For years I've struggled with "what makes a good sermon?"

I'll tell you what: There are plenty of opinions out there about what makes a good sermon. I know some of us pastors feel "good" if when people are walking out of the sanctuary, they feel warmed up and generous with thank-yous. And perhaps that could be a good sermon. Perhaps that's an indication of whether you were on target with this particular audience.

But I worry, probably like you do as well. If sermons are "good" by the "at the door" kudos you feel, then what keeps it from just being a 'crowd pleaser' rather than a movement of God's?

This weekend, snow permitting (LOL), I'll be asking the congregation to reinvigorate their marriages. In order to get the point across, I wrote a drama for our contemporary service, "Where's Jesus?" You can  download it here, and use with permission under creative commons license for non-commercial use (i.e. you're not gaining profit with it's use).

We'll use this earlier in the service, just before the Offering time, ending with a band song, "I Will Be Here" by Stephen Curtis Chapman and leading into an invitation to ask Jesus to become a powerful part of your marriage or other relationships right now - again.

License Information:

Where's Jesus? by Sandy Boone is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.
Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at sandyboone.com.

There are days we feel as if God is very hard to find - and possibly dodging out just when we get him in sight! We put a lot of energy into the chase. And chasing God is a great concept. The only problem is - God is right here!

So, is it actually a chase? Are we working and leveraging the

 Tell this story when you need to 'wake up' to the real, original destination together!

Did you hear the story about the two pilots who missed their landing - by 150 miles? Talk about embarrassment! According to The New York Times today, the pilots claim they were having a heavy, heated conversation about company policies - and didn't hear the entities trying to reach them by radio or text - and missed the bright lights on their console to alert them to nearing arrival. They kept on flying - right past their destination - until a flight attendant called back to find out what was going on!

(Picture created by friend, John Rhea, for a recent worship series at Pender UMC, and you can see John's other great work here.)

We strive hard to "smoke what we sell"! Here's the deal! If I'm not excited about what's coming up in worship, why should anyone else be excited to arrive and ready their hearts on a Sunday morning?

I've gone through phases of worship preparation. It used to be that I would sweat bullets wondering if I had stuff "cool" enough "to sell" on a Sunday morning to a younger crowd.

Then, God did a neat thing and taught me a great lesson. He let me exhaust myself so that I was a crying that I couldn't keep up this pace. He doesn't need selling. Our real job is to connect people with God in worship. If we do that, they know it - and they'll want more. 

But . . . it's my job to anticipate for others what we might experience together on the next "this is the best Sunday ever" day. Why not allow them in on a 'few secrets' of what God is preparing  for us? Why not share why I'm full of anticipation?

That's not hype. That's witness.

Here's what Perry Noble said in his blog, "How do you prepare a message?":
"Please don’t misunderstand…I am not preaching against doing mailouts or billboards or newspaper adds.  We’ve actually tried all of that stuff; however, nothing is more impactful than a church full of fired-up people who are so excited out of their minds about what the church is getting ready to address that they will actually dive out of their comfort zones and take a risk and bring someone else to church with them."

If you've listened to pastors like Perry, they "promote" what's coming next to their Sunday crowd as if it were the greatest deal on planet Earth. And they're right folks. It is the best day of the week on planet Earth when we get to talk about God together, right?

I am not one to do a lot of plugging of next week's sermon from the pulpit. I think I should do a better job at that. It takes more preparation on my part - how to work it into the flow, how to know enough about the next week to give a great lead-in, and how to give a foretaste of the heaven we'll taste NEXT week.

1. The Preparation Ahead of Time: Think coordination with others, and rearranging the work week to make time. For me, a rough draft has to be done by Wednesday, or approximately 12 days prior to delivery so that I can coordinate with our band. That rough draft should include these points: What's the issue being addressed in real lives? What's the essence of what God would like to say to us around that issue? Why should anyone listen to this message?
2. The Timing & Flow in Worship: Where does it fit? Most preachers tag it onto the end of the service which makes sense. Some gifted preachers flow from the sermon to remind people of what's coming up. Some work very well with putting it as an announcement time via slides or a video clip. I think it depends on what's coming up next! That means I should have the rough draft done at least 13 days prior to the message so that I can figure out where it's going to fit in the flow of things! So, now my rough draft needs to be done by Tuesday.
3. My Heart and Soul's Preparation: I need to be fixed upon Jesus and not on salesmanship. I need to review my rough draft for falseness - in other words, is it Jesus? Okay, so maybe I need that rough draft done 14 days (2 weeks) before and add some quality prayer after the rough draft into my schedule.

