Comments on: What is Due Diligence in Preaching?

By: DBergh

DBergh — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 14:24:07 +0000

As one of your sermon hearers I am well fed on Sunday morning.

By: Pastor RD

Pastor RD — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 03:57:15 +0000

I am an associate pastor and don’t have much opportunity to preach, maybe 8 times per year, but I do prepare bi-weekly messages for an extended care facility and weekly lessons for youth (I was told, “If you can preach to children, you can preach to anybody!”). So my question is this: How do you come up with material for a weekly sermon – a sermon that is more than just a teaching but is also encouraging and challenging? I feel as if I will never become a “the” pastor who preaches every week – week in and week out unless I can figure this out! And yes, I did have homiletics and hermeneutics, but I feel inadequate in this area.

By: Drul

Drul — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 17:34:08 +0000

I’m an old retired preacher, convinced that there is no way any method works for everyone. My pattern, using the lectionary, was to read the lessons for next Sunday Monday morning before I did anything else for the week. Then I let those lessons fester? simmer? during the week. Commentaries were consulted, but not every week. Sometimes the inspiration came from the news or a parishoner or a street person. Thursday was writing day. Friday was a day off and Saturday morning was the final review. It worked for me.
But a close friend, with whom I shared ministry for a time, “wrote” his sermon early Sunday morning. For him writing in advance of the day made him boring. And he “wrote” in the sanctuary, quietly meditating hours before anyone showed up. However, he had, like me, been filtering the lessons all week through the events of the week.
Had I followed his pattern I would not have slept any Saturday night.
My point: your method might not work for me; mine might not work for you. But search to find your method and then follow it.

By: adamjcopeland

adamjcopeland — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 17:16:36 +0000

btw, there’s been some great discussion and comments of this at my facebook page. Sorry, no-friends. You’re welcome to keep it going here.

By: joan calvin

joan calvin — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 21:03:09 +0000

i read the texts on Monday. I do some reading (Feasting on the Word, http://www.textweek.com, goodpreacher.com) on Monday. I turn it over, think about it, during the week. I take Thursdays to prepare. The congregation knows that Thursday is sermon prep day. I am home that day working on the sermon. Sometimes I work on the sermon on Saturday, too. (Friday is my day off. Period.) This is what works for me. I write a manuscript and then preach without notes.

By: Rev Deb

Rev Deb — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 19:52:44 +0000

I am not a PK nor, do I profess to be an academic by any stretch of the imagination. By the grace of God, I am here as ordained. Therefore, here is my very simple view. I preach the RCL and in so doing, every day I read on many topics around the passage. I allow the scripture to have a voice in my days and as my week progresses the sermon grows within me. The writing is like a birthing, it naturally comes out, and if I fight it, or try to control it, I only hurt the scripture, the sermon, and myself. I’ve moved away from writing a full manuscript and preaching from that written page. Oh, I don’t wing it. I do my research, pray, and reflect on the Word. I write my nugget with a few important quotes and possibly some transitional thoughts then on Sunday – I preach “in the moment.” Some might be critical of this style but it works for me and the congregation seems to enjoy it. I have the mindset that Sundays start my week not, finish it with a sermon then start all over again on Monday. One reason this might work for me is, I’m dyslexic, and writing is a task I do not go to easily. I would much rather live the sermons than fight it on the page. That is my very simple view.

By: Beloved Spear

Beloved Spear — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 16:48:06 +0000

I…um…don’t write my sermon. I prefer to, actually, but my increasingly young congregation seems to favor it when I preach from presentation software. It keeps me from delving too deeply into my often obscure vocabulary.

That said, I preach every week, and preaching prep is intentionally interwoven through my whole week. I spend Tuesday morning selecting passages and coming up with a central theme, which I then send to my Praise Team Leader. Wednesday, I sit on it. Thursday, I read my commentaries and other background, and start in on the presentation. Saturday night, I refine and edit. Sunday morning, I refine and edit. It’s a meal that takes the whole week to prepare…but much of that time it’s just simmering.

At the end of the process, there is no written record, unfortunately. I almost don’t mind that, given that my sermons tend to be so radically contextual. And heck, if I want to write my thoughts, that’s what the blog is for…