You’ve preached your sermon and you get to the end of your message… and you realise that you haven’t really thought about the response! Uh oh!
I’ve been in this position myself many times. We focus so much on the message but don’t always think through the response, and when we get to the end, we fumble.
Ironically when giving a talk, you can say too much. Around 2/3rds of your time should be the message, but make sure you give space to helping anchor it with some form of a response. This brings a sense of closure and enactment to your words.
Why Offer a Response?
Every message has a response, whether you like it or not. That response might be indifference, a call to action, a new direction for life or something similar.
We guide people in response because often, there is a challenge to be applied or a motivation to decide about something in their lives. So if you’ve structured your sermon well and brought people to a place of profound decision, don’t leave them there.
Too many preachers deliver a great message and quickly pray and sit down. People have been drawn forward and are ready to do something to cement the idea of the message, but they are abandoned because no opportunity for a response was given.
Rather than leaving the listener to draw their conclusion, help them; this is especially important when preaching to young people, as they don’t always know how to enact the challenge of your message.
The Types of Responses
There are many different ways to respond to a message. You can be creative, reflective, practical and expressive. Then, it’s down to the speaker to think about how the message is landing and how they judge the room’s mood.
Keep logistics in mind. If your response requires physical movement, is the layout of the room a hindrance?
If your message is only for a select group of people, what will you do with everyone who does not respond to the message? Be careful not to leave them hanging.
Responses to a sermon typically fall into two broad categories – thoughts and actions. The two categories can also be combined in a response.
Thoughts: These are reflection exercises or introspection in light of your message. Your message might ask them to think about their own lives and pray a silent personal prayer as a response. It might be that you’ve brought a challenging idea, and you want them to take a moment to meditate on that particular idea.
Actions: These are physical sacraments (more on that later); we ask people to do something practical as a response. These are often symbolic and can be coupled with thoughts.
Guide People Practically
When people respond to a sermon practically, they often need guidance. Do not leave people to work it out for themselves. Guide people with verbal cues and instructions about what you expect to see in the room as you lead a response.
Think about it from the perspective of somebody hearing your message for the first time. How should they respond? What should they do while prayer is taking place? What is expected from them at this moment?
This can be as simple as asking people to make their way forward while people pray for them. Tell them if it’s appropriate to close their eyes or keep them open; consider explaining why. Talk to people gently about some of the experiences that sometimes occur when responding to a message.
Consider what you want people to do if it gets crowded or if someone becomes highly expressive.
Guiding a response is a lot like flying an aeroplane. Just as a powerful engine drives a plane forward, the power of the moment can drive people to deal with issues in their hearts. Just as an aircraft needs gentle movements in those powerful moments, so too does a response moment.
Making Altar Calls
An altar call is best understood as inviting people to come to the front of a meeting where prayer takes place. It is usually in response to a challenging sermon, an invitation to give their lives to following Jesus or an opportunity to make a recommitment.
There are many ways to enact an altar call. Some that I have used in the past are as follows:
- Raising a hand to indicate a willingness to take on the challenge of the sermon.
- Inviting people to stand and/or come forward for a time of prayer.
- Getting people to write something down symbolically placed before God as a sign of surrender.
- Notes to be stuck to a cross as a sign of leaving them with Jesus.
- Writing problems and sins on paper to be burnt.
- Take time to be still collectively in the presence of God.
- Guided meditation scripture.
- Kneeling as a sign of surrender.
Many variations of the above can be used to underscore and drive home the challenge of the message.
Physical Sacraments as a Response
The physical response is not just a novelty. Some studies show that a physical expression helps solidify the determination of the person responding. Enacting a response gives it a stickability that may not always be present by simply letting the message end with no demonstrative response. One study noted that ritual, and by extension, shared responses to a sermon, have positive framing results as we make sense of the world.
It doesn’t need to happen during every message, but many other ministers and I have witnessed the lasting power of responding at the moment of a challenging sermon.
The ancient word for this is a sacrament. Sacraments are an outward expression of inward things. In other words, they are a practical symbol of emotional and spiritual changes in our lives.
Sacraments are things like baptism, communion, laying a hand on in prayer, postures of worship and the noted responses above to challenging sermons.
Directing Simple Reflections
The most straightforward response, or sacrament, is to direct people in reflections. Mindfulness around the message preached is a powerful tool for helping your listener be aware of the presence of God. Unfortunately, we live in a noisy world where we spend very little time being still.
Even for a few moments, practising solitude allows the mental noise in our lives to settle long enough for us to become clear-minded. At that moment, we are quiet enough to hear the still small voice of God- still enough to listen to our emotions. Settled enough to realise the current state of our inward lives.
Managing People Through The Response
When allowed to open up and respond to heart issues, anything can happen! Be ready for tensions and emotions that have been suppressed for so long to bubble over.
It’s okay if people respond in an emotional manner, a quiet and reflective manner, or seemingly not at all. There is no proper response.
