Negotiating The Red Zone: Taking Your Sermon To A Successful Conclusion
On
Thanksgiving Day, sprawled on my couch watching a football game, I had an epiphany
about preaching.
The home team was scoring at every opportunity — moving up and down the field,
connecting on passes, breaking through lines, racking up touchdowns, and kicking
extra points. The visiting team was strong in a lot of ways, too, and able to
move the ball successfully, but with one difference. Inside the opponents' 20
yard line — what football people call "the red zone" — they ground to a halt.
By half-time, the visitors had managed only two field goals for six points,
in contrast to the 28 points for the hosts.
I have preached sermons like that, which seemed to do everything but "score."
The introduction worked well, but perhaps like the first 20 yards on the football
field — which is almost a "gimme" to each team — congregations generously
concede the first few minutes of a sermon to see what the preacher plans to
do today. My points were in order, the biblical exposition appropriate, and
the application right. Even my illustrations worked. What the sermon lacked,
however, was a coming together for a closing that worked — that "scored," to
use our sports metaphor.
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After blazing downfield for the first 20 minutes, my sermon had fizzled out
like a spent firecracker in the red zone. I had tacked on the ending as an afterthought,
leaving the congregation confused as to what I was saying and unclear on what
I was expecting of them.
With four decades of pastoral service behind me, a year ago I came to a new
position with our denomination that has me in different churches each Sunday.
Preaching in churches of all sizes, all situations, and all nationalities has
been a refreshing challenge. I find myself particularly enjoying those times
when I'm not the preacher, but a visitor and fellow worshiper on a back pew
hearing a local pastor do what he does every Sunday of the year. I've been pleased
to discover that most of the pastors do very well. I've not heard one sermon
that did not feed my soul.
I have noticed, however, that just because a preacher delivers a good message
does not mean he knows how to "bring it home." Most of our pastors could use
help in effective closings to their sermons.
One Sunday I sat in a small congregation where the preacher was a young seminarian,
presumably still learning how to preach. His message on the Beatitudes seemed
well thought out and he brought some helpful insights to his people. Nearing
the close, it became apparent that he had no clue on how to bring his points
together to the single focus of the message. In fact, his final prayer dealt
with the five points of his sermon.
That day I went away reflecting on what that young man had done well and where
he had missed. Like the Thanksgiving Day football team, he had moved the ball
across the field, then bogged down in the red zone and failed to score. Perhaps
because he had moved the ball, so to speak, he thought of it as a success.