How are Preaching Texts Selected?
Recently, I received a question, “How are preaching texts selected? What goes on ‘behind the scenes’ when a preacher is selecting a passage to preach from?”
This is a terrific question. Today we will endeavor to answer some of the factors involved in selecting a preaching text.
Behind the Scenes of Preaching Texts
I remember as a child getting to go on a field trip to a factory that produced Jiffy mix (a cornbread baking mixture). Prior to my trip to the factory, I didn’t realize all that went into making the small box of baking mix. Going through the factory I got to see huge machines, specialized workers, and talented engineering applied, all to make countless boxes of Jiffy mix. The box never quite looked the same whenever I saw it in the store after my trip to the factory. Getting to see the “hidden” work behind the scenes gave me a greater appreciation for the talent, time, and effort to produce the little box of mix.
I hope in giving a bit of a “behind the scenes” tour of how preaching texts are selected, you are better equipped to pray for those who have been called by God to deliver His Word to you in the task of preaching. I also hope that you develop a greater sense of wonder and awe of God who saves through His Word preached (Romans 1:16, Romans 10:14-15, 1 Corinthians 1:21, 1 Corinthians 2:1-5, Acts 2:40-41, 1 Timothy 4:11-16, Jude 22-23).
The first stop on our tour of “how are preaching texts selected” is to consider who is involved in the oversight of the ministry of the Word.
Who Has Oversight Over The Preaching Ministry?
At the bare minimum, the person who is preaching, the pastor, is involved in selecting the sermon text. While there are some exceptions to this, the general rule is that the person preaching will assume responsibility for selecting a passage. In addition to the preacher, there may be others who have input and exercise oversight in the preaching ministry. Typically, whomever has to give an account and takes responsibility for the ministry of preaching, will have some say in the passages chosen for preaching. Depending on the tradition, there may be elders (Reformed), deacons (Congregational), regional bishops (Anglican), staffers (Non-Denomination), preacher of the day (Brethren/Quakers) lectionary of church calendar (various traditions, including Lutherans and Roman Catholics) or committees that assist in the selecting passages for preaching.
How a preaching text is selected, will be heavily influenced by those responsible for oversight of the preaching of the Word. I’m thankful that in the church I currently serve as primary preacher, I have oversight from the elders. This means that one of the things elders do when we gather is evaluate and provide encouragement, feedback, suggestions, critiques, insights, and prayer for the ministry of preaching. We carefully pray considering the needs, spiritual concerns, and aspects of spiritual growth the congregation is experiencing.
In my current context, not only does the person preaching have oversight in preaching, but this responsibility of accountability is shared among the plurality of elders. I believe this to be a very biblical pattern (following 1 Timothy 3, 4, and 5). The biblical pattern established by God is also the most beneficial pattern for the people of God. When God’s preachers are following God’s patterns, they can most boldly and faithfully echo the Holy Spirit-inspired words of the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 11:1 - “Follow my example as I follow Christ”.
How is a Passage Chosen?
Second, in our tour to examine is how those involved select a passage.
In my own context, careful, diligent, prayerful consideration is given when determining texts to preach. This takes time and spiritual guidance. Just as a good physician takes time with their patient to learn what ailments and troubles beset the body and mind, the good preacher (and those others involved in the selection of texts) must take time to consider what the people of God assembled are in need of hearing from God’s Word.
Some of the hardest work in the preparation of sermon texts is in narrowing down the options. This is counterintuitive to many who are not preachers. Often the thought or question of the difficulty of preaching comes as a question of generation, rather than a narrowed selection. To the beginning preacher (this was true of me in my earliest days of preaching) there is tremendous pressure to “come up” with something - to “generate” something in the selection of the text. Over time and through careful learning under other Godly men farther along than me, I have come to learn that selecting a text is more about “narrowing down” than “generating” something. God has condescended (come down) and revealed Himself in His Word. This truth is tremendously liberating for the preacher. There are still some challenges though in narrowing down a text to preach on.
“The headache in selection is due not to the paucity of texts but to their abundance. If we are regular Bible students, and are keeping notes of our study, then our memory becomes like a well-stocked food cupboard, and biblical texts are lining up, asking to be preached on” (Between Two Worlds: The Challenge of Preaching Today page 214). John Stott
When you look in a well stocked cupboard, or refrigerator, you aren’t thinking “what crops should I plant today”, you aren’t thinking of “generating” something new, you are selecting from supplies and options already available. In this way, those involved in selecting a preaching text, don’t need to generate something to say to the people of God, rather they themselves must first receive what God has already provided (in the Word), and then deliver to God’s people what they have received (1 Corinthians 11:23, 15:3).
