The Church Answers Podcast
Changing a Sermon at the Last Minute
- Welcome to the Church Answers Podcast, presented by Chanian Associates. Chanian Associates are the accounting firm for the church. Now get ready for fast-paced insights on key issues affecting the local church today. We release three episodes each week, so make sure you've seen or heard them all. And now, here's the CEO of Church Answers, Tom Rayner. - Welcome to the Church Answers Podcast. I am Tom Rayner, I'm joined by Jess Rayner. And we talk all things church here. We talk about a lot of things. You may say, "What has that got to do with the church?" But it all comes back to the church. We are local church folks, we love the local church, and we're all about the ministry of the local church. As always, we are sponsored by Chanian Associates. I've mentioned it many, many times, but if you have any type of accounting that you need done in your church, any type of bookkeeping, you go to Chanian Associates. They are the accounting firm for the church and they're cloud-based, so they can serve you anywhere. Last number I had, they're serving over 1,100 churches, there's probably a whole lot more. And by the time this releases, it will be very close. The first ever Church Answers Research Project will be released presenting sponsor, Chanian Associates, so you'll hear more about that. Jess, we're going to talk about sermons. Now, most people know that, listen to me, know that I sit under your preaching, and most of the time, most of the time, and sometimes I sit under your brother's preaching and with in Bradenton, Florida, but I sit under your preaching, and this is almost- - Which one do you like better? - Oh, yours, yeah, definitely. And then when I do rain on leadership, I'll have another answer as I talk to Sam as well. - Okay, okay. - It's a good thing. Good thing you have two different podcasts 'cause I can provide two different answers and they're both true at the same time. So we want to talk about sermons specifically, and this is going to be more of me asking you because as you know, several years ago, I made a commitment not to accept preaching engagements and to sit under preaching, to actually be a church member. I wrote a book called, "I Am a Church Member." I don't know if you've ever heard of it, but I wrote this book called, "I Am a Church Member." And I said, "You know what, I'm not. "I need to be one." I was entitled, but I wanted to experience church from the perspective of those who make up the pew, the chairs, whatever the case may be, the laity, the members of the church. So I sat under your preaching and you know I'm going brag on you. I think you're one of the best preachers around period. I would rather listen to you than almost anybody. And I know you think that that's just coming from your dad. No, that would be your mom who would be giving you unconditional praise all the time. I'm usually conditional, so take mine and know that it is well earned and well respected. So let's get to this topic. First of all, we're talking about changing a sermon at the last minute. Before we get into the what? Let's talk about the why. Why would you change a sermon at the last minute? I mean, I've seen you, or at least, I've seen you working coffee shops and your office and your home office and you're putting hours and hours into it, why on earth or maybe heaven? Would you change a sermon at the last minute whether it's the night before or even the morning off? - Yeah, this topic is actually tough for me 'cause I personally, I am big in my preparation. So I have a very routines not the good word. I have a system that I go through. There's things that I do in repetition that I've found that works for me. Now, obviously, the Holy Spirit moves, so I don't wanna hear that just 'cause I have a rhythm or a system, does it mean I'm not absolutely praying through my sermon prep, letting the Holy Spirit move your sermon prep and does change? But the end result for me is I typically have things planned out, I don't make a lot of last minute changes, but you asked the question, why would you? And so for me, while I have not and last minute is a bit subjective, for me, last minute, maybe a week before, for some people, it literally made me last minute. I have made last minute changes to a sermon, but not necessarily a last minute sermon change. But what does cause me to do that? Some of the things I can think of just off the top of my head, just major world events, major life events, something that happens that you know is gonna be on the forefront of everyone's mind. Especially if it happens on a couple of days before and you don't have time to send an email or to address it, that to me from a pastoral shepherding has to happen, whether it happens during the sermon or another time during the service, that would be one of the times I would change it. Another time I think would be a major church event. You know, as something is happening inside the life of the church that is visible, noticeable, that's usually a good time to change as well. And then for me, this has probably been the most common reason I would have changed it. It's just from a shepherding perspective. You know, I'll get into a sermon and I will, I'll have, you know, the Holy Spirit lays something on my heart that I just need to shepherd, you know, those who are gonna be there on Sunday in a particular way. And I'll shift, you know, like I said, I don't think I've ever really shifted a whole sermon, but I've definitely shifted major parts of a sermon just because I felt like the church in line with the text needed to hear something a little bit different than I had planned that was with the text. So that's just quick thinking off the top of my