A central finding of the research to date is that listeners value preaching, asserting that the sermon is the component of the church service most likely to impact their spiritual growth. In fact, listeners love their preachers and declare statistically what one respondent articulated in her written comment, “Pastor ain’t broke—don’t fix him!” At the same time, listeners’ responses also reveal that it’s the rare sermon that creates lasting change. Pastors and listeners agree that such change is the desired result of sermon communication, and yet it’s unusual. An analysis of these rare sermons that are “most likely to succeed” in the challenging task of spiritual transformation reveals the following characteristics. Read more…
by, Lori Carrell at Rev Mag
