Is Your Preaching Helpful? - An Assessment Tool

Thanks for the dialogue these past seven days on preaching.  Had to add one more thing.

My goal as a preacher to give messages that help people make the link between God and life.  I want it to help. But how do I know my preaching is helpful?  How do we know our preaching is helpful?

I think preaching can be helpful in multiple ways.  For example, last night I was reading a newsletter we got in the mail.  It was on teaching kids how to handle money.  After I read it, I was glad I did, but then I stopped to ask why.  It actually had no new information for me, so why was I grateful?  I figured it out: I don't often read on the subject, and the newsletter affirmed what I already knew.  It let me know my approach was okay.  It affirmed and confirmed my direction. It was helpful because it told me I was moving in the right direction.

Got me thinking about the helpfulness of preaching more generally.  What makes investing 30-45 minutes in listening to a message "worthwhile?"  How would we preachers know if we hit the mark?  Just thinking in pencil.  Would love your feedback.

Content can be helpful if it:

• Brings a 'new' truth (didn't know that) or discarded truth to light.
• Brings a fresh angle to a truth and makes people see God in a fresh light.
• Reminds people of a truth they know, affirming or correcting their direction.
• Shows the relevance of truth in current culture and life.

Application is helpful if it:

• Provides a practical step or steps people can follow to put it into practice in the next 24 hours.
• Shifts thinking deeply enough that people can't think of things in the same way again (paradigm shifting).
• Shows how a particular truth will change how we live in our time and culture.

If a sermon does one or more of these things, I think I'd find it helpful.  Not just true...but helpful.

What do you think?  Do these resonate?  Any other categories?  Could you simplify these to make them easier to use?

Comments

[Rebekah]

I find what people long for in sermons is to know that they are not unusual in their struggles, and that the Bible is neither boring nor irrelevant.

To put it positively, people want preachers who speak into their normal lives, and who bring excitement and understanding to the text.

I think your lists are good, Carey. What makes it worthwhile for me to listen to a message is something that is harder to put into a list like that. It's that moment when the preacher says something and I think "Oh, God drew me into this place, into this moment because God wanted me to hear THAT." Sometimes it's not even the point of the sermon, it's just a sentence or two in the middle of the sermon. But somehow it connects to my life in a way that the preacher could not have expected, so I know it came from God.

It's hard to pin down, and hard to explain, I guess.

I do love good, practical application. I am more likely to be moved by a sermon (I mean moved in my faith walk, not just moved in my emotions) if the preacher bares something of his/her soul...if they tell me a story about their life, if they share a struggle they have faced, if the share something of who they are.

It drives me crazy to have invested my time in listening to a preacher and not be given back anything that says they've invested who they are into what they're doing.

Cheers,
R.

[Shawn]

One of the things that I find myself looking for in sermons is passion. Does the preacher really believe what he is saying or is he simply performing a duty that is in his job description?

It doesn't really matter to me, nor does my heart respond to someone giving an informative lecture. However, when a preacher can inform, challenge, and cast a vision of what could be including personal experiences and struggles I am captivated.

[Mike Ruggles]

Hi Carey,

I stumbled across your site as I was chasing a rabbit hole into the internet. Anyway, glad I made it here.

As a preacher/teacher and mature believer I was looking forward to reading your thought on "Is Your Preaching Helpful? - An Assessment Tool."

I was pleased to see that you spoke of God and Truth, but sad to see that nowhere was mentioned anything of Jesus Christ, the Spirit of God, Scripture and Prophecy, conviction of sin, edification of the body or equipping of the saints.

I can't disagree with any of the points in your piece. I imagine you wrote it with the purpose of helping those who might be seeking answers.

I hope you can agree with these additional criteria ...

1) Is the message and messanger honoring and pleasing to God?
2) Is the message and messanger consistent with the whole of Scripture?
3) Is the message and messanger seeking the will of God?
4) Is the message and messanger pursuing the the cross and redemption?
5) Was the name of Jesus proclaimed so that salvation can be known?

I think one of the great lies is that preaching/teaching is about us or our hearers. It's not. It's always and only about the honor and glory of God. If there is a secondary benefit which falls upon us then great. Awesome. But let's not forget it's not about us. It's about the Father, Son, Spirit. It's about God. Not man.

Anyway, thanks for letting me share my thoughts. I am simply a sinner saved by grace anxiously awaiting the return of the Lord. Come Jesus, come.

[Carey Nieuwhof]

Mike...thanks for pointing these things out. I was thinking they were all "assumed", but it's great to have them brought to the surface. If Christ isn't in our preaching, why bother?