In this way, it is far more common in my experience preaching, to have an overload of options, than a scarcity of choice. To use Stott’s verb, the “headache” of selecting a preaching text then becomes more akin to staring at a menu when you are hungry, and therefore everything looks good. The difficulty in making a choice isn’t out of lack, but out of plenty. God has provided bountifully for His people through His Word revealed. This too is a comfort to the faithful preacher and the faithful congregation. God has already provided for His people, the preacher’s task is not one of a cook, making something new. Instead, we are waiters delivering the abundant feast of God’s Word to the hungry and holy people of God.
Another stop on our tour is to consider the timetable for selecting a passage. When do those overseeing the preaching ministry make decisions about what text to preach?
What is the Timetable for Selecting a Passage?
Regarding the planning (long-term or short-term) of sermon texts, there are two ends of a spectrum. These two ends correlate to time. Some preaching texts are selected spontaneously at the moment (as the Amish and Brethren churches are sometimes known to do) right before preaching occurs. I was speaking with a retired pastor some months ago who shared that sometimes he would be serving among a group of preachers, and they would take turns delivering a word of encouragement, only being selected moments before to share. So one end of the spectrum is simply selecting a text in the moment directly before preaching.
On the opposite end of the spectrum is more of the “farming” approach. Seeds are planted in the spring, and after months of labor, weather, and hope, a harvest is brought in. This is the approach I most often follow. Even when I am called to preach with little or short notice, I will most often preach what I’ve been “farming” and praying over for a few weeks or months. Some preaching texts are selected months in advance through prayerful planning (which is the practice I use when preparing to preach). I find this gives time to bring together many passages and also allows me as a preacher to truly consider, reflect on, and spend time observing the truth of God’s Word at work in my own life, and in the lives of others. I firmly believe that I cannot preach something I do not believe, and I most firmly believe that which I’ve experienced to be true from God’s Word. Therefore regularly spending time in God’s Word and considering multiple books and passages for months allows for a “seed” to be planted months in advance, and a full “crop” harvested when time comes to preach and feed God’s people by the food of the Word.
In this pattern, I’ll often submit multiple options to those overseeing (or working alongside fellow preachers) for passages and books to preach through. I do this a few months or even years in advance to allow for plenty of “planting” and “growing” time in that book or passage. For instance, in the spring of 2023 the elders of the church I’m serving at approved a November 4 Sunday series on the book of Jonah. I’ve been reading, re-reading, and praying through Jonah since the spring. I’ve also been doing this in conjunction with preaching a series on Hebrews (summer of 2023), and preparing a sermon series through 1st Timothy (preaching through now). The “crops” I’ve been able to plant have allowed me in prayer and study to reflect and consider many aspects of God’s Word and how they work together for the revealing of God to His people.
Where Does Prayer Come in During Text Selection?
Regardless of the spectrum of timetable and the planning (or lack thereof) involved, the selection of a preaching text must come under the prayerful guidance of the Holy Spirit. Without regular prayer, the preacher is a dead man. His sermons will be dead. The delivery might be excellent, and the preparation (apart from prayer) may be studious, but the end result for the people of God will be odious. The Word preached must be a living Word, coming through a born-again living servant of God, who has a living relationship with the living God. A preacher whose prayer life is dead is not a living spiritually living man.
Effective public ministry requires devoted private prayer. We should not expect our words to acquaint others with the power of the Spirit if we have not met with him. Faithful preachers plead for God to work as well as proclaim his Word. Success in the pulpit can be the force that leads a preacher from prayerful dependence on the Spirit. Congregational accolades for pulpit excellence may tempt one to put too much confidence in personal gifts, acquired skills, or a particular method of preaching. Succumbing to such a temptation is evidenced not so much by a change in belief as it is by a change in practice. Neglect of prayer signals serious deficiencies in a ministry even if other signs of success have not diminished. We must always remember that popular acclaim is not necessarily the same as spiritual effectiveness. Bryan Chapell page 24 of “Christ Centered Preaching”
A preacher (and those who oversee the preaching ministry) must be regularly in the presence of God through prayer. It is in prayer often that I have found my exhausted soul refreshed, my pride brought low, my uncertainty shown to be folly, and the grace of God experienced. True preaching overflows from true prayer.
