Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

One Degree to Another

Home
Evangelical
What Do You Do When You Preach a Bad Sermon?

What Do You Do When You Preach a Bad Sermon?

Last updated on: September 17, 2018 at 5:53 pm by Scott Slayton

What Do You Do When You Preach a Bad Sermon? 2018-09-17T17:53:22-05:00 Scott Slayton

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Pixabay/ Pexels

Every Sunday, when I finish preaching and come back to my seat in the second row, my ten-year-old daughter gives me two thumbs up. She probably knows that I need the encouragement because of how often she has heard me get in the car and say, “That was terrible.”

Every pastor is prone to self-loathing and exaggeration about how poorly he preached on Sunday. Sometimes, we are telling the truth and the sermon really was that bad. Every pastor will preach a “bad” sermon from time to time.

The issue we must wrestle with is what we do after preaching a bad sermon. Do we stay up all night on Sunday night replaying it in our heads or do we do something a little more productive?

Before we talk about how we should respond after we have preached poorly, we first need to define what a “bad” sermon is.

What Constitutes a “Bad” Sermon?

For the average Christian, a “bad” sermon usually means one that was boring or that went ten minutes too long. However, those of us who preach God’s word every week need to have a more developed understanding of the difference than that. We need to know the aim of a sermon so we can know when we have missed the mark

For the purposes of this post, I need to lay my cards on the table. I believe in what has been called expositional preaching. The best short definition of this type of preaching I have seen is that the main point of the passage under consideration is the main point of the message. In other words, whether you are in a topical series or preaching through a book of the Bible, an expositional sermon seeks to open God’s word and explain what it says rather than imposing a meaning upon the text.

With that in mind, there are six characteristics of a bad sermon.

You didn’t explain the passage well.

If the point of the text is to be the point of the message, then it follows that our first task is to explain the passage of Scripture. you can’t explain what you don’t understand. My college preaching professor used to say “A mist in the pulpit is a fog in the pew. If you don’t grasp the text, the people aren’t likely to understand it either.

Your application was shallow.

In expositional preaching, you don’t just explain what the passage means. you also press the truth of God’s word into the hearts and lives of your listeners. You do this by making relevant and pointed application. Sometimes your sermons fall flat because your application missed the mark. Sometimes this happens because you didn’t think through your application or you applied the passage to internet debates rather than the people in the room.

You lacked passion in your preaching.

I hesitate to bring up the issue of passion in preaching because passion can be faked. It is not hard to manufacture excitement, but week in and week out, people will be able to tell when passion is genuine and when it is fake. If your heart has not resonated with the message you are preaching, it is going to be hard for people in the pew to care as well.

You did not try to make the sermon interesting.

In a perfect world, you don’t have to work on an introduction to get people interested in the sermon, but we don’t live in a perfect world. We dwell in a world where people often go an entire week without thinking about anything related to the things of God. While you don’t want to resort to theatrics to get out the message of the Gospel, you do need to craft sermons that will pique people’s interest and make them want to hear a word from Scripture.

You didn’t preach the Gospel.

You don’t preach every sermon like it’s a tent revival, but every sermon must point to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Every passage of Scripture helps people understand the work of Christ, so every sermon must point to him as their only hope as well. Look back over yesterday’s sermon. Did you tell people about Jesus’ death and resurrection and call them to faith in him?

You preached too long.

I know that in a perfect world you should be able to preach for two hours and people should hang on every word. However, we live in a world where people struggle to listen to one person talk for a long period of time and very few of us have the ability to be interesting for that long. It is possible, actually, it is probable, that your sermons are at least five minutes too long.

Now that we have seen what defines a bad sermon, here are five steps you need to take when you preach a bad sermon.

Trust in the Spirit’s Work

We never want to become the guys who use the Holy Spirit to excuse a lack of preparation or sloppiness in the pulpit. At the same time, we do need to remember that the Spirit uses even a kernel of truth to impact people’s heart with the Gospel message. God’s word does not return void, so if you preached the truth, even if the sermon fell flat in many ways, the Spirit will use that word in people’s hearts. Trust that he will work. Sometimes unexpected fruit comes from poor sermons.

Rest in the Gospel

Praise God that we are justified by faith alone and not by good preaching. Pastor, you are a Christian first. If you did not carry out your calling effectively, rest in the finished work of Christ and in the knowledge that you are a child of God by faith alone. Don’t look at next week’s sermon as a chance to redeem yourself, but as an opportunity to proclaim the grace you basked in all week long.

Diagnose What Went Wrong

Look through the characteristics of a bad sermon and figure out if any of them apply to your most recent sermon. Think through your preparation and your delivery. Did you understand the passage? Did you apply it faithfully or superficially? Did you apply it to an internet debate or the people you preached to? Look at the current state of your walk with the Lord and try to remember what time you went to bed Saturday night. Is your walk with the Lord stagnant or vibrant? Was your delivery off on Sunday morning because you did not get enough sleep to be sharp on Sunday?

Determine How to Address What Went Wrong

Considering what went wrong, how are you going to address the problem? If the problem was with your explanation of the passage of application, what are you going to do differently in preparation this week? Do you need to tweak the way you study? Should you spend some time discussing the passage with people in your church so that your more faithfully apply the passage? Think about how you are going to preach the Gospel from the text this week.

If the issue is with your spiritual life, how are you going to spend more time with the Lord this week? What sins do you need to repent of and how do you need to grow this week? Whatever the issue, come up with a plan of action so that you approach the problem constructively rather than wallowing in self-pity.

Rest Well Next Saturday Night

Sometimes we forget that we are whole people. If you do not sleep well on Saturday night, you will not feel well on Sunday morning. If will influence the way you preach. Your mind will not be as sharp and you will have a tired delivery. Cut out caffeine after 5:00 PM and determine that you are going to get in bed a little bit earlier than usual. Don’t start watching a movie at 9:00 PM and avoid the late football game. It will be worth it.

By God’s grace, pastor, you have a few days before you stand to preach again. Work hard at study and don’t get up until you understand the passage you are preaching. Think and pray about how to best apply the text to apply the passage to your hearer’s hearts and how to point them to Christ. Then, pray that God’s Spirit will take the words that come from your mouth and use them to change hearts for the Father’s glory.

Related Posts:
“When Pastors Walk through a Dark Night of the Soul“

“Five Questions I Ask of Every Sermon“

For Further Reading:
On Preaching by H.B. Charles

Preaching by Timothy Keller

The Ministry

Previous Post

September 12, 2018

The Good News of God’s Providence

Next Post

September 20, 2018 The Best Quotes from The Gospel

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Bible Books Church Life Marriage Parenting Photos The Ministry Uncategorized

Select a Month August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 February 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 March 2020 July 2019 April 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz