Questions to Ask of Your Sermon
Questions to ask of your sermon while it is still a draft, for a pastor, a lay preacher or a seminary student who has a few days left before preaching it. They follow the order the work takes: the passage first, then the one main point, the people who will hear it, what it asks of them and where it runs long. The last group is for the week after, once you know how it went.
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The questions
Each question, and why to ask it
Text
Is the main point of my sermon the main point of the passage?
Why ask it
Write each as a single sentence and set the two side by side. If the sermon's sentence could have been preached from a dozen other readings, the passage is working as a springboard and the draft needs another morning in the text.
Could a listener find this sermon in the passage if they reread it on Monday?
Why ask it
Picture someone opening the reading at home with your headings in mind. Where they could not trace a heading to particular verses, show the working in the sermon or admit to yourself that the heading came from somewhere else.
What was this passage meant to do for the people who first heard it, and does my sermon do the same?
Why ask it
Name the job with a verb: comfort, warn, correct, call to praise. A passage written to steady frightened people and preached as a rebuke says true things with the wrong force. If the sermon's verb and the passage's differ, change the sermon's.
Where is the good news in this sermon, and does it come out of this text?
Why ask it
Find the paragraph that tells people what God has done and not only what they ought to do. A stock paragraph fastened on at the end sounds fastened on, so look for the particular form the good news takes in these verses.
Does my reading still hold when the paragraphs on either side are read?
Why ask it
The line most often quoted alone is the one to check. Words spoken by one of Job's friends, or a promise made to a particular people at a particular moment, read differently with the surrounding page in view. One sentence of setting in the sermon is usually enough to keep you honest.
Which verses did I leave out, and why those?
Why ask it
Every sermon passes over something, and time is a fair reason. Be suspicious when the verse you skipped is the awkward one: the line that complicates your point, or the one you could not explain to your own satisfaction.
Have I preached a story as a story and a poem as a poem, or turned everything into three points?
Why ask it
A lament, a parable and a stretch of tightly argued letter each act on a hearer differently. If the passage tells a story and the sermon contains none of it, the outline has kept the ideas and lost the text.
Where did my study surprise me, and did the surprise reach the draft?
Why ask it
The spot where the passage overturned what you expected is often the freshest thing you have to offer. A draft you could have written before opening the text probably was written that way, so go and find what you did not already know.
Is there a claim in here I could not back up if someone asked me at the door?
Why ask it
Underline every "the original word means" and every piece of historical background, then check each against a source you trust. Cut what you cannot confirm. Nobody misses an uncertain detail, and a wrong one is what a sharp listener remembers.
Is this sermon about the passage, or about the subject I always come back to?
Why ask it
List the applications from your last eight or ten sermons. A theme that appears whatever the reading was belongs to you and not to the text. Then ask what this passage says that your favorite subject never would.
Main point
Can I say the whole sermon in one sentence without the word "and"?
Why ask it
An "and" in that sentence usually joins two sermons. Choose the half the passage leans on hardest and put the other in a folder for a later date. If no sentence comes at all, the draft is still a set of notes.
Is my main point a full sentence with a verb, or only a topic?
Why ask it
"Forgiveness" is a topic, and a topic lets you say anything that crosses your mind. "Forgiven people forgive" is a point: it can be argued, illustrated and disagreed with, and it tells you what to leave out.
If someone remembers only one thing from this sermon, what do I want it to be?
Why ask it
Now check whether that is where the draft spends its minutes. It is common to find the sentence you care about most gets ninety seconds near the end while the background gets ten minutes at the start.
Does every section push the main point forward, or is one of them a second sermon?
Why ask it
Go down the outline and write beside each section what it adds to the one sentence. The section that is true, interesting and unconnected is the hardest to lose, and losing it is what makes the others audible.
Does the opening make people want to hear what the passage says?
