Preaching, especially the first sermon, often seems highly rewarding, filled with anticipation, praise, and a profound sense of spiritual fulfillment. This idealistic view can drive many to choose full-time ministry, expecting a constant replication of these peak experiences. However, the reality of consistent preaching involves high expectations, criticism, pressure to deliver engaging content, and an administrative workload, leading to widespread burnout among pastors. Listening to the best preaching tips from experienced and seasoned pastors can be a huge benefit.
Young preachers often overestimate their capabilities and underestimate the challenges of crafting and delivering weekly sermons. Initial praise may hinder their drive to improve, resulting in stagnation that can affect their long-term ministry productivity. It’s crucial to note, as Rich Birch from Unseminary states, “76% of people choose a church based on the sermon alone,” thus highlighting the sermon’s critical role in attracting and retaining first-time guests.
So, if you are a new preacher, here are some preaching tips that can help you now.
1. Leave them Longing, not Loathing.
A new preacher will probably struggle the hardest with preaching when they first start. The hope is that over time they will get better and better. The ironic thing is that the praise will probably be higher the more inexperienced the preacher is because people will be very kind and forgiving. So, the beginner needs to know this: They enjoy preaching to their congregation more than their congregation probably enjoy their preaching at this point.
If the young preacher knows this, they can “leave them longing instead of loathing.” A shorter message with great content will leave people longing to hear the speaker again. A very long message may leave people loathing, not wanting to hear the young preacher for a while. The preacher should aim to keep the message shorter than the norm so people won’t grow weary of long-winded sermons by someone who is a beginner.
2. Get Good Feedback.
One of the worst ways to judge a pastor’s preaching is to compare it to the response to their first sermon. Another is to only let people close to the pastor or are always praising give feedback. This will result in confirmation bias. The speaker needs honest feedback from those who understand communication and from those who love them.
3. Learn by Osmosis.
Early on, a beginner will not have their own style yet. They will need to learn. One way is to find a few good model preachers that they resonate with. Listen to how they communicate.
It is kind of like training wheels for a child learning to ride a bike. Eventually, the young preacher will create their own style, but at first, they will mimic those they admire. This is natural, and every seasoned preacher can point to their influences.
4. Find a Good Outline Template.
This is one of the preaching tips, where formal or informal training is invaluable. Formal training, such as a class in homiletics, or informal training by mentors and online resources can help the beginner learn how to formulate a well-planned outline. A template outline will help to take the guess work out of creating from scratch. SermonSearch is an excellent resource for preachers to find an outline or sermon topic that matches what they are looking for.
5. Answer Questions People are Asking.
People are always calculating subconsciously, “Is this information relevant for me?” If they don’t think so, then they will check out mentally when someone is preaching. People need to have several questions answered during a sermon: What do I need to know? Why do I need to know it? What do I need to do? What happens if I do this and what happens if I don’t do this? How do I live this out in daily life? When those questions are answered during a message, it increases mental engagement with the audience. They find that they need this information and it will help them with a current problem.
6. Do the Hard Work of Learning History and Context.
This is one of the most crucial preaching tips we can give. It is not the case for beginning preachers but for all preachers. It is easy to violate an important principle: “The Bible was written for us but not to us.”
The Bible is a compilation of letters and historical narrative that was written to a specific group of people going through a certain set of circumstances. The audience needs to know what the people of that book of Bible were going through. They need to know exactly why the letter or book was written, the backstory on the author, and any details of context of the chapter. Most preachers go directly to their audience in the room instead of talking about the audience of the letter first. The letter or book was written to the historical audience. We can gain insight from it though. Don’t get lazy when it comes to doing the hard work of learning the history and backdrop.
7. Know the Audience.
The history and backdrop of a passage will not change from audience to audience. However, the application points, the kind of words that are used, humor, and even delivery style, will need to be custom-tailored for the current audience. The audience’s age, educational experience, and denominational background also matter. What the pastor chooses to wear on Sunday mornings will be affected as well. A preacher should take all this into consideration when communicating.
The key to a great teacher is their connection to that specific audience, not how well they can communicate. Each unique part of the audience will be an on-ramp or an obstacle.
8. Be Comfortable being You.
This is also one of our favorite preaching tips. The preacher must be comfortable being themselves. Many try so hard to be someone else and the congregation can sense this after a while. This may also cause what some call, “The Imposter Syndrome,” where the preacher internally feels like an imposter. They do not feel good enough, so they pretend to be someone they are not and are afraid of being discovered as an imposter. It is like the old Scooby Doo cartoons where they pull the mask off the person to find out who was the villain.
Preaching is an art and a skill that must be developed over time. The most important attitude that a beginning preacher must carry is the desire to grow their communication skills over time, no matter how good they think they are or how good others tell them they are. If a new preacher is committed, they can become a great preacher over time.
