A Few Thoughts on Sermon Preparation, Writing and Delivery. . .
The photo of me above was taken surreptitiously by my brother during a service at Exeter Cathedral in the UK. Preaching in that pulpit was quite an experience! It was a great privilege to be a part of that community while I spent time at Exeter University working on my PhD. The pulpit was so tall that you could see all the way over the choir stalls into the nave where there are tourists wandering around taking pictures (even while there is a service going on) - it was a bit distracting at times! It was rather daunting to preach in such a place! I think sometimes sermon preparation on the whole can feel rather daunting, and so I would like to offer a few thoughts and best practices. Hopefully this will be helpful to you!
I am a manuscript preacher. I know that many people glorify the practice of preaching with an outline or even without notes. For some people that works fabulously! Yay for them! I am a better writer than orator, so I write my sermons out. The advice below will probably work less well if you like to preach without notes, but hopefully some of it will still be useful.
PREPARING . . .
Marinating
Not just for steaks anymore! :) *Note: I love to cook, so this is likely one of many food related sentences on this blog.
For me the first step in a good sermon is the brainstorming. I like to read the lectionary texts assigned and let them just sit in my brain for a day or two. I think about them while driving in the car or cooking dinner. Inevitably the Holy Spirit is at work and the beginnings of an idea or theme begin to form.
Conversation
Once I have a sense of where I might want to go with one or two of the texts, I like to have a conversation about my ideas. I try hard to stick to my preaching professor's rule never to talk about more than three texts in a sermon, and then only three if there is a really strong connection between them. Sometimes the conversations are with fellow clergy or sometimes with my mom (who is a writer and teacher), but most often they are with my husband (sainted man that he is). One of the reasons I love brainstorming sermons with him is that he is a mechanical engineer. His brain works completely differently than mine, and he sees the world differently. His mom is an organist. He grew up in the Church and has heard a lot of sermons - even before he met me! :) He gets Church, and he knows what it is to be the person in the pew. Conversation with him usually helps me to catch mistakes. It keeps me from trying to accomplish too much in a sermon or from being too formal or academic. Conversation with him helps me keep my sermons connected to real life. I strongly believe that the whole point of preaching is so that we can make the Scriptures relevant to the daily lives of people in the pews. I highly recommend having conversation partner or partners with whom you can digest the Scriptures and get your creative juices flowing.
WRITING . . . .
Write and write!
When I preached the first few times it took me days or even weeks to work on a sermon. Getting into a position where you have to preach every week or at least close to it quickly cured me of that! I can now easily write out a sermon in about an hour (once I have done my brainstorming and conversing). So, as the saying goes, practice makes perfect. The more sermons you write, the easier it will be. If you find yourself staring at a blank screen, just start writing. The ideas will come. The first draft does not have to be the final one!
Short and sweet
Remember, people have to listen to this. Avoid long complicated sentences. Avoid a lot of references to something said earlier . . . it is not a book, they cannot turn back a page or two to check. If you find yourself writing "Thirdly" or "And finally" you might want to go back and reassess whether or not your audience is really going to be able to remember ALL your points. To that end, it is generally best to have ONE take home message in your sermon. If you can't sum your sermon up in a single sentence, it is probably too long. Also remember that you can hold most people's attention for about 7 minutes. If you go on for twice that, people are not likely to remember what you said. I find that it is generally good to aim for about 1000 to 1200 words. Generally speaking, people are not known for complaining that a sermon is too short. :)
Format and Formulas
Generally speaking, I find there are two formulas that work well for crafting sermons, and they are just variations on each other.
1. Scripture > story, real life examples > so what?
2. Personal story, anecdote > Scripture > so what?
Most often I go with number 2 because I find that if you start with a hook - tell a personal story, an example of daily life, something well known and engaging - people are interested and likely to stay tuned into what you are saying.
Sometimes there is something particularly notable or striking in the Scripture itself and that can be a great place to start and then you move to a connection with daily life. Again, I think the whole point of preaching is to help people feel that the Scriptures they have just heard are real and relevant to their daily lives.
