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There is just something special, at least for me, about the empty church sanctuary (I know that in the modern age we call it the “Worship Center”). I enjoy walking and praying alone in the stillness of this day lit place of safety. This room, which seems to resonate with the ambiance of previous awe-inspiring worship services, serves as a place of reminder and reflection in several respects.
People tend to be predictable. Although they may show some openness to innovation and change, for the most part people love standing right in the center of their personal comfort zones. What I mean, at least in the case of church, is that church people tend to sit in the same chairs or pews each Sunday. This is true of the staid, traditional church as well as the more casual, blended or contemporary church. As I love to tell my students, “people is people.” I make use of this reality in sermon preparation.
Each week I find a time to walk alone in the sanctuary with a legal pad in my hand. Because people tend to sit in the same place from week to week I can remember them by name and experience as I stroll by their seats. This gives me the opportunity to do a little pastoral reflecting upon things they may have told me, pains they have endured, joys experienced, or anything else that is significant in their lives. As I whisper a prayer for them and reflect upon the week’s selected text, the Holy Spirit begins that wonderful process of illumination. The Lord graciously begins to reveal the relevance of the text and its meaningful application for this particular family and church.
From row to row and chair to chair the process of illumination tends to magnify. My mind and heart begin to race as certain implications of the selected text gradually are revealed. So not to forget, I jot each of these thoughts, ideas, and concepts down on the legal pad. Each thought or idea has a significance that I could not have discovered in a commentary, book, preaching resource, or on the internet. It is a far more personal and pastoral approach, in my estimation, because I actually am engaging my flock instead of engaging reading or internet materials. Please understand that I believe there is a place for commentaries and other helpful resources. But there simply is no greater place to begin to see and understand the implications, relevance, and application of the selected biblical text than in a place where I can think solely of the church members. I also see the implications for my own life. Therefore it becomes a moving devotional time for me. The Holy Spirit looms large in this special and significant time of sermon preparation.
Most of the time I walk back into my study and begin to type many of these thoughts and ideas into the message. Some of the thoughts have no place in the actual sermon. They were given by the Holy Spirit in order that I might pray for a situation or consider how I might minister to a family in need. Some of these thoughts do indeed make their way into the message. Sharing this illuminated and biblically charged information with the congregation the following Sunday is an awesome joy. I know that the message is God’s Spirit-anointed message because I broke away from the study and walked in that special place called the “Sanctuary.”
Showing posts with label sermon preparation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label sermon preparation. Show all posts
Friday, September 10, 2010
Monday, September 6, 2010
The C. I. T. of the Text
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The “Heart” of the Passage
At the heart of a paragraph should be one cardinal thought: It is what I (and many other homileticians) call the “central idea of the text” (CIT).
The central idea of the text is channeled through the original purpose or intent of the biblical author. Once the preacher understands that ONE dominat idea, then he can begin to contemporize the central idea by create a thesis statement (how the ancient text relates to the modern listener). The Thesis takes you into the homiletical aspects of the sermon preparation process.
The sermon, as a living word from God to his people, should make its impact on them then and there. They will not remember all the details. We should not expect them to do so. But they should remember the dominant thought, because all the sermon’s details have been marshaled to help them grasp its message and feel its power.
The proposition of the message, derived from a solid CIT and Thesis statement (see chapter 4 of Crossing the Homiletical Bridge) answers the question, What is the sermon about? ... Whether a sermon has two points or ten points, it must have one point, it must be about something (it must propose something).
"The first thing in making a sermon, the sine qua non, is the idea. There can be no sermon that was not first preceded by an idea or a theme."
John Killinger,
Fundamentals of Preaching, 44
I have a conviction that no sermon is ready for preaching, not ready for writing out, until we can express its theme in a short, pregnant sentence as clear as crystal. I find the getting of that sentence is the hardest, the most exacting, and the most fruitful labour in my study.
J. H. Jowett,
The Preacher: His Life and World, 133
Haddon Robinson says ideally each sermon is the explanation, interpretation, or application of a single dominant idea (C. I. T) supported by other ideas, all drawn from one passage or several passages of Scripture. He notes that sermons fail because:
a. They have too many ideas; but more often they deal with unrelated ideas.
b. Preachers may conceive of sermons as a collection of points that have little relationship to each other.
c. Fragmentation; little more than scattered comments based on words and phrases from a passage.
