What makes a good sermon?  We are having a preachers' meeting this evening at church, and at our staff meeting this lunchtime we discussed the kinds of things we look for in a good sermon.

We suggested things like:

• Bible-based
• Applied, relevant to everyday life
• Good illustrations
• Authoritative
• Passionate
• Appropriate length (!)
• Transformational / affirming / encouraging
• Having a clear aim

To which I would add:

• Prophetic
• Challenging
• Prayerful and well-prepared

These are things that we do not look for:

• Too long
• Personal (not-so-humble) opinions
• Like a lecture (all teaching, no application)
• Emotionalism
• Inappropriate language

To which I would add:

• Boring (!)
• Lots of jokes – we should try to make people smile, but they are not in a comedy club, they are in a church

I can remember being told that every good sermon needs exposition, illustration and application.  The question of length is a bit tricker.  How long is too long?

Actually, I think that depends on the preacher.  Some preachers can preach for 10-15 minutes, and it becomes painful.  Others can preach for 30 minutes plus, and you don't notice the time go by.

Personally, I always aim for 20-30 minutes, because I think anything less than that only really scratches the surface of what you can say.  It enables you to have much more flexibility in what you are saying.  However, if you can't hold people's attention for that amount of time, you need to preach shorter sermons!

Application is the thing I find most difficult when I'm preaching, and the thing I pray about most when I'm preparing a sermon.  Apart from the most difficult passages, I generally find the exposition part easier.  Organising the sermon so it is faithful to the passage, and also applied and relevant, is a difficult skill.

Passion is something I love to see in preachers.  I love to see it when the preacher has obviously wrestled with a text, when it has obviously spoken to them during the week.

The clear aim is something I used to write for each sermon I wrote, but I've got out of the habit.  I guess it is always in the back of my mind, but it is helpful to write it down – especially if you have to prepare a shorter talk – because it helps you to keep on topic!

Illustrations can be hard – but they don't need to be long, nor do they need to be funny.  Word pictures are much more effective than a joke – no matter how funny – that has been shoe-horned to fit the context.

The prophetic element is interesting, but when I pray while preparing a sermon that is always a big part of what I ask God for.  For me, the prophetic ministry is exercised primarily through biblical preaching.  So I wouldn't call myself a prophet, but I do try and make my sermons prophetic.

Finally, should sermons always seek to change the congregation?  Probably – but we don't want to give people the impression all the time that they are not good enough.  I know, I know – they aren't 'good enough' – but there is a place for encouragement and affirmation of the great truths of the faith, which doesn't challenge people to change their behaviour but helps renew our minds.

I could write a lot more about preaching.  But I'll stop there.  500 words is quite enough!