5 Ways Pastors Can Grow in Their Preaching

Good and Faithful Servant

While it will take several hours to produce a sermon, it takes a lifetime to produce the preacher. No one can create an effective Bible preacher. No process of training can ensure the quality of the end product because preaching involves many different aspects of mind and personality. However, we can be thankful that God gives his gifts of grace to the church so that within local churches there are those whom he gifts as pastors and teachers (Eph. 4:11). Mere training cannot compensate for absence of gifting, but we all have a responsibility to “fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you” (2 Tim. 1:6)—to nourish, exercise, and develop it—so that our ministry can become increasingly effective and bring glory to God.

The parable of the minas (Luke 19:11–27) reminds us that when the Master commits his resources to his servants, he commissions them to “engage in business until I come” (Luke 19:13). The good and faithful servant uses all that the Master has given him so that he may honor his trust and extend his kingdom. We will now consider five practical guidelines as we work at our own personal development, as faithful servants, and grow in our preaching ability.

1. Recognize that you are not yet the finished article.

The preacher with a humble and healthy attitude accepts that he has much to learn and understands that the road to fulfilling any ministry is lifelong. In this sense, preaching is simply a subsection of a life of discipleship in which growth and development are constantly needed. Paul taught the Philippians,

Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Let those of us who are mature think this way, and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that also to you. Only let us hold true to what we have attained. (Phil. 3:12–16)

That passage reminds us that the Christian life has been rightly described as “a long obedience in the same direction.” ¹ In effect, Paul is saying that the mark of genuine spiritual maturity is to know how immature we remain and how far we still have to go.

Just as it is perilously easy to enter the Christian life through the narrow gate and then to settle down and fall asleep just beyond the entrance, so also it is tempting to be content with the current level of our preaching, lack an appetite for improvement, and make no effort to develop. Sports analogies are helpful here. No one wins a gold medal without supreme dedication and consistent, disciplined effort. Athletes do it, Paul says, “to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable” (1 Cor. 9:25).

2. Review and be self-critical.

This is not a call to introspection but to assess our own view of our sermon after delivery. Where did it work and connect with our audience? Where did it not? We need to ask ourselves, honestly and objectively, whether the message faithfully represented the Bible passage and whether it addressed the hearts, minds, and wills of the hearers. Were parts of the talk too theoretical or abstract so that the listeners seemed lost or found it difficult to follow? Were the difficult parts of the passage explained, or were such complexities left hanging and unresolved? If you were particularly uncertain or unhappy about aspects of the sermon, go back to your notes or listen to a recording to try to determine what went wrong and why.

It is important to notice the positive results so that we can build on them, as well as to focus on one or two areas for improvement that we can put into practice immediately. However, remember that this is a lifelong journey. What we need most is the desire to be faithful and increasingly dependent on God who makes us grow.

3. Request feedback from others.

Self-criticism is important and can bear fruit, but critical feedback from others who are responsible and qualified is extremely valuable. Considered and insightful feedback is rare. Many reactions to preaching are either generally supportive (“That was a lovely sermon, pastor”) or negative/confrontational (“I didn’t agree with what you said”). What we need to cultivate is criticism that is informed, insightful, and honest.

One way of doing this is to select a listening group—two or three members of your own congregation—who are spiritually mature and enthusiastic for the task. They should believe in preaching and be committed to your development as a preacher. Provide them with a list of brief questions to guide the discussion. From the start, ask your listening group to be honest with you and not pretend that there is no room for improvement. Ask them to speak the truth in love (Eph. 4:15). The best time to receive feedback is not immediately after the sermon has been given. It is much better to wait twenty-four to forty-eight hours, when the critics have had time to reflect and the preacher time to recover.

What we need most is the desire to be faithful and increasingly dependent on God who makes us grow.

4. Cultivate strong relationships with your congregation.

We are not impersonal managers delivering a program. We are family. We belong to one another. So let’s develop friendships and close links with others in the church—and not only with those who share our background, ethnicity, status, age, or lifestyle. If our preaching is going to develop in a way that will help us to love, pastor, and nurture God’s flock, we need to increase our emotional intelligence and sensitivity towards the whole church family. That means learning to listen, so that our preaching meets the real needs of the people in front of us. Think about where they will be at 9:00 a.m. on Monday; what they will be facing in their jobs, families, and wider relationships during the week; what challenges they are likely to encounter and what their deepest emotional issues are. If we are going to preach the unchanging word with relevance into their situations, we need to get to know them well and cultivate strong relationships with as many as we can.

Another way to develop is to think about the varied stages and states of the spiritual journeys of our hearers. The following questions may help to do this: What is the take-home value of this message to the unbelieving newcomer in church for the first time today? What about new Christians who lack assurance and are struggling with the fight against the world, the flesh, and the devil? What encouragement is there for those who are discouraged, defeated, careless, or overwhelmed by the everyday demands of life? How does the sermon help those whose lives lack focus or discipline, those who are weary and giving up, or those who feel themselves redundant and no longer needed? Considering issues like these will develop our preaching beyond the mere cognitive transfer of information to a much deeper level of heart-to-heart communication. God is not only light (1 John 1:5) but also love (1 John 4:8), and we must seek to be channels of both.

5. Keep remembering the essentials.

The gospel is the center of all our preaching, so we must ensure that all its essential elements are given their due weight. We begin with the human condition. Our basic human problem is not ignorance but rebellion. We live in God’s world with the breath that he has given us but without acknowledging our Creator or submitting to his righteous rule. We make ourselves the center of the world and will not let God be God in our lives. The reality of human sin is an essential truth to keep proclaiming.

The divine intervention in the person of our Lord Jesus Christ coming into our world on a rescue mission is the heart of our message. In him we encounter the image of the invisible God and see how far short of his glory we have fallen. Having lived the perfect life we have failed to live, he died the death we deserve to die. His substitutionary, atoning death on the cross should be the glory of all our preaching, for by it he has carried our guilt, redeemed us from slavery to sin, turned away God’s righteous wrath, rescued us from hell, and granted forgiveness and eternal life to all who repent and put their faith in him. Never move away from the cross as the foundation of all our subsequent teaching, but, instead, build on it the glorious reality of the resurrection and the expectation of Christ’s return to judge the living and the dead and to consummate his eternal kingdom. There can be no compromise on these wonderful gospel realities, and we should delight to proclaim them as the life blood of our preaching ministry.

In Acts 20, while en route to Jerusalem, Paul calls for the elders of the Ephesian church to meet him at Miletus. What he says to them gives us key insights into what drove the great apostle throughout his ministry. He describes it as “testify[ing] to the gospel of the grace of God” (Acts 20:24), “proclaiming the kingdom” (Acts 20:25), and “declaring . . . the whole counsel of God” (Acts 20:27). This was how he cared for the people, which was the charge and responsibility he now was passing on to the elders. As we develop as preachers, we must maintain the same focus on the things that matter most—testifying, proclaiming, and declaring the living and enduring word of the one true God.

At this point you may be thinking that if we need all of these ingredients for our development, it is an impossible task. Please realize that this is a checklist to help us grow and develop over a lifetime of ministry, but we need to get started. If we don’t aim for these things, we will not hit any targets.

This article is adapted from Proclaiming the Word: Principles and Practices for Expository Preaching by David Jackman.

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