content
Forward this Article to a Friend   Print this Article
Downloading Sermons vs. Preaching Your Own
By Jeff Henderson

As a preacher's kid, I remember watching my Dad preach three different sermons each week. One Sunday morning, another Sunday evening and one more Wednesday night. What's even more amazing is that he did this BEFORE the Internet was invented.

In our fast-paced, high-tech world, the temptation is to short-circuit the hard work and download someone else's sermon to preach. After all, Sundays have the maddening propensity to arrive every seven days and developing a sermon is lonely, difficult work.

If you're reading this article on preaching there's a good chance God has gifted you with the ability to teach His word. My guess is that you want to share that gift with your congregation and teach God's word in a fresh, unique way. But the crunch of leading a staff, ministering to people, and the daily tasks of ministry make crafting original and compelling sermons more difficult than you wish. Here are three commitments you can make that will help you preach better sermons with your own unique voice.

1. Get ahead. I know this seems impossible but if you could get 2-3 weeks ahead, even if it's a rough outline, you will discover something powerful. You will find better illustrations, stronger insights and more concise phrasing during that 2-3 week period. The better the preparation the better the sermon. As communication expert Nancy Duarte says, "The audience's interest is tied directly to the presenter's preparation."

2. Have a non-negotiable prep day. I think one of the many reasons why my boss Andy Stanley is such a fantastic communicator is because his preparation day on Wednesdays is a non-negotiable. Ever wonder how Andy keeps coming up with incredible sermons week after week? Well, one of the reasons is his commitment to blocking one entire day each week for sermon preparation. This also allows him to get ahead. You aren't going to deliver powerful, memorable sermons by surfing the Internet for what other people are preaching. Carve out the time and do the preparation work.

3. Build a team that can help you. Allowing God to speak through you doesn't mean you aren't allowed to leverage the thoughts and insights of others. Who could you invite into your sermon preparation process that could help you develop your sermons? What would happen if you pulled a team of staff members, volunteers or people in your church to hear what they had to say about an upcoming series or topic? When you broaden your perspective and get more insight, your sermon will be more powerful.

I was raised in the home of a preacher. I have seen the power of a well-prepared, researched, prayed-over sermon. It's one of the reasons we're creating a community of preachers and communicators to encourage, learn from and support one another. It's the heartbeat behind preachingrocket.com and the focus of our free online preaching conference (featuring Andy Stanley, Dr. Charles Stanley, Jeff Foxworthy, Perry Noble and others) on March 15. We'll learn from one another and push each other to keep working, studying, preparing and preaching, because so much is at stake every Sunday when you step up to preach.

Jeff Henderson is the Lead Pastor of Gwinnett Church, the most recent multi-campus location of North Point Ministries. Prior to Gwinnett Church, Jeff served as the Lead Pastor of Buckhead Church, North Point's first multi-site location for seven years. He spent 21 years in marketing, working most recently for Chick-fil-A, before beginning his roles with North Point Ministries. Jeff will talk about how effective preparation leads to powerful messages. He will also serve as the host for the entire event.

3 Comments »

  1. Amen to this article .. thanks Jeff!  As one who was a lead pastor for 12 years, and now serve on a staff at a larger church, I find several benefits of doing my own thing (which tends to be expository in nature).  First of all, it is timely and reflects the current flow of what is going on at the time.  That is an advantage, but the greatest advantage I feel is that when I preach out of my own mind and heart, I feel so much better about myself that it is empowering when I get up to preach and teach.  I have done both, I admit ... but I strongly prefer to do my own thing!  Now, if I could figure out a way to get a sermon prep day, everything would be wonderful!

    Comment by Brent Bickhart - Feb 16, 2012 @ 09:52 AM

  2. I think the three commitments are good, but they do not address the underlying assumption which causes the problem—the assumption that the pastor has to do all (or even the majority) of the preaching in a given congregation.  Yes, as pastors, we are called to preach the Word.  But nowhere in Scripture are we told that ONLY pastors are called the preach the Word.  My conviction is that in every congregation, the Holy Spirit has gifted many people to preach.  I pastor three congregations, and I rotate with the elders and other gifted lay members in each of my congregations whom I have trained to share the preaching ministry.  This arrangement frees me from the pressure of having to come up with a new sermon every week and gives me more time to meditate on each sermon.  I encourage all of us pastors to stop trying to be the lone voice of God.  God’s word is too big to be expressed by one person alone!

    Comment by Fernando Villegas - Feb 16, 2012 @ 03:16 PM

  3. I think the three suggestions are great but I would still leave room for the use of internet sermons as way of growing in our preaching ability.  I was not fortunate enough to have a pastor for a father or to have grown up in church listening to a lot of good sermons.  I started attending church and came to faith at 19.  Got my call into ministry and started preaching 3 years later.  My pastor was not a great preacher and did not know how to teach me to preach.  My Bible college education only gave me two homelitics courses with a dated approach to preaching.  And then I was put into my first church of 50 people where I had to do most of the ministry, leaving little time or creativity for my messages.  Internet sermons were a godsend for me.  By modifying and preaching the sermons of some of the best communicators in the Church, I learned how to be an effective communicator.  For several years I preached someone else’s series of messages and then I would develop my own by putting into practice what I learned.  With the skills I picked up preaching other pastor’s sermons I have become a much better communicator and others are now asking permission to use my sermons. Today I am in a larger church that affords me more time to study and prepare my messages and I don’t need to use others pastor’s material as often but I am greatful for their mentorship over the years.
    Here are the suggestions I give to pastors who are contemplating the use of Internet sermons.  1. Be intentional.  Pick sermons or series that meet the needs of your congregation (Don’t be lazy and pick any old message on Saturday night.)  2. Ask permission to use that material (It is someone else’s work. They deserve the right yea or ney your use of their creation).  3. Give credit to your source.  (Tell people where the message comes from so that your not guilty of pastoral plagiarism.) 3. Modify the message to fit your congregation. (Don’t preach it verbatim.  Put in your own illustrations and applications that fit your congregation. If you have a point that you think is better for you congregation insert it).  4. Don’t use other pastor’s material all the time.  (The goal is to grow in your skills as a preacher so you need to practice.)  5.  Share the fruits from those messages with those you borrowed them from.

    Comment by Dave Lindner - Feb 16, 2012 @ 06:12 PM

Sorry, but commenting is no longer available for this post.