Long-Winded Preachers

“Paul was preaching, and since he was leaving the next day, he kept talking
until midnight…Paul continued talking until dawn, then he left.”
~Acts 20:7 (NLT)

Soul Snacks: I used to be a big fan of the twenty-minute sermon.  I still am, in fact—when someone else is preaching, that is.  But the longer I preach, the longer I preach, if you get my drift.  After many years of pastoral ministry, now twenty-minutes is just a good introduction.  I’m joking of course—my intros are no more than eighteen minutes:-P

Few aspects of the preacher’s preaching are more prominently discussed than the length of his sermons.  In seminary, we are taught how to “get ‘er  done” in fifteen minutes or so, twenty minutes at the most, and violating that rule of thumb is a good indication that our sermon preparation had been sloppy.  A friend of mine says if you want to preach a twenty-minute sermon, prepare twenty hours; a forty-minute message will take you ten hours of prep time, and an hour-long sermon means you’ve spent about twenty minutes preparing.

In my earlier pastoral ministry I worked years with a phenomenal preacher.  But he was an hour-long kind of guy.  He had great stuff, he just didn’t know how to bring the plane in for a landing, so to speak.  He’d get to the end of his message, and then just circle the airport looking for a spot to bring ‘er down.  If he would have cut that hour in half, his sermons would have gone from good to great.  His preaching kind of reminds me of the story I heard about a man who went to the dentist to have a tooth removed. He asked the dentist what the cost for removing his tooth would be, and the dentist told him it would be $90. The guy told the dentist that 90 bucks seemed like a lot of money for a few seconds work. The dentist said, “If it’d make you feel better, I can pull the tooth out real slow!”

Well, I am here to defend the long-winded sermon—since I now qualify as long-winded.  Hey, it’s a dirty job, but someone’s got to do it.  And I am in good company.  Paul, the greatest theologian in the New Testament, perhaps in human history, preached so long that one young man named Eutychus, fell asleep while sitting on a window seal and fell three stories to his death.  Amazingly, that didn’t put a damper on the service.  Paul, without skipping a beat, went downstairs, healed the man, then came back upstairs and talked from midnight until dawn.  You go Paul!

Here’s the deal: It’s not the length of the sermon that makes it good or bad, it’s the content of the message…it’s the passion of the preacher…it’s the heart of the shepherd out of which the sermon flows that makes it effective or not.  If you read this entire passage in Acts 20, you get some great insights into the heart of Paul, the long-winded preacher:

Paul was full of faith and confidence in the Lord—“don’t worry, he’s alive…and the young man was taken home unhurt.”  (Acts 20:11-12, NLT)

Paul earned people’s respect through his suffering for the Gospel—“I have endured the trials that came to me…” (Acts 20:19, NLT)

Paul was fearless in his preaching—“I never shrank back from telling you what you needed to hear.” (Acts 20:20, NLT)

Paul was Christ-centered and cross-focused—“I have had one message…repent from sin and turn to God…the work of telling others the Good news about the wonderful grace of God.” (Acts 20:21, 24, NLT)

Paul was purpose driven—“My life is worth nothing to me unless I use it for finishing the work the Lord Jesus assigned to me.” (Acts 20:24, NLT)

Paul was faithful to God—“I declare today that I have been faithful.” (Acts 20:26, NLT)

Paul passionately protected his flock from danger—“Guard God’s people and feed and shepherd God’s flock…watch out…” (Acts 20:28,31, NLT)

Paul was pure in his motives—“I have never coveted anyone’s silver or gold or fine clothes…I have worked with my own hands to supply my own needs.” (Acts 20:33-34, NLT)

Paul practiced what he preached—“I have been a constant example…” (Acts 20:35, NLT)

Paul was selfless—“I have been a constant example of how you can help those in need by working hard.” (Acts 20:35, NLT)

It’s no wonder than when he had finished speaking and was getting ready to leave, “they all cried as they embraced and kissed him good-bye.” (Acts 20:37, NLT)

How long is the perfect sermon, you wonder?  When the preacher exhibits the same qualities that we see in Paul, his sermon can be a long as it takes!

