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How a sermon ends-what we used to call its "conclusion"-is, without doubt, its most
important part; this is true of virtually all public address. As a result, it should be
given very special care and thought by the preacher. But that, unfortunately, is not
usually the case.

The reason may not be too difficult to find. For the past couple of decades, the
emphasis of progressive preaching has fallen on what has been called the
"inductive" sermon. An inductive approach to preaching was intended to set up the
sermon's ideas, piece by piece, but withholding its "bottom line," or its "big point,"
until the very end. Let is be "discovered." Let it become an "a-ha!" at the sermon's
climax.

Two ideas generally resulted from this that have shaped how the inductive sermon
has come to be prepared. The first is that the "a-ha" of the ending would be so
obvious and so clear that the preacher would not even have to actually state it.
Everyone would just nod knowingly at each other, and the preacher would need only
to close the book, or frame a little question, or just stop, knowing that everyone "got
it."

The second is that at the end of the inductive sermon, the "a-ha" would mean so
many different things to different people that the preacher would only interfere with
the sermon's "work" if he or she tried to state a single "bottom line" at the end.
So-better that the preacher said nothing about the sermon's "big point" at the end,
and simply let everyone take away whatever "big point" or aha! he or she wanted to
find in the sermon.

The upshot of all this is that sermon endings have fallen, by and large, onto very
hard times! The most important part of the public address has turned into little, if
anything. Sermon endings now amount, too often, to a drifting away. Nobody turns
off the light. It just seems to go out, and no one knows quite why. It is a key failing
of much otherwise good contemporary preaching.

Let's be clear. Nobody today-nobody-likes to be TOLD what to do. Particularly by
preachers. And particularly in a sermon. At the same time, though, congregations,
audiences who give time to a public speaker, DO want some help with what they
hear-always. In fact, they tend to feel cheated if they do not get it. And the place
where that help comes is in the last five minutes of the address, the sermon.

So what should you do? Let me make a few suggestions that seem to me to accurate
reflect our time:.

1. First, with every sermon that you preach, whatever kind it is, find a way to
translate what you have said into some straightforward "action" strategy at the end.
It is an old idea, drawn from the class traditions of all public address. It used to be
called "application." "I follow what you have said, preacher," the hearer's mind
says, "so what do you think I should do?" So-preacher-suggest something. Don't tell
me what to do. But suggest something. Propose something; or some things.
Something to help get me moving in the right direction.

In ages past, this is where the "invitation" to "accept Christ" was the action urged;
it was where the "altar call" took place. And those urgings were heeded. But without
those urgings-when the sermon is not shaped in those directions, the need for
"something to do" is still intensely felt after a good sermon. Prepare the sermon on
whatever subject you choose, but either after it is prepared, or as part of its
preparation, devise a "proposal" for action.

2. Keep whatever you suggestion, or propose, as simple and as down-to-earth as
possible. Do not overwhelm with it. Do not make it of the
"everybody-go-study-for-the-ministry" variety-don't go over the top. In fact, go the
opposite way, assuming that the living of a Christian life is the practice of a hundred
small graces in daily life. "May I suggest that you make a phone call this afternoon
to a son or daughter or an old friend to whom you have not spoken in 20 years. See
what happens. Build a new bridge today." Be specific with your suggestions. You
will be amazed at how you sermon gets "translated" into something that happens-if
not what you suggested, something very close to it.

3. Finally, find a way-your own way-to have some fun with such endings. As a teacher
in the ministry, I liked (as my congregation did) to say at the end of some, not all,
sermons that "this week you have some homework" to do. "And, yes, there will be a
quiz next week on it," which was all in good jest. But the "homework" part allowed
me to translate the sermon into something very do-able in life, this afternoon,
tomorrow. "Your homework for this week is to say hello to a stranger you share the
line with at WalMart. See what happens when you gently reach out to someone you
don't know."

Or, at the end of a sermon you could say something like, "Your mission this
week-should you choose to accept it" and then translate into something that
everyone-everyone-could actually do, should they decide to. You will be surprised
how many will.

Don't drop your endings. Don't let people down. A good sermon, carefully prepared
and delivered, can change people's lives. But that doesn't happen automatically. You
have to propose some ways that you think lives should be changed. Keep it simple.
But your sermons will be dramatically more effective if you do.

--Joseph M. Webb