I’ve actually assembled more than ten things church members have told pastors immediately after they preached. But these are ten responses where pastors have had the most visceral reactions.
- “I am going to be late for lunch because you preached so long.”
- “You must not have had much time to prepare that sermon.”
- “My former pastor preached a much better sermon from that text.”
- “I wish {fill in the blank} would have heard that sermon.”
- “You act like you weren’t feeling well while you preached.”
- “I’m sorry I fell asleep while you were preaching. Your voice just puts me to sleep.”
- “Your subject/verb agreement was incorrect three times in your sermon.”
- “I wish you wouldn’t preach from the Old Testament.”
- “Let me tell you what you missed in your sermon.”
- “Are we ever going to be done with this sermon series?”
Pastors often take 10 to 20 hours to prepare a sermon. They pray for God to speak through them. They preach with conviction and fervency. And then they hear one of these sentences.
These ten responses are close approximations of what pastors have actually told me. I am sure there are many more. Let us hear what they are.
Posted on March 2, 2015
With nearly 40 years of ministry experience, Thom Rainer has spent a lifetime committed to the growth and health of local churches across North America.
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231 Comments
When your the Youth Pastor and everyone tells you they “can’t wait until your a ‘real pastor’ someday” or “can’t wait to see what God does in your ministry one day.” Words cannot express how discouraging and painful that can be.
I think most people who say those things intend them as compliments, though they could use a better choice of words.
“Better luck next time.”
That is really funny.
At my second church I had a deacon tell me one time, “Mickey, just preach me a sermon that will make me feel good and get me through the week.”
That’s too common.
I’ve had this one said to me by a layman: “if I had been preaching your sermon, I’d have said…” I wanted to kindly reply, “when God calls you to preach, go for it! Until then, why not listen and learn!”
Had a friend who filled in the last minute for the pastor. After the service, a lady shook his hand and said, “I’ve heard worse.” Then left.
totally agree brother,as a pastor it is hard sometimes to minister
When you know that people actually do those things we have learned that maybe they all didn’t get it but those that did received was bless and we can take comfort despite those bad remarks that we have obeyed the Lord and that’s makes it worthwhile!
What really amazes me is that church members think they are qualified to judge what they think is a good or bad sermon. A deacon recently said to me regarding my perching in general, “You’re smarter than me, you’re over my head, you don’t connect with people, and you preach straight through your points, but that must just be your style.” The first part about me being smarter and over his head was fine, but the last part of that statement really irritated me. What qualifies a ninny like him with no seminary training in Greek, Hebrew, homiletics, hermeneutics, Church History, or Theology to critique me? I don’t go to his job and critique him and tell him what he needs to do better. I don’t go to my doctor or my lawyer and tell them how they should do better, but for some reason, church members think they know as much or more that their pastors do. One last comment, a lady came up to me after one of my sermons and said, “well, you’re getting better all the time.” I retorted back and jokingly said, “so, are you saying that my other sermons were bad?” Sometimes, I don’t know why my wife and I have not been committed.
I get how frustrating it can be to be told how to do your job by people who haven’t been trained, but that’s part of the beauty of preaching. It’s an interactive endeavour. Preachers can, and must, do the hard work of digging into the text, but they also have to do the hard work of figuring out how to communicate it so that their particular audience can hear it.
I remember preaching for a few months in a blue-collar, not-highly educated context just when I was fresh off of completing a ph.d. The sermon that I could tell connected the best with the congregation was one that I thought in my own head was incredibly simplistic and obvious. In sermons where I tried to make more elegant and sophisticated moves I was not preaching to the audience I had. It’s a humbling experience.
These sort of things, rather than hurting us, should be seen as a great opportunity to pray for these people. Hurtful comments are often a symptom of a heart that is not right with God. God desires to transform their lives too. And maybe it will just take some dedicated prayer to see God move.
I’m completely not at all surprised by these comments.
Since we now live in the day where a large percentage of those filling the pews are of the: “IT’S ALL ABOUT ME MINDSET”; some have taken on the self-appointed role of being the official church review critic where every facet of the Sunday morning worship experience is analyzed and criticized.
Since in some way the preacher or someone else in the worship team has failed to adequately entertain them properly they feel it their responsibility to make sure those involved hear about it so that it doesn’t happen again.
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“Keep practicing”
“I kept telling the camera guys that you were finishing up. But then you just kept going”
“I thought of a 4th point to add to your sermon….”
“You really repeated yourself a bunch of times”
“How long have you been preaching?” (Said very condescendingly)
I had a lady ‘try’ to give a complement just recently; “You’re preaching is growing on me.” ie I didn’t previously care for your preaching. I’ve been at the church for 5 years 🙂 — All taken in love. It isn’t about us anyway. Just handle the word carefully and accurately and serve well. 🙂 Happy Monday.
Above all, keep a sense of humor about it. It looks like you’re doing that quite well.
“When are you going to start preaching from the real Bible?” (referring to KJV)
“I’m not feeling well these days (hasn’t for years)…” followed by a long list of maladies as the line backs up.
“Nice sermon – but announcements should be longer and about the good things going on in town like the Kiwanis picnic and the Rotary minstrel review!”
“Can’t you make the young people keep their babies and children quiet so I can hear your sermon which is probably marvelous?”
“When are you going on vacation so we can hear that great supply pastor preach again.”
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