This is another reason why I have found great benefit in “planting” texts and books to preach through months in advance. The time afforded through planning helps me to pray as I wrestle with the Word. I have no doubt that for some, a shorter, tighter timetable is how the Lord works. It could be that I will grow in that manner in years to come, but presently, it is with these long periods of “planting” that I have experienced and witnessed the Lord’s gracious hand in allowing me to serve as a part of the preaching ministry.
How Do Other Factors Play a Role in Selecting a Passage for Preaching?
I’ll paraphrase John Stott next to give us our next “stop” in our tour of categories to consider when selecting a preaching text. Stott identifies “four main factors which will influence” the preaching text selection (See pages 214-219 of “Between Two Worlds”):
Liturgical factors (church calendar and Lectionary)
External factors (major world/regional events)
Pastoral factors (spiritual life within the congregation)
Personal factors (spiritual life within the preacher)
Liturgical Factors
In the case of liturgical factors, there are many “seasons” that churches typically go through (especially in churches in North America). Whether a church is Roman Catholic, Anglican, or Episcopalian following an explicit directive from a hierarchical authority regarding specific texts for specific times, or a church is Protestant non-denominational, nearly all churches have a relationship to church calendar seasons (It is possible to find churches that do not observe broader shifts in the seasons, but they are few and far and usually hard to find). If a church has expectations about Christmas, Easter, Military Holidays, National Holidays, or other culturally observed days, times and seasons, then most likely those seasons will play a role in the selection of a preaching text. I have always been given a certain amount of liberty at every church I’ve preached in selecting a preaching text. Typically churches have communicated expectations about topics to be addressed, or not addressed during certain seasons.
External Factors
“the second factor which helps us to determine our text I will call external, by which I mean some event in the life of our nation (e.g. an election, the death of a public figure or a national scandal), some issue of public debate (e.g. the arms race, abortion, capital punishment, unemployment, homosexual practice, or divorce), a natural disaster (flood, famine or earthquake) or some other catastrophe (a plane or train crash). When Christian people come to church they neither can nor should shut out of their minds such matters as these which are being given wide radio, television and newspaper coverage. On the contrary, they bring these anxieties with them to worship, and are asking ‘is there any word from the Lord?’ and ‘how should Christian people react to such things?’ Preachers need to be sensitive to the big public questions in people’s minds.” John Stott
Pastoral Factors
In my own preaching, I typically do not allow for these external matters to influence the choice of sermon text. I do sometimes bring in ongoing current events, or the “big public questions” into a sermon, but I do not change the text or select a text based on these events. While I’m aware of plenty of these events, I see far too many examples of the newspaper becoming the lens for interpretation, rather than the Bible remaining the steadfast point of focus in our meditation, worship, consideration, and application. One example of this is coming up in the plans for 2024. In the United States, there are plans for elections, including a presidential election. That doesn’t dictate or really even influence the texts of passages we will be preaching on (Lord willing) in 2024. The prayerful plan is to preach through the book of Genesis in 2024 and 2025 with occasional breaks for topical sermons and mini-series (which are prayerfully being considered even now).
I have too often found (through experience and observation) that when a preacher does bend a text to exegete a current event, there is a distortion, disruption, or worst of all, a plain disconnect between the Word of God and the message proclaimed by the preacher. The preacher’s task is not to be a “spiritually sponsored” news reporter on current events. The preacher’s task is to be God’s man delivering God’s Word to God’s assembled people. Even for the evangelist (someone who specifically engages in preaching ministry to those outside the faith), the task is still the declaration of God’s Word to those who do not yet profess faith or demonstrate belief. When the news becomes the focus of our prayers and our preaching, the people are lost. The people need the solid food of God’s Word, not an editorial opinion sprinkled with some spiritual lingo.
External factors may play a role within the sermon, and even in the prayerful planning of a sermon, but external factors have crossed a serious line when they become the dominant factor in selecting a text for the Word proclaimed.
Stott calls the third factor the “pastoral” factor. This essentially is the work of those exercising oversight of the preaching ministry giving consideration and prescription (a spiritual diagnosis) of the congregation.
