The Internet is full of good and bad examples of preaching. When I find one that is particularly good, I ask why. “What did that preacher do that made his sermon, its introduction, his illustrations, applications, conclusion or whatever so effective? How is that different from what I normally do?”
When I find one that’s remarkably bad, I want to know why. “Why didn’t this sermon, introduction, etc., work? What could have been done differently to salvage the message?” An observant preacher can see as much watching the bad as he can watching the good.
Listen to Others in Your Own League
If I can be painfully honest for a moment, I struggle with a sense of inferiority as a preacher. It’s intimidating for me to listen to men such as Haddon Robinson, Tim Keller, Adrian Rogers and others. I just don’t feel as if I’m in the same league. While I know what Paul says about the dangers of comparing ourselves with one another (2 Cor. 10:12), I can’t seem to help it. I doubt I’m alone.
When we hear men such as Robinson and the rest, we tend to think they preach that way all the time or that everyone preaches as they do—at least everyone we admire. We forget they produce their fair share of clunkers, too. We ignore the likelihood that they’ve preached that particularly wonderful sermon in dozens of churches and conferences before. We overlook the possibility that they may employ research assistants or other support personnel that allow them time the rest of us don’t have to concentrate on developing and polishing their sermons.
Many of the sermons on YouTube are posted by preachers similar to most of us—preachers who may be unknown outside their own congregations, communities or denominations, but who still give the Lord their best Sunday after Sunday. Listening to them, we may come to realize we’re not nearly as bad or as good as we previously thought. That can be either as encouraging or as humbling for us as the Lord wants it to be.
Learn from Another Culture
Because I teach in a nondenominational, multi-cultural college, I try to read as widely as possible in the field of homiletics. The majority of my current students are black. I am white. Most of the books about preaching that I know anything about are written by men (and a few women) who resemble me. During the past few years, I have grown increasingly aware of my need to read from homileticians of color. Doing so has given me new insights. Their suggestions, when I’ve acted upon them, have stretched me and made me into a more well-rounded preacher. I realize I still have much to learn.
Listening to the late E.K. Bailey along with current preachers such as Frank Thomas and Ralph Douglas West has helped me develop a joy and creativity in preaching that I previously lacked. How much more might I or any preacher learn from our brothers and sisters of other cultures who are waiting for us online?
He who has ears and an Internet connection, let him hear!
