The Most Neglected Part of the Sermon…?
8 August, 2007 by Thad
What do you think is the most neglected part of the sermon? Which section suffers the most in your own preaching? Perhaps the conclusion comes to mind. Transitions may be a close second. But I wonder if there’s not another element that receives even less attention: the prayer before and/or after the sermon. Ok, so maybe that’s not technically part of the sermon, but it sure is hard to separate. And for our people it’s all part of the “package” they get during the preaching on Sunday morning.
To be honest, I don’t give as much attention as I should to public praying, especially the praying that revolves around the sermon. As a result, it’s easy for me to offer up a “Lord, just…” prayer (Lord, just come now/Lord, just bless us/Lord, I just ask you to…), or to re-preach my sermon during the closing prayer. If we’re not from a tradition that uses set prayers for illumination or application, what can we do to make sure our praying is not a needless distraction but actually ministers to our congregations?
Let me suggest a few things.
- Pray. We must keep our own praying and relationship with God fresh. At the heart of so much of my “Lord just…” type of praying is a meaningless repetition that comes from a personal neglect of private praying.
- Prepare. Treat the opening prayer for illumination like any other part of your sermon. Pray about and think through what kind of request would be biblical and beneficial to your people. Search the Scriptures for prayers of illumination (Open my eyes, that I might behold wonderful things from your law, Psalm 119:18), and use and adapt them. Consider consulting prayer books and liturgies for language that might help you.
- Get a Conclusion. A strong and appropriate conclusion may help you pray more effectively at the end. In all likelihood, if we’re “winging” the conclusion, then we may be more likely to abruptly or awkwardly end the sermon, and use the prayer afterward to summarize what we just said. Conclude the sermon, and then you can focus on asking God to apply what they just heard, rather than restating what they just heard.
Those are just a few ideas. I would welcome any others you may have.