Audience
As you write, keep in mind the people who will hear your sermon. Is there something particular going on in the community or in the world that you need to speak on? If people's lives and hearts have been shaken by recent events on a global scale or a local level, it will be incredibly helpful to them to touch on those events in your sermon. If a horrific murder has just happened in your town or it is the Sunday after 9/11 and there is no mention of it in your sermon, people will feel you are out of touch, and they may stop listening. Be attentive to the needs of your community. Occasionally, it is okay to put the lectionary aside (or even to preach on what is not in the lectionary) because the message the community really needs to hear that week is something else.
DELIVERY . . .
Clear and Concise
Even if you write out sermons, you still want to practice them. You don't want to stumble over your text in the delivery. That said, write as you would speak. The text does not need to (and probably should not!) read like a research paper with multiple footnotes. Use colloquialisms and short sentences. Casual, conversational style is fine in almost all settings, although that does not mean you should deliver it in such a relaxed manner that people have a hard time hearing or understanding you.
Loud, but not too loud
Project and don't swallow the ends of your sentences (my error early in my preaching). Also be aware of the sound system (if there is one where you are preaching). I spent a while preaching in small churches without any sound systems, so I got used to projecting. Then when I went to a big church with a sound system, someone told me that my 8am sermon sounded like I was angry or yelling because I was so loud. Oops! Always good to check out the sound system and see how sensitive it is!
Pauses are okay
Again this is one straight out of my own experiences and mistakes. I generally talk fast and early on in my preaching, particularly when I was very nervous I would fly through my sermons. My dear parents (who heard many of my early sermons) would keep reminding me to slow down! It took a while to get the hang of a good rhythm that was neither a Formula One race nor molasses on a cold day. Practice will help you find yours! And sometimes it can even be helpful to add in extra punctuation (even if it is not grammatically correct) to your text so that it can help you slow down and pause when appropriate.
Eye Contact
After a recent sermon I gave, a retired priest came up to compliment me on my sermon and also to let me know that he wished I had looked into the eyes of members of the congregation more. Doing so would have helped my sermon to have a greater impact. This is wise advice. It can be tricky to do, however, particularly if you are preaching on something that could be controversial or challenging for people to hear. Try to at least pick a few people with whom to make direct eye contact with during the sermon. Try also to know your manuscript well enough that you can keep your eyes up more often than they are down on the page.
Feedback
And when it is all over, ask for feedback. I am indebted to my family for all the sermons they have read and listened to and all the feedback that they have given to me on content, style and delivery. If you don't already have a setup for receiving regular feedback on your preaching, create one. Put a small committee together. Record a sermon or two and send it to a colleague. Attend a preaching workshop. We all can always improve our preaching, so be on the lookout for feedback!
Pat yourself on the back!
Preaching is hard work. Like any creative process, when it is done well, we pour our whole selves into the creation and delivery of our sermons. It is a big deal to expose ourselves to the world in that way and can feel very vulnerable. Give yourself credit for putting yourself out there, for taking the time to prepare a sermon. And if it doesn't all go perfectly, don't worry! There is always next week! And our lectionary repeats every three years. You will have another opportunity to do it differently!
USEFUL RESOURCES
Working Preacher
The Text This Week - Textweek - Sermon, Sermons, Revised Common Lectionary, Scripture Study and Worship Links
The Thoughtful Christian
Death of Preaching
When does a text show up in the Lectionary?
Alban - Listening to the Listeners of Sermons
SermonSuite - Online Sermons, Children's Sermons, Sermon Illustrations, Lectionary Sermons, Lectionary Resources
Bible in a year? Same, same but different http://www.anglicannews.org/features/2013/10/bible-in-a-year-same,-same-but-different.aspx
Connections
Creative Strategies for Sermons
16 Ways Progressive Christians Interpret the Bible
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/rogerwolsey/2014/01/16-ways-progressive-christians-interpret-the-bible/
Fermenting the Word:While editing sermons at my favorite watering hole, I'll post about the different beers I am trying.
12 Things TEDx Speakers do that Preachers Don’t. | Scribblepreach
The Bible Reduced To Minimalist Posters | Co.Design | business + design
Scripture in Context
