An interesting question came in this week.

When do you tell people the point of the sermon? Is it in the introduction or some other point of the sermon?

In The Beginning
This is a good question, …

Well I spent a significant amount of time practicing the fundamentals of music. I played many scales and arpeggios (chords). I turned them into patterns and exercises. I played major and minor scales. I played them from memory as well as sight read the scales and patterns. I would play many different patterns and piece them together in different ways. I played them high, play them low, play them staccato, play them legato, play them whole notes, half notes, quarter, etc.

Walter Brueggemann wrote:
It is clear that the old “liberal habit” of a “social action agenda” has, of itself, little transformative power in the present church. It is equally clear that the old “conservative habit” …

Many call for practical sermons. I have made the same call on occasion. However, the term “practical sermons” means different things to different people. For example, some preachers use the term to …

Like everyone else, I can easily fall into the trap of seeing what I have not done right. This can be problematic over the long haul. If you never look at what you …

Just because something is true does not mean that it is of utmost importance. An idea must be both “true” and “relevant to the present time” to be worthy of our intense consideration. …

Paul Scott Wilson, on page 22 of the first edition of the book The Practice of Preaching quotes Phillip Brooks at length in writing:

Preachers are expected to “tell the story” in the African American tradition. Often this is a call to preach the familiar stories that we all have heard multiple times. Preaching familiar stories helps both the preacher and the people. The people know the story that you are seeking to interpret and the preacher does not have to go looking in obscure sections of the Bible for something to preach.

There is an interesting discussion in our new forum about whether it is right to attempt to emulate another preacher when learning how to preach. You can join the conversation and read what was written here: http://www.soulpreaching.com/emulatepreachers.

One writer stated the following common thing:

You do the work, God will bring the inspiration it is not you who should be in the pulpit but THE PREACHER Jesus by way of the Holy Spirit, you need to get out of the way and let God have God’s way.

This is a very good Question. It is too bad that there is not a universal answer. It is highly dependent on where you preach. For example, there are some contexts where preaching longer than 20 minutes may cause people to start fidgeting. There are other contexts where the people would feel cheated if you only preached for 20 minutes. While there is no universal answer to the question, there are some principles to keep in mind.