Posted by Joel Southerland

Does your preaching have a “melody”?  It should.

If you will listen closely, you will notice that good preachers have a melody to their preaching.

What do I mean by melody?  Good preaching has a rhythm to it, like a good song.  A random collection of musical notes does not make a good song, and a random collection of words, points, illustrations, and appeals does not make a good sermon.

The message needs a melody, an almost predictable rhythm that the listener can subconsciously “sync up” with as the sermon flows, both in the content and the delivery.

In order to have melody in your content, the sermon needs the words and principles organized into a consistent logical order that the listener learns to anticipate and follow. You get melody in delivery by having a rhythm to your voice and body language.

Now, in case you’re wondering, I’m not talking about a “preacher voice.”  That kind of “patterning” can be distracting.

I’m not talking about something overt either, as in, say, the African-American tradition.  Nothing wrong with that per se, but this melody is one white boys can have.  It’s just subtle.

The melody needs to be there, nonetheless.  And the better your listeners learn to follow the melody, the more relaxed and attentive they will be while listening.

If you are a preaching pastor, the congregation needs the benefit of the same melody from sermon to sermon.  Not the same message, the same melody.

When a preacher’s delivery style and sermon organization are consistently prepared and of good quality week to week, this creates a beautiful “pulpit “song.  Your congregation will learn to trust you.  They will give you an energy while you preach.  They will learn to “sing” with you.

The melody is not a rut - it is a rhythm.  The rhythm is not something with which the listeners get bored.  The rhythm is the music that helps deliver the words and message.  Develop the melody of your preaching and your preaching effectiveness will take a giant leap forward.

In the two upcoming posts I’ll share some ideas on how to develop a melody and then how to keep the rhythm from becoming a rut.

Until then, keep singing!