Emerging Young Preachers (EYPs) have unique needs and advantages in the feedback process. The early years of preaching development include a lot of adjustment and we change our approach to preparation and delivery, much more than those who have 15+ years of experience. EYPs should seek feedback with far more frequency and implementation than an old pro. If we don’t, we’re liable to get stuck in our own heads, abandoning our more promising approaches to preaching, or failing to avoid the approaches that might lead us to less effective preaching.

We’ve taken a look at the identity temptations (LINK) and also at the unique opportunities (LINK) of the early years of preaching development. Now let’s look at the feedback strategies we can use as EYPs:

FEEDBACK STRATEGIES

Smell the praise perfume but don’t drink it.

Jim Watkins once told me, “Praise is like perfume, you can smell it, but don’t drink it.” EYPs will get some encouraging words—often people are trying to “encourage us” beyond the impact they receive from the message. Because of this—we must be careful not to fully ingest the perfume. Sometimes we need the encouragement, yes, but we can’t let it get to our heads. One of the ways I do this is to store praise sent to me all in one box in my office. I don’t re-read these when I get them, but instead save them for that “blue Monday” when I feel horrible about my preaching—and I smell the perfume a bit and get back on the horse.

Ask for feedback

“We have not because we ask not.” No one will give you helpful feedback on your sermon unasked (and if they do then perhaps they aren’t the ones you want feedback from!). We get the feedback we ask for. Our potential “feedbackers” trust that we are getting advice somewhere else—but they notice we are not improving and begin to wonder. Here are two systemic ways to get feedback:

1) Routine – Some EYPs develop a weekly cycle of feedback from a few trusted individuals. Whether a spouse, a teaching team, or a wise advisor, the key to this kind of feedback is to ask people for a sustainable system of feedback.

2) Intense – Some EYPs sense that in certain seasons they need to work on one part of their preaching—or that they need to grow up quick in all areas intensely. This is a big ask, so you have to be clear on who you’re asking to give feedback.

Implement the feedback

We often get feedback without implementing it. I might get feedback that I jingled my keys in my pocket in a distracting way 21 times in a sermon, but then the next time I preach I end up doing it 22 times. I might hear that my altar call seems manipulative—but then I continue to use the same tricks every week. I could be told I’m mispronouncing Melchizedek and then I still mess it up for the entire series on Hebrews. This is emotionally defeating for the feedbacker. Asking for advice I won’t follow is like asking for a prescription from the doctor and never going to the pharmacy to get it filled.

Feedback on the feedback

We EYPs should point out what parts of the feedback were most instructive. This shows that we are not just “making a show” of our feedback process. Recruiting people to invest in our preaching does indeed influence them to take ownership of our development. However, it is manipulative to do that merely for political reasons. Feedbackers sense this. I know of a pastor who had an extensive system for routine and intense feedback, but they never changed as a result of the feedback. They were defensive on each point, and over time everyone just stopped saying much. This will happen to us as EYPs if we don’t take feedback to heart.

Self-corrective feedback

Over time we learn from our feeedbackers and we start to develop a self-corrective eye and ear, a more in-tune heart and mind for preaching. I know at 37 I don’t ask the same questions from feedbackers that I asked when I was 27. For instance, I used to have feedbackers count my “Um’s” in a message, and my other verbal pause distractions. Through many years of correction, I was able to eliminate them almost entirely—and when I hear one every once in a while in my videos it’s like nails on a chalkboard for me. At this point we can move on to other more intense and focused feedback to become better and better at communicating the holy word.

Getting a variety of feedback

It helps to get more than one kind of feedback. Each kind gives us a different angle and helps focus the feedback.

1) Live feedback – By giving someone a special feedback sheet of paper with certain questions we can get feedback right away. We did this in our teaching team at Spring Lake Wesleyan Church (www.slwc.org) and it was a great method of routine feedback.

2) Audio feedback – It’s easy for the feedbacker to listen on an iPod or in the car, and their feedback is more about the word choice and content than the delivery.

