Preaching is one of the most challenging, enjoyable and dangerous things any pastor will do. The responsibility is tremendous and the world allies with our sinful flesh to make preachers deliver poor sermons and to distract inattentive hearers.

The newly minted pastors leaving the seminary for their first calls have had excellent homiletical training from the finest professors. They’ve immersed themselves in the study of sacred writ. They have engaged energetically with doctrinal writings and historical texts. Now they are ready to preach. Yes and no. Preaching is as much an art as it is a science. One can compose a technically fine sermon but one that lacks beauty or warmth.

There are many types of preachers. And I know a number of very excellent Lutheran preachers who have dramatically different styles. What works for one fellow in his particular setting might not fly for another elsewhere. There is no one size fits all. However, as one who is still terrified, excited and challenged every time he stands in a pulpit, these are my “tips” for preaching. It’s certainly possible that some preachers will take exception with this or that point. They are in no particular order. FWIW

• Whether you use an outline or a manuscript, when you write the sermon, write for the ear, not for the eye. Your words will primarily be heard, not read. That should make a big difference in how you write.
• Use everyday language. Your sermon is not an English lesson. Your objective is not to expand people’s vocabulary. Use good grammar, but be flexible. Speak in the manner your parishoners are accustomed to. When you write, imagine you are having a one-to-one conversation with a typical member of the congregation.
• Reviewing sermons from the fathers of the church for insights is commendable, but don’t adopt the flowery Victorian style of many translations.
• Be natural. Avoid all pulpit-tone. Unless you hail from the British Isles, do not anglocize your speech. It’s pretentious.
• Preach with authority but without being pompous or bullying.
• Keep all non-biblical quotations to a minimum, and brief.
• Humor can be helpful or it can be harmful. It’s like salt on your potato. A dab will do. Don’t use jokes or puns to draw attention to yourself.
• Do use illustrations. Don’t over-use them. And make certain the illustration really does help proclaim the gospel and isn’t just a cute story you can’t resist using.
• Preaching is not about you. If it ever becomes about you, repent.
• Preach Jesus Christ crucified. If you haven’t declared the cross and its benefits, you haven’t preached.
• Be specific and direct in preaching the law to convict. Never use the law as a means to puff up the self-righteous. It kills. Kill them with it.
• The gospel raises us to life again. Pierce and crush them with the hammer. Resurrect them, specifically and directly, with the gospel.
• Preach the law with compassion and sympathy. Don’t water it down, but don’t be spiteful. You don’t have the right.
• Have someone critique your gestures and body language.
• Make sure people understand you. If you ramble or use too much highfalutin vocabulary and thus aren’t being understood, you may as well be speaking in Klingon.
• Don’t be wordy or long-winded. Verbosity is an atrocity.
• The gospel works. Don’t get in its way.

Here is a link to a sermon preached a couple weeks ago by Rev. Jason Braaten here in Kramer Chapel:

Audio // Text

Sometimes there are those sermons that stick with you. They stand out either because they taught you something, struck your stubborn conscience with God’s law, or soothed an aching heart with the sweet Gospel of forgiveness. Rev. Braaten certainly proclaimed law and gospel, and I was duly comforted with the forgiveness of sins, but additionally, his preaching was also a lesson in how to read scripture.

“For the crucified and risen man Jesus is the key to unlock the Scriptures, and only with this key in hand, only with him in mind, do we rightly understand them. “

That is how you should read scripture: look through the lens of the incarnation and see Jesus as the plan and purpose for everything that God does leading up to, and flowing from, the death and resurrection of His beloved Son for your salvation.

The names of the sons of Israel find their meaning and fulfillment as Jesus is the praise and glory of God (which we have beheld, full of grace and truth) and Jesus is the increase as all things earthly decrease. Jesus is the fulfillment of all the law and the prophets as He Himself demonstrates in Luke 24:25-27 (ESV).

In the new curriculum here at CTS we do not have a formal class in hermeneutics. We have received some criticism for this, perhaps because the critic believes studying the abstract theories of how to read scripture are vital to the work of the pastor, or it could be a misunderstanding that for some reason we are not teaching the students how to read scripture. By no means!

As demonstrated in this sermon our students are daily taught applied hermeneutics as they hear the proclamation of the Word of God as they gather for chapel. At the foundation of the new curriculum is an interdisciplinary approach to theology which demands the study of scripture in every aspect of pastoral formation, whether in a course on scripture, doctrine, history, or pastoral practice.

Every class, every chapel service, every opportunity to discuss theology then becomes a lesson in how to read and interpret scripture, and how to teach it and proclaim it. This is ultimately the work of a servant of the church, and that is why Concordia Theological Seminary exists, to form servants in Jesus Christ who will teach the faithful, reach the lost, and care for all.

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