Diversifying Your Preaching Approach
In college, I got tired of the cafeteria food.
This is not to say the food was bad. It’s just that when I ate there for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks nearly every day, I got pretty worn out from it. And, I’ll admit, I complained a fair amount about it.
Then I recall speaking to some friends who went to the university in my hometown. While not an enormous school, their cafeteria had won a variety of awards over the years because of both the quality and variety of the food they served. But you know what I learned? The students who attended a school with this award-winning cafeteria also complained about the food.
As it turned out, it does not matter how many awards your cafeteria may win or how large your school budget may be, when you eat in the same location for breakfast, lunch, and dinner day after day, you get tired of it. The same is true of your favorite restaurant, or even the dish you most remember from your grandma. If you had it multiple times a day, day after day, you would become worn out because of the uniformity of the cuisine.
The same can be said of how you preach. While chances are good your people are not listening to you three times a day every day of the week, approaching each message just like the last can create a sameness that invites our people to tune out, because this message is just like every other.
Think about it, when was the last time you added a significant twist to how you preached?
When was the last time you preached a topical overview or character sermon rather than an expository message from a singular text? Conversely, when was the last time you preached through a book of the Bible? How about an inductive style of message? Or perhaps what about even a first-person narrative or interview format?
One of the major goals I had when writing Simple Preaching Prep was to offer a transferable, flexible, customizable model that could be used by a diverse group of people. In fact several times within the book, I emphasize how the preacher needs to use what works best for their personality, their congregation, etc. That said, there can also be a tremendous benefit to you as a preacher when you push yourself to prepare or present a message in a way you have never done before. Similarly, your congregation will likely appreciate the variety offered.
Maybe they’ll like it. Maybe they won’t.
And that’s ok.
Maybe you’ll like it. Maybe you won’t.
And that’s also ok.
Give your people the heads up and they’re likely to be intrigued. A simple mid-week social media post, or even concluding announcement saying something like, “Next Sunday I’m going to be trying out something I’ve never done before. It may go very well or it might not. Regardless I hope you’ll be here to see it!”
So what are these varying approaches?
Over the next several weeks, I want to offer a handful of options that can be used to diversify your messages. While you may not like some ideas, understand that my baseline to any sermon, even those presented differently, is to be a Biblically-based sermon. Thus any one of these approaches, if done appropriately, can be faithful to Scripture and impactful in delivery.
I hope you will join me over the next few weeks as we explore some options for sermon presentation. Perhaps you will find another tool or two to add to your tool belt. Or, to state it another way, some approaches to add variety to your menu.
