5 Questions on Preaching with Shane Hall
Shane Hall was born in Indiana in 1971 and grew up in a pastor’s home in Burns Flat, Oklahoma. After graduating from Burns Flat High School, he went on to complete a Bachelor of Science in Education degree at Oklahoma Baptist University and a Master of Divinity degree at the New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary.
Shane has served as a pastor of churches in Oklahoma and Louisiana for over twenty years. He is currently Pastor of the First Southern Baptist Church of Oklahoma City, OK, where he has served since December 2013.
Shane and his wife, Misty married in 2001. Misty grew up in Healdton, Oklahoma and works from home while being a stay at home mom to their two daughters, Maci who is twelve and Mallory who is nine.
Q1: How long does it typically take you to prepare a sermon?
A. I typically desire about 10 – 15 hours to prepare a sermon.
Q2: What do you ultimately want a sermon to accomplish?
A. I want the sermon to point people to the primary truth of the scripture being preached and for Christ to be magnified in the preaching and the message.
Q3: What are one or two big mistakes people often make in preaching?
A. Preaching to get a reaction from the audience and lack of preparation – preparation of both the mind and the heart.
Q4: How do you handle the gospel invitation and preach toward it?
A. No matter the type of sermon I am preaching (to the church, discipleship, evangelistic, etc.) I will always extend an invitation for the lost to be saved. I will also extend an invitation calling for a response that is related to the particular message I am preaching. The response would coincide with the truth that was presented in the message itself with a call to react to the truth.
Q5: What advice would you give to preachers doing pulpit supply?
While your audiences will regularly change, the needs of your audiences will rarely change. With this in mind, preach the Word and preach it faithfully knowing that the Holy Spirit will do the work of applying His truth to the needs of the heart found in a particular setting or audience.