It is often and rightly said that the best preachers are always good pastors, for they know the needs and problems, doubts, fears, and hopes of their people. A conscientious pastor can never preach ‘regardless of his hearers’ requirements’. ‘As well might a physician prescribe ointment for eczema on the neck’ comments Douglas Cleverley Ford, ‘when the patient has corns on his toes’. The assessment of a congregation’s current need, and the decision on how to preach to it, are best made by the pastoral team together. Even if a local church has only one full-time, stipendiary pastor, one hopes that he is supported by both part-time and voluntary ministers or elders who share the pastoral oversight with him. They will doubtless spend regular time together for prayer, discussion, and planning, and one of the items on their agenda should be their preaching ministry. (Between Two Worlds page 216-217) John Stott
Pastoral factors give those who exercise oversight over preaching ministry a great window into the heart of the congregation whom God loves. In caring for the congregation, preachers are caring for the bride of Christ. Learning how and where the bride of Christ is tempted to despair, and doubt the goodness of Christ, her Betrothed, will give great insight for those selecting a preaching text. We see this was often the pattern in the times of the Bible how God chose to reveal Himself to His people.
Let us illustrate this with some Biblical examples.
The congregation in Smyrna (Revelation 2:8-11) was about to experience tremendous persecution, with many suffering in jail and some suffering to the point of death. The congregation was materially impoverished as a people. How did the Lord Jesus address them? He encouraged that though they were afflicted and in poverty, they were truly rich (Rev 2:9). Christ encouraged the church of Smyrna which was about to experience death (gruesome due to the persecution) as the one who died and came to life again (Rev 2:8). Christ reminded the church of the victor's crown of life awaiting them even after death (Rev 2:10). For the church suffering greatly in this world, preaching through the book of Philippians, the gospel of Matthew, Exodus, or 2nd Kings may be a great place to remind the people of God the encouragement of God’s sovereignty, the eternal life we have secured in Christ, and how those who have suffered previously have conducted themselves amidst affliction.
Another example would be the congregation that spiritually is apathetic, drifting, coasting, and is generally grown comfortable. This congregation is not being pushed from the outside in any noticeable ways (persecution), nor is there a zeal internally to live the born-again life of Christ (sanctified living), nor is there a faithful burden for the lost (evangelism). This congregation is routine in their comfort and has become content with “the devil they know”. This is a congregation that is risk averse, only sees faith as an accompaniment to politics, and private convictions, and in general, only turns to God’s Word as a weapon against anyone or anything that may stir them from their apathetic stupor. This is similar to the church of Ephesus as addressed by Christ in Revelation 2:1-7. For this congregation they need to return to their first love (Rev 2:4). They must wake up to the sinfulness of sloth and recapture a glimpse of the Lord Jesus in His majesty and grace. It may be beneficial to stir this congregation with preaching through 1st or 2nd Thessalonians, Proverbs, the gospel of Mark, or James.
Those who have a responsibility and input into the ministry of preaching must weigh and consider the collection of spiritual attitudes, pressures, apathies, excitements, curiosities, neglects, and areas of growth among the congregation. The Word rightly preached is a medicine for the souls of God’s people. God, by His grace, chooses to use this instrument, the Word Proclaimed rightly, to grow, challenge, change, shape, exhort, and remake His people. A proper pastoral diagnosis must play a significant role in the selection of passages for preaching.
Personal Factors
Stott lastly mentions the personal factor of the life of the preacher. This factor is made up of how the Lord is at work in the life of the individual called to preach. The truth of God’s Word clung to by the preacher personally and privately, may then become the very sustenance for the people of God down the road. After the preacher has been through and experienced moments of doubt, discernment, desire, and despair, the preacher themself must have clung onto something in the midst of those moments. What the preacher clung to as a lifeline, may then be an encouragement to others hearing the preacher who are similarly experiencing various spiritual struggles. The same can be true for causes for joy as the preacher shares not only the valleys but also the mountaintops of life in Christ.
We’ve Come to the End of Our Tour.
There you have it, a tour of the “jiffy” preaching factory. In the tour, we considered many different contributing aspects of what goes into selecting a text for a sermon including:
those who have oversight of preaching ministry,
how a preaching text is narrowed down,
the timetable for selecting a text,
how prayer is vital in selecting a preaching text,
and how liturgical, external, pastoral, and personal factors weigh into the selection of a preaching text.
Have a question relating to preaching? Drop us a comment below or send us an email: redeemingfamily@gmail.com
If you’d like to support Redeeming Family and keep our website Ad Free, check out our Patron. https://patreon.com/redeemingfamily
Posts You May Enjoy