3) Video feedback – Many of us get weekly video recordings of our preaching, and at College Wesleyan Church (www.collegewes.com) it goes online every single week. Few things help your feedback better than “rolling the tape.” TV adds 10 pounds they say. I would say it also adds 10 minutes to how long a message feels, it add 10 nervous tics I don’t notice otherwise, and adds 10 mispronunciations and 10 odd gestures or repetitive actions I don’t remember doing. Video exposes so much. For the last seven years I’ve watched the video of every single sermon I’ve given at my church. What’s more, I recently sent video to some pastors who hadn’t seen me preach in more than 5 years, and to another that hadn’t for 10 years, so they might advise me on how I’ve improved or hadn’t improved over the years. I’ve even sat down with Pastor Steve DeNeff, a true master of the art of preaching, and analyzed video of one of my sermons with intense moment-by-moment feedback.

4) Delivery feedback – Sometimes we need an old pro to point all we are doing to distract from the message. My wife is helpful for this kind of feedback in particular. She notices the things I do repetitively, and helps me eliminate them. A good trigger question for this is: “What are the things I always do that could be distracting?”

5) Manuscript feedback – By working on delivery, we end up “saying things good,” but still don’t have “good things to say.” In manuscript feedback, without all the verbal and visual helps to communication, a feedbacker can incisively show us logical flaws, inherent contradictions, and push us to go deeper into the text and history behind the subject, pointing out our stream-of-consciousness gibberish and elevating us to poetic word choices and powerful truth.

These are many of the ways EYPs are ensuring they have feedback strategies to grow as preachers. How about you? How do you ensure you are getting feedback to develop your full potential as a preacher? What other ways you invent to get evaluated with more effectiveness as EYPs?

So, here is the question: What are the most pressing topics that need to be addressed immediately through preaching for people in your ministry context?

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Introduction: Jared serves as the Assistant Pastor of United Wesleyan Church in Alexandria, VA. As a bi-vocational pastor, he also serves as a one-on-one English tutor at the International Monetary Fund for economists from around the world. In this capacity his time is spent in personal conversation with people of every religion and culture. This experience has sharpened his faith and given him a deeper understanding of the meaning and importance of the gospel. His simple advice for fellow preachers is to spend more time with unchurched people and preach in a way that would be meaningful to them.

Lenny: Jared, I like the way you helped us to engage the atonement through the lens of a narrative that is “both true and meaningful.” Why was it so important for you to develop those concepts before moving into the body of this sermon on the atonement of Christ?

Jared: The more I meditate on Jesus, the gospels, the cross, and the resurrection, the more I realize how interconnected all of the pieces are to history itself. As a father of two small children, I fully understand the value of telling children simply that Jesus is God’s son and the he died for our sins; this is a good starting point. However, as adults, we need the fuller and more complex story that Scripture provides. In the incarnation, God stepped into history. The cross was the result of concrete historical events. The Holy Spirit then inspired the gospel writers to present a multi-layered historical drama. We cannot fully understand Jesus—nor what He means for our life— without this context. Historical context is what separates Christian theological truth from mere mythology.

Lenny: This was the type of sermon that sought to bring people into the story of God instead of bringing God into the story of our lives. There is a huge difference between these two homiletic approaches and perhaps both are necessary to reach a variety of people. The reason why I think your sermon aims to bring people into God’s story is the enormous amount of time you devoted to unpacking the historical background of the text and its theological implications. Some of the people who listen to your sermon might suggest that perhaps you spent too much time on the history (true) and theology (meaningful) of the biblical story. How would you respond?

Jared: I would agree that I spent a lot of time developing and unpacking this background in this particular sermon. There are two things I would say in response to those who question this approach. First, many people do not have a solid grasp of this narrative. While it certainly should not be explicitly presented in every sermon, it does need to be presented at some point. Second, it is very difficult to talk about the multiple layers of meaning found in the cross without this historical background. A penal substitution view of the atonement (i.e. God punished Jesus for our sin) is easiest to present without any historical narrative, though other equally biblical views require far more context. As this was part of a series called “Groundwork,” I was intentionally investing in laying a firm foundation.

Lenny: What makes a good sermon a good sermon is not just a matter of biblical exegesis but contextual exegesis. Tell us how this sermon addresses the particular needs of people in your preaching context.

Jared: Peoples’ needs were represented in the bookends of the sermon. At the beginning, I attempted to connect with real questions, feelings, and doubts of people through a fictional journal entry. At the close, I sought to answer these questions by showing how, through the cross and the resurrection, Jesus is our mercy, our example, and our victory. I then brought this home by describing how I personally find a deep sense of forgiveness, a model for how to live, and a great source of hope and confidence in the cross when viewed through the lens of the resurrection.

