How to Trim Down a Sermon

How to Trim Down a Sermon

For me, the hardest part of preparing a teaching or sermon is figuring out what information to leave out. Cutting down a sermon is incredibly difficult. This difficulty is compounded by the fact that it is very hard to find actual guidance on how to trim down a sermon. There are dozens of great resources for how to write better sermons, how to outline, how to write sermon application. But I have found very little concrete guidance for how to discern what parts of a sermon to keep, and what to edit out.

The Problem of Over-stuffed Sermons

There is an unfortunate tendency to equate a good, Biblical sermon with how many details a preacher or teacher gives. This tendency leads to what I will call “over-stuffed” sermons. These are sermons that are Biblical, sound, but try to communicate too much information in the allotted time slot. Sermons that are over-stuffed end up becoming less clear to the congregation. Listeners spend so much time trying to keep track of the many details you are giving rather than meditating on the main point of the text.

Now, I want to make an important distinction before going on. As a Bible-teacher or preacher, you must go into a great level of detail in your analysis when preparing a sermon. In your Bible study leading up to a preaching or teaching, you must dig into any and all details contained in your text. You must cross-reference, outline, look up the original languages, make observation after observation, and more if you want to get to the meaning of the text you are teaching. However, the art of preaching is in discerning which details to actually present to your congregation in a Sunday morning sermon. In other words, when you go from your study to the pulpit, you must trim down your sermon to only the most important textual details. If you simply go up and preach your detailed Bible study notes, chances are you are preaching and over-stuffed sermon.

The Solution: Trim Down Your Sermon to the Essential Details

In my experience, sermon length is generally driven by how many details you end up communicating in your sermon. How many points and sub-points do you have? How many words do you define from the pulpit? What cross-references do you include? Historical anecdotes? Illustrations? Applications? Therefore, to trim down a sermon, you must discern which of these details are essential to communicate, and which are secondary. The essential details should end up in your final sermon. Secondary details, on the other hand, you can trim out of your sermon to fit your allotted time and to ensure your congregation does not get lost in an over-stuffed teaching.

This seems obvious so far. But the question is how do you trim down a sermon? How can you discern which details are essential and which are secondary? Most of the time when I have asked for guidance on trimming down a sermon, I have gotten some form of “there is an art to it” or “I’m not that great at it myself, so I’m a bad example.” While it is certainly difficult to make universal rules, there is a helpful process you can go through to at least help you discern what details are essential and which are not. The process is simple: go through each section, point, detail, or cross reference in the first draft of your manuscript, and ask the following four questions (in order):

1. Does this detail give information that is mostly repeated elsewhere in the sermon?

I call this the “redundancy” test. Repetition is important in communication, but if you go to 10 cross-references in a sermon which all make the same point, maybe you can cut 8-9 of those cross-references and save yourself (and your listeners) some time. If a sermon point, observation, or application is too similar to information previously given in your sermon, you should probably cut it. Redundant details are by definition secondary and non-essential.

Each detail you choose to include in a sermon should move your preaching forward. If your application contains a point you already made earlier in your sermon, you can safely cut that application. If your text uses the same Greek word twice and you defined it earlier in the sermon, don’t bother going through the definition again when you come to it a second time. Of course, there are exceptions to this rule. But 90% of the time, giving excessive redundant details tires the listener and eats away at the time you have to preach. You can trim down a sermon quickly by removing redundant details.

2. Does this detail give new information that is not directly related to the main point of the text?

I call this the “relevance” test. Sometimes, a sermon point or other detail might indeed give new, non-redundant information. But just because information is new does not mean you should include it. You must discern whether the detail is related to the main point of the text you are preaching or not. There is a time and a place for “rabbit holes” where you go off on a tangent semi-related to the text you are preaching out of. But if you do this repeatedly, you will end up spending most of your time teaching on concepts found elsewhere in the Bible but not in the text you are supposed to be preaching.

A good practice for discerning the relevance of sermon details is to explicitly write out what you think the main point of the text is. Summarize in a sentence or two what the Biblical author is communicating and what reality your text points to. Then, as you go through each point, sub-point, or other detail in your sermon manuscript, ask “does this connect to the main point or reality of the text?” If the answer is no, the information is secondary and can be cut from your sermon. You can trim down a sermon by discerning which details are relevant to the main point of the text and which details are not.

3. Does this detail clarify all or part of the main point of the text?

I call this the “clarification” test. If a detail you want to include in your sermon clarifies all or part of the main point of your text, it is most likely essential. As mentioned in the previous section, if you explicitly write out the main point of your text, this test becomes very easy. If the definition of a word is crucial for understanding the text’s main point, then it is a crucial detail to include. If a cross-reference to a clearer text sheds light on the text you are preaching, then you should probably include that cross reference.

Of course, too much “clarification” can cause you to become redundant. So ensure that each clarifying detail does, in fact, directly clarify the main point of your text and is not repeated elsewhere in your sermon. Check to see that the clarifying details you include are related to the main point of the text, not secondary points. Details that clarify the main point can safely be labeled “essential” and kept in your sermon. But if you find yourself clarifying sub-points, maybe save those details for another sermon.

4. Does this detail connect the main point of your text to a broader Biblical concept or doctrine?

I call this the “connection” test, and it is the most difficult one to do well. Because the Bible is a unified whole, you can always find connections between your text and other texts, themes, and doctrines. If you try to connect your text to everything you will end up failing the other three tests above. But part of preaching is showing how your particular text fits into the rest of Scripture. Details that connect the main point of your text to a great Bible doctrine or a great Bible theme are often essential and should be included.

As an example, imagine you are preaching on a text whose main point relates to justification by faith. You likely will want to connect your text to other passages which deal with this theme, like Romans 3. As long as you avoid being redundant or going down a rabbit hole, such doctrinal or thematic connections can help your congregation see the unity of Scripture and add weight to the text you are currently teaching. To help do this well, after you write out the main point of your text, ask yourself “what key doctrine or key Bible theme does this text most connect to?” From there, you can ensure that you keep any details in your sermon that connect your text with this doctrine/theme or cross-reference to other texts on the same doctrine/theme.

Conclusion: Trim Down Your Sermon Thoughtfully and Carefully

The goal of this post isn’t to cause you to second-guess every detail you include in your sermon. Rather, I want to give you a more structured way to thoughtfully and carefully trim down your sermon. While knowing what to cut and what to include is certainly an art, you can become better at it with practice. By applying the four questions above to different sections of your sermon, you will be surprised how much easier it is to decide what to keep and what to cut. As always, this process requires much prayer and considering your own congregation that you preach to.

If you keep “glorifying God through faithful and clear communication of your text” as the goal of your preaching, then trimming down your sermon can become just another act of faithfulness and worship.

For more tools to help you prepare sermons and teachings, click here. If you want to look over tools to help your own Bible study, click here. If you found this post helpful, share and subscribe below.

Comments are closed.