Some people have been carrying hurt and pain for so long that God often wants to bring it to the surface in these moments.
Others have a revelation of God’s love or peace and can’t help but laugh or cry with joy.
Still, others will have no emotional response at all. However, that does not mean nothing is happening. I can count on one hand the times I have felt overwhelmed in response, yet when I look back, I realise the power of how moments such as these have impacted my life.
Over the years, ministers have largely ignored emotive responses or overindulged them. However, I believe something spiritual that goes beyond emotions occurs in these moments. As such, I would never want to see them exploited by over-sensationalising them.
If somebody is getting carried away, don’t be afraid to direct how people respond in the room gently. After all, one of the fruits of the Spirit is self-control!
Much like our earlier flight analogy, don’t make sudden and aggressive changes to the mood in the room. Instead, gently guide people, and don’t stop things abruptly.
It helps to give verbal cues as we pay attention to what happens in the room. Look for the way people are responding. Communicate with worship teams and stewards. Do it verbally over the mic if necessary. Let people know you’re drawing the time to close when you feel it’s right.
Continually ask the Holy Spirit to guide you in these moments.
Honest Language & Mass Hypnosis
Be mindful of how easily people can get carried away in a mass. I don’t think these things happen intentionally (usually). It is a fine line between being lost in the moment and manipulating the room.
You don’t need to do the Holy Spirit’s work for Him. It’s okay if nothing happens within the response time. Don’t try to hype it up.
Equally, when people are responding, be careful with how you influence the room. You have a lot of power at that moment.
I verbally encourage people not to make anything up, not to feel forced in how they respond and to come with a genuine and open attitude.
People get swept up in concerts, gigs and football games. There is no harm in mass shared experiences, but do be careful that you are only leading people to have an encounter with God and not just manufacture something that seems Spiritual.
We’d rather see lasting depth in their Christian walk than a hyped-up moment that changes nothing.
Keep the language honest, and allow people to have a moment in worship. But, on the other hand, don’t overly manufacture something that plays on emotion.
Presenting a Gospel Appeal
A gospel appeal is an opportunity for you to invite people to express a desire to follow Jesus and become a Christian disciple. More often than not, the appeal itself is not the moment of salvation (sometimes it is). Instead, it usually represents a decision to take a step on the journey of faith.
From this point on, we are now aware that the person responding wants to take some active steps in their faith journey.
Each sermon to a young person is like giving them a jigsaw piece. When somebody responds for the first time, it’s like having a few pieces to a jigsaw puzzle. They are not clear on how it all fits together, but they want to explore the picture. A recommitment usually has more pieces of the puzzle and wants to solidify its commitment.
Whatever the reason, it is always helpful to give people a clear, marked opportunity to accept or reject the good news of Jesus. Those who pursue the Christian life of following Jesus have a moment they can point to that helped them take the first step.
For some, it is instant; for others, this is one of many points that move them close to being followers of Jesus.
I usually offer this decision moment after giving a talk that heavily reminds us of who Jesus is, why He died and what has been accomplished through this. For example, while asking people to close their eyes and bow their heads as a way of helping people concentrate on God, the response moment might go something like this:
‘If you are here, and after hearing this talk, you want to give your life to following Jesus, I want to invite you to raise your hand. This means you want to be included in this prayer, and you’re saying you want to invite Jesus into your lives, follow Him and become a Christian.
If that’s you, raise your hand, keep it up, and it’s a sign to me, to you and God, that you are included in this prayer (I may also get them to repeat this prayer out loud or as a part of having come forward for prayer).
Here is the prayer
“Father God in Heaven,
I thank you for loving me. I’ve come to believe and accept that you are real. You are who you say you are is revealed in the Bible. You loved me and sent your son Jesus to Earth.
I thank you, Jesus, that you lived a blameless and perfect life; You died on the cross to pay for my sins and rose again from the dead three days later. The payment for sin was death, and you paid it for me.
I accept the forgiveness that you offer. Please, come live in my heart by the power of your Holy Spirit. Just as you rose from the dead, so too will I one day rise and be with you.
I accept you into my life. Please help me become more like you for the rest of my days.
In Jesus’ name,
Amen”.’
Follow-up After a Response
A response is exactly that, an immediate answer to what has happened. Because it’s immediate, there needs to be time to process and follow up. This is especially true if someone has responded to the gospel. Have someone of faith who is connected to the person who has responded, and spend some time with them after the response time.
Allow the respondents to talk through their decision or follow up with prayer if it was a different kind of message. This is the pastoral part that is so often missed. Don’t let the message be the only part of this journey.
Follow-up can be done in a small group, face-to-face and in the coming weeks. Since a response is usually one step on the journey of Christian living, many more connection points are helpful.
Whatever your preferred method, do your best to help ground the message from your sermon into people’s lives. If you’ve shaped it well, there will be application points, inner change, and spiritual development that need nurturing over weeks and months.
As you shape your sermon, begin shaping the response time with some intentionality.
Comment below and share your experiences.
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