Back to Basics Preaching · BACK TO BASICS PREACHING • STEVE MAY writers, preachers, and...

BACK to BASICS

PREACHINGA TEN STEP GUIDE TO MASTERING THE ESSENTIALS

Steve May

Becoming a great preacher,

like becoming a great artist,

requires a life commitment.

— Calvin Miller

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BACK TO BASICS PREACHING • STEVE MAY

C.S. LEWIS once said that Christians need to be reminded more

than we need to be instructed.

This especially applies to the preacher’s relationship to

preaching. Most of us know what we need to do — we just need

to be reminded from time to time.

Therefore, I hope this back-to-basics guide will serve as a

reminder to preachers and teachers that a few small steps can

make a big difference in the impact we have with our listeners.

Here’s to great preaching!

Steve May

introduction

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YOUR SERMONS ARE AS GOOD

AS YOUR RESOURCES

IN HIS SEMINAR on preaching, Rick Warren talks about the need

to use good resources during the sermon preparation process.

He asks, “Did you hear about the preacher who insisted that he

would be original or nothing — and was both?”

Maybe there are a handful of preachers so naturally deep

and dynamic that they can dazzle and deliver without doing

any digging, but there aren’t many. And let’s face it, if Rick Warren

doesn’t think he fits into that category, you and I don’t either.

The bottom line is that most sermons are as good as the

resources used during preparation.

Great sermons are a team effort. By “team” I mean the

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writers, preachers, and theologians you turn to while putting

your message together.

Paul said to Timothy: And the things you have heard me say

in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable men who

will also be qualified to teach others. (2 Timothy 2:2)

He’s saying, “Take what you’ve learned from me, use it and

pass it on. Tell it to others like I told it to you.” This is God’s

method, that we learn from one another and we teach one

another.

I’m not talking about carbon-copying someone else’s sermon.

Neither do I suggest that your messages should lack your own

stamp of originality and creativity.

I am saying that your most creative ideas will come from

the overflow of your research — what you read and study

and hear and absorb from God’s seasoned leaders during the

process of preparation.

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A great library is the first step toward great preaching.

Assemble a collection of reliable preaching resources. Then

commit yourself to the habit of getting outside input each week

as you prepare your message.

Seek out devotional books, commentaries, podcasts, and

collections of sermons and sermon illustrations. Identify the tools

that work best for you, the ones that can spark a good idea and

help you take it to the finish line. And then put those tools to

use each week.

I’ve been preaching since I was a teenager, and have been

writing sermon resources for 20 years. I never begin a sermon

or a sermon series empty-handed. That’s because I have learned

that over the long haul, your sermons are as good as the

resources you use.

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2THE IMPROVEMENT TECHNIQUE

MOST PREACHERS AVOID

WHAT IF I TOLD you that there is a preacher whose technique

you could study for just a few minutes a week, and by doing so

you will experience — in just a month or two — exponential

growth in your ability to effectively communicate the gospel,

resulting in a greater number of lives changed through the work

of your ministry?

Would you study that preacher?

Most pastors — even those otherwise motivated to improve

— resist the idea. Some outright refuse.

Who is this preacher?

It’s you.

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If you’re serious about becoming an effective communicator

of the gospel, you need to do the difficult (sometimes painful)

work of evaluating yourself.

It won’t be easy. You probably won’t like your voice. Your

accent will be stronger than you realized. Every “ummmm” and

“uhhhh” will have a nails-on-a-chalkboard effect. You will feel, at

times, like you’re droning on forever. It can be brutal.

However, you’ll soon discover things your congregation

already knows. You’ll hear exactly what they hear, week-in and

week-out. And you’ll begin to understand why some of your

messages, though solid in content, sometimes fall flat.

Every great coach and athlete does basically the same thing.

After each game, he sits in front of a screen and watches film —

analyzing every play, every call, every score, every missed

opportunity, every mistake. He does it so that next time he’ll

get it right.

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It has never been easier to capture your sermons with video

or audio. Start recording your messages every week. Then listen

with the intent of hearing your sermon as your listeners heard it.

Did your message tell the story you wanted to tell? Was your

big idea easy to understand? Did each illustration contribute to

the point of the message? Did you speak too fast? Too slow?

Did you laugh at your own jokes? Did you stumble too many

times?

