Sermon preparation; Sydney Anglicans must do better

Sydney Anglican church attendance is on the decline. It is a real decline in that it lags increases in Sydney’s population growth. It is a noteworthy decline in that the decline continues while Sydney Anglicans are developing and opening new church sites. It is decline where no-one addresses the elephant-in-the-room; the lifelong retention into church of students of the Sydney Anglican School system.

Little practical soul-searching occurs amongst the Sydney Anglicans in response to the decline. It is naturally easy to point to societal factors (those factors that are outside the church). It is difficult to look inside.

One factor that needs a significant degree of deliberation is quality.

One Sydney Anglican during COVID-19 lockdown highlighted this problem when they openly reflected on how they had been tempted to skip watching the (poor) Zoom church. In the broader Australian Anglican community one preacher was blasphemous and another preacher admitted within a sermon the commencement of that sermon’s preparation the afternoon before.

When it comes to preaching Sydney Anglicans must do better. A discerning pewsitter can spot poor preparation:

"What has prompted such poor preparation?’.

It's not as though there hasn't been a week to get ready."

Rvd Canon Simon Manchester, as linked

To which I was surprised that a social media acquaintance – a preacher – openly communicated that they commenced sermon preparation on the morning of the sermon's delivery. Indeed, their post celebrated the cessation of daylight saving; the turn back of the clock that morning offering the preacher an extra hour of preparation.

pexels.com; free and unattributabile

That social media acquaintance preacher is breaching a social contract with their congregation. A good sermon, like a stir fry, needs to be stirred while it cooks. The preacher is failing in terms of the analogy offered by Pastor Alastair Beggs – that when one has known breakfast oats soaked in the pot overnight, then instant oats are nothing at all. The preacher is not allowing the Holy Spirit to stir them over the week from the time of putting down a first draft.

A sermon that is less-than-best does not necessarily turn people away. It is instead the sum of a set of less- than-best sermons that causes people to stray.

Where there is poor sermon preparation, the church should not spend a mite of time considering declining attendance in terms of society’s distractions.

Shalom,

Ozhamada

Note 1: The social media acquaintance preacher is an extensive user of social media. They ought heed the message in a Sydney Anglican's book; Truth be Told, by Lionel Windsor, that "the medium becomes the message."

Note 2: This talk Preparing (Yourself) to Preach shares some advice about how you should soak yourself in prayer while meditating over the text.

Note 3: Subsequent to this post I discovered a recording of a sermon that included admission of the preacher of preparation of that same morning, as linked.