Lenny: I encourage my preaching students to view their sermons in order to analyze the strengths and weaknesses of their sermons on a frequent basis. As you reflect upon your sermon, what do you think were its strengths and areas for improvement?

Jared: I always struggle with time and would prefer to keep it to 20-25 minutes, which I was not able to do in this case. Nevertheless, when preaching a dense and multi-layered sermon like this, I use a manuscript so that I can carefully choose each word; when listening to it again I am happy with the words I chose. However, I think the sermon would be strengthened by a couple more illustrations, especially something stronger at the end to more clearly show what it looks like in real life to have Jesus as your mercy, example, and victory. Despite this, I received strong feedback that the sermon really helped people understand the cross more deeply than they had before.

Lenny: As you know, we met and had some great times together when we were Master of Divinity students in seminary. We both believe in the importance of ongoing education in the formation of ministers. Here is a big question but, I think, a significant one for those who might be considering further education: How has education prepared you for pastoral ministry, in general, and the preaching life, in particular?

Jared: I would say that education connected me to specific resources (authors like N. T. Wright, commentaries, and software like BibleWorks) and trained me on how to find new ones. I use these skills and resources every time I preach. I approach each text and topic with confidence. My time at seminary also significantly raised my own standards and stretched my capacity. When writing a paper for a world-class scholar you are motivated to dig deeper and read material that may intimidate you at first. More personally, listening to and talking with world-class scholars and hearing them articulate clear answers to very difficult questions gave me confidence that good answers and deep understanding are available to those who diligently seek them. This has paid off a thousand times over as I encounter people’s most difficult questions. I find that people draw confidence from a wise and knowledgeable pastor/preacher. While education can never provide all the answers, it certainly encouraged me to dig deeper rather than settle for shallow and unsatisfying answers. From a different angle, the time spent in Christian community profoundly shaped my soul. Chapels, Bible studies, classes, and conversations impacted my personal discipleship.

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Introduction: Pastor Thad Spring serves as the Pastor of College and Outreach at the College Wesleyan Church in Marion, IN. Thad has been a pastor for 21 years and has served in staff positions focused on Christian Education, Children, Youth, Family Life, College, and Outreach. In 1998 Thad and his family were called to plant a church in Marysville, MI where he served as Lead Pastor for 10 years. Thad and his family have been at College Wesleyan now for four years and recently became the first Outreach Pastor for the church. Thad advises preachers,“If the message doesn’t challenge you, correct you, or call you to something more…it won’t do that for your congregation either. You have to own it first.”

Lenny: You have been a Lead Pastor who preached every week and now you serve as an assistant pastor who preaches at the Sunday morning worship gathering every 6 weeks or so. What are some of the advantages and challenges of preaching for a staff pastor?

Thad: Along with the preaching on Sunday mornings, I often preach for our college ministry, so it gives me many more opportunities to be behind the pulpit. The advantages for Sunday mornings are more time in study (especially following someone who spends more time than any other pastor I know), an idea of where the series that we are in is going, and more support from the staff in other areas during the week that I am preaching. I never had that as a solo pastor.

Lenny: Your sermon introduction about the rule and by-laws of the motorcycling culture was engaging but lengthy. Some might say that the introduction was too lengthy. Why did you feel the need to spend so much time framing the sermon with this particular sermon illustration?

Thad: My agenda was to help our congregation understand that every sub-culture has rules and by-laws that others don’t understand. Because College Wesleyan is not known for being a Biker church, I wanted to illustrate and educate our congregation on that culture. The goal was for them to understand that just because the church accepts each other, there may be those we are leaving out who we don’t understand or recognize. As lengthy as it was, I still get emails and responses from individuals (just this week) who are still challenged to see others differently because of the “Biker Wave.”

Lenny: Thad, your sermon was biblically thoughtful and contextually relevant. First, how do you tend to tackle exegesis of the biblical text? Describe the exercises and tools you utilize to wrestle with the text for the sermon? Second, how did your particular preaching context impact the shaping of the sermon? Describe your congregation and how this sermon intersected with their unique needs.