Why ask it
An introduction earns its place by raising the question the text goes on to answer. Try moving from its last line straight into the reading. If the join is awkward, the opening is entertaining the room and pointing it somewhere else.
Could a listener tell where I am in the sermon without seeing my notes?
Why ask it
A reader has headings and white space, and a listener has only your voice. Say the turns out loud, plainly: where you have been, where you are going next. It feels clumsy on paper and is a kindness in the pew.
Is each illustration lighting up the point, or walking off with it?
Why ask it
Ask what people will retell over lunch. If it is the story about the dog and they cannot say what the dog was for, shorten the story, move it next to the sentence it serves, or let it go.
Does the ending land the point I have been making, or start a new one?
Why ask it
A conclusion that brings in a fresh idea sends people home with the wrong sentence. Write the last two lines out word for word even if you preach from an outline, so that you know when you have finished.
Hearers
Who, by name, will be listening to this?
Why ask it
Pick five real people: the widower who sits near the back, a teenager brought by a parent, the couple who came for the first time last month. Read a page of the draft with each one in mind and notice whom it never addresses.
Have I prayed for the people who will hear this, and not only for the sermon to go well?
Why ask it
Take the five or six people you most expect to see and pray for each of them by name. It tends to show up what the draft has not yet said to them, and it is common to go back to the desk and change a sentence.
What would a first-time visitor make of this?
Why ask it
Comb the draft for insider language and assumed knowledge: "as we saw last week", a name from the congregation's past, a term like sanctification left unexplained. Half a sentence of explanation costs little, and those who already know do not mind it.
What is the strongest objection a thoughtful listener would raise, and have I met it fairly?
Why ask it
State it as well as they would, in words they would recognize as their own. A weak version knocked down from the pulpit persuades only those who agreed already. If you have no answer, saying so is better than a thin one.
Who will find this painful to hear, and have I said anything to them?
Why ask it
A sermon on marriage is heard by the divorced and the single, one on children by couples who wanted them, one on healing by the person who is not getting better. The message may stand as it is. A single sentence that shows you know they are present changes how it is received.
Is there anything in this for the children and teenagers who will hear it?
Why ask it
This applies only if they stay in for the sermon where you preach, which differs from one church to the next. One example set in a classroom or on a team is often all it takes for them to know the sermon is theirs too.
Where am I saying "they" when the passage is talking to "us"?
Why ask it
A sermon that puts the problem outside the building, in the culture or in other churches, wins easy nods and leaves the room untouched. Find the place where the text speaks to the ones in front of you, and count yourself among them.
Has this passage said anything to me this week before I say it to anyone else?
Why ask it
If the honest answer is no, the sermon tends to come out as information passed along. You need not tell the congregation what it was, and if you do bring yourself in as an example, check that you are not the hero of the story: the preacher who got it right is harder to listen to than the one still learning it.
Does everyone who appears in my stories know they are in them?
Why ask it
Family members, old parishioners, a conversation in a hospital corridor: people recognize themselves even with the names removed. Ask first. A congregation that hears one confidence from the pulpit learns to stop bringing you theirs.
Response
What am I asking people to believe, do or stop doing because of this passage?
Why ask it
Put it in a sentence. If you cannot, nobody in the pews will manage it for you. Not every passage ends in a task: some ask for trust, some for thanks, and some for honest grief, and saying which is part of the answer.
Is the application specific enough that someone could act on it by Tuesday?
Why ask it
"Love your neighbor more" lets the whole room nod and go home unchanged. Offer two or three concrete pictures drawn from different lives, a workplace, a nursing home, a shared apartment, so that no single group is the only one being spoken to.
How many separate things am I asking people to do, and which one would I keep?
Why ask it
Count the applications in the draft. Five of them packed into the last four minutes are heard as a list and forgotten as one, so give the time to the one the passage presses hardest and cut the others to a sentence each or save them.
Does the application grow out of the text, or did I attach it afterward?
