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Six Traits of a Forgettable Sermon · Pastor John Piper's answers

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  Speaker 1: Well, confronting what needs to change can be an awkward process,
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  Speaker 1: especially within the church when things need to change. But
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  Speaker 1: we must talk honestly about our flaws and our weaknesses. So,
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  Speaker 1: you know, we get to church, we drag ourselves out
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  Speaker 1: of bed, we go, we get to church, we overcome
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  Speaker 1: all the hurdles that we talked about last time. We
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  Speaker 1: gather with God's people on Sunday. God calls us here,
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  Speaker 1: so we're here at church connecting with friends again. The
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  Speaker 1: musical worship is strong, well-coordinated, well-played. And then we sit
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  Speaker 1: through a sermon that seems... a bit off, distant, a
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  Speaker 1: bit disconnected from us. Maybe we didn't prepare our hearts
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  Speaker 1: well enough to receive the message, possibly, or maybe the
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  Speaker 1: sermon itself was flat. Today on Ask Pastor John, the
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  Speaker 1: six traits of a forgettable sermon. Colton is an aspiring
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  Speaker 1: preacher in Vermont, and he wants his sermons to be
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  Speaker 1: more engaging, or more accurately, I should say, others want
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  Speaker 1: his preaching to be more engaging. So he's learning from
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  Speaker 1: those around him, and he writes in today for advice.
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  Speaker 1: Pastor John, hello, I've been invited. into sermon preparation meetings
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  Speaker 1: at my local church to grow in my preaching. The
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  Speaker 1: feedback I get in my sermons is constant. I sound
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  Speaker 1: too technical and that I'm not engaging enough. My conviction
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  Speaker 1: is to stay very close to the text so scripture
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  Speaker 1: can speak with authority. But how do I receive this
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  Speaker 1: counsel humbly, becoming more engaging while remaining vigorously faithful to
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  Speaker 1: the Bible? And what are common preaching traits that you
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  Speaker 1: would say lack audience engagement?
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  Speaker 2: It is possible to be rigorously faithful to the wording,
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  Speaker 2: the logic, the purpose of the biblical text, and be
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  Speaker 2: engaging and not too technical. It is possible. So if
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  Speaker 2: somebody told me, Piper, your messages are too technical and
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  Speaker 2: they're not engaging, I would not blow it off. I
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  Speaker 2: would take that criticism seriously. I would make every effort
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  Speaker 2: to be both. Both engaging and and rigorously devoted to
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  Speaker 2: the wording of the text. So Colton asks, what are
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  Speaker 2: some common traits of preaching that lacks audience engagement? So
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  Speaker 2: here are the ones I can think of. And in
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  Speaker 2: the process of trying to answer that negative question, like
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  Speaker 2: what's not engaging, I think we can put our finger
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  Speaker 2: on and clarify what is engaging. So, number one, the
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  Speaker 2: preacher is not engaging perhaps because he is being unclear.
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  Speaker 2: He's using words people don't know. Or more often, the
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  Speaker 2: flow of his thinking is muddy. People can't follow his
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  Speaker 2: train of thought. He doesn't seem to get anywhere. It
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  Speaker 2: doesn't make any sense. His connections are not clear. There's
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  Speaker 2: no guiding principle. line of thought so you know where
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  Speaker 2: you are. There's just kind of a haze that lies
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  Speaker 2: over the congregation. I'm not sure where this is going, Pastor.
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  Speaker 2: Is it going anywhere? I can't tell. That's lack of clarity,
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  Speaker 2: and it's not engaging. Number two, endless generalizations and very
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  Speaker 2: little specificity. Or to say it another way, nothing seems
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  Speaker 2: to be concrete. Everything seems to be abstract. For example,
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  Speaker 2: instead of saying people died many terrible diseases in the
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  Speaker 2: Middle Ages, you might say, There was a decade in
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  Speaker 2: the 1400s when up to half the population in Europe
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  Speaker 2: died of bubonic plague, which was spread by fleas that
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  Speaker 2: lived on rats that ran off of boats that parked
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  Speaker 2: there in the harbors of Europe from faraway places. That
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  Speaker 2: would be interesting. Rats, fleas, 1400s, bubonic plague. Those are
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  Speaker 2: all concretes, not just various diseases. Concreteness is always more
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  Speaker 2: interesting than generalities. Number three, what the preacher says seems
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  Speaker 2: irrelevant to my life. People don't see the connection to
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  Speaker 2: their hearts or their minds or their daily lives at home,
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  Speaker 2: at work, in the family. If you hear this criticism,
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  Speaker 2: it doesn't mean you should stop preaching about God and
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  Speaker 2: the great things that the eternal things of Scripture, and
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  Speaker 2: start talking about daily tips for daily living, it means
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  Speaker 2: you should show people why God, why the whole counsel
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  Speaker 2: of God, why this particular glorious text is wonderfully, beautifully,
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  Speaker 2: powerfully relevant for every second of their lives. Show them that.
