How to Increase the Spiritual Return on a Sermon

by Charles Stone

Every Sunday something happens over 400,000 times in North America:  A pastor preaches a sermon. Have you ever wondered, though, how much impact sermons really make? Consider these shocking statistics.

If an average sermon lasts about 30 minutes and if roughly 56 million people attend on an average Sunday, then church attenders in North America’s churches spend this amount of time listening to our sermons each week.

• 23,000,000 man hours
• which equals 958,000 days
• which equals 136,904 weeks
• which equals 2,632 years

And if the average pastor spends 10 hours preparing a sermon, all together pastors will spend the following amount of time in weekly sermon prep.

• 4,000,000 man hours
• which equals 166,666 days
• which equals 23,800 weeks
• which equals 457 years

Adding it all together, each week sermons gobble up three centuries of man-hours. If you multiply that over a year’s time . . . well, you do the math.
When I calculated this number, it boggled my mind. That statistic then begged this question.

What spiritual return is our preaching giving us?

I know we can’t measure the eternal impact from our sermons. However, the amount of time we invest in them and the time people invest in listening to them should cause us to pause and evaluate.
Take a few moments and consider these ten questions. As you read them ask yourself if should make some changes to maximize your sermons’ spiritual impact.

1. Do I spend sufficient time preparing my heart to preach (ie: spiritual disciplines, stillness, character development)?
2. Do I spend sufficient time with people to understand the issues they face that need a word from God?
3. Am I being true to what the biblical writers intended when I preach?
4. Am I willing to get honest feedback from people who can help me improve my preaching?
5. Do I make my preaching more about Him and less about me and what others may think about my preaching?
6. What am I doing to improve my study and presentation skills?
7. Am I willing to preach on unpopular subjects about which the Scripture speaks?
8. Do I spend sufficient time thinking about ways that could maximize the listener’s attention to increase their retention of my sermons?
9. Do I always tie my sermons to the overarching redemptive theme of the Gospel?
10. Do I approach preaching as a hallowed trust?

Perhaps the venerable Haddon Robinson captured the essence of good preaching when we wrote this in his excellent book, Biblical Preaching.

When you get right down to it, preaching is like farming. I often say, “Lord, here I am. As far as I can tell, I’ve tried to fill my sack with good seed. I’ve done my homework, I think my attitude is right, and it’s the best, most interesting seed I’ve got. I’m going to scatter it now, Lord. So here goes. We’ll see what comes up in the field.” Then, once I’ve sown the seed, I do what farmers do: I go home and rest.

What questions would you add to this list?
Related posts:

• 5 Reasons to Do Sermon Prep Outside the Office
• 6 Neuroscience Insights that Make Sermons Stickier