaluated by his peers and then given feedback to in order to improve.
7. Abound in love.
1 Corinthians 13:1-3 (NASB) If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. [2] And if I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. [3] And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I deliver my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing.
This is a great place to get started if you desire to improve in preaching and teaching. I would simply like to add a few more things that have helped me.
8. Study scripture like crazy.
The Bible is one giant revelation of Christ woven together by the Holy Spirit. The more you study it, the more you realize how it all ties together. As you build new sermons, you'll continue to grow and you'll have your own resources to draw from. As you study it all and teach it all, those that you shepherd will begin to see how it all fits together. But that won't happen if you don't study all of scripture.
9. Be well read.
Good Christian books are a great resource. Sometimes we get in a rut and will say the same things in the same way with same tone of voice with the same passion with the same whatever. Christian authors may declare an identical truth that you were attempting to say, but perhaps they've used a thesaurus and said the same truth with more power or color. Perhaps there was a truth about a certain doctrine or parable that you had not seen but through their writings they were able to disciple you and pass that on. Whatever the case, be well read.
It's said, but I've talked to teachers of God's word who have said, "Oh, I hate to read. It's so boring." I'm not sure what they were reading, but there are plenty of exciting, interesting and soundly biblical books out there that would serve them well if they would find them and read them.
10. Pray and ask God to help you grow.
Always depend upon the Lord. We live, move and breath because He sustains our live. Likewise, we can only grow in this areas with His help.
Perhaps by this time next year, if we've applied some of these tips, we'll look and and see that God has brought us along in some areas. And maybe in the future there'll be less of those lonely cringing moments when we're looking back on our old sermons in private.
To God be the glory.
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