In lieu of an orthodox blog post I wanted to document my thought trail and sequence of events for considering the grand question at the end (time-constrained readers can skip to #8 with #6 as a bonus if it’s doable).
This may be of use to someone in the future.
- On the way to the movie store, heard guest on Father Ron Lengwen’s radio show talk about how she identified with Big Bro’s envy toward the celebration of Prodigal Little Bro’s redemption
- Any interest in guest’s position was dispelled when she disclaimed herself from the unpious opinion and instead expressed appreciation and gave the stock opinion of the Prodigal Son parable. A little unoriginal but understandable
- Decided I would bike to movie store in the future
- Turned radio off at some point and dropped off movies
- Thought skeptics should go to church or read the Bible if they want to hear anti-Christian (but not anti-Christianity) speech, as 99% of all sermons are “Christians act like x, but they should act like y.” Would glean those who have serious fundamental philosophical issues with Christianity from those who just get jollies from peeping out religious hypocrisy
- Wondered how sermons were written. Are any improvised, or is it standard notes/talking points all the way, or is everything “prosed out”, with hand motions and all? Probably not the laat, unless you were on TV and wanted to reach the utmost of annoying. If the full-narrative method is used it might be easier for pastors to better evade the serious, self-effacing anecdotes to maintain legendary pastor status.
- Did some quick mental math and concluded that a sum total of one pastors [sic] read my blog, comprised of about five or six partial followings.
- Wanted to know how any pastors (or aspiring pastors, or ex-pastors) reading this did or would do their sermons and would be willing to reveal trade secrets to a rube with his own blog, either in the comments section or via email
- Came home, eventually ate something, fell asleep
11 Comments
i love this.
i’m out to eat so i can’t really get into how i prepare teachings at the moment.so i’m writing this comment so i will remember to send you something later.in the minute i do have before my tacos arrive, i will say that sermon writing is a sort of art for me. think of mlk’s “i have a dream” sermon – brilliantly creative and imaginative. sermons used to be in the hands of the artists (think jeremiah), but sadly sermon writing has found it’s home almost exclusively with the scientists and the engineers (intro, pt 1, pt 2, pt 3). anyway, food is here. i’ll send you some thoughts later.thanks for writing.andrew mook
Hey Andrew! Hope the tacos went down well and I’d like to hear more of your ideas. And also the tacos.
Hey Jay,
Love your “pseudo-intellectual” musings. (To be clear, I didn’t leave that review!). 🙂
I script out everything for clarity and brevity (I go longer if chasing rabbit trails) but leave room for “riffing.” I try to memorize key content so I’m not note-bound, but I don’t script body language or voice inflections.
If you care for more details, here is a series of posts I did on how I prepare a message; hope it helps:
http://billlamorey.typepad.com/bill_lamorey/2011/03/how-i-prepare-a-message-pt-1-the-process-repost.html
http://billlamorey.typepad.com/bill_lamorey/2011/03/how-i-prepare-a-message-pt-2-the-purpose-repost.html
http://billlamorey.typepad.com/bill_lamorey/2011/03/how-i-prepare-a-message-pt-3-the-people.html
http://billlamorey.typepad.com/bill_lamorey/2011/03/how-i-prepare-a-message-pt-4-the-presentation-repost.html
http://billlamorey.typepad.com/bill_lamorey/2011/04/how-i-prepare-a-mesasage-pt-5-the-practice.html
Thanks for those links and the input, Bill. I will check the links out.
I went to your church once, a few years ago. You had a guest speaker, though, so I didn’t get to see you in action.
You dodged that bullet!
I am not a pastor, but have preached a few times and know a few other pastors. I know many pastors write out everything so that they do not forget and have it nicely laid out, but I know others who just do an outline approach. I think it is more personality.
I have tried using both of these approaches and felt more comfortable with having it all there, but sometimes I felt like I was “reading” a little too much. Although when it comes to stories or other parts, I didn’t write these out, and gave planety of room to share what I was thinking or what was on my heart throughout. And no body language or voice inflections I didn’t pre-rehearse
Also, on a side note, preaching with a translator is a whole different ball game! But when you get the hang of it, it is not too bad.
One of the band’s I used to be in played a show in Montreal and the people we were staying with had a friend that translated our talking in between songs into French. It was weird.
Hi Jay,
I am no pastor but my father is who pased away 2 years back .
I have seen him prepare sermons which includes Sunday services, Special occasions, House visits.
He has a notebook where he writes short notes. For the Sunday service he used toprepare Saturday evenings and the messages will be based on occasions like Palm Sunday and he will have a biblical. verse that will the message’s highlight. And as per my knowledge i have never heard repeated message
Hi Deepak. Sorry to hear about your father. Thanks for the input!
One of the blogs I read posted some very unorthodox methods Mark Driscoll uses to prepare this morning:
http://www.churchleaders.com/pastors/pastor-articles/153941-how-mark-driscoll-prepares-his-sermon.html