He winces when he says it: “Some preachers preach past the point!” Andy Stanley’s heritage is one of long sermons, but for his congregation at North Point Community Church in Alpharetta, Georgia, length doesn’t equal depth—or impact.
What could most preachers do to make their sermons more powerful?
Teach less material at greater depth. Less is more. Instead of leaving listeners with a list of five things to remember—which they won’t—plant one powerful thought. Most communicators make the same mistake: they have too much stuff. They miss their moment.
When I listen I often think, If you had just spent 30 minutes talking about that one thing, it would have been a great sermon.
I listened to a man speaking on marriage. His second point was brilliant. I was ready to get in the car with my wife, go home, and try it. But he had two more points after that. By the time he ended, nobody remembered point two. It was irritating because he had something to say, but it got lost in all the other stuff he had to say.
Why do preachers “miss their moment”?
Preachers prepare with this fear: Am I going to be able to fill the time? The audience never worries about that. But every preacher sits down and thinks, Here’s this great idea, but I have to fill 35 minutes.
I say to the preachers I mentor, “You’ve got to get that fear out of your mind, because it will drive you to over-prepare. It will drive you to have four points when you should have just one.”
I ask them, “What is your theme? Don’t give me the thesis; give me a statement. If you can’t, you don’t have a punch line.”
When you’re preparing, how do you recognize that punch line?
I look for it. As I study I ask myself, “So what? What’s the point? What’s the takeaway?”
I ask the guys I’m training, “What is your burden? What’s the thing you’ve got to tell them? The train is leaving, it’s the last thing—is there anything that elicits the emotion that says, ‘You just have to know this?'”
That’s what you build around, because that’s your passion.
When I build a sermon, I clear away everything, no matter how good it is, that adds or distracts from that one point. Then I crescendo to it. Preparation isn’t about finding a way to divulge everything I know, but about asking myself, “What’s the thing, Andy? Just say the one thing, and then stop your mouth from moving.”
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