Jay N Smith's Blog

I recently attended another church and one of the associate pastors was preaching. I winced when he stated that he would have to hurry up because he was running out of time. From my perspective, there are three things you should never do while preaching:

1. Never Run out of time.  You know how long the sermon is expected to last – plan for it!  Even if you add some things “in the moment” if you have some experience you can allow some time for that.  If in doubt, rehearse!  There is just no reason to be surprised by the passage of time.
2. Never Tell the Congregation that You are Running Out of Time.  Even if you get caught short on time, don’t tell the audience – they can’t help you!  They can only get nervous that you aren’t able to “land the plane” and they may brace themselves for a crash landing.  If you run out of time, skip to the conclusion – I hope you have one – and wrap it up without telling them that you don’t know how to manage your time.
3. Never Say You Are About to Wrap Up.  How can this possibly help the congregation?  I confess that I have been comforted by hearing this occasionally because it gives hope that the sermon will indeed end.  This more often backfires in my opinion, because speakers rarely wrap up right after they say they are about to wrap up.  Just land the plane!  Saying things like “I’m about to wrap up” or “we’re almost done” or “I’ll end with this” rarely help in my opinion.  If you really are about to wrap up, just do it.

Next time I’ll tell you how I really feel … 🙂