The questions are as follows:

1. Does this sermon supply nourishment? Does it feed the flock?

2. Does this sermon bring healing? Does it recognize the pains of the people?

3. Does this sermon empower continuation? Does it encourage the broken to keep going?

4. Does this sermon enable restoration? Does it let me know where I should be?

5. Does this sermon provide orientation? Does it allow me to come to faith?

1. Does this sermon supply nourishment?

On too many occasions I've heard parishioners say, "We're not being fed." It's the common complaint of those who go church hopping. Whether it's true or not, I've never been able to determine. Often those who visit one church because they weren't fed at another end up visiting yet another church because they were not fed at that one, either. However, the very fact that they say they're not fed is disturbing — disturbing enough to make a preacher reevaluate the fare.

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Preaching is preparing nourishing, appealing meals. Our concern is both preparation and presentation, nutrition and appeal. Jesus' instruction to Peter was "feed my lambs" (John 21:15). In reflecting on a life of preaching and teaching Peter could say, "I have written both my letters as reminders to stimulate you to wholesome thinking" (2 Peter 3:1). Peter had given them what they needed in order to think correctly. He had fed them.

Ezekiel's condemnation of Israel's shepherds was for self-care. God's response was, "I will tend them in a good pasture, and the mountain heights of Israel will be their grazing land. There they will lie down in good grazing land, and there they will feed in a rich pasture on the mountains of Israel" (Ezekiel 34:14). The Psalmist said, "You prepare a table for me . . . " (Psalm 23:5). The preaching we advocate and practice must be preaching that provides "good grazing" and "rich pasture," i.e., nourishment for the sustenance of the listener.

Therefore we preach the Bible. Never has it been more important to preach the Scriptures.9 Therein is food for the sheep. It is in Scripture that we find that by which "the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work" (2 Timothy 3:16). As the Psalmist says, "How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth" (Psalm 119:105).

Few would argue that the best preaching for "feeding" people is Biblical preaching; preaching that begins and ends in the text. The preaching that nourishes our listeners is preaching that exposes the meaning of God's word to the listeners in a way that they can fully comprehend and apply that meaning to their lives. If they are given scripture to think about, when they are done digesting our comments, they still have something worthy of their meditation.

But we don't prepare meals with nutrition alone as our guide. We all want to sit at a table where the chef has also been concerned with presentation. It should appeal to the senses. Sermons, like meals, satisfy most when they are both nutritious and appealing. The presentation should appeal to the listeners, inviting them to hear. The way the meal appears is nearly as important as what the meal consists of. When what we say is substantial, and the way we say it is interesting, then we can affirmatively answer the question, "Does this sermon nourish?" And when it is delivered with appeal, we can rest assured people will sit long enough to absorb the nourishment.