Preaching Sticky Sermons: A Practical Guide to Preparing, Writing, and Delivering Memorable Sermons by Kelley Brandon & Hoagland Joe

Author:Kelley, Brandon & Hoagland, Joe
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Rainer Publishing
Published: 2016-12-19T16:00:00+00:00

18: How to Create an Engaging Introduction

In preaching class at Bible college, the importance of introductions and conclusions were instilled in me over and over again. First, engage the listeners with the introduction! And then make sure you close it out with an inspiring conclusion. (I cannot even count how many times I was told to “land the plane.”)

As a young preacher (I still am), I did not always get this principle. I always thought “Man, I want to focus on the meat and potatoes of the message.” Or “I want to inspire people in the main part of the message.” Honestly I found introductions boring and uninspired.

So guess what? Because of that my introductions were boring and uninspired. I have learned along the way from many people, especially when I watch them, that an engaging introduction is one of the most important aspects of creating a sticky sermon.

There are many ways to craft an engaging introduction. I would encourage you to develop what works best for you. But, I want to provide some principles of introduction crafting that will help you in finding this voice for yourself.

This is an important topic. I can say with conviction that if you have an introduction that misses the mark, the body of your sermon, no matter how great it is, will not reach its full potential. So let’s take a look at these principles.

Make it Personal

This is crucial to crafting an introduction that will set up the rest of the message for success. See if the audience can relate to you: maybe share a humorous story about yourself, or a subject you have struggled with, or something your family has dealt with. This creates a rapport with the audience right at the start. “Okay, I understand where he is coming from,” or “Oh, wow he deals with that too; I can relate,” or “That was a funny story about him and his family.” You can build on that rapport.

Communicate the Importance of the Topic

Most of us will do this some way in our preaching. The problem is it is not always done successfully or well. Even if you are holding off on making your main point bit or trying to be inductive in your thought process, it is important to introduce in some way how your topic is timelessly important.

The mistake a lot of people say is, “Well, it is in the Bible. That’s all I have to point out to make my case that it is important.” And while that might suffice for us and for some of our listeners, many people are going to need some more than that.

We need to introduce why this is an important subject, topic, or problem that needs to be fixed. Introduce some urgency into the problem; maybe introduce the problem but hold off on offering the best solution.

No matter what though, you need to start communicating how or why the subject you picked is timelessly important.

Touch on the Role Your Topic Has in Culture

Building on the last principle, make sure to address the topic’s place in current cultural contexts.

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