How to Write a Sermon Conclusion: Ending on Purpose

Write Your Ending Well

The old preaching adage reminds us that preaching a sermon without knowing how to end it, is like taking off in a plane you have no idea how to land. The end of the sermon should come neither too early nor too late. It should add a sense of closure to the sermon without turning off the listener's imagination. Here are some suggestions for how to make this happen.

Instructions

1. Make the dog swallow it's tail.

   That's an old way to say: write the sermon conclusion with the introduction in mind. The sermon should come 'full circle' to a degree. You probably started with a concept, a problem, a question, or a fact of life in your introduction. It raised the interest of the listener and, as Randy Nichols puts it, formed a 'contract with your listener.' You suggested to them (hopefully not too directly) what your sermon was going to do. If the first sentence in my sermon is 'Imagine what it would it be like to live the rest of your life as a beggar" then the conclusion of the sermon has to come back to this concept of living like a beggar. If I started with a story about a handicapped boy who changed a town, my conclusion should somehow allude that that story or concept even if only in a sentence.

2. 

   End the sermon with the beginning turned around.

   Even though you are trying to come full circle it is more of a spiral than coming back to where you began. The concept, problem, issue, fact of life, or question you started preaching about should mean something new and different at sermon's end. Sometimes the conclusion adds a very simple twist by reinforcing the main argument of the message. For example, in the beggar sermon example above you might end with these words:

   'I asked you to imagine what it would be like to live the rest of your as a beggar. From this passage we find something startling. That is exactly what Christ is asking us to do, live the rest of our lives with a beggar's heart. May God have mercy on us, a bunch of beggars. Amen.'

   Karl Barth has reminded us that sometimes our question is 'swallowed up in God's question.' I once heard a preacher, Kim Nentrup, take an introduction that asked what the gospel can offer to those who are distressed. Her conclusion told us ' we are not freed from distress, we are free to be distressed' and no longer have to pretend as though we are not distressed. The question at hand, 'how can God end my troubles?' was turned around. Now we realize part of our real trouble is hiding our troubles, pretending they don't exist.

   That sermon ended with the beginning turned around.

3. 

   Hand your listener a burning coal, not a pile of ashes.

   A sermon should build a burning consideration with the congregation. Something needs to be done. Something must be said. Something must be rethought, refigured, turned around. As Fred Craddock suggested in As One Without Authority:
   'The congregation cannot shake off the finished sermon by shaking the minister's hand. The sermon, not finished yet, lingers beyond the benediction, with conclusions to be reached, decisions made, actions taken and brothers sought while gifts lie waiting at the altar.'

   Don't hand over a pile of dead ashes wrapped up with a pretty box and bow. When you end your sermon, end it in such a way that it lives on throughout the week. Rather than the sermon being done, the sermon has left us undone in the face of grace. We know we must live with the sermon this week, not get on with living after the sermon is done.

Tips & Warnings

• I consider it wise to completely memorize the last two to three sentences of the sermon. I am okay with a good manuscript preacher who doesn't simply read the manuscript. But the end of the sermon and the benediction lack a sense of presence when the preacher can only read the words.

• If you are an extemporaneous style preacher the above comment goes double. Preach the conclusion through several times and know how you will transition into it. Don't be left floundering on stage searching for a conclusion to an otherwise powerful sermon.

• Don't end in a summary and rote way. Saying 'let's pray' is usually not the best ending. Don't pray to end a sermon unless it is utterly fitting. 'Amen' also gets used as a way of saying 'I am done and you wouldn't know it otherwise.' Write a good enough conclusion that the people naturally want to give the AMEN!

• Watch out for congregations with internal clocks or stopwatches. Some groups will be done with your sermon at noon no matter what. For others, once you hit twenty, twenty five, or thirty five minutes (these differ depending on the culture and community) you will lose their attention. Land the plane a minute before they open the hatch with a mental parachute in hand.

Resources

• As One Without Authority, Fred Craddock's Preaching Classic
• Saturday Morning Post: All Things Practical