Listeners do not want to feel like the preacher is unprepared and making it up as they go along. This undermines credibility. At the other extreme, today’s listeners are often unimpressed by excessively crafted wording. Gone are the days when crowds would “Ooo!” and “Aah!” at unending alliteration (did those days really ever exist?) Our challenge is to find the balance.

I recently heard someone preaching a literary masterpiece of a sermon. It was too much. The craft was overwhelming and it became totally distracting. Once people become impressed, or even distracted by your ability to memorize, you’ve probably gone too far. When preparing a sermon I usually aim for a “prepared natural” style.

Writing a manuscript allows the preacher to give attention to every word in the message, but this does not mean that the sermon should end up as a literary masterpiece. Write the sermon for the ear, but with a “prepared natural” style, then the wordcraft should not feel excessive.

Let “clever” be the seasoning. A little alliteration, assonance, wordplays and pithy sayings tend to go a long way. Be subtle lest you overwhelm the listener, because clever wording is not always clever.

The term “illustration” is very broad, but I’m referring to those moments in a sermon when the thinking work of explanation, support or application of the text is interrupted by the color and life of something apparently more relevant to the listener. For example, when the preacher begins to tell a story, listeners tend to lock in their attention and fully engage. But it is also possible to get this same attention and engagement without using any “illustration” from outside the passage. How?

The wise preacher does not present the text itself in the form of dry analysis of “the long ago and far away.” With careful preparation and thought, most texts can be preached in such a way as to engage the listener here and now. Tell biblical narratives compellingly, present textual imagery vividly, and give explanation relevantly. Allow enough time in an explanation for listeners to enter into it and feel it for themselves. It is possible for listeners, after a sermon is complete, to feel that there were lots of illustrations used, even when technically there were none. Maybe the listener feels as if they were there (in the world of the text), or they delight in how the preacher made the text “come alive” (their words, not ours). This is possible through careful and effective description and explanation of the text. If the preacher is able to handle the text in a thoroughly engaging, descriptive and vivid manner – then that preacher will be considered a masterful communicator (even without using numerous external or modern illustrations).

So, we should work on our ability to effectively and compellingly describe scenes in a biblical story, or images in a passage. We should also be sure to use appropriate variety – some texts and messages lend themselves to vivid, engaging, and compelling description, while other messages thirst for external and contemporary “illustrations” to add to their efficacy. Wise is the preacher who neglects neither and knows when to use both.

In my previous post I questioned the emphasis on having people remember the sermon’s outline. It is much more important that lives are transformed in the preaching of the sermon, than that listeners remember content (although sermonic content is critical). If we want them to remember anything, it should be the big idea of the message and its application to their lives.

In reality, what do people remember most easily? What do people come back later and remind us of, sometimes years later? It is not the outline. Usually it is the illustrations we use, the images we portray, the stories we tell. This leads to two simple, but important implications:

1 – Use illustrations. Seems obvious, but to leave a lasting impression in our listeners, we should probably consider using illustrations!

2 – Use illustrations that reinforce the sermon’s idea or purpose. Since a story or example is likely to lodge in the thinking and emotions of our listeners longer than most of what we say, it is critical that we choose those illustrations very carefully. What is the value in people remembering a cute or moving story that had only a tenuous link to the idea itself? This underscores the danger of finding a text and a message to fit an illustration. If the outline is a servant that should usually stay out of sight, then the illustration is a prominent and memorably dressed servant, but still a servant of the text’s idea and purpose.

One element of sermon preparation that tends to get less attention than it deserves is the conclusion. One preacher said, “My sermons are like chickens with their heads cut off – once you think the sermon is done, it just jumps back up and runs in another direction!”

A couple of suggestions to avoid short-changing the sermon:

1 – Write a rough conclusion early. Obviously, you have to study the passage and start work on the sermon before you can write any conclusion. However, once you are considering the purpose of the sermon, write a rough conclusion to reflect that purpose. This will help your sermon preparation, as you will know where you are heading. This will also help your conclusion since it will have time to percolate in your heart and mind.

2 – Write your conclusion out in full. I advocate writing a full manuscript, but I don’t always achieve it. The pressures of time and ministry may not allow it. Nevertheless, it is worth writing out the conclusion, and editing it, and reading it aloud, and praying though it. Put in some effort on the specific wording of the conclusion. Give it some good attention, otherwise it is likely to rise up and run some more when it should have been laid to rest!