3. Open feedback will hurt your preaching.
Many preachers refuse to receive feedback or criticism because they think it will hurt their preaching or because they feel like they might be scratching “itching ears.”
Open feedback can be tough, but some of the best preachers have learned to listen, receive, filter and grow from it. If you don’t have anyone who’s willing to give you honest feedback on your sermons, then your preaching is likely not as good as it could be.
Don’t get me wrong, feedback and criticism are not fun, but neither is growth until you see the fruits on the other end. The secret to making feedback work is finding wise counsel (other than your spouse) for regular, constructive input.
Proverbs 15:22: Plans fail for lack of counsel, but with many advisers they succeed.
4. Deeper teaching equals an academic or heady theological message.
There’s a lot of buzz about “deeper teaching” in the church today. The fact is, the definitions that church members and church leaders use to explain deeper teaching are typically not the same.
Church leaders often equate deeper teaching with theological depth and academic delivery, while many church members define deeper teaching in terms of how the sermon impacts or convicts them personally.
So, who’s right? On this one, it’s the audience.
The depth of your sermon is not dependent on your academic sources, but on your ability to penetrate, convict and point out truth in clear and simple terms. We could argue about the simplicity of the preaching of Jesus versus the complexities of Paul’s epistles, but the bottom line is that “deeper” teaching should move us to “deeper” obedience.
Academic sermons aren’t bad—they’re just not always deep. Deep sermons require an uncanny precision for building a clear biblical context while moving the listener to a provocative response. Paul summed up his preaching into two powerful points that change everything: Christ crucified.
I Corinthians 2:2: For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.
That’s deep.
These are the top four preaching myths I’ve discovered both in my own sermon prep and in my conversations with other church leaders.
I’d love to hear your feedback—what myths would you add to the list?
