Well, my two weeks of "no preaching" is over with a vengeance. This week, I get to preach twice (on Sunday), plus having the usual Sunday School and a Saturday night presentation to a college and career group. So, I am sure you have wondered, what do you do to get ready to preach?
What you will find, if you ask, is that many preachers won't tell you. There are lots of ways to get ready to preach. Some men have a system where they work a set number of hours on every sermon, others are less organized. What do I do?
Well, I think a lot. No, seriously. Preaching is really, for me, the outgrowth of what else I do in my life. I seldom consciously sit down and say "hey, let's do a sermon." Instead, I think about various things at various times and, eventually, sit down to work out what I want to say. (This drives committees crazy, because they all want to know "how long" I spend preparing sermons.)
Once I have a good idea what to speak about, I sit down with a program that includes many translations and commentaries, to look over the text I have settled on. I read the text in several translations and, having come to a conclusion about what I am doing with it, I look at some commentaries as well. The sermon grows as a work of oratory more than draftsmanship. I am much more interested in how it sounds than how it reads and, in fact, I never actually write out a sermon at all. I seldom even have notes, preferring to use a sheet with cross-references.
For Saturday night, I have been asked to speak on the sovereignty of God. Pretty big topic with lots of places to go, so the first thing is to decide what I want to accomplish. Do I want to speak about sovereignty in general, or about sovereignty in specifics, or about sovereignty in salvation? Given the context of the presentation, I think we will do them all. This means a sermon of many cross-references, taking off from a solid ground in scripture and showing how each type of sovereignty relates to (and flows from) general sovereignty. Once I have that basic text, the rest comes pretty naturally (although it may take a few hours).
Sunday morning is a First Sunday, where people ask questions in Sunday School, so I do not have to prepare a lesson. Then, I get to preach at Sweetwater Baptist Church in Thomson, where I served a very pleasant interim period some time ago. Those should be very pleasant presentations, but I do not yet know what they will be about.
So, three sermons this week. Lots to do, but, because it flows from what I naturally do (think about God's word a lot), it is really not so much work. It is really more of a journey, taking thoughts and ideas and wrestling with how to explain them to people in a way that will benefit them. Ultimately, of course, what matters is not how much I prepare, nor how well I think I am saying something, but how well people hear me. Communication is not really about what I say as much as it is about what they will hear.
And, I think, this is the real key to preparing to preach. I must think of what will be heard, of how everything will work for people who do not spend their weeks as I do. I cannot preach to myself (as preachers sometimes say they do), because my duty is to preach to them.
What you will find, if you ask, is that many preachers won't tell you. There are lots of ways to get ready to preach. Some men have a system where they work a set number of hours on every sermon, others are less organized. What do I do?
Well, I think a lot. No, seriously. Preaching is really, for me, the outgrowth of what else I do in my life. I seldom consciously sit down and say "hey, let's do a sermon." Instead, I think about various things at various times and, eventually, sit down to work out what I want to say. (This drives committees crazy, because they all want to know "how long" I spend preparing sermons.)
Once I have a good idea what to speak about, I sit down with a program that includes many translations and commentaries, to look over the text I have settled on. I read the text in several translations and, having come to a conclusion about what I am doing with it, I look at some commentaries as well. The sermon grows as a work of oratory more than draftsmanship. I am much more interested in how it sounds than how it reads and, in fact, I never actually write out a sermon at all. I seldom even have notes, preferring to use a sheet with cross-references.
For Saturday night, I have been asked to speak on the sovereignty of God. Pretty big topic with lots of places to go, so the first thing is to decide what I want to accomplish. Do I want to speak about sovereignty in general, or about sovereignty in specifics, or about sovereignty in salvation? Given the context of the presentation, I think we will do them all. This means a sermon of many cross-references, taking off from a solid ground in scripture and showing how each type of sovereignty relates to (and flows from) general sovereignty. Once I have that basic text, the rest comes pretty naturally (although it may take a few hours).
Sunday morning is a First Sunday, where people ask questions in Sunday School, so I do not have to prepare a lesson. Then, I get to preach at Sweetwater Baptist Church in Thomson, where I served a very pleasant interim period some time ago. Those should be very pleasant presentations, but I do not yet know what they will be about.
So, three sermons this week. Lots to do, but, because it flows from what I naturally do (think about God's word a lot), it is really not so much work. It is really more of a journey, taking thoughts and ideas and wrestling with how to explain them to people in a way that will benefit them. Ultimately, of course, what matters is not how much I prepare, nor how well I think I am saying something, but how well people hear me. Communication is not really about what I say as much as it is about what they will hear.
And, I think, this is the real key to preparing to preach. I must think of what will be heard, of how everything will work for people who do not spend their weeks as I do. I cannot preach to myself (as preachers sometimes say they do), because my duty is to preach to them.