Pastor, every time you step up to preach, you make a quiet decision: Will you work to impress people, or to influence them?
You can impress people from a distance. But you can only influence people up close. And when people get close, they see the warts. That scares a lot of pastors, but it shouldn't. That's where ministry actually happens.
One of the problems in ministry is that we take ourselves way too seriously and don't take God seriously enough. We get impressed with ourselves instead of being impressed with God. That's backwards. You don't stand up to preach so people walk away impressed with you. You preach so they walk away in awe of God.
Humor and humility belong together.
Humor and humility go together. When you can laugh at yourself, you remind people you're human, and the distance between the pulpit and the pew gets smaller. People quit wondering whether you're performing and start actually listening.
During my years pastoring Saddleback, other pastors and I had fun with each other in front of the congregation. We teased each other. We laughed. We never acted like ministry meant pretending to be holier than the people in the seats.
Pastors who can't laugh at themselves will have a hard time building a warm church. And people who are stiff in the hallway are usually stiff in the pulpit too. Tightness follows them right up to preach. If everything about you tells people to stay impressed, they'll keep their distance. But if you come across like a real person, they'll lean in.
Be approachable and real.
If you want to create a climate where people want to join, your church has to be authentic. An authentic church always starts with authentic leaders. You personally have to be approachable and real, because whatever you are, your people will become.
There's no one right personality for building a healthy church; God uses every kind. But all the effective leaders I know are working to make the most of what God gave them.
A lot of pastors, just by their demeanor, guarantee visitors won't come back. I've said for years that some churches would grow if the pastor would simply start smiling.
Sometimes I get the feeling that pastors love crowds but hate people. If you want to know the temperature of your church, put the thermometer in your own mouth. Your people take their cues from you. A cold leader makes a cold church. And people feel that same warmth, or that same chill, the second you open your mouth to preach.
Talk like a normal person.
Another way to stop focusing on impressing people is to quit using inflated language. A lot of church follow-up messages to visitors read like this: "We would like to extend a cordial invitation for you to be with us on the next Lord's Day." Instead, just say, "It was good to have you. I hope you'll come back." Write it the way you talk.
The same thing happens in the pulpit. Some pastors preach in a voice they'd never use in a living room or a hospital room, and the sermon comes out formal and stiff. It sounds religious. It doesn't help anybody. Jesus spoke so ordinary people could understand him. He told stories. He used pictures from everyday life. He didn't bury the truth under a pile of religious words.
You're not up there to sound impressive; you're up there to be understood.
Preach for life change, not approval.
Getting close to people isn't just about being warm. You get close so your preaching can actually change how they live, and that only happens when you stop preaching to be admired. The goal of preaching is not to impress other pastors, or professors, or critics. The goal of preaching is life change. God's aim is to make people like Christ, so that has to be your aim too. If your preaching isn't producing Christlike convictions, character, and conduct, it's missing the point, no matter how polished it sounds.
A sermon can be accurate and still leave people exactly where they were. It can be full of information and never once call anyone to obey. The problem in most churches isn't that people know too little; it’s that they already know far more than they're doing. Jesus said, "Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them" (John 13:17 NIV). The blessing shows up when they do it, not just when they hear it.
Some pastors are scared to be practical because they think it sounds simplistic.
They won't even say "how to" in a sermon for fear another pastor will look down on them. So settle it now: Are you preaching to see changed lives, or to please the professors you had in seminary and the pastors down the street?
Influence happens up close.
Challenge your people to obey. But do it as a fellow sinner saved by grace, not as a bully or a know-it-all. Preach with confidence in God's Word and honesty about yourself, and people will trust the message and the person delivering it.
Before you preach this weekend, ask who you're really trying to reach. You can impress people from a distance. You can only influence them up close, close enough to see you're real and close enough that your preaching actually moves them to obey God. So quit preaching for image. Get near the people God has put in front of you, tell them the truth in plain words, and preach for the kind of changed lives that impressing people will never produce.
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