How to preach sermons for every day life

Getting accurate stats on UK Church attendance is a bit like trying to catch a well-oiled wild goose riding atop a pink unicorn, last seen heading towards the end of a rainbow. But staying at the more conservative end of the statistical spectrum, let’s assume that around three per cent of the UK population are in church on any given Sunday. That’s about 2 million people. And let’s say the average sermon lasts 15 minutes (if only, I hear you sigh). This means that every week, the UK Church spends half a million hours listening to sermons! 

Preaching is more than a spiritual can of Red Bull to get people through the week

In some places, these sermons are actually planned. Again, let’s be stingy with our numbers and say each preacher spends three hours preparing their sermon. There are about 40,000 churches in the UK. If we assume one sermon per church per week, that means lay and ordained leaders are spending 120,000 hours preparing talks every week.

With this huge investment of time from both congregation and leadership, it’s probably worth asking ourselves: How can we craft our sermons in such a way that they equip ordinary people to live with, like and for Jesus? I’m not just talking about following Jesus in time spent in church or volunteering, or even in our devotional time. I’m referring to all of our time: taking our kids to clubs, providing financial advice, driving articulated lorries, playing canoe polo – or whatever else people do in the course of their week.

Why preaching matters

Preaching is exciting because it’s where two infinitely important worlds collide like hot, frothy, full-fat milk being poured onto a double espresso. First, we have God’s word, described in the Bible as “like fire…and like a hammer that breaks a rock in pieces” (Jeremiah 23:29). 2 Timothy 3:16 tells us that all of this is: “God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness.” 

In the act of preaching, God’s word is poured into the congregation’s everyday lives, filled as they are with glory and suffering, joy and mundanity, opportunity and challenge. Great preaching is more than the Bible stirring hearts during a church service; it is shaping lives that are lived out in schools and farmyards and football pitches and RAF bases. As Greg Forster writes in Joy for the World (Crossway), the preacher has “the high privilege of infusing God’s eternal word into the rushing flow of human history. And as that word flows out into civilisation through the transformed lives of congregants, civilisation is changed by its presence.”

The very nature of the Bible we preach from is living and missional, not dead and static. Theologian and author Michael Goheen says: “The Bible is both a record and a tool of God’s mission in and through his people. Both of these features are important for the preacher. But to recognise the Bible is a tool used by God to shape his people for their missional vocation is essential to the homiletic task.”

Don’t assume that making one or two specific applications will alienate listeners in other circumstances

In other words, preaching is more than the transfer of information from the pulpit to the pew. It’s more than a spiritual can of Red Bull to get people through the week until their next hit. Preaching is a vital way that God equips his saints for the works of ministry he has given them to do (see Ephesians 4:11-12) – not just inside the church building, but everywhere they go.

Ultimately, we must create space for people to encounter the living God in preaching, and preachers should be expecting that to happen. Preaching is more than good communication technique or a sociological phenomenon. It’s Moses standing barefoot before a blazing bush. It’s heaven connecting with earth. It’s God meeting with us face to face, and us being transformed in the exchange.

Five things to work on

So, how do we actually prepare sermons that equip Christians for daily living? Here are five ways we can sharpen our preaching axe.

1. Make connections

If we’re going to develop our ability as preachers to connect God’s word with God’s world, we need to listen closely to people’s lives. This is something that preachers Damilola Makinde and Laura Gallacher do really well (see box). They don’t just take an interest in the classically ‘pastoral’ aspects of people’s lives; they’re curious about the ordinary and unique dimensions too. “So, what’s it like for you when you’re actually at the gym?” “How do you manage to juggle work and family?” “What’s it like doing a second PhD?”

Having a good feel for the context of people’s everyday lives helps us when we dig into the context of the passage we’re preaching on. There are always connections to be made between these two worlds that will bring our sermons to life.

For instance, we might be preaching on a passage like Colossians 3:22-25 or 1 Peter 2:18-25, which address Christians slaves. Most of us won’t have any actual slaves in our congregations. But we will have people in situations they really don’t want to be in. Or they might work in roles that aren’t highly esteemed in our culture. But if Peter and Paul could say to slaves that their work could be a way of pointing others to God, how much more might that be true for the person who feels trapped in their job today?

By moving from the general to the specific, from the abstract to the concrete, we can also help people earth a passage in their daily discipleship. When we know about the lives people live, and the types of opportunities and challenges they face, we can better apply passages of scripture to their individual circumstances.