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  Speaker 2: They need to feel that and how you feel it.
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  Speaker 2: Number four, The preacher seems emotionally flat or distant. The
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  Speaker 2: importance of things is more caught than taught. If the
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  Speaker 2: preacher seems to feel that what he's saying is dry,
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  Speaker 2: it's probably going to feel dry to everybody else. In
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  Speaker 2: other words, the engaging preacher is engaged with what he says.
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  Speaker 2: His emotions... correspond to the worth of what he's talking about. Otherwise,
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  Speaker 2: he's just a living contradiction. And while people may not
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  Speaker 2: be able to articulate what's going on, they feel it.
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  Speaker 2: They know this isn't right. This is out of sync
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  Speaker 2: and it's not engaging. Number five, the preacher is just
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  Speaker 2: not interesting to listen to. People get bored. And the
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  Speaker 2: most common antidote that people give for this problem is
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  Speaker 2: for the preacher to tell stories. Everybody knows that stories
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  Speaker 2: are interesting. Yes, they are. You just start a story.
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  Speaker 2: You got all the ears. But this is dangerous advice
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  Speaker 2: because stories are very time-consuming in a sermon, and they
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  Speaker 2: tend to entertain rather than illuminate. In other words, the
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  Speaker 2: payoff for the story actually For understanding, the payoff for understanding,
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  Speaker 2: the text is usually pretty small. It was interesting. It
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  Speaker 2: was entertaining. Back to the text, it didn't shed much
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  Speaker 2: light on the meaning of the text. I would rather say,
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  Speaker 2: give the whole sermon the traits of a good story.
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  Speaker 2: Let the sermon have a plot. It's going somewhere. There
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  Speaker 2: are movements. There are turns. Let some of them be surprising.
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  Speaker 2: Suspense is a huge asset to being interesting. Asking and
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  Speaker 2: answering questions is a great way to create suspense in
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  Speaker 2: the listeners, especially if the listeners want to know the
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  Speaker 2: answers to the questions that you're posing. And if you
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  Speaker 2: pose good questions, they will want to know. They'll be
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  Speaker 2: leaning in, like, how's this going to get resolved? Use striking, unexpected,
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  Speaker 2: jolting turns of phrase. Let there be unexpected turns in
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  Speaker 2: the argument that make the people scratch their heads and
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  Speaker 2: then say, oh, aha. That's number five. Number six, I
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  Speaker 2: would say just one more thing maybe about being too technical.
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  Speaker 2: It takes very little effort and very little creativity to
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  Speaker 2: be technical. Usually being technical is a sign of laziness.
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  Speaker 2: It's just easier to use your in-house technical language then
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  Speaker 2: to expend the effort, the creativity it takes to find
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  Speaker 2: more helpful ways to say technical things. So let me
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  Speaker 2: close with an illustration of what I mean. Suppose you
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  Speaker 2: read these words in Matthew 7. If you then, who
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  Speaker 2: are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children,
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  Speaker 2: how much more will your Father who is in heaven
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  Speaker 2: give good things to those who ask him? So, whatever
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  Speaker 2: you wish, that others would do to you, do also
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  Speaker 2: to them. For this is the law and the prophets.
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  Speaker 2: And suppose in your preaching, having read that now, you
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  Speaker 2: want to try to get across the amazing logical connection
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  Speaker 2: implied in the word so. Your heavenly father will give
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  Speaker 2: you what you need, so treat others the way you'd
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  Speaker 2: like to be treated. Now, very few people notice that.
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  Speaker 2: This is going to be interesting if you show it to.
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  Speaker 1: Them, maybe.
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  Speaker 2: Here's what you should not do. You don't say, now,
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  Speaker 2: this word so is in the Greek, un- It's a postpositive,
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  Speaker 2: which means it never comes at the beginning of a
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  Speaker 2: sentence in Greek, and it is an inferential particle denoting
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  Speaker 2: result or purpose. It's used 498 times in the New
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  Speaker 2: Testament and 56 of them here in Matthew. Virtually all
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  Speaker 2: of that is grandstanding. It doesn't help anybody understand anything.
