Scrolling through my social media feed, it’s full of ads for sermon hints and tips. There are programs, software, webinars, and courses. I suspect most of these are quality products designed to make a difficult, repetitive, and important job a little bit easier. As a matter of fact, I know they are designed to make sermon prep and delivery easier because that’s exactly what the ads promise to do.

As a preaching coach, most of my clients want to perform their calling faithfully, but preaching sermons isn’t the only calling. As you know, there’s leading, pastoral care, administration, and a thousand other aspects to our vocation.

Sadly, because Sunday is always coming, we live in the tension of it being incredibly central to our time as the gathered church, as well as being so regular that a poor sermon here or there will likely not do too much harm.

Part of my work is helping preachers communicate better to their churches. There are several simple ways to make our preaching more effective that don’t require the purchase of any products or services.

Set a Writing Deadline

Each week you preach, give yourself a deadline, a time you are dedicated to having your message written. For me, it’s Thursday at noon. For friends of mine, it’s two to four weeks ahead of delivery.

Whatever it is, a deadline locks you in and forces you to prioritize your time and energy. Though some disagree, preaching is still the best way to affect the most people and the overall direction of our churches. Treat your prep with the importance it deserves.

Plus, a deadline gives your family and relationships the time they need and deserve. If you’re writing a sermon on Saturday, you’re likely causing more harm than you know.

Rehearse Your Sermons

Many preachers don’t rehearse. They tell me, “I read through it,” or “I run through it in my head,” and, frankly, it shows. Lacking rehearsal, they fumble for words or simply read their outline or manuscript. They have no internal sense of the movement of the sermon.

Worse still, they are more concerned with the text of their message than with the context of where and when they deliver it. They are preoccupied with the words on paper and not the people in the room. They aren’t present.

Counterintuitive as it sounds, rehearsing isn’t about giving a performance, it’s about getting away from being performative. Knowing what you’re saying, how you’re saying it, and how to engage and use your body and voice to say it, allows preachers to be in the moment with the church.

Offload the Unnecessary

I spent a good deal of my ministry life working in small churches. That meant teaching Bible classes and prepping communion. It also meant being the resident expert on how to build slide decks, as well as serving as the IT department. Many of you will get that.

As necessary as that often is, the sooner preachers offload these kinds of distracting Sunday morning tasks to full- or part-time staff and/or volunteers, the better your preaching will become.

I cringe when I see a preacher roaming the sanctuary with a remote control in their hands, advancing the slides themselves. While some of us choose to do that, for me, it’s giving “work seminar,” “sales pitch,” or “time-share presentation” vibes.

The sooner you can offer the chance to co-labor on Sunday morning to others in your community, the better you can focus on your primary task in the gathering.

Collaborate

Many of my sermons are written in collaboration. Like most pastors, many of my friends are pastors and we kick around ideas, share sermons, and help one another refine ideas and wording.

In addition to that, we share resources. No one can read every book written about a topic or text. Collaboration allows other thoughtful, gifted women and men to step into the pulpit with us, without succumbing to plagiarism and other shortcuts.

Plus, churches–and their pastors–tend to have strengths, as well as theological blind spots. Collaboration assists us in exploring avenues we might not otherwise.

Asking peers is a helpful way to make your sermons deeper, richer, and broader.

Review

A sermon is not finished until it has been reviewed. A review helps communicators learn their ticks, their crutch words and phrases, which movements don’t make sense, and, perhaps, what he or she may be doing that is distracting to the listener. Like athletes watching game film, we are looking for both what went well and what went wrong.

Thankfully, the Holy Spirit is always at work in the proclamation of the gospel. We can rest in the assurance of God’s presence. Yet, that assurance does not release preachers of the burden of delivering our very best efforts. In truth, the assurance of God’s presence should make us more conscientious regarding our commission. These five free steps can help all of us serve God’s church and kingdom more effectively as we preach.

Sean Palmer is the Teaching Pastor at Ecclesia Houston, speaker and speaking coach, and author of several books including--Speaking by the Numbers: Ennegram Wisdom for Teachers, Pastors, and Communicators.