8. We’re too wordy.
Some Facebook commenter accused preachers of “circumlocution.” I had to look up the word. It means talking a subject to death. I’ve done that.
Seven-year-old Holly Martin gave me a wonderful gift on one occasion when she turned to her mom and asked about something I was belaboring from the pulpit: “Mother, why does Dr. Joe think we need this information?” (Every preacher ought to be stopped halfway through his message and made to answer Holly’s question!)
Someone told me his grandfather once said to a young preacher, “Son, you ran out of soap but kept lathering!”
The teacher of preachers par excellence, Calvin Miller, who recently left us for Glory, would encourage ministers to take a central idea of the sermon and then make every point relate to it. One idea, many aspects.
Looking over this article, I’m probably being too wordy. For one thing, 13 points is too many. And a paragraph on each should be enough. (In defense, let me say writings are different from sermons. In a piece like this, you can quit reading at any time, get up and do something else, and come back to it later. Try that in a sermon.)
9. We rely too heavily on PowerPoint and those fill-in-the-blank outlines.
My pastor, Mike Miller, types his own PowerPoint notes to be displayed on the screen during his sermon. And, smart man that he is, he stays with a few basic points.
I’ve seen pastors plaster whole paragraphs of quoted material over the screen. The typical worshiper is overwhelmed by this, and if it continues, will zone out.
Twenty years ago, when pastors were handing their people outlines with spaces to be filled in, I did my share of that. Eventually, I gave it up for many reasons, chief among which was that I found it distracting. If anyone was helped by it, I couldn’t tell.
Nor do I use PowerPoint for the same reason. In seminary classrooms, when all the other professors are displaying their material on screens, I retain my dinosaur-status and refuse to do it. I like the eye-to-eye contact and reject anything that interferes with it.
I sometimes tell congregations: “Many of you like to take notes during sermons. Good. But may I say a word to you about what to write down? Don’t worry about writing my outline down. In fact, you can’t always find one in my sermons. Instead, write down anything the Holy Spirit tells you to. Write down something you want to remember or look up or do later.”
10. We bring in too much historical stuff.
I do love history. And the pastor who tells of something involving old Sennacherib or Nebuchadnezzar (or Napoleon or President Eisenhower, for that matter) has my undivided attention.
But a little of it goes a long way.
Enough said.