Thad: Tackling the exegesis for me means saturation. It takes me more than a week to study and dissect the one point or theme of the passage. I usually start about three weeks out with word study and historical background and let that simmer for a while. I then exegete the congregation; who they are, where they are at in the season of life, and where I believe God is taking us all. I then work through an outline very similar to the one Andy Stanley uses in his book, Communicating for a Change, which is close to Eugene Lowry’s work, The Homiletical Plot. Illustrations usually come after all the study and theme has been worked out. It has really helped me to stay with a one point message over the last 6 to 7 years. I can have points within the big idea, but I can always bring it back to the main message, which on this occasion was, Your Theology Needs a Place.

College Wesleyan is a strong church made up of leaders from all walks of life and has strong connections to Indiana Wesleyan University and Taylor University. So in many ways the challenge is how to “preach to the choir.” This particular message and series was so relevant because God is moving our congregation outside our walls and outside the evangelical education bubble to minister in local schools, create after-school programs, sit on boards for many non-profit agencies, partner with housing agencies, mentor in the jails, etc. Showing no favoritism is a great step for College Wesleyan and I believe the message either confirmed the change for many or challenged individuals to join in God’s work in Marion and abroad.

Lenny: I really appreciate the way you repeatedly and strategically emphasized that Peter’s “conversion” toward inclusion of Gentiles was the result not of human moralism but divine initiative. Why did you sense the need for this theological emphasis?

Thad: Christians need saving too! I think the church can settle into complacency and think that just because God is doing things inside our congregation that we have all that God intended. Peter, I believe, would have been satisfied with Jerusalem, Judea, and maybe Samaria…but God’s initiative was stated both in the Old Testament and through Jesus and Peter needed to be nudged or called to something bigger. Our congregation and perhaps many others are finding wonderful experiences within their context, but I’m often challenged to think more globally and I believe we need to be nudged or called to something more.

Lenny: You challenged the College Wesleyan Church to move out from safe Joppa and toward unsafe Ceasarea. This was a vision-shaping sermon for the people of the church. What is the relationship between preaching and kingdom vision in the life of the local church?

Thad: I think Kingdom vision comes first. Where is God moving? What is He all about in our context? What is He doing in the lives of our people? Preaching, for me, follows that. It is a means to expose the Word of God in all it’s fullness or narrative when it comes to the issues that we as a people are facing. It’s not that our preaching is relevant or not, it is the fact that the Word of God is relevant and by hearing the messages we preach, it becomes transformationally relevant to our people.

When I preach in a context that is unfamiliar, I always ask two questions that reveal much about the people to whom I will preach. I inquire, what is the appropriate sermon dress and length? How long I preach and what I wear are factors that, despite their less than spiritual significance, can help or hinder the reception of the sermon. While some preachers may claim a certain sermon length or style of dress as God-ordained, these considerations are determined more by the preaching context than any other factor.

Sermon length and clothing must not only fit with the people in the preaching context, they must also match the personality of the preacher and the community that surrounds the preaching context. So, whether preaching in the local church I serve or as a guest preacher in unfamiliar territory, I aim to be in close proximity to people in the church, to people in the community around the church, and to my personality in terms of what I wear and how long I preach.

Match the Preaching Context

Wherever we preach, we want to be sensitive to the particularities of the context. Although I am quite comfortable preaching with jeans, I wouldn’t even think about doing so in a church with a large number of senior citizens. I own a few suits, but I wouldn’t dare sport mine when addressing teens or twenty-somethings. I saw a well known Christian author speak at a conference for mostly mainline pastors. He was a white young man donning dread-locks and a long skirt-like shirt. His dress did not distract me from the important and impactful message he shared, but it did become an obstacle to several of my colleagues in attendance. It was unfortunate that some allowed the preacher’s clothing to keep them from hearing his message, but I wonder if he could have done more to prevent his dress from blocking his Gospel message.

Sermon length is another contextual issue. I preached as a guest at a multi-ethnic church in Queens, NY that asked me to preach a 45-60 minute message. The suburban, mostly white congregation in the Midwest that invited me to preach wanted a 25-30 minute sermon. The preacher who stays within the bounds of contextual expectations regarding sermon length is more likely to be heard than the preacher who totally ignores these boundaries.

Match the Preacher’s Personality

While ignoring the preaching context is disrespectful, ignoring your personality is inauthentic. As much as possible within the parameters of your context, be yourself. If you are a 23 year old preacher, my guess is the three piece suit is not your style even if it fits the context. If you are a 75 year old preacher, you may not want to wear baggie jeans and a t-shirt even if that dress aligns with the style of most of the people in the preaching context.