With every mistake and annoying habit you discover, you can

pat yourself on the back. As you fix or eliminate each one, you’ve

taken another step forward to becoming a more effective

communicator.

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3THE TEN-SECOND TAKE-AWAY

GREAT SERMONS HAVE one point, not three or four.

“Wait a minute,” some will say. “Don’t the best sermons follow

the tried-and-true 3-points-and-a-story format?”

Actually no. Not if the three points are moving in three different

directions.

This is an important distinction to make: Your points, when

you use them, should really be more like subpoints. They’re not

three major ideas. They’re three ideas that support your one

big idea. Your points are like strands in a rope that, when wound

together, create the rope. Your points work together to create

your big idea.

Your sermon should have only one Big Idea. In the Advanced

Coaching Course, it’s called the Ten-Second Take-Away.

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This was hard for me to get used to. I was taught that the

best way to structure a sermon is to outline the passage. But as

it turns out, an outline does not a sermon make. There’s a

difference between outlining a passage and preaching a

message.

Outlining a passage is, basically, an academic exercise. Great

sermons take it one step further. Great sermons zero in on

the message of the passage.

In any Biblical text, there are several approaches you can

take, countless directions you can go. The best sermons are

built around only one of those “countless directions.” Only one.

On a Sunday afternoon several years back, my youngest son

(in high school at the time) said, “You know, Dad, most of the

time, after your first point, you could quit right there and it would

be an incredible message. Sometimes your sermons lose focus

after the first point.”

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He wasn’t referring to the length of the message, but to the

fact that I had a habit of going too many places. The problem

was that I was preaching the outline of everything I found in the

text — almost like doing a book report — rather than preaching

one specific message from God’s Word for today.

His comment challenged me to focus on finding one point,

one big idea, for each message — and only one.

Here’s how I say it to the students I coach: “Imagine that,

right before you speak, you’ve been told that instead of thirty

minutes, you have thirty seconds. Can you give your listeners

one statement that sums up what you came to say?”

It is essential to learn how to summarize your sermon into a

single sentence so that your listeners can say it like you said it,

even after they’ve left the building. If they can remember your

Big Idea well enough to repeat it, they’re more likely to put it into

practice during the week.

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Give it a try this Sunday.

After you’ve sketched out your outline for this week’s text,

zoom in on one Big Idea: focus on one thing you want to say

about this passage, one thing you want your listeners to do

in response to the Word.

Develop this one idea into a single statement — a ten-second

take-away — that your listener can remember, and can apply

to their lives.

There’s your sermon.

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4PREACH WITH AN EMPHASIS ON

DOING THE WORD

APPLICATION ISN’T JUST part of your sermon. It is the sermon.

Everything you say on Sunday needs to lead the listener

toward becoming a doer of the Word...

Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves.

Do what it says. (James 1:22)

Great sermons are a call to action. They answer the

question: What shall I do in response to the truth I am hearing?

A pastor once said to me, “I’m in a series on the attributes of

God. This Sunday is about God’s preeminence. What am I

supposed to do? Tell my congregation to be more preeminent

this week?”

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Obviously, no. But instead of just talking academically about

God’s preeminence, explain to your listeners what this attribute

of God means to them, personally. Show them how their

understanding of God’s preeminent nature can affect their

outlook on life, their choices, their attitudes. And show them

how to respond to a God who is above all others.

It’s not enough for your people to hear the textbook definition

of a Christian doctrine. Instead, give them a living definition.

Show them how the truth that they are hearing can make a

difference in their lives, day-in and day-out.

Application isn’t just part of the message; it is the message.

It’s not something you tack on to your conclusion, as you’re

wrapping things up. It’s a core part of your sermon from start

to finish.

Every step of the way, ask yourself: Am I showing my

listeners how to become doers of the Word?

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USE STORIES

THE OIL OF the sermon is a good story. It ensures that your

homiletical engine keeps running smoothly.

The story is also the best way to bridge the gap between

exposition and application.

One preacher gave this advice: Give them a point for their

head and a story for their heart.

My grandfather, a dedicated lay minister who preached as

many as 40 times a year well into his eighties, used to say to

me, “They’ll forget your theology but they’ll remember your

stories. So tell good stories that teach good theology.”

