There are multitudes of books and articles about preaching. Ministers spend years learning how to do it. American universities even have chairs in homiletics, the art of sermon preparation and delivery. In most evangelical churches it's at the heart of the whole service.
There's lots available to help the preachers preach, but very little to help the preached-at listen. So here are some tips from someone who nowadays spends more time listening to sermons than preaching them.
1. Honour the preacher's preparation. He or she has spent far more time over that verse or passage than you have, with a few commentaries and a lot of prayer. Don't be too quick to dismiss what they say if it's something you haven't heard before.
2. Do your best to listen. Some preachers are less gifted than others. While some can lift you up to heaven, some are much more pedestrian. They can get lost, repeat themselves, go into tedious detail and be generally frustrating. Pray that God will give you patience, and get from the sermon what you can.
3. If you don't like what you hear, don't tell them at the door on the way out. They've probably put everything they've got into it and are at their most vulnerable. Think, wait, pray, and if you still feel you need to do something, telephone them or say it face to face, don't email.
4. Don't be afraid to tune out and follow up an interesting thought. That's expected; it's what makes preaching different from reading. You might miss a whole chunk of the sermon because you're chewing over one thing. That's a result and the preacher will be happy.
5. Assume that the preacher is talking to you, not to your neighbour. Find points of connection with your own life. You listen to sermons so you can learn about your own weaknesses, not other people's.
6. Take notes if it helps, but don't imagine that you're listening to a lecture. Evangelicals often refer to preaching as 'teaching', but they are different things. Preaching is mean to engage your spirit, not just your mind.
7. Don't worry if you can't remember much of what's said. You probably don't remember what you had for lunch last Sunday, either, but you'd miss it if you didn't eat. We don't listen just in order to take in knowledge, but to have an encounter with God.
8. Remember that listening to sermons is part of your worship. Don't listen with a critical spirit, but open your mind and heart to receive what God is saying through the preacher.
9. Don't compare this preacher with last week's, or the pulpit giant of your young days, or the festival megastar that you heart in the summer. They might be 'better' preachers, but God has chosen to speak to you today through this one.
10. Pray for the preacher, for the congregation and for yourself. Ask God to help the preacher make ancient words new again. Sermons are important. Listen.
Follow @RevMarkWoods on Twitter.
