"My estimate is that I spend a grand total of about eight to 12 hours in the preparation of each sermon I preach," commented the 42-year-old pastor of Emmanuel Church. "In seminary, we were taught we should allow one hour of preparation for each minute in the length of the sermon, but I don't have that much time. I preach from the lectionary, and the last Monday of every month I meet with three other pastors for two hours. Before we meet, each one of us studies the lectionary and the text for each week of the following month. Each of us is expected to come with a preliminary outline of how we would deal with the text. We share ideas, references, how those three texts speak to us, and possible illustrations as well as outlines. I also set aside two hours in the morning twice a week to focus on the sermon for 10 days later. I set aside Thursday mornings to complete the final draft of next Sunday's message. I often rehearse and polish it on Saturday or early Sunday morning if I feel the need and have the time. I used to write out every word, but now I preach from an outline on an index card."

"After 17 years of practice, my guess is that you're near the peak of your learning curve," commented the recently arrived pastor of a nearby church who had dropped in for a get-acquainted visit. "This is my first experience preaching every Sunday morning. After seminary, I served as an associate in a big church where I preached only six or seven times a year during my five years there. I still have a long climb ahead of me on my learning curve. My real question, however, is who are the folks you have in mind as you prepare that sermon? Who is your primary audience? Who is the audience you're addressing in that sermon? From what you've told me, your first audience is yourself and the second is those three other pastors you meet with once a month."

"That may be true," admitted this pastor, "but that doesn't reflect reality. As I study God's word, I am asking myself how the passages of Scripture speak to me. Subsequently, I expand my thinking to ask how those words speak to the congregation we call Emmanuel Church and to what God is calling us to be and to do in this world. How does God's word speak to the concerns that are on the hearts of my people as they gather to praise God and to thank Him for the gift of a Savior? For example, several weeks ago, the Gospel lesson spoke to me about the life and ministry of one of our saints who had been a member here for more than 60 years and who had died a few months earlier. Everyone here knew and loved her. Her funeral brought a larger crowd than any memorial service I've held since I've been here. So I devoted at least 10 or 12 minutes of the sermon to reflect on how her life illustrated the central theme of that passage of Scripture. Afterwards, several people told me that was the best sermon they have heard me preach in my 12 years here."

"If I understand correctly what you're saying, your primary audience is your members," reflected this curious visitor. "The first-time visitors who never knew that saint who had died recently probably were less impressed with that message than were the people who were her long-time friends. You really were directing it at the people who had known her, not first-time visitors."

"That's correct," agreed this shepherd. "On the typical Sunday morning, our own people outnumber first-time visitors by somewhere between a 130-to-0 and a 20-to-1 ratio."

Another Perspective
That answer probably would be shared by at least one-half of the pastors in contemporary American Protestantism. The No. 1 audience for the sermon consists of the people who were here last week and last month. That is the foundation for the conviction that the most relevant messages come from the preacher who is personally acquainted with everyone who will be listening to that sermon. That value is shared by those who believe a sermon should be delivered by a live human being who is physically present in the room with those hearing it. That helps to explain why they dismiss the use of videotaped sermons by strangers as an irrelevant and passing fad.

A completely different response to this question was given by the founding pastor of a congregation launched in 1988 that began with a nucleus of several dozen families and the associate minister from a large congregation that sponsored a new mission every four or five years. Every time they reached the point they were short of space for worship or for parking, that large church sponsored a new mission.

"That's our safety valve," explained the senior minister. "We can't expand here because no land is available, so we provide room for a new wave of newcomers by sending 40 to 60 of our families with a pastor to go out and organize a new mission."

The associate minister who had become the organizing pastor of this new church brought another perspective to this subject.

"At the end of three months, we were averaging close to 120 in the auditorium of a public school as our temporary location. While we picked up a few strangers who were attracted by the lure of helping to pioneer the new, most of our charter members were people who knew me and whom I knew back at the sponsoring church," reflected this young lifelong learner. "They wanted me as their pastor. So, after a few weeks in our first year, I created a rotating committee of 15 volunteers. Every quarter, we replaced five of the 15 with new faces and new voices, but most of these were people I had known back at that sponsoring church. I asked these 15 people to meet with me one evening every month to gain their insights and discover what they wanted for sermon themes in the months ahead. It was clear I retained the freedom to schedule each theme and to reject topics I felt were inappropriate. Two years later, I decided that was a dumb idea. One outcome of this process was that I was preparing sermons for people who had been together for several years. The three main points of commonality that were their references points were the life and ministry of that sponsoring church, a willingness to leave the old and help to pioneer the new, and their long-term relationship with me and with one another. When we began, our hope was we would double our church attendance within two years. What really happened was a 10 percent net increase in two years. One explanation was we had to replace seven of the original families who had moved to another state. The more important explanation was nearly all the charter members already had as many friends as they could keep up with, so newcomers gained the impression we were an exclusionary congregation."

"What did you do about that?" inquired the visitor who had initiated this conversation.

"First, I realized the creation of those rotating groups of 15 people was primarily a response to my need," said the associate minister. "Second, because nearly all the participants were people who had known one another back at the sponsoring church, it meant we were reinforcing what most potential future members perceived to be an exclusionary wall. We abandoned that design and replaced it with an intensive effort to create an array of new small face-to-face groups. The no. 1 criterion in organizing these was that each group would be organized around a precisely defined point of commonality. One group was designed for engaged couples on how to build a healthy, happy, and enduring marriage. Several are organized as Bible study and prayer groups that meet weekly. One that surprised me was a group for parents of twins. One that filled a real need was for displaced homemakers who moved here because their husband's new job forced them to build a new friendship circle for themselves. Another was for people in a bicultural marriage. The one that multiplied from one to four groups in less than a year was for parents of teenagers. Another was one that I would never have thought of was for adults who live alone and was organized around trips to attractive destinations one weekend every month. The most closely knit is a mutual support group for people who recently had experienced the death of a spouse. Another is a coed handbell choir. The youngest is a nine-person band that provides the music for our new Saturday evening service. The most enthusiastic is the worship team that leads the second service on Sunday morning. From my perspective, the most exciting came as the result of building a sister church relationship with a congregation in Peru nine years ago. Every year, a group of nine to 15 of our members spends a week working in ministry with fellow Christians in that sister church in Peru. Five years ago, we expanded that with a new relationship with a sister church in Russia, and two years ago, we added a sister church in Guyana."

"Earlier you said you had two criteria in creating these small groups," added the visitor. "What was the second?"

"Our early goal was no more than three people in each new group were people who had been members back in our sponsoring church, at least three must have joined within the past two years, and at least one or two should come from among those who worship with us, but have never asked to become a member," came the reply. "One purpose was to create opportunities for people to meet and make new friends. I also should add this whole process of organizing and nurturing these small groups has provided me with an abundance of themes for my sermon preparation. I now preach on the themes and concerns the people articulate rather than on what I think will interest them or what the lectionary suggests. One consequence that we had not anticipated was that we replaced that early large fellowship of 100 adults who had known one another for years, and that was perceived by most first-time visitors as an exclusionary clique, with what turned out to be close to 50 small face-to-face groups, each one of which had practiced the skill of welcoming and assimilating strangers. That's the key reason why we now average well over 500 at three weekend worship services."

For more than four decades, Lyle E. Schaller has served as a parish consultant to hundreds of congregations and scores of denominational agencies. His recent books include From Geography to Affinity, The Ice Cube Is Melting, and A Mainline Turnaround.