Do you know who made a habit of doing this?

Jesus.

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“Jesus always used stories and illustrations like these when

speaking to the crowds.” (Matthew 13:34 NLT)

For each idea that you want your message to

communicate, find a story to illustrate it.

Where do you find such stories? They’re all around you. Look

to your own experience. Or look to the news. Or the movies. Or

the best seller list.

As one great preacher said, “All of life illustrates Biblical truth.”

Get in the habit, then, of asking yourself often, “Which spiritual

application can be made of this situation, this event, this ball

game, this movie, or this news report?” The best of these lessons

will find their way into your sermons.

In lesson #1 I talked about the importance of building a reliable

library of resources. This is especially true for sermon

illustrations.

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Unfortunately most story collections for preachers and

teachers (in print and online) are dreadfully out of date.

That’s too bad, because the best stories to use in a message

are the ones from recent events. Your listeners can relate to an

illustration taken from the world of sports or business or

entertainment easier than they can relate to something that

happened 400 years ago.

That’s why it’s worth the effort it takes to seek out stories that

resonate with this generation of listeners.

As you prepare this Sunday’s sermon, don’t forget the WD40.

Give your listeners a story to bring every key idea to life.

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6ALWAYS BE PREPARING

GREAT SERMONS TAKE weeks to prepare, not hours.

Can you create a great sermon with an hour of preparation

on Saturday night? I suppose it’s possible, but I wouldn’t count

on it. It’s also possible to win a million dollars in the lottery, but I

wouldn’t count on that, either.

The best preachers I know are able to tell you — at least in a

general sense — what they’re preaching 3-6 months from now.

And most of them already have a rough outline of their sermons

for the next four or five weeks.

That’s one reason they’re so good at what they do.

Today I will encourage you to start planning your preaching

at least a month in advance. It takes only a week to get into a

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rhythm that will maximize your sermon preparation for as long

as you’re in the ministry.

If you haven’t already, sketch out what you’ll preach for the

next four weeks. Nail down text and topic, at the very least.

Select a couple of good resources to help in your preparation. If

it’s a commentary, put it on your desk and keep it there. If it’s a

podcast or tape series, put them where you can find them quickly.

If it’s a website, bookmark the pages you’ll use.

This week, as early in the week as possible, take part of an

afternoon to crack open each of the texts. Put some ideas on

paper. Scratch out the beginnings of an outline for each

message. Come up with working titles. Work on it for an hour or

two.

And then, after you’ve made a few notes for each of the

upcoming weeks, turn your attention to this Sunday’s sermon

and prepare as you normally would.

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Next week, set aside a couple of hours one afternoon, as

early as possible, to review your notes again for the upcoming

weeks. (You’ll need to add a new week-four to your list.) Spend

some time with each text, do a little reading, listen to a podcast,

check the Preaching Library, make a few more notes.

And then, turn your attention to this Sunday’s sermon. Prepare

as you normally would. You already have notes from last week

to start with.

From now on, let this be your preparation schedule.

Each week, early in the week, spend a couple of hours looking

four weeks ahead. And then turn your attention to this week’s

message.

This way, when you begin working on this Sunday’s message,

you won’t begin with a blank sheet of paper. This week’s

message will have been in the back of your mind for several

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weeks. When you sit down to get it ready for Sunday, you’re

already 20%, maybe 30%, perhaps even 50% of the way there.

Great sermons are prepared well in advance.

The habit of looking four weeks down the road helps you

develop another habit: Always be preparing.

When you study the Bible or watch the news or hear someone

else preach or go to the movies, you’re not just thinking about

this Sunday. You’re thinking weeks ahead. Things will catch

your attention that you might not have noticed before. You’ll

latch on to ideas that you might have otherwise passed over.

When you know what you’re preaching in the weeks to come,

it’s easier to keep your eyes open for fresh ideas that fit the

sermons that are coming around the bend.

When you make it your habit to always be preparing, you’ll

find that each Sunday morning you’re always prepared.

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7TALK ABOUT JESUS

DO YOU KNOW what was so great about the Jesus movement?

It was all about Jesus.

As millions turned to a personal relationship with him — many

from the counterculture and many from the church — they

identified themselves as “Jesus People.” Of all the labels that

evangelicals have embraced over the past 40 years, none hit

the target of who we are, or who we’re supposed to be, like the

label Jesus People.

