I recently came across the preaching books of J. Ellsworth Kalas. I wish I had known about his teaching earlier in my ministry; it would have saved me no small number of homiletical sins.

In 2003, Ellsworth published a handy little volume, Preaching from the Soul: Insistent Observations on the Sacred Art. The book is almost autobiographical as it unfolds Ellsworth’s conviction that “soul preaching happens when the speaker seeks to deliver not only a message, but his or her own soul, and to deliver it in a way that it reaches the soul of the hearer.” Good preaching inclinations will come from such a view. One such instinct relates to sermon introductions.

5 Points on Sermon Introductions

Ellsworth knows the old way of introducing sermons is not the best today. For most congregations, gone are the days when the preacher could rise to the pulpit and have his first sentence be, “Luke’s gospel tells us . . .”; or, “Today’s text in Colossians announces . . .”

A better way to think about introducing the sermon, Ellsworth says, is to think of it as a social interaction. In the introduction, we say something like, “Sermon and People, I really want you to know one another.” He writes,

We can’t always preach what people want to hear; indeed, we shouldn’t even try, lest we lose our prophetic credentials. But we do want the sermon to be heard, and that won’t happen (especially with unattractive themes) unless we entice interest at the outset. So my business, in the introduction, is first of all, to introduce two dear friends—the congregation I love, and the sermon I love.

Ellsworth then moves to provide five “qualities of a good sermon introduction.” No point is revolutionary. Rather, each one is clear, sane, and practical. I hear too many sermons in my line of work that can’t grasp the basics of an introduction, so here are the five points with some tiny commentary from the book.

• A good sermon introduction should be intimately related to the subject of the sermon. “This is so obvious, so commonsense, that I would be embarrased to say it if it weren’t that so few introductions accomplish it. Quite simply, an introduction is no good unless it introduces.”
  
• The introduction should consist of a single thought. “Listeners aren’t ready for complexity as the sermon begins; indeed, complexity is likely to discourage them from lisenting.”
  
• The introduction should usually be brief. “If [the introduction] becomes an end in itself, it fails as an introduction.”
  
• Prepare the introduction with special care. “No wasted words here, no fumbling about. The speaker may seem to be very casual, very low key, but never out of control. On the whole, I don’t favor memorizing a sermon, even though I plead strongly for preaching wihtout notes or manuscript. However, if any part of a sermon is justifiably memorized, it is the opening sentences.”
  
• The introduction should arouse curiosity and interest. “Most worshipers come to the sermon willing to listen, but also with several competing thoughts on their minds. The preacher’s task is to make the sermon more interesting than those other matters, and than can be quite an assignment.”