Get to the heart of the passage first and foremost, then all else will become quite easy.
The “Heart” of the Passage
At the heart of a paragraph should be one cardinal thought: It is what I (and many other homileticians) call the “central idea of the text” (CIT).
The central idea of the text is channeled through the original purpose or intent of the biblical author. Once the preacher understands that ONE dominat idea, then he can begin to contemporize the central idea by create a thesis statement (how the ancient text relates to the modern listener). The Thesis takes you into the homiletical aspects of the sermon preparation process.
The sermon, as a living word from God to his people, should make its impact on them then and there. They will not remember all the details. We should not expect them to do so. But they should remember the dominant thought, because all the sermon’s details have been marshaled to help them grasp its message and feel its power.
The proposition of the message, derived from a solid CIT and Thesis statement (see chapter 4 of Crossing the Homiletical Bridge) answers the question, What is the sermon about? ... Whether a sermon has two points or ten points, it must have one point, it must be about something (it must propose something).
"The first thing in making a sermon, the sine qua non, is the idea. There can be no sermon that was not first preceded by an idea or a theme."
John Killinger,
Fundamentals of Preaching, 44
I have a conviction that no sermon is ready for preaching, not ready for writing out, until we can express its theme in a short, pregnant sentence as clear as crystal. I find the getting of that sentence is the hardest, the most exacting, and the most fruitful labour in my study.
J. H. Jowett,
The Preacher: His Life and World, 133
Haddon Robinson says ideally each sermon is the explanation, interpretation, or application of a single dominant idea (C. I. T) supported by other ideas, all drawn from one passage or several passages of Scripture. He notes that sermons fail because:
a. They have too many ideas; but more often they deal with unrelated ideas.
b. Preachers may conceive of sermons as a collection of points that have little relationship to each other.
c. Fragmentation; little more than scattered comments based on words and phrases from a passage.
Get to the heart of the passage first and foremost, then all else will become quite easy.
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
The Moments Before
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I have been asked many times by students and church members alike this question, "Tony, what do you the moments before you come into the Worship Center (aka "sanctuary") to preach?" I tell these wonderful folks that, for me, it is much more than the moments before that I start to get spirtually psyched up for the preaching moment. For at least 15 years now I have risen from bed around 4 a.m. on Sunday mornings. I get my coffee, my Bible, and my printed manuscript (yes I use one but rarely can anyone really tell). I pray. I pray for additional illumination regarding the selected biblical text and I pray that God reminds me that this will be HIS moment and not mine. I then read and re-read the manuscript. I picture the delivery event in my mind. I rehearse at least three times. I edit. This is all for the purpose of being as prepared and ready as I can before my church family. Rest comes later. Around 6 a.m. I finish getting ready and I then just relax and reflect. The last hour in the study at the church before I preach, I pray again and once more read through the selected passage. As I walk out of the pastor's study, I grab the door knob and pray that God would receive glory and that I share HIS message for the listeners.
I have been asked many times by students and church members alike this question, "Tony, what do you the moments before you come into the Worship Center (aka "sanctuary") to preach?" I tell these wonderful folks that, for me, it is much more than the moments before that I start to get spirtually psyched up for the preaching moment. For at least 15 years now I have risen from bed around 4 a.m. on Sunday mornings. I get my coffee, my Bible, and my printed manuscript (yes I use one but rarely can anyone really tell). I pray. I pray for additional illumination regarding the selected biblical text and I pray that God reminds me that this will be HIS moment and not mine. I then read and re-read the manuscript. I picture the delivery event in my mind. I rehearse at least three times. I edit. This is all for the purpose of being as prepared and ready as I can before my church family. Rest comes later. Around 6 a.m. I finish getting ready and I then just relax and reflect. The last hour in the study at the church before I preach, I pray again and once more read through the selected passage. As I walk out of the pastor's study, I grab the door knob and pray that God would receive glory and that I share HIS message for the listeners.
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