{"id":21637,"date":"1998-01-01T00:00:00","date_gmt":"1998-01-01T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/1998\/01\/01\/best-titles-for-sermons\/"},"modified":"1998-01-01T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"1998-01-01T00:00:00","slug":"best-titles-for-sermons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/content\/best-titles-for-sermons\/","title":{"rendered":"Best Titles for Sermons"},"content":{"rendered":"

Naming the Baby\n\tThe right sermon title makes all the difference.<\/em><\/strong>\n\t\tby Calvin Miller<\/strong><\/p>\n\t

\tI <\/strong>have some friends who waited five days after\n\tthe birth of their third child to name her. She lay in her bassinet at the\n\thospital with a Baby Smith bracelet, waiting for her parents to achieve some\n\tgreat “aha” moment. We friends, sympathizing with the poor baby, badgered\n\tthem to name the waif. A grand sigh of relief went up on the fifth day when\n\tthe name was at last announced. The child seemed suddenly a real person with\n\treal identity.<\/p>\n\t

\tIn times past, I have fallen in love with next Sunday’s sermon as early as\n\tMonday. My enthusiasm for the coming homily was rampant. I sensed the Spirit\n\tmoving all through my study. My preparation seemed imaginative and Spirit-driven.<\/p>\n\t

\tBut on Friday, by the time the bulletin went to press, Monday’s infernal\n\tbrainchild still did not have a name. Secretaries and office associates gathered\n\taround and badgered me to name the little pulpit waif, but alas, no name\n\tseemed worthy. Finally, out of time and in terminal desperation, I would\n\trip off the “Baby Miller” sermon title and call it something mundane just\n\tas the laser printer was chomping at its chips. But I was never as proud\n\tof my panic-driven title as I wanted to be.<\/p>\n\t

\tWe name babies and sermons to give them identity and significance. Unnamed\n\tanythings are harder to love and harder to file (this is truer of sermons\n\tthan babies). Furthermore, it is almost impossible ever to be proud of anything\n\tunnamed. In short, all significance waits on a name, and, as a famous umpire\n\tonce said, “It ain’t nothin’ till I call it.”<\/p>\n\t

\tFrom text to title<\/strong>\n\tAh, but how to title the sermon well?<\/p>\n\t

\tSome titles are derived from the sermon’s dominant illustration. Examples\n\tof this might be Russell Conwell’s “Acres of Diamonds” (a famous self-help\n\tsermon), Peter Marshall’s “Keeper of the Springs” (a Mother’s Day sermon),\n\tor Tony Campolo’s “My God Is a Party Animal” (a sermon on being compassionate\n\tto social outcasts). But overall, titles derived from dominant illustrations\n\tlose their punch.<\/p>\n\t

\tIn 1902 at the Hunter (Oklahoma) Baptist Church, a small parish I served\n\tin the fifties, Elder D.P. Rowe preached a sermon called “The Devil’s Tracks\n\tin the Blackberry Patch.” My grandfather, who recently died at 102, talked\n\tabout the sermon for the next 90 years. The title stuck with Grandpa for\n\tnearly a century, proving how important titles are. But the sermon was apparently\n\tnamed after an illustration, not the text, and hence its biblical connection\n\thas not survived.<\/p>\n\t

\tI first came to the notion of moving from text to title four decades ago\n\tin a seminary homiletics class. We were all assigned to prepare a sermon\n\ton Romans 2:16, about the coming time when God will judge the secrets of\n\tall hearts. I named my sermon “Apparent Acrimony” (sadly, only a B+ title).\n\tA classmate named his sermon on the same text “The Inevitable Expose.” How\n\tI disliked him for picking the very title I had been looking for. (It would\n\tsurely have come to me in time.) From that time forward, I never forgot how\n\timportant it is to link the title to the text.<\/p>\n\t

\tFive faux pas<\/strong>\n\tThe key, though, is to link a title to the text without falling into various\n\ttitling faux pas.<\/p>\n\t

\tNot grandiose<\/em><\/strong>. I have a friend, an industrial-strength exegete,\n\twho always puts his Sunday sermon titles in a newspaper advertisement. For\n\this sermon on Hebrews 8:1, the paper gave the title as “The Lord Our Great\n\tHigh Priest Before the Throne.” It fit the text exactly, but seemed to me\n\ta tad grandiose to be advertised in the paper.<\/p>\n\t

\tMy sermons\u2014I’m ashamed to say\u2014were much more elementary (I was trying at\n\tthat time to help my people see that Big Bird was not a humanist). But once\n\tor twice, I too have become too grandiose with textual titles. I have a sermon\n\ton Genesis 19:26 entitled, “Whatever Happened to Mrs. Lot, Being a Tale of\n\tSalt and Shame in a Time of Cultural Crisis.” The sermon never did well.\n\tIt was mostly the title, I think.<\/p>\n\t

\tNor oblique<\/em><\/strong>. A second hazard of textually-linked titles is\n\tthat they may become too oblique. “Keep titles textual but user-friendly”\n\tis my rule. A sermon on Noah’s Ark will not do well titled, “Three Hundred\n\tCubits and Daubed All over with Pitch.” Something shorter with a clear textual\n\trelationship would be better.<\/p>\n\t

