Fellow Pastors,We have all preached lousy sermons. In fact, despite our best planning it seems impossible to avoid occasionally repeating that practice. Remember that old maxim from seminary about the three different types of sermons:
(1) the one you plan to preach
(2) the one you actually preached
(3) and the one you wished you preached".
Last night what I planned to preach, and what I wished I preached, was miles away from what I actually preached. (Long ago, I posted a similar article, but it bears repeating).
Honestly, it wasn't due to lack of study. I knew the passage and translated it myself from Greek. I even parsed the verbs and performed a diagrammatical analysis just for the heck of it. I explored multiple commentaries, even including the ancient church fathers (Chrysostom's writings on Matthew are excellent, and far more insightful than most modern commentaries).
As I sat in the front pew before the sermon I was fully confident that this was going to be a dynamic sermon.
Ahhhhhh! Now many will guess the issue was one of pride. Perhaps it was, but honestly the sermon was bathed in prayer. My intention was for people to better know God, and understand his word.
But then something happened. If your a pastor, you know exactly what I am talking about. When I opened my mouth to begin speaking I realized this was going to be a horrible sermon. Just then! Not before! Only at that moment did I realize I was going to bore myself to death. Worse yet, I made the horrible mistake of thinking that if I just kept talking I could dig myself out of my self-made hole. My poor people had to endure going 10 minutes over (now 40 full minutes of mind-numbing, zombie-inducing, please-Father-let-it-end, sermonic terror). A seasoned pastor isn't one who never preaches a bad sermon, but he is one who knows when to let his people out 10 minutes earlier instead. One old expression I love (but seemed to ignore) says, "If your not hitting oil after 20 minutes, quite boring".
Rambling statements, mental lapses, beginning of a story while forgetting what that story had to do with anything, having a congregant read a verse that had nothing to do with my message, poor logic sequence of points, shaky applications. Vague statements. It was bad. Preaching is a nasty little demon, and one which is very difficult to subdue. Yet, my people endured. They politely smiled, and were full of sympathy and grace. I love them for their wonderful and loving spirits.
As I lay in bed that night, I asked my wife what she thought of the sermon. Naturally outspoken, she has learned to be more reserved in offering her sometimes crushingly-honest opinion. Wisely, she returned the question back to me, and I told her I thought it was one of the worst sermons I've ever preached.
She replied, "I couldn't agree more".
Amen, and goodnight.
I understand where you're coming from. While I've only preached to the adults once (It was oh so bad. Really), teens often let you know if you're stinking the place up.
ReplyDeleteThe good news is that God works through us even when we fumble. Perhaps it was a lessen in humility, perhaps it was that someone needed to see the pastor as an imperfect person. (Sometimes that's important, as odd as it seems) Maybe, like your title, sometimes it just happens.
While it's not terribly encouraging that I don't remember very much of your evening sermon, I DO remember some sermons that were so horrible I considered faking a heart attack. Luckily, you didn't preach any of those sermons, so you're still doing fine.
Yes, sometimes it does happen...to Sunday school teachers as well. This made me laugh.
ReplyDeleteBair lake Bible Camp? I thought I was the only person in the world who had been there (mind you it was about 35 years ago).
Just happened upon your blog while going a google blog search.