What’s Your No-Notes?

There are preachers, and then there are preachers. Wayne B. Smith was the second kind.

Wayne helped start Southland Christian Church in Lexington, Kentucky, in 1956 and served as her senior minister until 1995 — growing the congregation from 152 to 3,700 weekly worshipers. He was, by nearly all accounts, the most popular preacher in the Restoration Movement. They called him “the Bob Hope of the Ministry.” He laughed easily, cried easily, and delivered Kentucky Fried Chicken to poor families at ten o’clock at night. I don’t know another man who wrapped the gospel in a bucket of chicken and made it feel perfectly natural.

But beneath the humor was a man dead serious about one thing: the pulpit.

In 1977, Wayne Smith served as president of the North American Christian Convention. When it was his turn to stand before his fellow ministers and say something worth saying, he chose as his text 2 Timothy 4:1-8, and his message was simply this — Preach the Word.

He structured the sermon around three great themes: the Summons, the Subject, and the Source.

The summons were urgent. He asked the crowd what had happened to the kind of preaching they heard on the Day of Pentecost — the kind that moved across a pagan empire like wildfire. He told the story of men visiting Billy Sunday and asking the secret of his preaching power. Sunday took them to the hotel window, looked down at the people on the sidewalk, and said three times — They are going to Hell. Wayne’s conclusion was simple: “Woe unto me if I preach not the Gospel.“

The subject was Christ — always Christ. He put it plainly: some men say we need a new message, but if that’s true, then we need a new Bible. The message is the same yesterday, today, and forever. The bedrock foundation, the heart and soul of the apostles’ message, was the Son of God — the crucified, buried, resurrected, ascending, reigning, returning Redeemer.

And the source was the Word. Wayne used the image of a healing spring around which a whole town had been built — until the day someone asked where the spring was, and no one could remember. His warning to preachers was clear: under our superstructures and our success, some of us have lost the spring.

Wayne remained faithful to the end, encouraging a gathering of ministers the very day before he died in 2016.

He preached what he believed. He believed what he preached. And he told the rest of us to do the same.

Woe unto us if we don’t.

Ask Ron Otto for his all-time favorite preaching point and he doesn’t hesitate: it’s more important how you finish than how you start.

He’s earned the right to say it. On this week’s Better Preaching Podcast, Ron — nearly twenty years into his ministry at Lincoln Christian Church — told me about his rough start. He was a poor student who didn’t think ministry was even possible for him. It took the grace of God and the grace of a lot of people, he says, including some grace from Great Lakes Christian College, to get him through. His dad taught him roofing so he’d always have a trade to fall back on, but God had other plans for those hands.

And Ron is right about the pattern. Scripture repeats it on nearly every page. Consider the demon-possessed man living among the tombs. You cannot script a rougher start than that. But when Jesus restores him, He doesn’t hide him away. He commissions him to go tell everybody what the Lord has done for you. Ron calls that story a snapshot of his own life.

I tell every student who visits my office the same thing: at Great Lakes, we’re concerned about where you’re at, but we’re more concerned about where you’re going. Your trajectory matters more than your location.

But here’s where Ron pressed the point further, and it’s the part that stuck with me. Starting well isn’t the finish line. Finishing well is the finish line. Ron is 65 now. His words: “I’m in the last leg of my race. This is my last lap.” And his singular ambition for that lap is two words he’s shared with his elders and asked them to hold his feet to: finish strong.

Because we’ve all watched too many talented preachers stumble before the tape. Blown-up marriages. Blown-up families. Blown-up churches. Satan hates whatever God loves — the church, the Word, marriage — and he doubles down on preachers. The gifting that got you into the pulpit will not keep you standing in it. Only vigilance, humility, and leaders with permission to hold you accountable will do that.

So, wherever you are on the track — rough start, strong start, middle miles, or final lap — lift your eyes to the finish line. Grace covers how you started. Faithfulness determines how you’ll finish.

Set your heart to finish strong.

Because better preaching makes a bigger impact.