\tA sermon entitled “Josiah’s Reform” will only make uninformed people ask,\n\tWho was Josiah anyway, and what was he like before he reformed?<\/em> I\n\tremember a sermon from my Oklahoma childhood entitled “Cast Out into the\n\tDeep.” The title stuck with me all these years, and it sounds highly textual\n\tand may have been about fishing, but I’m not sure.<\/p>\n\t

\tSermons with foreign names fall into this category. It is better to title\n\ta sermon “In the Fullness of Time” than “In Plenitudo Temporis” (Gal. 4:4),\n\t“The Forsaking of God” than “Eloi, Eloi Lama Sabachthani” (Matt. 27:46).\n\tThis is almost universally true\u2014except for highly recognized traditional\n\tforeign phrases: “Carpe Diem” might be a good title for Psalm 90:12, for\n\tinstance. Obviously, “Hi, Mary!” would be less appropriate than “Ave, Maria”\n\t(Luke 1:28).<\/p>\n\t

\tNor frivolous. Just as textual titles must be user friendly, they must also\n\tavoid frivolity. The cleansing of Naaman the leper (2 Kings 5) was once titled\n\t“Seven Ducks in a Puddle.” That is as distasteful as “Rebecca Lighted Off\n\tHer Camel” (Gen. 24:64), or the sermon on the rapture (1 Thess. 4:13ff.):\n\t“You Better Get Right or Get Left.”<\/p>\n\t

\tA certain revivalist once came to our hometown with vocal accompaniment.\n\tMaybe it was his title, or just his punctuation, but the twin vocalists,\n\tThe Flying Hekharts, were going to sing “How Great Thou Art on a Truck Bed.”\n\tWe all went just to find out who was on the truck bed.<\/p>\n\t

\tNor offensive<\/em><\/strong>. I also try not to offend propriety. “Get Saved\n\tfor Christ’s Sake” I find offensive. “Hitch Your Wagon to Jesus and Gee-Haw,”\n\tlikewise. The same goes for “Where You Go Hereafter Depends on What You Go\n\tafter Here.”<\/p>\n\t

\tNor blatant<\/em><\/strong>. Finally, I want to avoid the blatant. A famous\n\tBaptist pastor in the fifties became famous by preaching two sermons all\n\tacross Dixie. The sermons were called in sequence, “The Filthy, Dirty, Rotten,\n\tModern Dance” and “Bobbed-Haired, Bossy Women and Preacher’s Wives.”<\/p>\n\t

\tForceful text, forceful title<\/strong>\n\tThe strength of the biblical text makes stronger the title derived from it.\n\tA seminary president friend delivered a wonderful sermon on the future of\n\ttheological education. He chose as his text the passage in which Joshua is\n\tleading Israel across Jordan into the Promised Land. Once he had the text,\n\tthe title, “Standing on the Banks of Tomorrow,” was easy.<\/p>\n\t

Calvin Miller is professor of communications and ministry\n\tstudies, and writer-in-residence at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary\n\tin Ft. Worth, Texas.<\/p>\n\t

The Purpose-Driven Title<\/strong>\n\tIf the sermon is designed to transform lives, the title must relate\n\tto life.<\/em><\/strong>\n\t\tby Rick Warren<\/strong><\/p>\n\t

\tW<\/strong>riting a great sermon title is an art we must\n\tcontinually work on. I don’t know anyone who has mastered it. We all have\n\tour hits and misses.<\/p>\n\t

\tBut if the purpose of preaching is to transform, not merely inform, or if\n\tyou’re speaking to unbelievers, then you have to be concerned with your titles.\n\tLike the cover of a book, or the first line of an advertisement, your sermon’s\n\ttitle must capture the attention of those you want to influence.<\/p>\n\t

\tIn planning appealing sermon titles, I ask myself four questions:<\/p>\n\t

\t1. Will this title capture the attention of people?<\/strong>\n\tBecause we are called to communicate truth, we may assume unbelievers are\n\teager to hear the truth. They aren’t. In fact, surveys show the majority\n\tof Americans reject the idea of absolute truth. Today, people value tolerance\n\tmore than truth.<\/p>\n\t

\tThis “truth-decay” is the root of all that’s wrong in our society. It is\n\twhy unbelievers will not race to church if we proclaim, “We have the truth!”\n\tTheir reaction will be, “Yeah, so does everybody else!”<\/p>\n\t

\tWhile most unbelievers aren’t looking for truth, they are looking for relief.\n\tThis gives us the opportunity to interest them in truth. I’ve found that\n\twhen I teach the truth that relieves their pain, answers their question,\n\tor solves their problem, unbelievers say, “Thanks! What else is true in that\n\tBook?” Showing how a biblical principle meets a need creates a hunger for\n\tmore truth.<\/p>\n\t