For example, let’s imagine you are preaching on forgiveness. Typically, sermons on this subject might touch on the realms of church and family. But last week you had a great chat with Tom, and he was telling you about the mistrust and lack of cooperation between the manufacturing team and the sales team at his firm. So now, as well as addressing forgiveness in the domains of church and family relationships, you also ask your listeners where forgiveness might be needed in their workplace, why it might be hard and how it might radically change things.

Recognising and celebrating growth reminds people of how God is actively at work in them

We can also invite direct input from church members into our sermon prep. It might go something like this: “Hey, Anja, you work in the NHS. I’m planning a mini-series on relational evangelism, and I was wondering what good faith-sharing could look like for people working in the public sector. What’s been your experience? What could I say that might be helpful for people in similar environments?”

And don’t assume that making one or two specific applications will alienate listeners in other circumstances. The more we speak directly into actual real-life situations, the more people realise the Bible isn’t just vibes or general principles; they see how it can be applied in the nitty-gritty of real life. You just need to make sure that, alongside your specific examples, you also open it up for people to consider what it might mean for their own context.

2. Share stories

Real-life stories of people living out their discipleship in ordinary places are phenomenally powerful. They instruct. They inspire. 

Have you ever noticed, though, that more often than not, the stories and examples preachers use come from the lives of famous pastors, Christian writers and missionaries, whether past or present? 

These are often great exemplars, and it’s good and right to hold them up as such. But most people live very different lives to John Wesley or Mother Teresa. So, it’s easy for them to think: Well, of course that 16th-century saint did that, they were a 16th-century saint! But I’m just a 21st-century account manager/uni student/carer/personal trainer/retired optometrist! I can’t do what they did… 

But share a story of someone being faithful to Jesus in an email exchange with a client, or in a pub with their friends, or in a conflict with a neighbour and, all of a sudden, this thing called following Jesus comes close. It becomes something ‘normal people’ can do, too. 

3. Affirm progress

In an age obsessed with self-improvement, and in our biblical desire to see people grow, it’s easy to keep pointing forward to what people need to do next. 

Encouraging the flock towards growth (and offering appropriate challenge) is vital. But as well as pointing to the road ahead, we should also encourage people to check their mirrors and acknowledge the progress they’ve already made. Paul often did this in his letters – congratulating Christians on how they had grown in love, endurance, faith, generosity and so forth.

Preaching is more than good communication technique. It’s God meeting with us face to face, and us being transformed in the exchange

Recognising and celebrating growth is important. Doing this reminds people of how God is actively at work in them, helps them to see what they’re already getting right and encourages them that further progress is possible.

In the churches where I speak regularly, one of my greatest joys is being able to affirm the good I’ve noticed in people. In a recent talk, I invited people to reflect on the tree in Psalm 1: “which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither”. As well as this being a metaphor beckoning people forward, it encapsulated what I’d observed in them: people who, despite all kinds of long-term challenges, were still desiring to grow, still connecting with God, still serving others, still being faithful. My message invited people forward and sought to stimulate further growth, but also recognised how much was already happening. 

4. Invite reflection

We’ve thought already about the importance of drawing connections between the Bible and people’s lives. As well as doing this with our words, there are simple things we can build into our talks and services to get people actively involved in this process.

One way is to ask a specific application question and then give people one or two minutes of silence to think about it, perhaps with the invitation to jot down some thoughts. For example, you might ask: “We’ve thought today about how we’re deeply loved and cared for by God. What moments this week might you particularly need to hold onto that truth?” Or: “Today we’ve thought about Jesus’ invitation to be humble and not self-promoting. What could this mean for you this week in your work, meetings, conversations or social media use?”

You could then invite people to share their reflections with the person next to them, or to chat with someone about it over a post-service coffee. As well as helping people to work through their response to the sermon, these conversations deepen relationships and increase one-another ministry within a church community. 

5. Be present

After the last song is sung, and the benediction has been spoken, sometimes the most awkward person in the building is the one who’s just preached. Staring at your shoes, thinking: I hope people liked it. Of course, it’s natural to feel a little exposed having spoken from the front.

But just as we want to serve people through our preaching, we want to continue to serve them after our preaching. A great way to do this is to ask people open questions about their life, what their experience has been of the topic that was preached, and any ways we can pray for them and their week ahead. Ultimately, our preaching is not for us, it’s for others. 

And finally…

Thank you for preaching. Your words are a valuable gift to the Church. I don’t know how long you’ve been doing it or how you’re feeling about it. Whoever you are, my prayer is that you will find life in your preparation, your delivery and in seeing people grow as followers of Jesus. And all God’s people said…