Arriving at the Destination

Just a quick post on something I’ve mentioned before, but worth a revisit.  The best flight is one that has a planned destination, and once arriving there, it lands.  The same is true with preaching.  How easily we can end up planning the landing mid-flight, as we preach!  How tempting it is to pull out during descent to circle around one more time and add in a couple of elements we thought of saying, then forgot.  How uncomfortable to be a passenger on that kind of flight, or in that kind of sermon!

Know where the message is going.  Plan the landing ahead of time.  Perhaps have a final sentence that really nails the message.  Get there.  Say it.  Stop.

I have often been impressed at how Haddon Robinson seems to land his messages with a great sentence and a definite period, rather than waffling and fizzling to a vague finish.  I know I need to keep working on that, so I thought I’d share it here in case you do too!

One thought on “Arriving at the Destination

  1. I totally agree with you.
    As a listener, I understand the feeling of “not landing”.
    As a preacher, too, I don’t feel well when my land is delayed, because of a conclusion that I did not plan.
    Could you please write about how to conclude a sermon and maybe give some sample conclusions?

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