Say More with Less: 5 Principles for Streamlining Sermons

Some advice I find myself regularly giving to young or inexperienced preachers is to avoid the temptation to say everything. It’s hard to do. You’ve put in the arduous hours of prayer, planning, and preparing. Naturally, everything you have to say is good! Yet not everything you have to say is necessary. Every preacher wrestles with what content to leave on the cutting floor. Nevertheless, here are five principles to aid you in streamlining your sermons.

1. Find your words in your preparation; don’t search for them in the pulpit. Whether you take a manuscript to the pulpit or not, you should have written or spoken the words of your sermon in your office. Know what the text says and know how you are going to say it. Having your words ready is not restrictive. It’s freeing. You are free to say only what you’ve prepared. Or you’re free to add slightly to what you’ve said, knowing you’ve crafted words efficiently. It is not a mark of a skilled preacher to “wing it” successfully week after week.
2. Follow sub-themes selectively. Themes of a text are not the central idea of a text; they are secondary trails.[1] Much inefficient preaching is due to following the trails of secondary themes at the expense of the passage’s primary path. Themes should be trails that lead clearly back to the central idea, not diversions into the preacher’s own ideas or passions. If I may suggest a good use of secondary themes, they provide varied and natural trails of application. You are less likely to get the sermon off track with sub-themes if you apply with them than if you explain with them.
3. Reduce explanation by replacing it with illustration. When we talk about homiletical components, we sometimes oversimplify and dichotomize the labels. We say, “Remember to explain, illustrate, and apply.” Yet true illustration is merely enhanced explanation. There’s no need to explain, illustrate, and then re-explain. Explain your meaning briefly and then illustrate cleanly. This resolves and enhances the explanation naturally. Remember, illustrations are a function of clarity, not intrigue. So, use them to tighten your efficiency and enliven your language.
4. Don’t raise questions you don’t have time to answer. Recently I was helping a younger brother prepare for an upcoming sermon from Colossians 1:15-20. I asked him deep Trinitarian questions. I talked to him about Arius. We explored the rich biblical theology of sons who weren’t born first receiving firstborn rights (Isaac, Jacob, David, etc.) and its covenantal significance for us. Yet, while that’s all good information for the preacher, it is not all good information for the pulpit. Don’t open doors of content you can’t satisfactorily and carefully close. We are miners, and every shaft into which we delve is filled with spiritual treasure, but we are not tasked with delivering all the treasure all the time. We work mineshaft by mineshaft. The more doors we open, the less efficiently we will extract the treasures from the shaft before us.
5. Launch purposefully and land smoothly. Regarding your introductions, launch purposefully; don’t rev the engine. Don’t talk too long about what you intend to do in the sermon and why. Just do it. Read the text, engage their attention, give your why (main idea and the primary application), and preach the passage. Don’t read the passage and then say things peripheral to the passage. This is not only inefficient, but it may subtly communicate a low bibliology. Too much talking before the reading of the text, or between the reading and preaching of the text, may inadvertently communicate that Scripture is secondary to the speaker. They came to hear from God. Launch purposefully.

   Regarding conclusions, land smoothly. Don’t circle the plane—land it. Some of the most inefficient (and frustrating!) preaching is the kind, not that never ends, but that seems like it’s going to end several times and doesn’t. Remember, you’re not concluding the whole sermon, but the major point of the sermon. To end purposefully, think about how you began. As a pilot plans his flight with the destination in mind, so a preacher plans his sermon with an eye toward his conclusion. Remember where you began, where you wanted to take them, and then land the plane when you’ve arrived.

Avoid the temptation to say everything. I hope and pray these five tips help you say what is most important in ways that are most efficient.

[1] Dennis Johnson calls themes “abstract proposition[s].” Dennis E. Johnson, Him We Proclaim: Preaching Christ from All the Scriptures, ed. John J. Hughes (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Publishing, 2007), 38.