Why ask it
Check that what you are asking for is what the passage asks for. Reading more, giving more and volunteering more are the usual attachments, and they can be fastened to almost any reading, which is how you spot them.
Am I laying a weight on people without saying where the strength to carry it comes from?
Why ask it
A sermon made only of commands sends the conscientious home crushed and the confident home pleased with themselves. Look at the order in the passage, at what is given before anything is asked, and keep that order in the sermon.
What does this ask of the congregation together, and not only of each person alone?
Why ask it
By habit most application is private and individual. Much of scripture was written to communities, so ask what your church might do as a body: a practice to begin, a decision to revisit, somebody to welcome.
Does whoever plans the service know where this sermon is heading?
Why ask it
If it ends in confession, thanksgiving or silence, the prayer or song that follows can carry that or cut across it. How a service is put together varies a great deal, so find out who needs your one sentence and by which day.
Length
How long does it run when I preach it aloud, standing up?
Why ask it
Time it with a clock and not by word count. A sermon read silently is quicker than the one delivered with pauses, asides and a room to respond to. If you are a guest or a student, ask what length is expected there before you start cutting.
If I had to lose five minutes, which five would go?
Why ask it
Decide at the desk, where you can think, and not in the pulpit with the clock in view. The answer shows what is support and what is structure, and quite often the sermon is better without those minutes even when nobody is counting.
At which point does the sermon sag?
Why ask it
Read it to one other person, or record it and listen, and mark the minute where your own attention drifts. The usual places are a long stretch of background near the start and a third example of something two examples had already shown.
Which paragraph am I keeping because of the hours it cost me?
Why ask it
It is usually a word study, a neat turn of phrase, or a discovery from Tuesday that the sermon turned out not to need. Move it to a file of leftovers. Knowing it is saved makes it far easier to cut.
Am I explaining at length what the congregation already knows, and hurrying past the hard part?
Why ask it
Preachers tend to linger where they are comfortable. Find the verse you found difficult in your own study and see how many sentences it gets, then compare that with the space given to the familiar story everyone could tell back to you.
Which sentences are too long to say in one breath?
Why ask it
A sentence that reads well can be unsayable. Read the draft aloud, split every sentence where you stumble or run out of air, say the noun again where a reader would accept "the former", and repeat the key line, because a listener cannot look back up the page.
How many quotations are in this, and does each one earn its seconds?
Why ask it
A listener cannot see quotation marks, and a long passage read from a book is where eyes drop. Keep the one that says it better than you can, trim it, name its author simply, and put the others in your own words.
Afterward
What did people say back to me that showed what they heard?
Why ask it
Set aside "lovely sermon" and listen for the sentence someone repeats or the story of their own they bring you. If it matches your main point, the point landed. If it is the joke, you have learned what was loudest.
Where did the room come with me, and where did I lose it?
Why ask it
Note it down on the same afternoon, while you can still recall the stillness in one place and the shuffling in another. Then hold it against the spot where you predicted the sermon would sag and see whether you were right.
What did I say that was not in my notes, and did it help?
Why ask it
Unplanned remarks turn out to be either the liveliest moment or the longest one. Memory flatters them, so let a recording decide if there is one. Anything that worked is worth writing into the manuscript before you file it.
What habit do I hear when I listen to the recording?
Why ask it
A filler phrase, a voice that drops at the end of each sentence, a pet word, a pace that never changes. Choose one to work on next time and leave the rest. If the service is not recorded, a phone on the lectern is enough, and midweek is a better time to listen than the evening of the day you preached.
Who will tell me the truth about this sermon, and what exactly will I ask them?
Why ask it
"How was it?" invites politeness. Before the service, ask one person with no reason to flatter you to tell you afterward the main point in their own words and the moment their mind wandered. Those two answers are worth more than a page of general comments.
What did this sermon leave unsaid that a later one should pick up?
Why ask it
Write down the question someone raised at the door and the verse you ran out of time for. In a series it shapes next week. Outside one, it is the start of a list of sermons your congregation has in effect asked for.