I tend to be a 25-30 minute preacher, perhaps because I am a product of my sitcom culture. Unless I’m invited to speak longer or shorter, this is the sermon length I hit every time. You probably have a default sermon length too, along with convictions to support your modus operandi. The point is, know yourself.

When a local church hires me to be their pastor or someone invites me to be a guest preacher, I assume they want me to be me and not a clone of some other preacher. However, in an effort to be myself I must also be sensitive to the context. In some instances, we preachers have to find a compromise between the context and our personality. For example, you may be a jean wearing preacher in a congregational context that expects and desires a suit wearing messenger. Perhaps you can compromise by wearing a shirt and tie without a suit coat. If you prefer to preach 25 minutes and the context expects 45, perhaps you can stretch to 35. Know yourself, know your context, and preach in a manner that is sensitive to both.

Match The Community

The community around the preaching context matters too. If you are a local church pastor you will likely want to wrestle with the question: What kind of dress would foster a sense of welcome to people in the community who do not yet attend the church? One of the churches I served was attracting people from the lower social classes within the community. Few of them owned or could afford a suit. Our pastoral staff and most lay leaders dressed in a manner that the economically challenged could adopt for themselves.

The preacher must also consider the community when it comes to sermon length. One church I served as pastor was in an area consisting mostly of Roman Catholic churches. Many of the people moving into the community were from a nominal Roman Catholic background. So, most people from the community who visited our church were used to the 10-15 minute homily of the Roman Catholic liturgy. I didn’t want to overly exhaust them with a 35-40 minute sermon so I tended to go about 25 minutes, which fit with my personality. The preacher’s sermon length and style of dress should not be a needless barrier to community people who visit the church and are processing the decision to return.

QUESTION:

How does or how should your personality, local church, and community context impact how you dress and how long you preach?

Dr. Luchetti blogs at lennyluchetti.blogspot.com

As always, please leave your comment below and share your answer with the wesleyansermons.com community!

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Introduction: Jeff has been the Pastor of The Voyage Church over the past 5 ½ years. Prior to this, he served for 3 years as a Youth Pastor at a United Methodist church in East Brunswick, New Jersey. His current ministry context is suburban, with a large mall right down the road. Those within the congregation are low to middle class with a good mix of newer Christians to those more mature in their faith. The average age within the congregation is also very diverse – a good mix of young and old. Jeff shares about his preaching journey: “The thing I’ve learned (continue to learn) is that every preacher should be themselves. It’s easy to emulate those you grew up under, or those who seem to be getting all of the love and attention. Nevertheless, it’s important not to get too caught up in that. Learning to be myself has been a tremendous help!”

Lenny: Jeff, I appreciate your willingness to talk about politics in the context of the sermon. Some might push-back and assert, “you should never talk about politics while preaching.” How would you respond to them?

Jeff: Right now, if Facebook is any indication, politics is on nearly everyone’s radar. I’ve listened to the Democrat in my congregation tell me why they support the current administration and I’ve also heard the voice of the Republican tell me why they vote the way they do. If God’s Word was silent on politics and the social issues that politics often seeks to solve, I suppose that preaching on it would be a stretch. However, God’s Word is filled with a care and concern for others, and the prophets of old were not silent about their disdain for what they saw as injustice and a lack of concern. Therefore, it’s important to preach on a topic like this one, especially in a season when politics is fresh on the minds of people.

Lenny: There are a number of hard topics upon which to preach and politics is one of them, especially while candidates are campaigning. Do you have any general principles, or rules, that guide you when preaching on hard topics?

Jeff: On the whole, I would say the only rule is that I turn to God’s Word for the answer as opposed to another person’s view on the topic. As a pastor who reads a lot, the temptation is to pick up another author’s views on a certain topic and then run with it. However, I’ve had to step back a time or two and make sure what I’m saying is clearly God’s Word.

Lenny: Your sermon, in my estimation, walked the tightrope between the sovereignty of God and the responsibility of people in the political sphere. Tell us more about how the local church can both trust in the sovereignty of God and engage responsibly in politics.

