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Wednesday, January 13, 2016

10 Things You Shouldn’t Say to a Pastor Right After the Sermon

This is from Thom S. Rainer.
I’ve actually assembled more than ten things church members have told pastors immediately after they preached. But these are ten responses where pastors have had the most visceral reactions.
  1. “I am going to be late for lunch because you preached so long.”
  2. “You must not have had much time to prepare that sermon.”
  3. “My former pastor preached a much better sermon from that text.”
  4. “I wish {fill in the blank} would have heard that sermon.”
  5. “You act like you weren’t feeling well while you preached.”
  6. “I’m sorry I fell asleep while you were preaching. Your voice just puts me to sleep.”
  7. “Your subject/verb agreement was incorrect three times in your sermon.”
  8. “I wish you wouldn’t preach from the Old Testament.”
  9. “Let me tell you what you missed in your sermon.”
  10. “Are we ever going to be done with this sermon series?”
Pastors often take 10 to 20 hours to prepare a sermon. They pray for God to speak through them. They preach with conviction and fervency. And then they hear one of these sentences.
These ten responses are close approximations of what pastors have actually told me. I am sure there are many more. Let us hear what they are.


1 comment:

  1. One thing I hear to often, "We don't have much time we must hurry along." This applies not only to the Sermons but also to all the classes including Sunday school. With so much to comprehend, such as unfamiliar words, phrases and context I feel myself getting overwhelmed and anxious of falling behind. As I become more familiar with my ESV Bible I become quicker in finding the subject that's being discussed. But still as I'm looking I find myself distracted and fail to follow what is being said. The Bible app. on my phone is helpful in that I can find the subject matter somewhat quicker, but still find myself rushing to keep up. Even jotting down notes becomes a challenge. When my mind becomes overwhelmed. and hopefully before I snore, I catch myself nodding off. To process the information coming in, takes time which seems to be in short supply.

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