When You Feel Discouraged After Preaching

A well-known preacher, celebrated for his skill, was once asked how he felt after preaching. His one-word answer: embarrassed.

It's something we rarely discuss: the discouragement many preachers experience after stepping down from the pulpit. Yet it's surprisingly common.

If we're going to persevere in this calling, we need to learn how to navigate through feeling discouraged after we’re done preaching.

A Common Struggle

This struggle isn’t new. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, one of the greatest preachers of the last century, confessed, "I can say quite honestly that I would not cross the road to listen to myself preaching." Many of us can relate to Rev. John Ames, the main character of Gilead, when he said:

I had a dream once that I was preaching to Jesus Himself, saying any foolish thing I could think of, and He was sitting there in His white, white robe looking patient and sad and amazed. That's what it felt like.

We don't feel this way every week. But most preachers occasionally, even regularly, feel deeply disappointed with their preaching and sit down feeling discouraged.

I once proposed ways to avoid this problem, but someone I respected corrected me. Discouragement, he said, is simply part of the preaching task. There's no way around it.

What to Do When You Feel Discouraged After Preaching

Here's what I've found helpful when discouragement strikes after preaching. None of these will eliminate the problem, but they've helped me respond faithfully.

Expect It

I'm no longer surprised when this happens. Don't be caught off guard; it’s a normal part of preaching. When discouragement comes, don't panic or assume you've failed. Recognize it as part of the territory and remember that your feelings about the sermon aren't necessarily an accurate measure of its effectiveness.

Get Feedback

A far better indicator is feedback from trusted believers. Make sermon review a regular part of your preaching rhythm. Ask other mature leaders what resonated in the sermon and where you could improve. Don't be threatened by this. We all have room to grow, and receiving constructive feedback alongside encouragement truly helps.

Worship

Worship Jesus both in your sermon and afterward. I've noticed the sermons I feel least discouraged about are those where I've magnified Jesus. The Holy Spirit blesses Christ-exalting preaching, and when I've glorified him well through the text, whatever else happened, my sermon has at least pursued the right goal.

Make much of Jesus in your preaching, and when you sit down, you can rest knowing he has been glorified. Then push aside your self-critique and worship the Savior you've just proclaimed. He is able to take our weak preaching and accomplish much, not because our preaching is great, but because he is great and works through his word by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Examine Yourself

Part of my disappointment stems from how deeply I care about preaching. But if I'm honest, some of it flows from pride. I want to be seen as competent. I want people to think well of me.

When we try to be impressive in our preaching, we're seeking the wrong person's glory. We'll never be completely free from the desire to impress, but we can become aware of this temptation and actively work to put it to death.

See It As a Gift

View post-sermon discouragement as a gift, not to yourself, but to the congregation. I learned this from James Pennington at the Heritage Preaching Lectures last October. Pennington described the emotional and psychological cost of preaching as a gift the preacher gives to the congregation, one that often goes unseen and unrecognized. He specifically noted that the creative, vulnerable labor of sermon preparation and delivery "is part of the cost that you pay, really the gift that you give to your congregation that they will never know. All the pain, all the anxiety, all the frustration."

Pennington encouraged preachers to "normalize your emotions and recognize that's the process of being a preacher." These burdens aren't indicators of inadequacy but marks of faithful participation in God's creative work. It's just part of what's involved.

Preaching is a peculiar task. Even the finest preachers feel dissatisfied with their sermons sometimes. None of us will ever become the preacher we hope to be, but neither can we trust our feelings as reliable judges.

So work at your craft. Do your best. Recognize that dissatisfaction with our preaching is woven into the fabric of this calling.

Keep magnifying Christ. Don't give too much weight to your feelings, and trust that God uses preachers like you. Keep giving your congregation the gift they don't even realize they're receiving.

Press through discouragement and keep preaching.