P.S The Puritan pastor Richard Baxter once remarked, “I preach as never sure to preach again, and as a dying man to dying men.”  The next time you are listening to your pastor preach, realize that for him, he carries into the pulpit a heavy awareness that eternity hangs in the balance.

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Read Romans 10

“How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed?
And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard?
And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall
they preach unless they are sent? As it is written: ‘How
beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel
of peace, who bring glad tidings of good things!’”
(Romans 10:14-15)

Food For Thought… Okay, this may sound a little self-serving since I am one, but I just want to echo what Paul is saying: Up with preachers! The Christian message requires them! The building of faith requires them! The evangelization of the world requires them!

You go, preacher!

Did you notice that the Gospel formula, if you will, goes something like this: Salvation requires belief; belief requires the communicated Word; the communicated Word requires a preacher; and the preacher requires a divine call. Therefore, in the Christian equation, preaching must be kept preeminent! It is the God-ordained tool for building faith:

“Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.” (Romans 10:17)

We live in a culture where far too many churches have downplayed the preaching of the Word. People don’t like to be preached at, so preaching is reduced to “sharing”, and messages are more like motivational pep talks and self-improvement sessions. In truth, what passes as a message in many of those gatherings is nothing more than a “longhorn” sermon—a point here, a point there, and a lot of bull in between.

Not only is the sermon reduced to a lesser role, but in the place of preaching, music and drama has taken the preeminence. Now don’t get me wrong—I love good music, and I believe that churches ought to have the best fine arts approach to worship and evangelism possible. Too many churches turn off spiritual seekers because the song selection is out-of-date, the style belongs in the dark ages, the skill of the musicians would be better served as an implement of torture in the hands of CIA agents at Gitmo, and the old adage that “no drama is better than bad drama” has definitely been ignored. There needs to be a commitment to excellence befitting the King of Kings in regards to the worship arts of a church. And I thank God that I belong to a fellowship with that kind of commitment.

But the preaching of the Word must never lose it’s primacy in the ministry of the local church. Churches must be committed to it, and must demand the same kind of skill that I’ve just suggested of the church’s fine arts. Why? Because preaching is the primary vehicle for the development of disciples and for the formation of faith necessary for spiritual seekers to find Christ. The Word of God must be taught clearly, thoroughly, accurately, interestingly, relevantly, passionately and consistently, or the church has failed in its mission.

Richard Baxter, the Puritan preacher once remarked, “I preach as never sure to preach again, and as a dying man to dying men.” Your preacher must be fully aware that when he or she preaches, eternity literally hangs in the balance. I would recommend that you copy that down on a 5 x 7 card and tape it to the pulpit in full view so that when your pastor steps behind “the sacred desk”, he or she is reminded of their role and senses your supportive expectation that they are carrying out the central activity of the gathered community of faith: the preaching of the Word of God!

Oh, one more thing. Your preacher may be the one assigned to declare God’s truth to your congregation from the pulpit, but you, too, have been called to preach the Good News. You are a preacher, and the world you find yourself in is your parish.

So preach away—both with your life and your words.

Prayer… Dear Lord, I want to thank you for every Bible-teaching preacher that I have ever heard in my life. Bless them for their faithfulness and reward them with the knowledge that their sacrifice of blood, sweat and tears in preparing and delivering their sermons is paying off in the lives of their listeners, including me. And Lord, I would pray that you would enable me to be a faithful preacher, whether behind a pulpit or in the parish of my world. Inspire me to preach to dying men and women as if I might never have the opportunity to preach again. Remind me that someone’s eternity hinges on my words. Therefore, may the meditation of my heart and the words of my mouth be pleasing unto you. Amen.

One more thing… “All originality and no plagiarism makes for dull preaching!” — Charles Spurgeon

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