Highlights From the 2014 Preach Better Sermons Conference

This week the Rocket Company held the 2014 Preach Better Sermons online conference. There was a ton of great content. Here are some of my notes from each speaker.

Judah Smith

What makes the good news so good is that we are so bad.

Always ask: What is the message because of the cross?

If you are going to have an affair, have it with your wife.

Every Sunday is life or death. Somebody needs to hear the message.

The feeling of wanting to give up is normal. You see it throughout scripture. Just know that there will be good days and bad days, but at the end of the day God loves you.

Sleeping speaks a sermon. When you shut down, God doesn’t. God is always working for us. It isn’t all just about you preaching a great sermon.

Michael Hyatt

Most important thing when speaking at an event is to find out about the audience. What are their challenges? What are they wanting to accomplish?

Look for a singular call to action in every speech.

I’m not there to entertain; I’m there to move people to action.

Everything is about building trust. If they don’t trust you, they won’t buy what you are saying.

Think through their objections. Acknowledge them and authentically tell them how you may struggle with the same thing.

Listen to frequently asked questions and address them in a sermon. Record it and this can become an archive to refer people to later when they have the same questions.

All major athletes have pre-game rituals to get in the right mindset, why not speakers?

Andy Andrews

The biggest thing you can develop that will change your speaking is to smile while you talk.

Talk to yourself in the mirror and watch what your face looks like.

Stories connect with people in a way that facts do not.

Pastors should read fiction more. Information is one thing, but stories work your brain in a different way that builds creativity that information doesn’t.

Don’t put more worth in the opinion of others than in the opinion of the God who made you.

God has put a message in you for a reason. Listen to Him. Don’t listen to somebody who doesn’t understand. Listen to the Holy Spirit.

Herbert Cooper

I plan my preaching calendar 7 months to a year in advance.

I have someone help with research so when I sits down to prepare a topic I have something to work with.

Tuesday, Wednesday & Thursday mornings are blocked off for message prep. I usually complete the message by noon on Thursday.

Planning ahead keeps me from preaching his same favorite ideas over and over again

I sit down weekly with a team to help come up with ideas. Gives me tons of ideas

The meat of the text comes from personal studies, but creativity and application ideas come from the team.

Preach the word no matter what culture does. The word really works.

Love people, preach the Word, and leave the results to God.

Matt Chandler

Sermon prep should flow out of devotional life. Why do we have to separate them?

Two  full days a week are blocked off for study and sermon prep. (It wasn’t always that way when the church was smaller)

Reps matter. My first sermon was terrible and borderline heretical. Your study and comfort level improve the more you do it.

My most common criticism of others is, what you said is true and in the Bible, but it’s not in that text.

Many younger guys have trouble “landing the plane” (ending a sermon).

Giving someone one shot a year with no feedback will not help them develop.

Teaching is a gift, but it is also a gift that can be developed.

Preach fearlessly as one who has to give an account before God.

Stop judging your self-worth or success on the number of people coming or getting saved.

Live a non-spectacular faithfulness day in and day out.

Carl Lentz

Eventually, if you are always nervous, you are selfish. You are worried too much about how you look.

Worry more about loving Jesus and getting to know Him. Then worry about your preaching.

I wants at least one “For Monday” in each sermon. If preaching on thankfulness, I will say “For Monday, I want you to find one person to say ‘thank you’ to.”

Want to be a better preacher? Go play basketball, golf, or hang out at the same place at the same time and get to know the people you are trying to reach.

Be the kind of preacher God has created you to be.

Glean from everyone, but copy no one.

If you want to get better as a preacher, love people more. Working on the technical aspects doesn’t change people’s lives.

Lisa TerKeurst

Match the reality of what God’s word is saying to the reality of your audience’s life.

Don’t read the scripture because you are preparing a message, read it because you need God to transform your life. (When it speaks to you, it will speak to others)

I want to build a message not like a tower, where one point builds upon the next, but like a wheel, where one main point/sticky statement becomes the hub of the wheel and the illustrations and points are the spokes of the wheel.

People won’t remember all your points, but they can remember a sticky statement.

A sticky statement is just a really good quote.

As a woman listening to a male pastor: You are a guy, so it’s OK to be a guy. Just be vulnerable enough in your message where I trust that your advice is true.

Keep your message simple.

If you give them everything they walk away with nothing.

Derwin Gray

Pastors all deal with the idol of success.

My whole life was conditional. If you do this and are really good, you can get this. But Jesus had no strings attached. “I have seen everything you have done, and I’m not impressed. But I love you anyway.”

A lot of preaching is moral behavior modification. Be like Joseph… David… Jesus. But Jesus is about grace. You are already justified. You are already reconciled.

Sadly, we don’t base success for pastors in health, but in external success.

Being a pastor means that you smell like sheep.

I can always tell when I need rest, because I’m tired, angry, and critical.

Andy Stanley

I think of messages as a story. You have to take people from where they are to somewhere else.

The outlining process for me is purely relational.

Outline: Me – here’s my problem. We – here’s how we struggle with this problem. God – here’s what the Bible says about it. You – here’s how you can change. We – what if we all did this?

I’m not satisfied if I have not emotionally connected to the audience in a way that they realize this is what I have to do and there is something that’s at stake.

Unless you have a burden, you aren’t prepared to preach.

I need to be able to deliver most of the message in a single phrase. Jesus did this all the time.

In the first few minutes, communicators should create tension. Tension is the key to interest.

The only way to get better is to watch yourself preach.

When a preacher is nervous it is all about them. You are either concerned about yourself or concerned about the audience. Is this about them or you?

When you are focused on you, you will evaluate your success based on how you did, not on what they actually do with what you said.