\tTitles that deal with the real questions and hurts of people can attract\n\tan audience, giving us an opportunity to teach the truth. Sermon series titled\n\t“How To Handle Life’s Hurts,” “When You Need a Miracle” (on the miracles\n\tof Jesus), “Learning to Hear God’s Voice,” and “Questions I’ve Wanted to\n\tAsk God” have all attracted seekers.<\/p>\n\t

\t2. Is the title clear?<\/strong>\n\tI ask myself, Will this title stand on its own\u2014without additional\n\texplanation? If I read this title on a cassette tape five years from today,\n\twould I instantly know what the sermon was about?<\/em><\/p>\n\t

\tUnfortunately many compelling evangelistic messages are hampered by titles\n\tthat are confusing, colorless, or corny. Here are some sermon titles from\n\ta recent L.A. Times<\/em>: “On the Road to Jericho,” “No Longer Walking\n\ton the Other Side of the Road,” “The Gathering Storm,” “Peter Goes Fishing,”\n\t“The Ministry of Cracked Pots,” “Becoming a Titus,” “Give Me Agape,” “River\n\tof Blood,” and “No Such Thing as a Rubber Clock.”<\/p>\n\t

\tWould any of these titles appeal to an unchurched person scanning the paper?\n\tAnd do they clearly communicate what the sermons are about? It’s more important\n\tto be clear than cute.<\/p>\n\t

\t3. Is the title good news?<\/strong>\n\tIn his first sermon, Jesus announced the tone of his preaching: “The Spirit\n\tof the Lord … has anointed me to preach Good News … ” (Luke 4:18).\n\tEven when I have difficult or painful news to share, I want my title to focus\n\ton the good-news aspects of my subject.<\/p>\n\t

\tFor instance, years ago I preached a message on the ways we miss God’s blessing\n\tdue to our sinfulness. I titled the sermon, “Why No Revival?” Later I revised\n\tthe title to “What Brings Revival?” It was the same message, only restated\n\tin positive terms. I believe God blessed the latter message in a far greater\n\tway.<\/p>\n\t

\tHere are sermon-series titles I’ve used to communicate good news: “Encouraging\n\tWords from God’s Word,” “What God Can Do through Ordinary You,” and “Enjoying\n\tthe Rest of Your Life,” an exposition of Philippians.<\/p>\n\t

\t4. Does the title relate to everyday life?<\/strong>\n\tSome people criticize life-application preaching as shallow, simplistic,\n\tand inferior. To them the only real preaching is didactic, doctrinal preaching.\n\tTheir attitude implies that Paul was more profound than Jesus, that Romans\n\tis deeper material than the Sermon on the Mount or the Parables.<\/p>\n\t

\tThe “deepest” teaching is what makes a difference in people’s day-to-day\n\tlives. As D.L. Moody once said, “The Bible was not given to increase our\n\tknowledge but to change our lives.”<\/p>\n\t

\tI have been criticized for using sermon titles that sound like Reader’s\n\tDigest<\/em> articles. But I do it intentionally. Reader’s Digest<\/em> is\n\tthe most widely read magazine in the world because its articles appeal to\n\tcommon human needs, hurts, and interests. People want to know how to change\n\ttheir lives.<\/p>\n\t

\tUsing sermon titles that appeal to felt needs isn’t being shallow; it’s being\n\tstrategic. At Saddleback, beneath our “how-to” sermon titles is hard-core\n\tgospel truth. A casual observer will not know that the series “Answering\n\tLife’s Difficult Questions” was a study of Ecclesiastes, “Stressbusters”\n\twas an exposition of Psalm 23, “Building Great Relationships” was a ten-week\n\texposition of 1 Corinthians 13, and “Happiness Is a Choice” was a series\n\ton the Beatitudes.<\/p>\n\t

\tWe have the most important message in the world. It changes lives. But for\n\tpeople to be attracted to it, the titles of our sermons must capture their\n\tattention.<\/p>\n\t

Rick Warren is pastor of Saddleback Community Church in\n\tMission Viejo, California.<\/p>\n\n

Copyright © 1998 by the author or Christianity Today\/Leadership<\/em> Journal. For reprint information call 630-260-6200 or contact us<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Naming the Baby The right sermon title makes all the difference. by Calvin Miller I have some friends who waited five days after the birth of their third child to name her. She lay in her bassinet at the hospital with a Baby Smith bracelet, waiting for her parents to achieve some great “aha” moment. Read more…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"tax_ctp_authors":[],"tax_ctp_books":[],"tax_ctp_categories":[154],"tax_ctp_field_guide_subcategory":[],"tax_ctp_field_guides":[],"tax_ctp_format":[131],"tax_ctp_multimedia":[],"tax_ctp_point_editor":[],"tax_publications":[658,156,662],"tax_ctp_tags":[3641,4688],"tax_ctp_topics":[],"class_list":["post-21637","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tax_publications-1998-leadership-journal","tax_publications-leadership-journal","tax_publications-winter_1998-leadership-journal","tax_ctp_tags-communication","tax_ctp_tags-preaching"],"acf":{"scripture_references":null},"yoast_head":"\nBest Titles for Sermons - CT Pastors<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Calvin Miller and Rick Warren on how 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