Sermon Snippets

Sometimes it's clear throughout the sermon preparation process that some points of an expositional and exegetical message are more powerful than others. When a pastor knows what is going on in the context of his congregation, he will often see relevant points of application within the words of Scripture that will hit home to anyone with a pulse sitting in the pews of his congregation.

Sometimes it is not clear until the actual sermon is presented that these points become clear. A pastor may or may not realize it, but often the congregation will let him know how much they appreciated x,y, or z point that he made because it related to what they are going through.

This week, I think it happened during the in-between. By 'in-between', I mean during the time when I practiced my sermon this morning. The best I can express it is that I felt the Holy Spirit impress upon me the weight and power of the principles I was expounding on from Scripture.

I'm not going to share specifically what it was, as I don't want to spoil Sunday. Though I always enjoy the week-to-week study of God's Word and consistently feel awe and wonder at the truth of God's Word, I don't always get 'blown away' by it. I don't know if that feels as strange to read as it does to write - shouldn't a pastor always be super-passionate and super-awed about proclaiming a message from God's Word because he's fully digested it and wrestled with it deeply? - but quite honestly, this pastor isn't always super-convicted and completely humbled by the message each week. I seek that level of interaction with the passage, but some weeks it resonates better than others.

This should probably teach me something about how those sitting in the pews will respond and react to my sermons.

I wasn't intending to go in this direction for this week's 'Sermon Snippets', yet here we are. If I haven't lost you yet, permit me to take one final rabbit trail regarding sermon preparation.

While we weren't required to do one specific style in seminary, we were encouraged to both write out our sermons and practice them. From there we would encouraged to find whatever method worked for us. So normally on Fridays, I will cue up my PowerPoint in the sanctuary and preach my sermon to an empty room.

Since then, I've continued to write out my sermons and also practice them. I know some pastors who only sketch out their outlines and preach from there. I know others who use Saturday to finish their messages. After 10 years of teaching regularly and now preaching consistently, I've found I work best when I progressively prepare for my lesson/sermon so that it is complete by Friday.  I usually start prep on Wednesday, and I've found this pace helpful because it allows the sermon text and ideas to rattle around in my head for three days.

And once I have the sermon in a completed form, it continues to marinate in my heart and head one more day. I usually review it on Saturday, sometimes re-practicing it, if I've made major changes.

I find that practicing my messages is helpful for a couple of reasons.

First, it gives me a sense of time.  While my church is not too particular, I do want to be sensitive to not going too long. Some preachers, like John MacArthur and Dale Harris, are talented enough communicators to make a 50 minute sermon feel like 20. I don't think I'm that good. My goal is 30 minutes, I don't feel bad if I'm five minutes under or over.

Second, it allows me to personalize the message and inhabit it after I've typed it out in my head. Sometimes talking my way through it shows me that what sounded good in my head doesn't sound smooth when actually spoken. Practicing the sermon allows me to capture an effective pace and work on generating momentum into key points and principles drawn from the text.

I can admit that there have been times I think I've practiced too much. Usually twice before Sunday is the limit for me. After that, I feel like I lose some of the natural emotional force of necessary for good public speaking.

I don't know if that all makes sense, but hopefully it's an interesting peek behind the curtain of sermon preparation.