Imagine the scene. It is Sunday in church. The sermon has just finished. The preacher has given it everything. He was thoroughly prepared and had prayed for God to speak. He’d read widely and agonised over carefully constructed sentences. The preacher had spent hours scouring the context of the passage and considering how the genre influenced its meaning. He’d spent significant time identifying the author’s main argument, and then the preacher had carefully crafted the message so as to faithfully communicate what God seeks to say through his word. And now, it’s all over; what’s been said is said.
They mean well. They want to build up the pastor.
On that day, the preacher got up early to rehearse by going through his notes. He’d prayed for God to grant him fluency and for God to glorify his name. He knew that his words would be inadequate to communicate the mysteries of an infinite God, yet he trusted God to use his feeble efforts. He put his heart and soul into the delivery of the sermon. Now it’s over. The service is finished. The benediction has been given, when a member of the congregation walks up to speak to the pastor. They mean well, sincerely wanting to be an encouragement. They want to build up the pastor. So they walk up to the preacher and say, “I really enjoyed that sermon.”
What’s Wrong With “I Enjoyed the Sermon”?
The people who say this mean well. They aren’t the haters who find fault with minutiae in every sermon. These aren’t the theological thought-police, who are constantly scouring sermons for hints of heresy. They are people who love the preacher and care for their pastor. They’re seeking to be an encouragement. But they don’t realise how discouraging it is to hear that someone merely enjoyed your sermon.
He takes it as an appreciation of his efforts, but he wasn’t aiming at enjoyment.
The preacher takes it politely, from where it has come. He takes it as an appreciation of his efforts, but deep down inside, he weeps because he wasn’t aiming at ‘enjoyment.’ If a preacher were a comedian, he’d be delighted by that comment; after all, enjoyment is what the comedian aims at. But a preacher is aiming for something quite different. Come to think of it, here are some other unhelpful things you could say to your preacher:
- “You tell great jokes. You should tell more.”
- “I was at [insert name of another church] last week and the preacher was so good” (implication: they were better than you).
- “I really like your [insert item of clothing].”
- “When did you get that haircut?”
- “You really should preach on [fill in a favourite topic here].”
- “Thank you for helping me with my decision to [do something completely unconnected with the sermon].”
How to Really Encourage the Preacher
So, how then do you really encourage your preacher? What sincere words of encouragement can you say that will urge him to carry on preaching for the glory of God? Well, I can’t answer this one comprehensively, but here are some of the words that I love to hear:
- “I saw the greatness of God in what you said today.”
- “I repented of my sin today, in response to the preached word.”
- “I want to consider how to love God more because of what you said today.”
- “Isn’t God marvellous? He is so big and so gracious!”
- “I gave thanks to God today because of what I heard from the scriptures.”
- “I trusted Christ today.”
- “I am going to examine the scriptures to think further about what you said.”
- “I prayed for you today.”
It important to work on encouraging your preacher. Preaching is a lonely task with few obvious markers of progress or success. If you are a carpenter, then building a table to completion is an obvious marker of success. But the effects of preaching are often hidden from the preacher, because they’re internal. So let your preacher in on what God is doing in your life through his preaching; let your preacher in on what God is actually doing in your heart.
Let your preacher in on what God is doing in your heart.
Don’t settle for trite and easy enjoyment. Aim instead at God’s glory and his deep work of sanctification. Give your preacher as many glimpses of this as you can, to help him see something of the Spirit’s work in you through the word at work. As you do this, watch your preacher enjoy increased motivation to keep on labouring so as to faithfully present Christ.
