Many of those who heard Lewis preach have testified to his integrity and deep-seated love for those in the pews. His friend and fellow Inkling Father Gervase Mathew said that Lewis always "forged a personal link with those that heard him." The great theologian and hymnologist Eric Routley praised not only Lewis' superb delivery and wonderful command of language, but his ability to capture his hearers' hearts by his love of Christ and his obvious enjoyment of preaching. For Routley, the key to Lewis' effectiveness as a preacher lay in his integrity and his ability to "be personal" when he spoke.

Lewis' friend Stuart Babbage echoed this when he said that Lewis always spoke on the same level as those who heard him. In the pulpit, Lewis was never sanctimonious, pompous or condescending. He often wore a suit rather than clerical garb to let his audiences know that "he was one of them" and just a "mere Christian."

A revealing story about Lewis' humility and integrity as a preacher was told by his friend and taxi-driver Clifford Morris. Morris had wondered why Lewis did not preach more often until an incident told him the reason. Lewis had just spoken somewhere in Oxford and had received the praise and adulation that always happened when he preached or delivered an address in public. Lewis related to Morris that he began to have problems with ego, and to think "what a jolly fine and clever fellow Jack Lewis was." He then said that he immediately had to get down on his knees and pray, "to kill the deadly sin of pride."

As mentioned, Lewis preached mostly in churches and chapels in Oxford and Cambridge. But during World War II (on weekends) he also served on the staff of the Chaplain's department of the Royal Air Force as a lay lecturer, or preacher. Stuart Babbage recalls that Lewis used four "devices" to make his messages meaningful to the troops (these were also used in his Oxford sermons).

First, he consistently rooted his subject matter in the "everyday experiences" of the soldiers. Second, he used a conventional or vernacular style of speaking. He wanted his language to be simple, clear, direct and "ordinary conversation." Third, he illustrated his sermons with easy-to-imagine images and fitting metaphors that helped his hearers interpret his message. And fourth, he would often disarm his listeners by placing himself on the same level as they were. He was never afraid to be personal in his sermons.

Sadly, none of the manuscripts of Lewis' wartime sermons to the troops have survived, although there are remembered and newspaper accounts. He used no notes when he preached, although in more "formal" times he did read from a prepared manuscript. His sermons were usually about 45-minutes long, spoken without the aid of a microphone. It has been written by several witnesses that his reading style was so natural and his voice so powerful and resonant that he always "held the attention" of the troops under often very stressful conditions.

On one occasion he spoke at the Norfolk Aerodrome, northeast of Oxford. His audience consisted of members of the bomber squadrons which took off nightly to pound German fortifications on the continent. That Sunday night Lewis used as his sermon text Jesus' words from Matthew 16:24, "If any man come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me." This was a hard text for men who were facing death, and Lewis knew it. In the sermon, he told the men what Jesus had undergone on their behalf -- "misunderstanding and loneliness and finally betrayal and death." He dramatically evoked the scene in the judgment hall, where the soldiers and Herod mocked and ridiculed Jesus. And then he recalled with vivid force the obscenity of the crucifixion scene.