How Billy Sunday Preached: Street Language and a Push to Decide Now
Billy Sunday took the tent meeting into America’s biggest cities and preached with his whole body in the language of the street. We studied eight of his sermons, from 1907 to about 1925. Under the slang and the slides across the platform sits a simple engine: a plain question, short labeled points, true local stories, a running fight with the skeptic and a hard push to decide now.
Who Billy Sunday was
Sunday was born in Iowa in 1862 and played outfield in the National League from 1883 to 1890 for Chicago, Pittsburgh and Philadelphia. He was converted at Chicago’s Pacific Garden Mission in 1886 and left baseball in 1891 for YMCA work.
He built temporary wooden tabernacles floored with sawdust to hold crowds no church could seat, some with up to 18,000 seats. Coming forward to shake his hand became known as “hitting the sawdust trail.” He is estimated to have preached to 80 to 100 million people.
The shape of a Sunday sermon
Most of the sermons we studied put the text, a question or a Bible scene on the table in the first minute. In “What Shall I Do Then with Jesus?” it is Pilate’s question, and the whole sermon presses it on the crowd.
Then he moved in short, labeled points, loaded with street slang, sports and everyday images. He retold Bible stories in that language, so the feast in Belshazzar’s palace became “no common beer, pretzel and dill pickle blow-out.” He dropped quotable contrast lines along the way: “a new heart, not a new suit.”
He illustrated with short true stories about real towns and real people, and he picked fights with skeptics by name or by type. His longest illustration usually came in the last third, right before the turn.
And he didn’t let people wait. Many of the sermons push hard against delay, and some print the invitation right in the text. The goal was a decision before the crowd went home.
What made his preaching different
The whole body
He preached with his whole body: winding up like a pitcher, sliding like a runner stealing home and sprinting across the platform.
Street language
He retold Bible stories in slang, so factory workers heard Scripture in their own words.
Decide now
A plain question, short points and a hard push to come forward. He wanted a decision that night.
What others said
“I want to preach the gospel so plainly that men can come from the factories and not have to bring a dictionary.”
— Billy Sunday
“He has a wonderful gift of street slang and he uses the choicest of it… He pleads, he entreats, he prays and weeps, and the crowd are with him.”
— Unsigned reporter, Sioux City Journal, 1905
What to take into your own pulpit
Talk like your people talk
Sunday put Bible stories in the words of the street. Plain language isn’t shallow. It removes the dictionary between the text and the hearer.
Name the skeptic’s argument
He fought the objection in front of everyone. Taking doubt seriously out loud can help people who are quietly holding it.
Ask for a decision today
His sermons pushed against “later.” A clear call to act now gives the message somewhere to land.
Those are the ideas. The guide turns them into ten steps you can follow this week, plus the sermons we studied and a fill-in outline in his shape.
Free PDF · Preach Like the Greats
Learn to preach like Billy Sunday.
This post is the overview. The guide has the research and the method.
- The 8 sermons we studied, start to finish
- Ten steps to preach the way he did
- His sermon outline, movement by movement
- A fill-in template for your own text, 9 pages
Common questions
What was Billy Sunday’s preaching style?
Physical, plain-spoken and urgent. He used his whole body on the platform, retold Bible stories in street slang, told true local stories, sparred with skeptics and pushed hard for a decision.
How did Billy Sunday structure a sermon?
He stated a text, question or Bible scene in the first minute, moved through short labeled points with slang and contrast one-liners, placed his longest story in the last third, and pushed against delay.
What does “hitting the sawdust trail” mean?
Sunday’s tabernacles were floored with sawdust. Coming forward at the end to shake his hand became known as “hitting the sawdust trail.”