Questions for the Preacher

These may not be the only or even the most important questions to ask in assessing a sermon but they are good ones, it seems to me.

Here is Mark Meynell drawing on T. David Gordon, Why Johnny Can't Preach?

All in all, we should strive for a combination of all 5 of these preaching hallmarks (which Gordon distils from the 7 ‘Cardinal Requisites’ in Dabney’s ‘Lectures on Sacred Rhetoric’):

1. Textual Fidelity: does the significant point of the sermon arise out of the significant point of the text?
2. Unity: if 10 people are asked after the sermon what it was about, will at least 8 give the same (or similar) answer?
3. Order: could hearers compare notes and restate how the sermon progressed from point to point?
4. Evangelical tone: Is the sermon Christ-centred? Do hearers get the impression that the preacher is for them or against them?
5. Instructiveness: does the sermon significantly engage the mind, or is the sermon full of commonplace clichés, slogans and general truths? Is the hearer likely to rethink his/her views of God, society, church, or self, or his/her reasons for holding current views?