head. - Well, no, it's right where everybody wants us to be right now to talk about this. I have also seen you not necessarily change the sermon but find a place in the service to talk about the issue. Now, let me just bring one right away. I mean, this has been released in late August, but from the point that we're recording this, it hasn't been that long ago of the assassination attempt on Donald Trump. Now, you avoid politics and political issues, divisive political issues. Let me put it that way. You don't stay away from conventional issues, but you avoid divisive issues. And if I remember correctly, you talked about that maybe during the welcome time and you said a few words and you basically said, I know that this is on your mind. We're praying for our country. You may remember it better than I do, but I remember you did not do it in the sermon, but you made sure you talked to the congregation about it. - Actually, that one I did do in the sermon. Typically, I'm listening. - Yeah, I'm listening. - Typically, when those things happen, I'll address it either during the welcome and we also have a prayer time during our services. So there are multiple times during a service that I can shepherd our people through that. So welcome or a prayer time. That particular one was a sermon change. I changed my beginning, my introduction of my sermon to talk specifically about that issue. And again, it was in line with the text. I had already had a wrestling about my intro. I never felt comfortable with it. There's something in my spirit that was stirring. And then it was like, okay, that's why. 'Cause this happened and I think this is a perfect reason to talk about the text that we're talking about. So yeah, that was one of the cases I did. It was in a full sermon change, but it was probably the first seven minutes of the sermon. - So let's do some takeaways before we go any further. One takeaway is it doesn't have to be a full sermon change. It can be a partial sermon change. Another takeaway is it does not even have to happen in the sermon. If there's something that is pressing in your case, you could do it during the announcements or probably even more so during our corporate prayer time that we have together. Another thing is changing at the last minute could mean for some people last minute or it could mean for some people the day before, two days before or the middle of the week. But we're talking about you, you do have a rhythm and it's these times when you break the rhythm that you have to say, why am I doing this? Now the next question I wanna ask is this. This is totally subjective, just guess. How many times a year do you think you have to, you do that typically? You've preached enough. I would have my own guess, but I would like to hear your guess because some of our listeners will wanna know the frequency that you did this. - Yeah, so I though in the church I serve, I preach about 40 to 42 times a year. - You have other elders who preach. - I would think significant change. I'm talking like a sermon point and introduction. I do small things pretty consistently, a significant change. I'm gonna put somewhere in that five to 10 range a year. - I was going to say five. I was going to go in the low end, I was gonna say five, but I don't know that. But let's just say it is five. And let's say that you have a 20 year ministry somewhere. That's a hundred times that you make some type of significant change in a sermon. So it's going to happen. And I guess the word is don't be surprised when it happens and just trust God that he'll take care of you when it does happen. - Right. And it all goes back for me. It all goes back to the shepherding heart. You know, when I'm preparing a sermon, I am thinking about the people that God has put in my church. And so I am looking at it from a shepherding perspective. And if I know I'm going to, if they're gonna walk in on Sunday morning, which is when we have our worship times, and that's gonna be heavy on their hearts and minds, it has to be addressed. If you, as a shepherd, you've got to be able to take that moment and whatever, if it's an issue within the church, issue with outside the church, you've got to lead them through that. And if it doesn't necessarily, I don't like to make things fit just because I need to do it. And that's why if it's not in the sermon time, I'm going to address it another time during the service. But it's ultimately a shepherding decision on making last minute changes led by the Holy Spirit. I do, I think the Holy Spirit drives it, but it's from a shepherding heart. - And that is a good way to wrap this up. And hey, if you preach on a regular basis and you have to make some changes, leave us a comment, I'd love to hear from you. We're at YouTube, you can subscribe, you can give us a thumbs up. Of course, many of you listen on your favorite podcasting app, just on social media. Give us some indication of how you do this or maybe some illustrations. We'd love to hear from you as well. - As always, we thank Chaney and Associates, the accounting firm for the church. Be on the lookout if it's not already out, the new research project presented by Chaney and Associates in the next couple of episodes. I might give you a little more detail on that. As always, thank you for joining us on the Church Answers Podcast. We've got another one come up. We'll see you in the next edition. - You have been listening to the Church Answers podcast presented by Chaney and Associates. Chaney and Associates are the accounting firm for the church. We need to focus on ministry. Chaney will focus on finances. Also, please subscribe and give a review to the Church Answers podcast on YouTube and on your favorite podcasting app. (upbeat music) [MUSIC PLAYING]