What preachers can learn from aviation

Learning to prepare sermons and learning to fly an airplane both require precise knowledge and sound judgment. The similarities between preparing a sermon and flying an airplane are especially enlightening to preachers who fly a lot, for both pilots and preachers have the responsibility of taking the people safely to where they need to go. Like a short flight, the preacher elevates listeners to spiritual heights.

Air travel and sermons have distinct transitions and phases, including an introduction, a body, and a conclusion. This article draws lessons from basic flight anatomy, such as flight preparation, destination, takeoff, cruising altitude, and landing, and applies them to sermon preparation and delivery.

Preparation

A safe flight and a good sermon begin, of course, with good preparation. For optimal performance, aviators and preachers need good physical and mental preparation for the journey. Naturally, pilots should not fly when they are fatigued or ill.¹ The same is true for a preacher who is tired or sick. Even minor illnesses, such as a common cold that affects the tone of voice and normal breathing, can spoil a good sermon and undermine communication skills.

The operational manual. Pilots are required to follow the instructions of the manufacturer’s manual for the planes they fly. For Christian preachers, the Bible remains as the undisputed preaching manual and operational handbook. After all, God commands His emissaries to “preach the word” (2 Tim. 4:2, KJV). This Word, useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness, assures us that “the man of God may be thoroughly equipped” (2 Tim. 3:16, 17, NIV). Competent preachers adopt the Bible as their operational handbook.

The source of food for spiritual growth. Providing good and abundant food during flight was one of the airline industry’s strategies, years ago, to attract and retain frequent travelers. Some airline companies even served coach passengers with cloth napkins and real silverware, but those were the “good old days.” Because of financial constraints, food service in the airline business has decayed considerably; today, passengers in the United States receive only a soft drink and a small bag of snacks.

With the main source of spiritual food centering around the Bible, the pulpit should never reach the current status of airline-meal service. God has given Scripture as a recipe book to feed spiritual passengers with the dishes of heaven, served from the pulpit’s table so abundantly and appealingly that new people are attracted to the church and continue to come for more food.

Plotting the course. Success in aviation centers around careful planning. Prior to departure and before passengers enter the aircraft, aviators check the electronic and mechanical instruments of the plane and review the trajectory of the flight. Likewise, preaching includes planning. “Preachers must be more than sermonic disc jockeys playing other’s creations.”² They need to compose new and attractive sermons for their audiences.

Consumed by the rigors of ministry and daily life, even the best preachers may not allow enough time for the ministry of the Word. For example, the apostles were busy doing ministry to the point of disregarding the preaching of the Word of God. In view of this predicament, the Twelve summoned the general body of disciples and told them that it was not right for them “ ‘to neglect the ministry of the word of God in order to wait on tables’ ” (Acts 6:2, NIV).

Destination

With the destination as the focal point of flight preparation, pilots plot a safe route to take passengers where they need to go, communicating with the control tower to meet departure and arrival times. Good preachers not only start and finish sermons on time but also maintain constant communication with God in the control tower during the preparation and delivery of the sermon. Lloyd M. Perry, in Biblical Preaching for Today’s World, writes, “Following a systematic method for constructing a sermon does not rule out nor does it limit the guidance of the Holy Spirit.”³

Henry J. Eggold affirms that “every sermon must have a goal, and both the preacher and the congregation ought to know what it is if dialogue is to take place. When a hearer doesn’t know where a preacher is headed, he begins to think of other things and lets the preacher go his solitary way.”⁴ Without a clear destination, the preacher may get lost in the sermon and lead the people astray.

Choosing the topic can be compared to choosing where to fly. People book flights to places they need to go, and most go to church because they want sermons that help them reach higher levels of spirituality. Some sermon ideas may be theoretical and biblically correct but may not be relevant to the needs of the flock. Before deciding what to preach about, the preacher must be acquainted with the needs of the audience. They need to know in what airport of life they reside as they journey toward heaven. Every successful sermon leads hearers of the Word a step closer to their destination.

Takeoff

Takeoff exists as one of the most important maneuvers in aviation because a miscalculation or mistake by the pilot can be disastrous. It starts with the crew’s effort to capture the attention of passengers, and to provide them with specific instructions, and it continues with taxiing and liftoff. Similarly, the sermon introduction can be compared to the takeoff in aviation. People sit down before the sermon begins; the preacher captures their attention and then takes off with the sermon.