This same identification should be reflected in our preaching.

Our goal in preaching is not just to get people to warm up to

the idea of God. Neither is it to persuade them to vote Republican

or to accept “family values” into their heart.

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Our goal is to lead others — believers and non-believers —

to experience a life-changing one-on-one personal

connection with Jesus.

Recently I read a secular critic’s evaluation of a bestselling

Christian author: “His books are filled with exclamation points,

but rarely do you come across the name of Jesus.”

I don’t know if what the critic said is true, since I’ve never

read this writer’s books. But I know this: such a statement can

never be true about our preaching. Not if we want to change

the world.

Make sure that every message you preach lifts high the name

of Jesus.

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DRIVE YOUR LISTENERS

TO SCRIPTURE

A GOOD SERMON presents solid Biblical truth in a straightforward

manner.

A great sermon does that and a little more: it also drives

listeners to search the Scriptures for themselves.

No doubt your goal for the people you serve is that Christ be

formed in them. For this to happen, believers need to develop a

solid relationship with Scripture — one that exists between

Sundays.

In addition to teaching them the Word week-by-week, teach

your people to love the Word, week by week.

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As often as you can, challenge, encourage and inspire them

to develop the habit of a daily time alone with God, which includes

daily time in the Word.

People who hear the Bible preached on Sunday are more

likely to live it out during the week. And people who dig into the

Bible during the week are more receptive to hearing it proclaimed

on Sunday.

Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season;

correct, rebuke and encourage — with great patience and careful

instruction. (2 Timothy 4:2)

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MEMORIZE THE BEST PARTS

OF YOUR MESSAGE

THERE ARE PARTS of your message that need to be said exactly

the right way.

There are parts that need to move smoothly, and parts where

you need maximum impact.

This means no fishing for words. No stuttering. No rambling

or repeating yourself. No staring at a manuscript.

Some parts need to be spoken with your eyes on your listeners

and with the conviction that comes from saying something

that you have taken the time to think thoroughly through

until you got it exactly right.

The way to do this is to memorize the key parts of your

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message. Take the time to write them out exactly as you want

to say them, and take the time to learn to say each phrase

in the best possible way.

Which parts of the sermon should you memorize? It depends

on your message, but at the very least, you should commit to

memory:

• The first 90 seconds of your introduction.

• Each key transition sentence.

• Your Ten-Second Take-Away.

• The final 60 seconds of your message.

The rest of the message you need to know well, but these

four elements of the sermon you need to be able to say in your

sleep.

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PREPARATION INCLUDES PRACTICE

I ENCOURAGE THE pastors I coach to spend an hour on Saturday

night running through their sermon a couple of times.

Then, on Sunday morning, run through it again.

During practice, make sure that you’ve committed to memory

the parts of the message that need to be spoken from memory.

Make sure your notes are simple enough to follow and detailed

enough to be useful. If you preach from a manuscript, make

sure it sounds like a conversation, not an academic paper.

The best you can, practice your sermon on Saturday the

way you will preach it on Sunday.

It’s tempting, when you hit a rough spot, to say, “It’ll work

itself out tomorrow when I’m in front of the congregation.”

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Over the years I’ve learned that rough spots rarely work

themselves out just because I’m now standing in front of a group.

In fact, groups usually make the rough spots rougher. If

something doesn’t work in practice, it usually doesn’t work

in the pulpit.

LEARNING FROM THE MAJORS.

Before the umpire calls “batter up” in any inning of a baseball

game, what do the players do?

They toss a ball back and forth. They practice fielding

grounders and making the play at first, while the pitcher practices

throwing strikes to the catcher.

And before the batter steps up to the plate, what does he do?

He takes a few practice swings.

Maybe you remember these rituals from Little League. But

don’t forget that the pros do it, too. The guys good enough to

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earn millions playing their position give it a dry run each time

they take the field.

Why? Because they know from experience that a dry run

helps them get ready to do what they’re about to do.

Maybe we can learn something from the guys in the majors.

You never get too good for a practice swing.

Preparation includes practice, every sermon you preach.

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Thanks for reviewing this back-to-basics guide to preaching!

To find out more about Steve’s preaching resources

visit

stevemay.com

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