The best preachers in this world remain anonymous. I am frequently asked: "Who are today's best preachers?" My stock answer is "no one you have heard of." I am convinced that the best preachers are some of those who craft sermons, week in and week out -- sometimes two or three times per week -- and talk to people whom they love and know through eyeball-to-eyeball experience.

The people who step up to preach in their hometown ballpark, and hit single after single, are the people with the highest averages. Yet the bat often cracks louder in another park. Thus, the crowd at the away game is far more impressed because they get to see the home run!

Sermons at home and away differ in both liberty and liability. Lest preachers who succeed week after week before the home crowd think they are unworthy of the road game, we need to identify and learn from some of these different privileges and responsibilities. Moreover, no matter how comfortable we may be in our own ballpark, times come when we're asked to bat in another stadium. The faces and the boundaries may be distinct. How do we preach at home versus away?

Preachers at home and away command attention differently.

The preacher at home has to work hard to gain and sustain attention. Familiarity breeds "here we go again." With today's congregation driving on the information superhighway, the preacher has to supply stimulating reasons for audience members to comply with the "thirty-minute parking" sign. Too many preachers assume such attention, but the attention they receive is closer to social courtesy than to spiritual curiosity. Typically, the preacher -- especially the home preacher -- must touch a need, surface a relevant issue, or at least "announce" an interesting topic within two minutes. Otherwise, the sermon will fall upon wandering minds and hearts.

The preacher at the away game is awarded probationary attention. A visiting voice prompts people to give two to three minutes to discern whether this preacher has anything to say worth hearing. If the preacher can signal to the audience that the sermon will be relevant, different than the usual, or perhaps will include humor, the preacher gains a few more minutes. Like the preacher at home, however, the away preacher has to swing hard and with precision in the first inning.

Sermons at home and away have distinct ground rules.

The preacher at home must avoid predictability. If every sermon begins with a startling statement or ends with humor, the crowd thumbs the program or steps out for popcorn when this preacher comes to the plate. The preacher must work to vary illustrations, sermonic structure, and biblical genres. Introductions and conclusions carry unusual weight when it comes to predictability.

Perhaps even a predictable pattern can be approached with variety, however. If every sermon presents a "preaching issue" to the audience, something at stake in their lives, the preacher might raise and develop issues in varying ways. The preacher can surface the issue by asking a question that touches a person's need, and then point them to the Scripture for the answer. Or perhaps the preacher will develop the issue through a specific example, or by citing statistics that imply "you fit here," or by speaking a startling statement or question as the sermon's first words.