Jeff: A tightrope indeed! Within God’s sovereign plan, my belief is that we are active participants in bringing about his plan. In saying that, we have been called out time and time again by the prophets of old to do something about sin within us, evil around us and injustice that seems to prevail at times. Through our political involvement, then, we can have our say in electing and supporting those who have God’s best interests in mind. Once elected, however, I believe that it is our duty as the church to pray for our elected officials, to praise what they’re doing right but also be willing to call them out in those areas where we see them missing the mark. Generally, the church has spent far too much time on the “calling them out” part and not enough time supporting and praying for them.

Lenny: The prophets of the Old Testament really are political cynics, to an extent. Their preaching is understood best in the context of the politics of their day. In other words, while preachers today might be inclined to separate church and state, the prophets of the Old Testament did not. Do you think the preaching of Old Testament prophets is a model for preaching on politics today?

Jeff: Great question! Honestly, I haven’t thought through each of Scripture’s prophetic works in a political way, so I’ll say this. While it may not act as a complete model per say, what it does model is God’s sovereignty and the big picture that we so easily lose sight of. If God is in control, why such anger? Why such fear? Why such a divide politically?

Emerging Young Preachers (EYPs) have unique opportunities in their development. We haven’t gained decades of experience to preach from, and sometimes we make big mistakes in preaching. We also haven’t fully figured out our identities yet, and so each preaching moment is a point in the chart of our development. The way we treat our unique opportunities can turn these moments either into turning points or a part of a weak plateau in our effectiveness as preachers. We’ve taken a look at the identity temptations of the early years of preaching development, but now let’s look at the unique opportunities we have as EYPs:

UNIQUE OPPORTUNITIES

1. Be prepared for opportunities. It’s interesting to me how many of us say we want to preach, but when asked “what would you preach” we say, “I’ll develop something.” As EYPs we need to have a fire in the belly to say something before we have a place to say it, so we get the horse before the cart. Those of us that don’t do this end up unprepared or lacking in passion—we act like we’re preaching an assignment, not preaching the Word of God. Horse: having something to say. Cart: finding a place to say it. In my earliest preaching years I found Senior Pastors and other churches far more willing to give me a shot to preach when I told them about a text or cause or idea I had burning in my soul to speak about… rather than just asking them to “give me a shot.” Everyone wants to say something. Few have something to say.

2. Position yourself for opportunities. It’s okay to champion yourself once you have something to say. Offering yourself for lower profile speaking situations helps. Letting people know you’ll speak in a small country church without a pastor, at MOPS groups, Sunday night services, old school prayer meetings, ministerial luncheons, and devotionals at Christian organizations will net opportunities. These are all speaking engagements other preachers may not want to do, but you could make the most of. Other preachers that are booked up could refer people your direction too. And finally, a question to ask yourself: do my friends even know that I’d like to get opportunities? If they don’t know you would like an opportunity then how does anyone else?

3. Take most if not all opportunities at the start. Yes, a day may come when you need to turn things down. But at the start it’s important to take as many opportunities as possible instead of being picky. Consider why we might say no to opportunities: the size of the audience isn’t right, the location is too far away, the prep time will be too great, or the remuneration won’t be enough. But when you think about it, the size of the crowd isn’t why we preach—and EYPs should learn to speak with authority and inspiration to any size crowd. The location shouldn’t deter us much, as nearly everyone covers all your travel expenses, and the crowd is usually all the more grateful that you came so far. The kind of audience doesn’t matter. We need to learn to speak to teens even if we aren’t youth pastors, and we need to learn to preach to the elderly even if we’re still paying off college loans. And finally, you didn’t get into the preaching business for money (if so, your I.Q. may be a little off.)

4. Hijack your opportunities. One of the frustrations of many EYPs (though not all) is that they feel they don’t get enough opportunities to preach. However, that itself is an opportunity. When I was preaching every week I didn’t have enough time to reflect on my message and intentionally develop. By Monday afternoon I had already moved on to prepare for the next Sunday. But with more time between we can develop at a faster pace. What’s more, we can hijack the smaller opportunities we do have, which others often don’t. We may have the opportunity to share a devotional with staff or in other organizations. What’s to keep us from leveraging that opportunity into a mini-sermon? We might do the pastoral prayers—and we can craft the one minute introduction of the prayer well, and treat that sacred moment into a time to say things about God for the people that he already knows but we all need to hear again. And we should no longer “give the announcements.” Instead we can “preach the announcements” and turn what is usually the most boring part of the service into a small moment of crafted communication—which helps us become better preachers in the long run.