Capturing the attention of the audience. Capturing the attention of air travelers to make sure they are on the right flight, particularly frequent flyers, is of paramount importance for safety reasons. People who travel frequently tend to ignore the announcements and safety demonstrations provided by the crew. Preachers similarly have difficulty capturing the attention of worshipers who go to church regularly. Some worshipers sit in church and listen to sermons nearly 52 weekends a year. To capture their attention week after week requires ingenuity and avoiding predictable sermon introductions.⁵

Eye contact. While taxiing and during the flight, pilots look at the surroundings to avoid colliding with other aircraft and obstacles. With eye contact being very important in preaching, good preachers listen to the audience with their eyes. A tear, a glow of satisfaction, or a frown in the forehead of the listener reveals a lot about the effect of the sermon on the congregation. Preachers are “ordained to preach the gospel, not merely to read it.”⁶

Introduction length. Some taxiing at large airports takes so long it seems as if the pilot leads the passengers to their destination by road, not by air. Likewise, some sermon introductions keep the listener wondering how the preacher will reach the destination. Some writers believe the introduction of the sermon should not comprise more than 10 to 15 percent of the sermon and indicate that preachers “should not spend so much time setting the table that there’s no time left to eat.”⁷

Lift-up. Normal liftoff can be described as the airplane heading into the wind⁸ and gradually gaining altitude, with the airplane “flying itself” off the ground.⁹ The effective sermon gradually lifts up the audience into the contents, allowing them to understand and assimilate the message.

Cruising altitude

Pilots and preachers can take their passengers to unbelievable heights. The higher the altitude and the less oxygen available, the more difficult the journey. “The world altitude record for an airplane was set on August 22, 1963, at 354,200 ft (107,960 m) by an X-15.”¹⁰ Most commercial aircraft fly with pressurized cabins because, otherwise, passengers would not survive for lack of oxygen. The higher the contents of a sermon, the higher the concentration level and retention capacity the congregation needs. Preachers should preach at an altitude suitable for their congregation.

Preventing homiletic hypoxia. Hypoxia is a condition produced by lack of oxygen. Professional golfer Payne Stewart and five other people lost consciousness due to hypoxia and crashed while flying from Orlando to Dallas in 1999.¹¹ Preachers can fly so high in their allocutions that they leave the audience breathless, but this type of homiletic hypoxia may fail to communicate the gospel properly. Sometimes people leave the church very impressed by the eloquence but without a clear understanding of the Word of God. Nothing vainer exists in preaching than saying nothing with elegance.

Flying straight. A government agency that sets and enforces flight rules strongly emphasizes the necessity for forming correct habits in flying straight and level. Straight-and-level preaching, as easy as it looks, has never been easy. Starting with good preparation, the mind becomes a powerful warehouse of ideas that surface during delivery. For the unprepared preacher, in need of content to complete the 30-minute sermon, a temptation surfaces to insert new ideas in the elocution although they may not be totally related to the topic.

Proper use of windows. Passengers and pilots benefit from the panoramic views airplane windows provide. The importance of illustrations, sometimes called windows, has led some writers to declare that a sermon that does not have illustrations should not be preached.¹² Illustrations awaken the interest of the audience, facilitate understanding of theological truths, and can persuade to action. “The right kind of illustration provokes a mental picture in which the hearer actually sees the point of application.”¹³

Sermon duration. Range in aviation describes the ground covered by an aircraft with the available fuel. The world’s record for a nonstop, nonrefueled flight of 24,987 miles was set by the specially designed Voyager in 1986 while flying around the world.¹⁴ To be immortal, a sermon does not have to be infinite. Because the capacity of human retention and concentration has limitations, a sermon can overdose a congregation with knowledge to the point of saturation.

Landing

What goes up must come down—air travel and sermons have a beginning and an ending. In aviation, landing stays as one of the most important phases of flight, with over 50 percent of aerial accidents happening on the approach or landing.¹⁵ The flight does not end until the aircraft parks safely at the terminal and all passengers and crew are safely out of the plane. The conclusion of a sermon and landing in aviation share striking similarities when memorable sermons and flights have a perfect ending. In fact, a perfect landing may help passengers forget a bumpy ride.

Conclusion phases. Sermon conclusions and landing in aviation can be divided into three phases closely related to each other: descend, touch down, and shut up. The pilot and crew inform passengers of the proximity to the destination, provide safety instructions, and, once on the ground, welcome them to the city where they have arrived and invite people to fly with them again. Sermon conclusions, in particular, summarize and exhort the congregation to respond by going home and doing the Christian deed. Satisfied church listeners come back to churches that offer inspiring and relevant sermons.

Some sermons electrify audiences; others only electrocute them. Aviation offers preachers excellent ideas to produce unforgettable and inspiring sermons. Next time you step into the platform’s cockpit to feed the saints, take them on an electrifying and transforming spiritual ride.