One of the church members who have been struggling with his faith told me today, “I am a lot like these scoffers, forgetting the second coming of Jesus. I really do think I need to make some changes in my life.” This was one of many positive feedback that I received from my church members from today’s sermon.

To give you a little context of the season that our church is currently, we just finished 2 Kings, are approaching Christmas, and have our church retreat in the next two weeks. So, my biggest challenge this week was, which season should my preaching focus on?

The first draft of the sermon was geared towards ending 2 Kings and Christmas. Trying to address both seasons in one sermon ended up diluting the sermon to the point I, myself, didn’t know what the main point of my sermon was.

The second draft of the sermon was geared towards retreat. First, choosing just one season to focus on made the point of my preaching clear. Second, I felt that preaching about retreat was what the church needed.

To give you a little bit more context, our church was low in spirits due to changes in leadership, a death of a member (in August), and some members leaving our church recently. As much as Christmas is a big deal to churches and we’ve spent the last 3 months on 2 Kings, I didn’t think preaching to those seasons were what my church needed. What my church needed a spiritual revival.

Every time our church went to retreat, our church members came back revived . So, preaching to the church about retreat would move us in the direction of a spiritual revival. And I am very glad that I did. So, here’s the lesson that I was reminded of once again.

Preach to the need of the church. Though the current seasons of our church were, ending 2 Kings, retreat, and Christmas yet what the church needed was a spiritual revival. And what would move us in that direction? Preaching about retreat. So, reflecting on this week’s sermon, I was reminded of the importance of preaching to the need of the church.

Writing Tip #1: Write to the Need of Your Audience

One of the reasons why this week’s sermon was effective was because it spoke directly to the need of my church.

Dale Carnegie, the author of How to Win Friends and Influence People, said, “Talk in terms of the other person’s interest.” In other words, if you want to communicate effectively, you must communicate to the need of the other person.

Similarly, when writing on Substack, I want you to ask yourself this one question that will drastically help you in your writing: “What does my audience need at this time?”

The better you are able to answer this question, the better your writing will be.

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