Most Challenging Sermon

Rev. Frank Thomas, Phd, homiletician, pastor, author, and Director of the Compelling Preaching Initiative and Professor of Homiletics at Christian Theological Seminary has a broadcast on YouTube that highlights the African-American preaching tradition. Each episode consists of Thomas interviewing a pastor or preacher about their upbringing, their call, their methodology, preaching mentors, etc. In every episode he asks the question, “What is the most challenging sermon you’ve ever preached?”

I don’t have an answer to that specific question, but I can speak to the most challenging sermon I’ve ever had to prepare--the one that I will preach today. As with every sermon, the Holy Spirit troubles the preacher before the sermon is ever delivered. That means that as the preacher, I am comforted first, convicted first, and challenged first.

So what made it challenging? In the midst of my own grief, I am preaching on grief. This sermon was scheduled to be preached on August 11th, but with my father’s sickness and death, I am preaching it today--just two days after National Grief Awareness Day. How’s that for God’s timing?This sermon was not conceived and written in a safety chamber out of the grips of grief. Through my own questions, sadness, and tears, I had to wrestle with what I believe about God. There were moments where I had to quiet the loudness of my own grief to hear what the Spirit was saying to the church.

Ultimately, while this was the most challenging sermon I’ve ever prepared, it was also the sermon where I felt God like never before. God comforted my heart and soul through this message. God showed Himself mighty and strong in this message. And, though challenging, I am a witness that it is true that, “The LORD is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.”

Growing in Christ

Pastor Donna Olivia Owusu-Ansah