What would I change if I preached this passage again?
Why ask it
Three lines on the front of the manuscript, written within a few days, then into the file. If your church follows a lectionary the reading will return, and you will be glad of advice from the one person who knows how it went.
Which parts of how it went were mine to control, and which were not?
Why ask it
For the flat Sunday when nothing seemed to land. Whether the sermon was true to the passage, clear and prepared with care was in your hands. The size of the congregation and what happens in a listener afterward were not, and a sermon that felt dead to you is sometimes the one a person mentions a year later.
Putting a draft through its paces
Practical guidance for the conversation itself
Which questions on which day
Text questions while the outline can still move
Ask the first group once your study is done and before the sermon has a shape you are fond of. A draft that is finished and polished resists the discovery that it has wandered from the passage, and by Saturday the honest answer comes too late to act on.
One sentence, then the people
Midway through preparation, write the single sentence and pin it above the desk. Then go through the Hearers group with actual names in front of you. A church directory, a seating plan drawn from memory or last week's attendance list all work. For a visiting preacher, a phone call to someone in the congregation does the same job.
Aloud, with a clock, a day ahead
The Length questions cannot be answered silently. Stand up, preach the whole sermon to an empty room or a patient friend, and time it. Mark the manuscript where you stumbled, where you got bored and where you improvised something better than what was written.
Leave the last group until Monday or later
The hours straight after preaching are a poor time to judge a sermon: you are tired, and either relieved or deflated. Jot two lines about how the room felt, then return to the Afterward questions a day or two on, with a recording if you have one.
Borrowing someone else's ears
One listener before, one after
Before the sermon, read your one sentence and your outline to a person who will tell you when they are lost. After it, ask a different person what they heard. A spouse, a fellow elder, a classmate or a retired minister in the congregation can each do this, and it helps to rotate so that no one voice becomes the only measure.
Give them two questions and no form
"What was it about?" and "Where did you drift?" are enough. A feedback sheet with ten ratings produces numbers and very little you can use. If the main point they report is not the one you wrote down, the sermon they heard is the real one.
If you are preaching for a class or an assessment
Your instructor or supervisor will have their own criteria, and those come first. Ask to see the grading rubric or evaluation form before you write, and find out how much weight falls on exegesis, structure and delivery. This page is for your own preparation alongside it.
If you preach only now and then
A lay preacher with four or five Sundays a year has fewer chances to learn from repetition, so keep every manuscript with its notes from afterward. Ask the minister or worship leader what the congregation has heard recently, so that you are not the third person this season to preach the same theme.
When there is only half an hour
Say the sentence
State the sermon in one sentence and check it against the passage. If this is all you do, you have done the most useful thing on the page.
Name the hearers
Think of three people who will be present, including one who is having a hard time, and read your application section as each of them.
Find the ask
Underline the line where you tell people what the passage calls for. If there is nothing to underline, write that line now.
Cut one thing
Remove the paragraph you already suspect, then read the opening and the closing lines aloud once, so that the first and last minute are secure.
How a checklist can get in the way
Polishing when the question was about substance
It is easier to improve a sentence than to admit the section it sits in should go. If you find yourself rewording a paragraph for the third time, go back to the Main point group and ask whether the paragraph belongs.
Running all of it every week
Nobody needs every question every time. Take two or three from each group, favoring the ones that made you wince, and come back to the full page a few times a year or when your preaching feels stale.
Treating craft as the whole of preparation
These questions test a draft. They do not stand in for the prayer and the study that produced it, which most preaching traditions would put ahead of any technique, and they cannot tell you whether you should be preaching this passage at all.
Grading yourself by the handshake line
Warm comments at the door track how likable the sermon was, which is a different thing from how true or how clear. Keep the Afterward questions pointed at what people heard and did, and take compliments and complaints as two sorts of evidence among several.