I’ve Been Preaching for a Long Time: Can I Improve?

It is generally agreed upon that Tom Brady is the greatest professional football player of all time. He was so good for so long that if you split his career in half, both halves would be Hall of Fame worthy. Two questions come to mind: First, how is that even possible? And second, what on earth does this have to do with preaching? This two-part series will deal with the second question; the talking heads at ESPN can sort out the first.

For those of us who have been preaching for a long time, we should look for ways to improve our preaching, so that the flocks God has entrusted to us are well fed with his Word. What if the second half of your preaching ministry was just as good as the first half? What if, instead of settling into a rut as a preacher, you actually get better and better with time? Paul told Timothy to “give your attention to public reading, exhortation, and teaching” (1 Timothy 4:13). Below are five ways that preachers can “give their attention to” their preaching (another five are given in a follow-up article).

1. Be Holy. Later on, in 1 Timothy 4:16, Paul tells Timothy to pay close attention to his life and his doctrine. It is instructive for us that Paul mentioned Timothy’s life first. Your doctrine will do your people little good if you do not have the holiness to match it. The number one way for your preaching to improve is for you to be holy.
2. Be Humble. Pride is the great enemy of learning. Those who think they know everything usually are that way because of pride. Humility is the key to learning. How does this affect your people? Well, if in your pride you have stopped learning, then you are probably just repeating yourself to your people and stunting their spiritual growth. Walk in humility, and your preaching will improve.
3. Read Widely. Speaking of learning, pastors who read widely are pastors who preach well. Stephen King was once asked what his best piece of advice was for aspiring writers. His response was, “Read as much as you can.” We preach for the ear, not the eye, but the principle holds true: the more we read, the better we’ll preach. (Disclaimer: Make sure you don’t read only one genre or from only one time period in history; you run the risk of losing your own voice when you do that. My people always know when I’ve been reading too much of the Puritans!)
4. Get Feedback. We’re not talking here about the college freshman “I didn’t like how you put your hand in your pocket when you made that one point” type of feedback. We’re talking about substantive feedback, like “Pastor, it seems that over time you are not giving as much attention to your conclusions as you used to.” That is helpful information to have but will only be obtained if we seek out feedback. Consider starting a service review where you invite your congregation to offer feedback.
5. Prune Yourself. I have a bush in my yard that is the bane of my existence. It grows wild shoots seemingly overnight. It needs to be pruned regularly. When we receive feedback, we must take the constructive comments and prune what needs to be pruned. Awhile back, my wife said to me, “What is this business of scratching your nose non-stop that you’ve started doing when you preach?” She was right. It had become a distraction, and I needed to prune that from my preaching.