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.

Some preachers preach a message that demonstrate that they are disconnected from the pressures and pains of the lives of their congregants. No doubt being a pastor has unique challenges, but some preachers are not able to translate their own struggles into something that can be useful to the congregation.

William Willimon in The Intrusive Word writes that “We ought to preach as if we were opening a package that could be packed with dynamite.” By that he means that we should expect dislocation, surprises, and jolts. Too often we package our sermons in a neatly finished package where we know all the answers and God always acts the way we expect. We create a world in the sermon that is much unlike our own world.

Good Always Wins?

One of the greatest temptations preachers face is not to teach hell fire and obedience. Neither is it necessarily to preach a grace that does not lead to and is devoid of obedience. Some might argue that it is to preach an individualistic gospel without any repurcutions for our corporate living. Others might say that it is to totally ignore individual piety as an important category for theological reflection.

Preaching What People Want to Hear

How should a sermon progress? We all have heard sermons that just seemed to progress at the perfect rate. Then we have heard others that climaxed too soon or not at all. We have spoken on the progress of the sermon by making use of the Whooping Curve which graphs sermonic intensity.

The pastor was unusually eloquent. He preached with power and the people sensed a special move of God. While the Pastor usually preaches well, this time he really brought it home. Imagine my surprise when I was reading a book of Sermons from the divinity library and found that that Pastor had stolen a sermon word for word. After that I paid more attention and on another occasion saw another of that Pastor’s sermons on the internet.