Giving How-To’s Keeps Sermons Out Of The Black Hole
Giving How-To’s Keeps Sermons Out of the Black Hole
We are considering how to keep your sermon out of the sermon sucking black hole. In the last post we reflected on the second of four evaluation questions that reveal whether or not your people are remembering your Sunday sermon on Monday. In this post we are going to explore the reality that giving how-to’s keeps sermons out of the black hole of sermons.
From Calling For A Response to Giving “How-to’s”.
In his book, The Sermon Sucking Black Hole, David Mains recalls talking to a friend and asking about whether or not he remembered the sermon from the previous Sunday. He asked the first evaluation question: What was the subject of the sermon? The man remembered that his pastor was doing a series of sermons on the book of Acts, and had preached on chapter 2, focusing on the great Pentecostal sermon of Peter, the apostle. So, Mains went onto question 2 of sermon evaluation: Did he ask for a response? The friend was able to identify the response asked for: “he wants us to be a bold witness for Jesus.” (p. 28).
So far, so good. Mains proceeded to third evaluation question that if understood well will keep our sermons out of the sermon sucking black hole on Monday: Do you know how to do that–how to be a bold witness for Jesus?
After some back and forth discussion, the friend admitted, “I haven’t a clue”
A Big Difference Between What and How
Sermons that are remembered will help the listener not just understand “what”, but the “how” of the response called for.
As I was writing this, I thought of my father. He was really good at directing his kids (there were 8 of us) on the “what” of doing things. I remember one time he told me to cement in a heat register in the breezeway in our house because a lot of heat was going there instead of in our living area. He didn’t tell me how to do it. As a result, I just mixed up some cement-directions were on the bag. Then I began piling it into the opening. However, with no form to hold it up, it just made a big blob in the opening of the register. I was frustrated, and he was unhappy.
Similarly, if you call for a response from your people, they should understand how to go about it. This is a challenge for preaching in today’s culture. You see, the Bible doesn’t often tell us the “how” of the directions that God calls us to. The reason, I suspect, is that the response in the time of the Bible will likely be different in our time, our culture. But this is still true: giving how-to’s keeps sermons out of the black hole of Monday sermons.
So How Do You Create How-To’s For Your Message?
Good question. And I am not able in this space, to describe all the possibilities of appropriate responses to your message. But I can give you an example or two.
I am presently working on a message for a Mission Emphasis day at a local church. My subject is the Great Commission. The response that I am calling for is to be engaged in this commission of going throughout the world and making disciples. How will I suggest they do this: I am asking them to do three things: to go, if they can. If they can’t go, they can give (and I’m suggesting a portfolio approach to missions giving. In other words, that they have a variety of mission investments from local to international, from church planting to supporting mercy ministries. And finally, that they develop a list of agencies and people that they pray for on a regular, preferably daily basis. I’m giving the apostle Paul as the teacher here: 8 times he asked people to pray for him in his mission enterprise.
Conclusion
In your next sermon, think deeply about the response you are asking of your hearers. Then give some how-to’s, and your sermon won’t end up in the sermon sucking black hole.
