How To Preach Effectively And Get People Listening To You

by Vince Olaer | Preaching | 4 comments

Learning How To Preach Effectively

I hope this will really help those who are being trained right now to preach. This is also very helpful to those ordinary members who are being trained to lead a devotional study during a prayer meeting or camping.

There are lots of factors that affect the mood of people to get them listening to you. The past week may sometimes be very straining to your listeners which caused them to have “floating minds” on Sunday morning. Some of them may also be experiencing some problems.

However, there are some factors that can really be attributed to the preacher. And these are things where we can do something to improve the rate of our listeners. Here are some effective tips to have your audience listen to you.

1.    Improve your praying habit days before your preaching time.

Many preachers have forgotten the most basic, yet the most important part of preaching. As a result, they usually preach in their own words rather than God’s words.

We may be a powerful preacher, but if there is someone who is spiritually strong, he or she can sense whether or not your preaching is with anointing or not. As a result, this person might even confront you after service.

Pray days before your preaching that God will anoint your scheduled preaching and that He will work in it making the people ready to listen to “His” words through you.

2.    Study well.

I have trained a quite number of people making their own Bible study materials. These BS materials can also be the basis of their own topics in preaching. Unfortunately, there are really some people who are lazy in studying God’s word.

I hate to say this, but you will be negligent enough if you preach without even studying. Even if you have already preached the same topic all over again, you are still bound to take a look at it, study it and evaluate it if this is really what God wants you to deliver as His message to His people.

In addition to this, people know, whether or not you have studied your topic.

3.    Take the attention of your listener before you preach.

There are several ways that you do to take the attention of your listener just before you preach. First, you can ask them how they are doing the whole week.

If your listeners seem to be sleepy just before you start, you may want to allow them to stand up and have a little exercise. A short inhale-exhale exercise accompanied by a massage by the person beside them can add a few more minutes extension in their alertness, plus the sleepy will be awaken.

Finally, you can also use a good clean joke. A good joke that can make them really laugh can wake them up from their sleepiness and can prepare the mood in listening to the word of God.

4.    Use powerful illustration in your preaching.

All preachers know this, “Your illustrations are more easily remembered, than what you have preached.” This is very true. In my own experience, people can easily remember the illustration associated with the sermon rather than remembering the sermon associated with the illustration.

This is true because, most people can relate themselves more in reality of applying what you have preached compared to just merely listening to the word.

You can also use visual tools like Bible maps, charts, pictures and the like. Remember that most people are visual learners.

However, just a note, please do not overuse illustration. Too much use of illustration may lead your preaching to non-sense because your listener love your jokes more than God’s words. This picture will never glorify God.  One good illustration in every main point is already a good number.

5.    Avoid using street words in preaching.

Some new preachers do not know yet when and how can they use street words. We all know that most street words cannot help our Christian audience. And most of them hate to hear those words.

In most cases, a preacher who uses vulgar words loses their credibility and the audience respect to the preacher. This is why we really have to be very careful in using words that we really do not know what it really means especially if that word comes from the streets.

6.    Always end your sermon with a prayer or with a fellowship song (in most cases, but not in all cases).

Ending your sermon with a prayer is effective because through this, you can challenge them and commit them to the Lord to follow and apply what they have heard from you.

In using fellowship song, I really would love to sing fellowship song that can really touch the heart of my audience. During this time, most probably they are already tired of listening after an hour. But in here, they will be able to gain back their composition and start reviewing what they have heard in you mentally by singing a related song to your topic.

So there you have it. May God bless you in your preaching!!!

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1. 

   Blessing Kadzuwa on October 13, 2016 at 7:10 pm

   I m young lady believe that everything is possible in trust, I have no experience in studying about preaching but I only have a hope that I can make it, because I have dreaming me been preacher until now. I wanted to ask is anywhere I can complete my dream?

   Reply
   • 

     Ptr. Vince on October 19, 2016 at 12:53 pm

     Hello Blessing! I suggest you go to a seminary to be trained, to be equipped for that. From where are you? If you are living near the Philippines or within the Philippines, I highly recommend Philippine Baptist Theological Seminary. You can visit the website here: http://pbts.net.ph/

     Reply
2. 

   Dean on July 31, 2016 at 7:34 am

   I want to preach and have for many years. I tried to go to school for this but I couldn’t make it through the first semester. I was a widower with three small children and the school wouldn’t support this. I was always breaking rules that I didn’t know about. I tried working streight midnights, raising a family, and going to school. Now I am 69 years old but I still have the desire to preach and serve. The only way is to go on my own but how. This country need so much help and I wish I could.