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  Speaker 2: It magnifies you and not the meaning of the texts.
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  Speaker 2: So what should you do? Something like this. You say,
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  Speaker 2: suppose you're a 15-year-old boy who wants to try out
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  Speaker 2: for the cross-country track team in his high school. Now,
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  Speaker 2: right immediately, you got all the 15-year-olds with you, right?
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  Speaker 2: And probably the adults as well. Where in the world
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  Speaker 2: is the pastor going? What has that got to do?
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  Speaker 2: And they're all leaning in. And this boy knows that
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  Speaker 2: the coach won't let anybody on the team who can't
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  Speaker 2: run a six-minute mile at the beginning. I mean, you've
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  Speaker 2: got to run a six-minute mile to make the team.
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  Speaker 2: And you can barely run a 10-minute mile. So you
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  Speaker 2: work all day, all summer. And when the tryouts come,
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  Speaker 2: you do it. You make it under six minutes, and
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  Speaker 2: you're on the team. Now, here's my question for you, folks.
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  Speaker 2: Why did you work your tail off all summer long?
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  Speaker 2: And you may even say, come on, tell me.
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  Speaker 1: Talk to me.
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  Speaker 2: And somebody says, so you can make the team. I said,
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  Speaker 2: that's right. Did everybody hear that? Did everybody hear that
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  Speaker 2: word so? So you can make the team. Everybody knows
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  Speaker 2: what that means. So you can make the team. Everybody
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  Speaker 2: knows the purpose and the aim is to make the team.
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  Speaker 2: That's why we use the word so. And that's what's
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  Speaker 2: going on right here in verse 13 in Matthew 7.
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  Speaker 2: You have a father in heaven. who answers your prayers
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  Speaker 2: and meets your needs so you can love other people.
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  Speaker 2: And from there, you go on and give your biblical
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  Speaker 2: explanation from other texts. Why is that? How does that work?
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  Speaker 2: Why is the pouring out of God's grace in your
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  Speaker 2: life an answer to prayer, the means by which you
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  Speaker 2: love other people? So, yes, Colton, it is possible to
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  Speaker 2: pay rigorous attention to the wording of the Bible and
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  Speaker 2: be engaging as a preacher.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, really good examples here, Pastor John. At root, the
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  Speaker 1: engaging preacher is engaged with what he says. Because honestly,
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  Speaker 1: if the guy at the front doesn't care, why should
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  Speaker 1: anyone else care? That really is key to engagement, being
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  Speaker 1: a preacher who is engaged in the text. But there's
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  Speaker 1: another side to this, because sometimes the preacher does care,
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  Speaker 1: and we in the pews are the one who are
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  Speaker 1: not engaged. We are at fault for not preparing our
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  Speaker 1: hearts for the word. In the Ask Pastor John book,
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  Speaker 1: in that chapter on television, movies, and fun, there's actually
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  Speaker 1: a section titled, The Church's Task in the Entertainment Age.
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  Speaker 1: See page 303 for that. It's a really important section
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  Speaker 1: where Pastor John helps us see that a pastor isn't
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  Speaker 1: there to compete with Hollywood. He's not an entertainer. Instead,
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  Speaker 1: the goal is something he calls expository exaltation. And we
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  Speaker 1: need to be clear that we're not going to church
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  Speaker 1: to be entertained with passive media. We're not just sitting there.
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  Speaker 1: We are there to be engaged with God and his word.
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  Speaker 1: And preachers, of course, feel this pressure. All of us
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  Speaker 1: should feel this pressure, too, to be engaged on Sunday
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  Speaker 1: morning in the preaching of the word. Good godly pressure
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  Speaker 1: to authentically meet God on Sunday mornings, whether we're the
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  Speaker 1: preacher or processing the sermons. And then the rest of
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  Speaker 1: the week, we leave church and we go out into
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  Speaker 1: the world and we want to be productive and fruitful.
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  Speaker 1: We want to live productive lives throughout the week. But
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  Speaker 1: what happens when we're too weak to be productive? That's
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  Speaker 1: next time. When I'm too weak to be productive. I'm
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  Speaker 1: Tony Reinke. We'll see you back here on Thursday.