Let’s talk about preaching for a moment…
You open your Bible. You open a commentary. You start building your outline.
There’s one question sitting underneath all of it, and most weeks it never gets asked out loud.
Who is this sermon actually for?
Not the room. A person.
The Sunday Nobody Notices
Four different people sit in your church every week, and they hear four different sermons, even though you only wrote one. One is testing whether any of this is real. One already believes and wants to know what to do with it on Monday. One is leading a group or a team and needs language to hand off. One has been faithful for twenty years and has quietly stopped being stretched by any of it.
You wrote for all four. Chances are you reached none of them specifically.
Here’s the test. Read your outline back and ask who, specifically, needed to hear it. If the honest answer is “everyone” or “the church,” you built for an audience. You didn’t build for a person, and audiences listen a lot longer than they move.
Where Sermon Prep Actually Breaks
Most sermons get built around a text, a topic, or a felt need in general terms. All three are legitimate starting points. The break happens one step later, when none of the three ever gets narrowed down to a person.
A sermon built around a topic answers a question nobody in the room has actually asked yet. A sermon built around a person moves someone forward, this week, in a direction they can name.
To some extent, every preacher already knows this. The gap is rarely conviction. It’s a missing step in the process, the one where you pick the person before you pick the point.
Build the Sermon Around One Person
Every Sunday has a Seeker, a Student, a Shaper, and a Steward sitting in it. These are the categories I unpack in RE:MODEL, built upon The 5 Rights Framework. You don’t get to choose whether they show up. You do get to choose which one you build for, and that choice changes almost everything downstream, from your illustrations to your closing line.
The Seeker
The Seeker is testing the claims of Christianity, not assuming them. Build for the Seeker and your language shifts. You define terms instead of assuming them, and you address the doubt before the doctrine. The application isn’t a discipline to adopt. It’s a question worth sitting with: what would it cost you if this turned out to be true?
The Student
The Student has crossed the line of belief and wants to know how to live inside it. Build for the Student and the sermon gets practical fast, less about why it’s true and more about what it looks like Monday morning. The application is one specific behavior to practice this week, not a theology to admire from a distance.
The Shaper
The Shaper is already leading something, a group, a team, a ministry, and needs language they can hand to someone else by Tuesday. Build for the Shaper and you preach with reproducibility in mind. The application is a conversation to have with the people they lead, not just a private takeaway for themselves.
The Steward
The Steward has been faithful long enough to get comfortable, and comfort is exactly what needs disrupting. Build for the Steward and the application isn’t more information. It’s a recommitment, a specific area they’ve quietly stopped stewarding and need named out loud.
Four people. Four different applications. One text, one Sunday, one decision about which of the four you’re building for.
The Move This Week
You don’t need four sermons. I hope that’s good news. You do need one decision made before you write the first line.
Before you open your notes this week, write one word at the top of the page: Seeker, Student, Shaper, or Steward. Not the topic. Not the text reference. The person.
- Choose one of the four stages before you start outlining.
- Build your illustration and your application specifically for that person, and let the other three overhear a sermon that wasn’t written for them. That’s normal, and it still works.
Specificity is what turns a sermon into a next step instead of a nice thought.
One More Thing
If this hit close to home, it’s worth working through with more than a blog post. Reply to this and tell me what you’re wrestling with. I read every email myself. Gavin@gavinadams.com. Also, RE:MODEL releases on September 8. And I have a Free Church Think Tank that same day at 1:00 PM EST. Save your seat today.Â
Quotes to Share
- “Audiences listen. People move.”
- “A sermon built around a topic answers a question nobody in the room has asked yet.”
- “Pick the person before you pick the point.”
Helping You Add More Intention To Your Mission,
Dr. Gavin Adams
