by Ron Perry

I will never forget the service. It was only a few months after I got saved, and I was sitting in a service listening to a sermon about the life of Daniel. Prior to that service, I had never gone down an aisle for an invitation, but that night I did. The Holy Spirit was at work in my heart, and He used a well-spoken message to communicate to my heart my need to change. To this day, I can tell you things the preacher said in that message and the exact plea he made. He prepared and presented his sermon with change in mind, and God used it to change the direction of my life.

Perhaps you are wondering why an article about preaching would be presented to managers in ministry. The managers in ministry that I know have wide and varied job descriptions. One moment we may be administering the affairs of our team and the next preparing to share the Word of God in a chapel, service, or staff meeting. Some of us took classes in college on preaching and teaching, and many of us have books on our shelves that were written to help us communicate the Word of God better. Nearly every manager I know wants to communicate God’s Word more effectively. Consider this article a refresher and a thought provoker that will give us a few simple suggestions on preaching with change in mind.

The phrase “preaching with change in mind,” indicates a goal we should have any time we preach the Word of God. James 1:22 presents this goal with the principle that men should not just be hearers of the Word but also doers of the Word. To truly implement this principle, we preachers must care more about the audience than we do about what the audience will think of us when we are finished preaching. How sad that we will often spend more time perfecting our performance than we will seriously considering the pressing needs of the audience to whom we speak. Sometimes it is easy to just pull an “old faithful message” out of the file, but is that better for us or for the audience to whom we are speaking?

Once we have decided to speak to the pressing need of our audience, we should ask a few simple questions to help us formulate our presentation.

1. What is the one thing I want my audience to know?

2. What is the one thing I want my audience to do about what they hear?

These questions are best asked in the midst of our praying through texts and the needs of the people around us and in the midst of examining our own heart and its current condition. Ultimately, we ought to desire that the answers to these two questions come from God. Now, the thought we want to present and the corresponding change of behavior we are hoping for are written at the top of our sermon notes. What is next? We formulate the outline of our message with the following thoughts in mind:

1. How can I help the audience hunger for this truth, or how can I help them develop the need to know?

2. How can I best communicate that this is God’s idea, not my own?

3. How can I best apply these truths to the audience in a way that they can practically implement them?

4. How can I help the audience remember these truths?

By its very nature, preaching is decisional. It forces the hearer to make a decision about what he has heard and obey it. The role of the preacher or teacher of God’s Word is to communicate effectively and watch the Lord use His Word in the lives of His people.

Managers in ministry are busy. Our schedules are full and opportunities to present the Word can sometimes feel like distractions. However, the presented Word of God is not an extra burden. But presenting the Word of God is never a burden, for it is the one thing that will ultimately change the lives of those whom we manage.