Is it ungodly to work on your sermon delivery?

‘Just preach the word brother’, said the older preacher to his young apprentice. The younger man had expressed a desire to mature in the craft of communicating. The older man gently but firmly implied this was a waste of time – perhaps even an ungodly way to think about preaching.

The older man’s concerns are not unfounded. Preachers are not called to be stand-up comedians, slick rhetoricians or uber-charismatic vision-casters.

Paul’s command to Timothy was ‘preach the word’ (2 Tim. 4:2). We must not neglect the primary work of teaching truth and refuting error. The fruit of proclamation is God’s work – one of His ordinary means of grace – by which His word does not return to Him void (Isaiah 55:11). As Paul wrote to the Corinthians: ‘I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth’ (1 Cor. 3:6).