How to Listen to a Sermon

How can we become fully participating listeners in a sermon rather than passive observers? In this engaging discussion, Rev. Dr. Kimberly Wagner, Assistant Professor of Preaching at Princeton Theological Seminary, shares her invaluable wisdom on the art of sermon listening. Speaking with Rev. Dr. Katie Givens Kime, Dr. Wagner explores the transformative power of sermons when listeners adopt a posture of openness and anticipation, allowing the Spirit to move through their experience.
 

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Rev. Dr. Katie Givens Kime: We have a lot of listeners of sermons who are part of our Day1 community. What are some ways to best listen or be a fully participating listener in a sermon?

Rev. Dr. Kimberly Wagner: I always tell my students in my preaching classes that a sermon is innately dialogical, that it requires someone to receive it. And if they can't receive it, you are just monologuing. Because a sermon is eventful—it is something that happens. There is a transformation that happens thanks to the presence and gift of the Spirit, not the skill of the preacher necessarily, right? In which we find common ground in our faithfulness, and we are sent out.

And so, for listeners, oftentimes what I want to encourage listeners towards is a kind of posture of response, whether that is verbal response, whether that is just mental response, or whether that is embodied response. I always find that every congregation I preach at has little tells, right? That they're with you, right? Sometimes it is an amen, “Keep going, preacher.” I love that one, right?

Rev. Dr. Katie Givens Kime: I love that.

Rev. Dr. Kimberly Wagner: But then there are congregations that just grunt, like, you know, or congregations that hum, right? Or one of the congregations I worked with, I discovered that when they got really still, we were together, even to the point where I could, like, lean forward in the pulpit and they would lean forward too. And you knew—I mean, now it didn't happen every time, let's be real honest. But that is not me. That is them. That is the listeners, right? That is the listeners being, anticipating, encountering God in a sermon.

I think the best thing that we can do is anticipate that God might just dare show up and the Spirit might just deign to move. And even with the worst preaching—well, not the worst, but even with, you know, the everyday preaching moment—what really is transformative about preaching is the way that the Spirit can move and use those words in that moment. Yes. And so my hope is that listeners will come anticipating that God might show up. And if God does, or when God does, that they might be open to letting that word shape them in some way, right? Whether that is reaffirming God's love for them, whether that is calling them to something, or whether that is just reorienting them for the work of the week. All of those things are powerful and transformational.

Reflection: Transformative Listening in Worship

Rev. Dr. Kimberly Wagner challenges us to rethink how we approach sermons. Instead of passively consuming, she encourages listeners to adopt a posture of anticipation, trusting that the Spirit may speak directly to them. Sermons, as Dr. Wagner reminds us, are events where transformation happens—not through the preacher's words alone, but through the Spirit's movement.

For those of our readers who are teachers of theology or religion, how do you teach your students about the art of sermon listening? What strategies or practices do you share to help them approach sermons with openness and expectation? These are essential questions to consider as we cultivate communities of faith that are active participants in worship rather than passive observers.

Let this reflection inspire us all to listen actively, engaging both mentally and spiritually, and finding God’s presence in the preached word.