(1) Get to know your people

"There is no quicker way of bridging the gulf between preacher and people than meeting them in their homes and in our home. The effective preacher is always a diligent pastor. Only if he makes time each week both for visiting people and for interviewing them, will he be en rapport with them as he preaches. The more they speak to him in his study on weekdays, the better he will speak to them from the pulpit on Sundays.

(2) Be simple

Preachers should not preach to preachers and seminarians, but to normal working, discouraged, anxious, fearful, downcast, simple people. Augustine said, "A wooden key is not so beautiful as a golden one, but if it can open the door when the golden one cannot, it is far more useful."

(3) Turn the ears into the eyes

Use illustrations. Make complex and abstract concepts simple in illustrations.

(4) Plead Earnestly

"The true function of a preacher is to disturb the comfortable and to comfort the disturbed." Chad Walsh

(5) Preach with a purpose and a response

Do not preach academically, but preach to the hearts of your people.

(6) Preach by Example

"Christianity is better caught than taught." Be a spiritual example unto your people. Your decisions reflect who you are spiritually and you are accountable to your people

(7) Preach by the power of prayer

A man must labor to know God in secret, intercede for his people, and long for the lost salvation through private prayer.