- Hi, I'm Katia Adams. I spend a lot of my time preaching and over the years I've noticed some good habits and some not so good habits that preachers often get into. So here are the five most common mistakes I see preachers make. The first is thinking that revelation is enough. Have you ever heard a sermon where the preacher seems really excited about what they're talking about and keeps telling you how profound it is? But you're listening, thinking this is neither profound nor that clear. Well, that's probably because the preacher got this awesome revelation from reading the scriptures, and then didn't do enough work to craft his sermon or her sermon. And so that's what I mean when I say thinking revelation is enough. The reality is for all preachers out there, revelation isn't enough for a good sermon. What you need is to craft that revelation to make a good sermon. So next time you're preparing a sermon, make sure you do just as much work in crafting as you do in reading to get your revelation. Second thing is not pausing enough. So often preachers are in such a rush to get through their incredible message that they don't take time to stop to pause and allow the congregation to digest the phenomenal truths that they're throwing out there. So, preachers make sure that you're stopping, you're pausing at all the high points of your sermon so that the congregation can really think through the profound truth that you're speaking. Next one is irrelevant stories. This is one of my pet hates, irrelevant stories, when the preacher takes about 10 minutes of a sermon to tell you this incredible tale that is just fantastic and then ends it with, that doesn't really have anything to do with my message today and moves on. It's a big no, no. If your story is irrelevant, please keep it out of your sermon. And on that topic, if you're not a good storyteller, please keep stories out of your sermon altogether. Next one, inside jokes. Sermons should be messages that everyone in the congregation can enjoy and everyone can feel included by. So when a preacher stands up and starts using inside jokes that only a handful of people in the congregation will understand it, that excludes the majority of people in the room. Don't do it preachers. Don't use inside jokes that will make people feel like they're on the outside. Make sure how you communicate, and all that you include in your sermon allows everyone to feel like they are being spoken to the entire time. And last one, landing poorly. This can be done in one of two ways. The first is the sudden shock landing. Much like an aircraft, you wanna land your message in a way that is smooth, in a way that's comfortable, and in a way that people see it coming. What you don't want to do is drop that airplane out of the sky. And I see this where preachers often when they're not used to preaching, start getting nervous towards the end. And rather than take their time, and gradually land that sermon, they suddenly drop it out of the sky, landing it very abruptly, and it's very shocking for your congregation. So that's not the way forward. In landing, make sure you take your time and tell people it's coming. But don't take too much time. The other way to land poorly is to go round, and round, and round in circles. Ever listen to a sermon where the preacher says, "last point," and then goes on to mention three more points? Well, that's not a good way to land a sermon. When you say last point make sure that it's your last point. Don't make people feel like they're in this aircraft that is just circling an airport but is never getting to its destination. So when you're finishing up your sermon, smooth landing, take your time, tell people it's coming and make sure you're accurate on your timing. Thanks for watching. If you found this helpful, consider joining my E-course, Her Voice. It's a seven week course for women looking to grow their preaching gift.
