Preaching

Why “Preach Like the Room Is Full!” Is Terrible Advice

“Even if only three people show up to church, preach like the room is full!”

That’s some of the worst advice I’ve ever received in ministry. And I’m not the only one who’s received it. Many of you have heard it to. Some of you may have repeated it.

If so, stop.

It’s not a good idea. In fact, it’s a very bad idea.

Let me explain.

If what people mean by “preach like the room is full” is that a smaller crowd should get the same quality of ministry that you’d give to a larger crowd, then I am in full agreement. Everyone should always get our best.

But if that’s what we mean, that’s what we need to say. “Give a small crowd the same quality experience as you would give a large crowd.”

The problem with saying “preach like the room is full” is that there are too many pastors taking that saying literally – and it’s hurting their church, not helping it.

Preaching to 10 people as if there are 300 in the room is not the best way to give those 10 people a quality church experience. It’s just awkward.

Here’s an example.

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My 6 Best Tools for Overcoming Preacher’s Block

I’ve been preaching for thirty years.

Thirty years of creating new content every week for 45-50 weeks of the year. For the first fifteen years I was preaching or teaching three times a week – on Sunday morning, Sunday night and a mid-week bible study.

It all adds up to over 3,000 preaching/teaching events in thirty years. An average of two per week.

At some point I have to run out of things to say, don’t I? Actually, at hundreds of points I have run out of things to say.

If you’re the preaching/teaching pastor of a local church, you know the feeling. The Saturday night dread. The “what am I going to say this week that they haven’t all heard 100 times before?” panic.

It still happens to me. I guess I’m a slow learner.

The good news is, it doesn’t happen to me nearly as much as it used to, because over the last three decades I’ve learned a few tricks – what computer geeks would call hacks, but we’ll just call tools – that reduce the pressure and make Preacher’s Block a little less frequent.

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Preaching to Newbies and Mature Christians at the Same Time

Every week, pastors all over the world are asked to do something that is almost impossible. Preach a message to a group of people that includes Teenagers to seniors Men and women Mature disciples and not-yet-believers The faithful and the skeptical Regular attenders and first-time guests Singles, married, divorced, and “it’s complicated” Those who need comfort

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Why I Don’t Go to the Bible to Find a Text to Preach On

When we treat the bible like a collection of sermon texts, we lose the wonder and the beauty of it. When we read it to find material to preach from, we stop hearing God speak to us. And when that happens, we start dying spiritually. It’s all output and no inflow.

That’s a dangerous position for a pastor to be in. And it has killed many great ministries. Don’t let it kill yours.

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Pastors, We Don’t Expect a TED Talk, But We Need a God-and-You Talk

Pastors face a lot of pressure to perform. Some of it, admittedly, is self-imposed.

One of the main places this pressure is felt is in the demand to research, write and deliver a great sermon every week. In fact, several times in the last few months, I’ve read blog posts that have suggested that every Sunday sermon should be like a TED Talk.

In today’s post, I’d like to do two things that may seem impossible to accomplish simultaneously. Relieve some of the performance pressure and challenge us all towards something better.

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Congregations Are Fact-Checking Our Preaching – Here Are 4 Ways to Take Advantage of It

Have you noticed that fewer people are bringing their bibles to church, but are using a smartphone bible app instead? That’s not the only thing they’re reading in church. As it turns out, up to 38% of churchgoing Millennials will do an online search to verify what their pastor has said. And many of them

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Why I Don’t Trust Sermon Notes that Rhyme – And What I Do Instead

If I was only allowed to give one piece of advice to pastors about how to make their Sunday messages more appealing to a younger audience, it would be this. Stop making your sermon notes rhyme. For generations, rhymes and alliterations were expected from public speakers. It made them seem credible, authoritative and prepared. And

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