Preacher's Block

This preaching tip was shared by Preacher’s Block co-founder, Hunter Bethea. If you’re interested in joining the most focused preachers in the world and getting these tips sent to your inbox every week, sign up here.

Earlier this week, I was at a gathering where the speaker said, “We all remember pastoring through COVID…” (changing details a bit to protect the innocent). I graduated from seminary in 2023 and was sitting next to someone who was even younger than I. The speaker saying that made me realize that I was an outlier in the room and frankly, made me wonder if he considered pastors like me when he was prepping what he wanted to say.

We can do the same thing when we preach. I’ve heard preachers say things like, “We all know the hymn, ‘Amazing Grace,’” knowing good and well that someone in the church hadn’t grown up in church and had come to Christ in a contemporary setting. I’ve heard preachers say, “You remember the movie XYZ,” even though I’ve never seen that movie. I’ve heard preachers say “We all saw on the news this week…” but it didn’t show up on the media outlets I saw.

When we assume that everyone has the same knowledge as us, we do two things 1) make people feel “othered” (not fitting in with the rest of the group), and 2) show that we’re not thinking about everyone when we’re preaching. Making assumptions that aren’t accurate to our whole congregation makes them liable to tune us out. Avoid the assumptions.