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When Your Pastor Preaches a Sermon Dud![]() It is a high calling, and some of those sermons will be excellent, many of them will be good, and a few of them will stretch the definition of the word “sermon.” But predictably, there will be a number of good and godly pastors who, on any given Sunday, will stand in the pulpit and deliver — well, how shall we say this? — a sermon dud. Now what? This was a question taken up by John Newton (1725–1807), the slave trader turned pastor, the author of the great hymn “Amazing Grace,” and the much-praised author of hundreds of incredible spiritual letters. Amazing Grace and Boring SermonsNewton was also a preacher, but you wouldn’t know it because, in truth, Newton’s own sermons were not applauded like his other work, certainly not like his hymns and letters. He was convinced that extemporaneous preaching was best (preaching without notes), but the final evidence over his pulpit career indicates this was probably not a wise decision. Tim Keller calls Newton’s sermons “fairly stodgy and pedestrian” (Newton on the Christian Life, 24). And even one of his friends, an eyewitness of Newton in the pulpit, admitted, “his utterance was far from clear, and his attitudes ungraceful” (Works of John Newton, 1:cx). What Newton lacked in dull sermons, he made up for in his genuine love for his people, but in the pulpit, dare I say it, Newton was not immune from riffing a sermon dud of his own. So how should a congregation respond? The Weakness of PreachersIn a letter on how to listen to sermons, Newton explained:
Whoa, wait, blame sharing? Newton goes on:
Newton asks us to stop and consider the struggles and the sacrifices and the challenges your pastor faces on a regular basis. The demands of pastoral ministry and preaching are great. Not to mention family demands. And on top of the demands, in many cases the pastor carries within himself a greater desire to serve you than he has the gifts to make it happen. He wants to stir the affections of his people, and yet knows how hard this aim is in reality. A pastor’s chronic self-disappointment is common, and it’s a terrible weight upon the soul of a humble pastor. He sees his own weaknesses perhaps better than anyone else. The Blame Might Be OursPerhaps here Newton is writing out of personal experience, ever haunted by his times watching the great George Whitefield preach sermons. Whatever the case, at this point in the letter Newton characteristically turns the table on his reader.
He explains:
Strong and helpful words from Newton. Six Reminders for ListenersWhen we hear a sermon dud, we should remember:
Like all of his letters, Newton makes his points clear. In this case, sermon duds are inevitable, but they are useful to expose both the needs of our pastors and the needs of our own hearts, too. May we never stop praying for our pastor, as he earnestly labors in prayer and in preaching for us. More from Desiring God
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