As I thought about writing a short article on preparing for a sermon I knew I would have to begin with a confession. I choose not to be a “preacher,” at least not in the the way pulpit preaching is generally understood. Let me be clear, I have nothing against charismatic preaching at all. Several of my favorite preachers are very charismatic and do a wonderful job hitting home their points, stirring up the emotions of the congregants, and beautifully articulating the sermon in such a way that it might speak to each individual listener. If I ever feel led to ‘preach’ as it were, I will gladly take on the role, but as of now I do not.
The word “preach” has several definitions. In short, the word has a sense of speaking something out loud with the sense of victory, making a public announcement, and proclaiming God’s saving action. In that sense, I definitely am a preacher. In fact, all Christians, not just pastors or priests, are called to preach. For all of Christ’s followers have the obligation to share publicly the saving action God has demonstrated through Jesus Christ. Furthermore, all of Christ’s followers are to proclaim victory by means of the cross and power through the Holy Spirit. Now, preaching from the pulpit is a different avenue of preaching altogether and the topic of discussion for this short article.
I gave my first sermon when I was 15 at a small show in which my band played. It must have been 8 minutes of me saying something about God and how I love Jesus and everyone else should too. To tell you the truth, I have no idea what I said. From that point I would give the “talk” every 5 shows to allow for each of the 5 people in the band to speak on rotation. When I was 17, I was asked to be the speaker for an organization based out of Carson City, Nevada. I spoke at different Christian shows, gave altar calls and was privileged to lead many young people to Christ. I also began a Bible study my senior year of high school in which I prepared a weekly Bible lesson for my peers. From 18-21 I volunteered and interned at different churches as a youth leader. In doing so, I prepared several sermons when it was my turn to give the “lesson.” When I was 22 I accepted a job as a youth pastor in which I was to preach 3-4 times a week for middle school, high school, college, and Sunday school meetings. Throughout this time I was invited as the guest speaker to a few different Christian camps, other youth groups, high school Christian clubs, the morning “big service,” and some other places. Finally, when I was 25 I began leading a church and preaching the Sunday sermon. In the beginning I preached once a month, then bi-monthly, until finally I was preaching every Sunday.
I have offered a brief history of my preaching experience for one reason; to show that I have had to speak to a variety of groups in a variety of contexts. Why is this important? Simply, one does not preach to adults at a Sunday service the way they would preach to middle school students. In the same way, I have gone from preaching to teenagers as a teenager myself to preaching to teenagers as an adult. Thus, my preaching style has had to adapt over the last 12 years I have been doing it.
Starting out, I was all about jumping around on stage, making people laugh, telling jokes, sharing humorous illustrations, and using props. This worked well for youth talks and even, in some cases, adult talks. However, I was told on an occasion by a few different adults that they wished I would speak to them as adults and not as youth persons. I took the comment seriously and began to reevaluate my audience before I was to speak to them. I would discern the appropriate way to communicate to a given audience. I learned about my audience prior to my appointed speaking engagement with them. Soon I asked the Holy Spirit to give me wisdom and insight as to what the audience needed.
As I have progressed in my preaching through experience and seminary classes, I have come to find what works for me. I found, through it all, that I love to teach. Furthermore, I love to study and learn. As a result, I naturally began to teach lecture type sermons. This worked for a while, but I could tell people were missing the stories, illustrations, and humor to a certain extent. I learned that frankly, people go to school for lectures whereas they go to church for preaching. Therefore, I had to learn how to convert lecture type sermons into teaching-style preaching. Now, at this point in my life, I preach teaching sermons. These are exegetical messages that fit in different series’ based on different passages in Scripture. Thus, Scripture is the forefront. The opposite of this style of preaching would be topical in which different topics (e.g. Marriage, Stewardship, Evangelism) are at the forefront and Scripture is used as a support. With the latter style of preaching many illustrations, personal stories, statistics and movie clips are used to push the topic of the sermon and apply Scripture accordingly. On the other hand, teaching-style sermons strive to take the message out of the passage of Scripture and apply any illustration, story, statistic or movie clip to that very passage.
There are several books on preaching that discuss different ways to prepare for a sermon, how to preach, exegetical preaching versus eisegetical preaching, and so on. The following is a list of books that have been helpful for me in developing my preaching skills. They also serve as a wide range of styles of preaching.
Too Deep for Words – Clayton J. Schmit
Designing the Sermon – James Earl Massey
The Homiletical Plot – Eugene L. Lowry
The Witness of Preaching – Thomas G. Long
The Heart of Black Preaching – Cleophus J. LaRue
Preaching the Presence of God – Eunjoo Mary Kim
Preaching the Story – Jeffrey W. Frymire
Performing the Word – Jana Childers
Birthing the Sermon – Jana Childers
Patterns of Preaching – Ronald J. Allen
For those interested, I offer my Eight Steps to preparing for a Teaching Sermon. The goal of each sermon is to first understand the passage of Scripture myself. That is to say, I want to first learn, grow in my faith, move closer to the Lord in my spiritual journey, and hear the wisdom of God from the Holy Spirit. Then, I want to be able to outline the passage in such a way that helps me articulate the message of the passage, along with how it has affected me, to a group of people. Finally, I want to use relevant sources to help create a solid bridge of understanding when it comes to the message of the passage.
Izzy’s Eight Steps to Preparing for a Teaching Sermon
Prayer: 10 minutes
When beginning a series, I ask the Lord if this is truly what Halogen needs to hear and if this series is truly inspired by the Holy Spirit in such a way that matches the heartbeat of our church family.
For each specific sermon, ask the Holy Spirit to reveal the wisdom of God to me. I ask God for understanding as I read. I ask God to clear my mind and open me to hearing the promptings of the Holy Spirit and the grace of the Word. I ask the Lord to open me to past instruction I have received on the passage, illustrations, examples, stories and so on that would fit well with getting the message of the passage across.
Read: 30 minutes
I read through my passage 5 times. I read it twice in the Bible from which I preach, the TNIV. I read it in the Greek or Hebrew. I then read it in the NRSV and NASB. Along the way I take notes of words and idiomatic phrases and symbolism.
Word Study: 45 minutes
I look up words of interest. I do word studies, word searches, and take notes of how these words are used in other passages of Scripture and why they are being used in the passage of Scripture from which I am preaching.
Read: 10 minutes
I read the passage again from the TNIV and work in the definitions I have looked up and take notes.
Write: 3-5 hours
I ask the Lord for direction and wisdom as I put together an outline/manuscript
Introduction: How do I want to introduce this passage?
Flow: I write the sermon like I would an article
Points: I pick 3-5 things I want people to write down in their bulletins and take home
Illustrations/Stories/Specials/etc: I think of things that will help communicate the message of the passage
Consult Commentaries: 1-2 hours
I look up 2-3 different commentators and the way in which they have interpreted the passage on which I am preaching and I compare it to my own interpretation. I take notes on what they say, what I want to add from them, how I want to argue with them, and/or what I want to ask concerning their points.
Edit: 2-3 hours
The next day: I pray for God to guide my endeavors
I reread my sermon and make any notes. I add and take away. I use the notes from the commentaries and add them in accordingly. Lastly, I rewrite my sermon in manuscript style.
Practice: 1.5 hours
I perform my sermon 2 times before Sunday service. I read the Scriptures I am going to use for the sermon in order to make it less likely that I stumble over the words on the day I give the sermon.
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