One last important note I picked up from Perry . . .

One more thing…whatever you do…do not overpromise and under-deliver.  When you say it…mean it!! -- Perry Noble

This ad is ridiculous - and Fun (with a capital F and !)! What would it be like to ad some Fun Factor in church. Perhaps musical sounding notes when you put your offering in the offering plate? LOL

Oh, come on - Church COULD be fun!

  Want to give your group a clear and thrilling picture of breaking away from the "norm" around them?

This week we were talking about loving God and loving others, and how that really challenges our assumptions about life. How does it challenge our assumptions? One case in point: "My kids need to be in several activities that make them well-rounded individuals who will succeed in society." That's the assumption in my neighborhood. 

But Jesus' simple equation is: Love God, Love Others. He never said, "Get your kids involved in lots of enriching activities." We've made an assumption from culture that we need to take to God and ask Him about: "God, is this loving you to have my child involved with XYZ?" "Jesus, will XYZ encourage my child to love You and other people?"

We want to be different than the pack we swim with. We want to be God-loving first.

Here's my word-picture for inspiring others to break away from living the way others do around you. Break away from normal life like Dolphin 56!

Dolphins aren't supposed to be able to do what he's been doing. He's an unusual dolphin who was freeze-branded with a 56 to be watched and studied by researchers wanting to understand dolphins more. That experiment ended in 1980, but Dolphin 56 is still experimenting with humans!

He was never held in captivity. He was never fed from human hands or taught tricks. He had a school of dolphins he traveled with when he was branded back in 1979. So, his behavior is very surprising. He chose a different path from his ocean mates.

He left the part of the ocean where all of his compatriots stayed. He seems to crave human interaction, and approaches boats just like Flipper! In recent years, he seems to hover off of the New Jersey shoreline. He is just not your "normal" dolphin.

Read this article chronicling the life of Dolphin 56 - and for good story pieces on describing a life different from the rest. 

We're excited! We get to see old friends and find out what's going on in life for people we knew way back in college. One of our friends, Mike, we haven't seen or heard from - since forever! Can't wait to catch up.

Reunions! There's a sermon there somewhere about the way we'll experience heaven.

What if we created worship like a reunion of college buddies?

Picture David and Goliath and then Melanie Oudin. This 17 year old from Georgia charmed the Tennis world with her lion heart and her sneakers. "Believe" is what her sneakers shouted, and believe is the way she played! No one thought she could really do it.

She made it into the 4th Round of the US Open - unexpected to say the least. She was not sure exactly how to speak in front of a large stadium crowd, a fresh teenager learning the ropes of the "big time." Regardless of her preparedness for "the big time," she was determined to win and press her opponents until they couldn't take it any more!

Her boyfriend suggested the word which is on Melanie's sneakers, designed for the competition of all competitions: Believe. How far can one go with that little but mighty word? Well, at least to the 4th round of the Open.

Keep on believing Melanie!

Let's break the box of our own thinking! Consider these two alternatives:

•  What if we believed we could add 1 new believer to our congregation per year, how would we make that happen? 

• What if we believed we could add 1000 new believers to our congregation, how would we make that happen?

• Now compare.

1.  A synchronized effort between pastors and key movers and shakers in the congregation about the vision of bringing a 1000 people in this year. The main area of synchronization: What the words/language/big ideas are that will be talked about in every meeting and how our meetings could be leveraged to pray for and launch enthusiasm for those who don't know Jesus.
2. A re-look at the worship schedule. Rather than building a preaching schedule around "attractional" activities or topics - why not think about energizing our congregation to a challenge of 1000 people this year? Crazy, huh? No, it's not. What if we launched new preaching opportunities in homes (deputizing lay persons) and bars and community centers?
3. Address directly with the congregation their fears of adding 1000 new people to who we have. Will we have to open our hearts wider? Will we have to find funding in new entrepreneurial ways? Will we have to give up ownership of things we hold dear? Address the limitations we put upon God fully and directly.
4. Where would WE hold office? What would be the most important thing to do each day?
5. Will they fire the pastor this year? Ask them if they'll fire us if we brought in 1000 new people as congregation? Why hide our fear?