5. Make the most of every opportunity. When we get opportunities we should take them very seriously. It’s a great mistake to overestimate ourselves and preach underprepared. When we have an outside speaking engagement, we should prepare more, not less, than we would in our own setting. Because our opportunities may be less frequent, we must make the most of each. And because they are less frequent we have more time to ensure we do. In the end, the EYP that seizes their unique opportunities will get more and more of them, and before long find they are no longer in early development, but are a seasoned veteran preacher. And with that, come some other problems and opportunities. But that’s another story.

How do you use your unique opportunities to develop your full potential as a preacher? What other unique opportunities do you think we EYPs have?

David Drury is the co-author of the books SoulShift and Ageless Faith and the author of The Fruitful Life. He serves as Executive Pastor of College Church in Marion, Indiana. Find him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/daviddrury

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Introduction: Tom Cochran has spent eleven years in youth ministry and three years as a Lead Pastor. He planted New Journey Church in Wabash, IN two years ago. The church consists of people who have walked with the Lord for some time, many who are new believers or have recently returned to Christ, and some who are not yet convinced of Christ. One piece of advice that I would give preachers is to know your voice as a preacher (find preachers who are similar to your voice to help sharpen your preaching), match your voice to how the people listen (learning how your people hear will sharpen you further), and then allow that to drive you to take risks from the pulpit.

Lenny: What was going on in your life and in the life of the church that caused you to preach this particular sermon from the book of Ruth?

Tom: Since the best messages are ones the preacher wrestles with first, I had recently faced an elephant whose shadow has covered the last nine years of life (infertility). To address this, God used great people around me to speak of how God’s grace and working have changed me for the better as a husband, a person, “an adoptive-father” to-be, and a pastor.

In my church, this whole series on Ruth was designed to address how many felt that they were stuck and had no traction to move forward to what God had for them in their lives, marriage, ministry, and family.

Lenny: You used the metaphor of being under the shadow of elephants to connect to Ruth and to the congregation. How does this metaphor bring together the plotline in the story of Ruth and the plotline in the stories of your congregants?

Tom: For Ruth, she was stuck as a widow that was going to live out the rest of her days on the leftovers from someone else’s field. If Naomi had not of spoken to that “elephant” for Ruth, she would have stayed in that place. For many in my congregation, they have learned to live their lives “stuck” under the shadow of their elephants: failed marriages, loss of job to now working jobs they hate in order to provide a living, and being labeled because of issues in their lives (drug addict, drunk, failure, unlovable, convict, etc.). It’s easy to adjust our lives to live under the shadows and never step out from under that covering to experience redemption and see all that God has in store for us.

Lenny: I love the way you describe how Ruth exchanged her covering for the fullness of what Boaz had to offer. How does this reality from Ruth’s story intersect our relationship with God through Christ?

Tom: I believe that Ruth experienced Redemption first hand. Her life changed the moment she transitioned from trying to do it herself to inviting Boaz to act on her behalf. In our world today, we find people doing the same thing. We either try to figure out our lives on our own or we ignore problems thinking they will go away. We have to come to a realization that through Christ we can have the “full” life that God desires for us to have.

The fact that we can find peace, rest, restoration, healing, and forgiveness at the feet of Christ if we simply ask him to cover us, is at the heart of Ruth’s story. Once we admit that we have lived under the shadows of our situations and need to exchange our old covering for his covering of new life, we find the hope that Ruth was living in by the end of chapter 3.

Lenny: You used the imagery from the text (i.e., threshing floor, covering) in a playful metaphorical way to lead listeners toward some important theological reflections. This allowed the sermon to be both biblical and relevant. Do you usually use an image from the text metaphorically to connect with the lives of listeners? If so, why?

Tom: I normally try to use a metaphor from the text. I do this for two reasons. 1) It helps me gauge the clarity of my sermon at the end of my sermon prep. If I can walk the metaphor back through the message and see it clearly I know that I am not muddying the waters for my people. 2) It helps my people recognize how they can experience God in their lives on a daily basis. I don’t know how many people share with me how they experienced the “metaphor” in their lives even weeks after the message. As they experience something in life that we have talked about on Sunday, they are able to recollect how Scripture speaks directly to their lives and to that specific situation.