When Your Sermon Bombs
When Your Sermon Bombs
We are now turning from the previous series about preaching without notes. The title of this post reflects my experience last week. I agreed to do two chapels at a local Christian High and Middle Schools. What do you do when your sermon bombs, doesn’t seem to hit the target.
This is not my usual audience, to say the least. I’m 73 years old. I thought much about what to say. Much prayer was offered about what to say. Finally, I came up with what I thought was a meaningful message for teenagers. In the introduction, I told them how I had agreed to speak in their chapel. I was praying one day and said to the Lord that I’d like to preach more. I would go anywhere, no matter how far, no matter if I’m paid or not, or the size of the audience. The next thing I know, I get an email invitation to speak at this school chapel. The first chapel would be for high schoolers, the second–same message–for middle schoolers. Frankly, teenagers are no my favorite audience, no matter the situation. But my wife reminded me of my promise to God.
I then told them that they could see that. As a child my family did not own a television. I remember the first television that we owned (and showed a picture). A rotary telephone was the next picture and I described dialing it Nobody had a computer. Even colleges such as the one I went to purchased computer time from companies or large universities. a So, what do I have to say to teenagers? I shared that as I prayed about this, I put this question into ChatGpt: What is life like for teenagers today? The statistics were alarming. Here are some of them:
- At any given time 45% of teenagers feel sad and hopeless. 57% of young women report those feelings;
- 30% at any given time are considering suicide–it is the second leading cause of death for teens;
- 9.7% are clinically depressed.
There are Two Great Realities
I then shared that there are two great realities in our world: There is an enemy, Satan, whose name means Adversary; and there is the God of resurrection and all power and authority. Satan’s mission, according to Jesus, is to Kill, steal and destroy. I shared a couple of instances where I had seen Satan at work in lives. I also shared the power of Jesus to overcome the evil one. The power of the Name of Jesus is great.
Take Care of Each Other as a Bombing Theme
The second thing I encouraged was for them to look out for each other. The power of one person coming along a sad an hopeless person is great.
I did share Scripture for each of these points.
The Reactions When Your Sermon Bombs
Another thing you need to know is that the schedule for the chapel was 23 minutes.. I figured there would be some praise time led by a team of teenagers. So, I planned a message for about 15 minutes. When I got to the meeting room I was told it was just me. That left me filling for several minutes at the end.
When I got there I was asked whether I wanted the lights up or down while speaking. I said that I wanted them up so that I could read the audience, something I’ve gotten pretty good at.
Halfway through the message I wished the lights were down. The reactions were non-existent. I was bombing. That’s not something I’m used to. I’m a very good preacher. I know how to get attention from the audience and hold it. But, to my judgment at that moment, I knew that I would once again face that moment when your sermon bombs.
Mercifully, the chapels were over, and I went home to lunch with my wife–who had been praying for me. “How did it go?” was the first question. “It was bad!” was my response.
What do you do when your sermon bombs? And how do you ultimately judge whether it was a bomb or not?
In the next post, I’ll tell you what God did with that bombing message. In the meantime, here’s another resource to reflect on the subject when your sermon bombs.
