There is nothing worse than feeling like your time has been wasted. Time is a finite resource, and once it is gone, it can never be recouped. However, countless congregants have felt this way about a sermon or multiple sermons from a pastor.
Most people show up to church hoping to learn something new, be encouraged, or even challenged in their faith journey. At a pastor’s gathering, Rich Birch from UnSeminary.com shared that 75% of people choose a church based on the sermon alone. So, the sermon is essential to the congregation and the pastor.
How does a pastor know if their sermon is bad? There are signs within the church that the sermons are not connecting to the life of the congregation.
Some signs include:
- Attendance may dwindle.
- Key influencers drop hints or have confronting conversations about the sermons.
- First-time guests aren’t staying.
- There aren’t stories of life change happening within the congregation.
- Core families begin to leave with the common thread of “they aren’t being fed.”
A pastor can’t please everyone and shouldn’t obsess over and over about if the sermon is “good enough,” but it’s important that a pastor has a running checklist to ensure they are doing all they can to avoid a bad sermon.
Here Are Six Signs of a Really Bad Sermon:
1. Preaching to Impress
Pastors sometimes preach to impress the congregation, ultimately finding their self-worth in their response to the message. They love to hear, “Good sermon, pastor.” However, a pastor shouldn’t preach to impress but rather to impact.
In other words, the pastor shouldn’t preach to hear “amens,” but a good sermon has some “oh me’s” in it as well. Impacting people’s lives means that sometimes the pastor will have to challenge the congregation lovingly towards maturity. Preaching to impress means the pastor avoids topics and passages that may confront sin. Preaching to impact means the pastor understands that God has called them to make disciples, not make everyone happy. With that being said, the pastor also isn’t called to tick people off every week either. This sign of a bad sermon is more about motive. The pastor has to ask, “Why am I doing what I am doing?”
2. The Sermon Is Too Lengthy
Rarely do pastors have the problem of sermons being too short. The anxiety of building up to Sunday can sometimes cause the pastor not to understand what to cut out of the sermon or when they get up on the platform; they end up rambling due to the fear of the message being too short. So, what happens? The message is too long. The pastor should aim to leave them longing for more instead of loathing the experience. People can only handle so much information and sit for so long before losing their attention.
The only person who wants longer sermons is the pastor. The goal would be that someone comes up and says, “I wish you would have preached longer.” Then the pastor can smile and say, “I will be doing it again next week and would love to have the opportunity to preach to you again.”
3. The Pastor is in a Bad Mental State
Leaders need to pay attention to their emotional energy tank. When that runs low, they don’t have the capacity to handle stress. When this happens, they begin to react instead of respond. A short checklist a pastor can use is what I call the “H.A.L.T” assessment.
It is:
- Hungry
- Angry
- Lonely
- Tired
It is important that a pastor doesn’t let their emotional tank run low. Anytime they are one of the 4 of the HALT assessment, they should pause, assess and rest. It is imperative that they don’t get up in the pulpit when experiencing one of these four feelings. The pulpit could then be used to beat people up instead of building them up. When a pastor is angry or tired, they can use their pulpit to say things to people without using names. That is a dangerous road to go down. Utilizing Saturday as the Sabbath, getting proper rest, and, if needed, seeing a counselor is very important to ensure that the pastor goes into the pulpit fresh on Sundays.
4. Lack of Preparation
Another mark of a really bad sermon is a lack of preparation. Preparation can be broken down into sermon prep time and rehearsal time. A lack of sermon preparation means little exegesis of the Scriptures is being accomplished. It could also mean they are brewing up a “Saturday Night Special.” This is when the pastor is trying to prep the sermon and rehearse the sermon all in the same day. When last-second preparation happens once or twice, the pastor sounds good on Sunday. However, eventually, they only have so much last-second creativity. They start using the same illustrations, backup Scriptures, and phrases. One sign of a lack of preparation and especially rehearsal is a lengthy sermon, discussed in point number two. Sermon preparation should be completely finished by Wednesday or Thursday so the pastor can utilize Thursday and Friday for rehearsal and revision. Try recording your sermon via audio on my phone on Fridays as a dry run-through. Doing so gives you ample time to revise before Sunday and helps with staying within time.
5. Lack of Creativity
People may not remember what the pastor said, but they will remember how they said it. Creativity brings color to the sermon. It engages both sides of the brain of the listening individuals. Think about having a strong hook at the beginning of the message, using stories, illustrations, personal examples, props, video clips, and key phrases that stick. Creativity needs margin. It is challenging for a pastor to be creative last second. So, the pastor needs to have a block of time to add creative elements to the sermon. If props are being used then that needs to be planned pretty far in advance so the staff can help with it. People will learn from the exegesis of the Scripture, but they will connect to the pastor from the creativity of the sermon.
6. Prayerless Study Time
The final mark of a bad sermon is having a lack of prayer during your preparation. As a pastor studies the Scripture, they should be praying for themselves and the congregation. Preparation and study time are sacred. God anoints the preacher as they pray in private fervently and allow the very Scriptures they will preach to process in their hearts first. To truly make an impact, intentional prayer has to be at the forefront. Without prayer, a pastor is just another performer. When the pastor prays for their congregation as they prepare, it also creates a heart of connection and compassion for the very ones they are preaching to that Sunday.
