Sermons that "Work"

For the past few weeks I've struggled a bit in my preaching. Even when I thought I had a message, it was somehow floundering at delivery. I haven't talked much about that in this blog or elsewhere because I think it's self-indulgent and counterproductive to criticize your own preaching with your own congregation. (Talking about with peers is a different matter.) I just think it really confuses people to hear you preach and then hear you critique your own preaching.

Anyway, so I've been in a bit of a dry spell. But today was just awesome. I preached from the heart and I had something to say, by God! For some reason today I was able to connect with something very deeply felt in me and I preached from that place. It was great. I hope to post the audio file in a few days.

Now, what's interesting is that I really had no indication that I was going to have such a sermon before I stood up and preached it. I mean, I knew what I was going to preach about, but I wasn't feeling like it would be a particularly special sermon until I launched into it. This is often the case with preaching, I find, it's really birthed in the moment. The Holy Spirit has its ways...

That also means that I can make no predication about whether next Sunday's sermon will "work" or not. For that matter, I'm not entirely sure what "worked" would mean in this context. The craft of preaching is both a craft and an act of faith--the longer I do the more I appreciate the desperate prayer of the preacher: "What shall I cry, O Lord?"

-t