“Don’t go because you’ve got
to say something; go because
you’ve got something to say.”
Dr. C.B. Akins
Proclaiming the Word
Sermon Preparation
and Delivery
“…preaching is the most
public of pastoral acts. The
quality and depth of
Christian discipleship in a
congregation depend heavily
upon it.”
Thomas Oden
Our Task Today…
1. Define “preaching”
2. Identify the participants in the
preaching event
3. Examine what constitutes an
“effective” sermon
Our Task Today…
4. Explore sermon preparation
5. Develop “tools” for use in the
“preacher’s workshop”
What is preaching?
“Truth through personality is
our description of real
preaching. The truth must
come really through the
person, not merely into his
understanding and out
through his pen.
It must come through his
character, his affections, his
whole intellectual and moral
being. It must come
genuinely through him.”
Phillips Brooks
Be who you is…
…if you ain’t who you is, you is
who you ain’t!
Satchel Paige
“Preaching is the clear
articulation of the message
of God, by a messenger
called of God to be delivered
to a community who needs to
hear what God has to say.”
The Participants…
• The preacher
• The congregation
• God
Interaction of Roles
• Preacher/Pastor or
Pastor/Preacher?
• Sixteen dimensions
“Preparation for preaching is a
mixture of everything the pastor
does. The academic studies, the
relationship with the
congregation, the involvement in
the community, the
administration of the church,
personal devotional time, the
continual reading of periodicals
and books – all of these
contribute to preaching.
Sermons are not developed or
delivered in a vacuum or outside
of one.
The sermon comes from many
streams of thought and work.”
Bishop Robert Spain,
Getting Ready to Preach, 73.
“Effective sermons are
interesting, relevant, biblical,
understandable, offer clear
application to the hearer’s
daily life, address real-life
issues, and are preached with
conviction, passion, love,
integrity and humility.”
Adam Hamilton
The first step is…
“The character of our praying
will determine the character
of our preaching. Light
praying makes light
preaching…”
E. M. Bound
Selecting our text…
• Understanding the Revised
Common Lectionary
• The need for advance work…
Movements of a Sermon
•
•
•
•
•
From the page to the preacher
From the preacher to the pulpit
From the pulpit to the pew
From the pew to the parking lot
From the parking lot to practice
From page to preacher
“Exegesis” relates to what the
text originally meant when it
was written.
“Hermeneutics” concerns
itself with what the text
means for us today and the
process by which we
determine that.
“Interpretation – or more
commonly in the academy,
hermeneutics – is the process of
ascertaining for a reader or
readers the meaning of a
document written to another
reader or readers.”
Craddock, Preaching, 125
The First Step in
Hermeneutics
• C.I.E.
– Context
– Is
– Everything
"A text without a context is a
pretext for a proof text."
D.A. Carlson
“The principle of procedure
fundamental to the task of
sermon preparation is this: the
process of arriving at something
to say is to be distinguished from
the process of determining how
to say it.”
“The two processes cannot be
collapsed into one. It can be
said, however, that there will be
times during the process of
arriving at the message when the
form of the sermon will suggest
itself. One can hope that the text
being interpreted will provide
the key to the movement of the
sermon. After all, to impose
upon a message a sermon form
alien to the text that yielded the
message could result in
preaching what the text does not
say and doing with the sermon
what the text does not do.”
Craddock, Preaching, 84
Practical tips for Sermon
Preparation
• Immerse yourself in the text
– Read, re-read and re-re-read it aloud.
– Listen to someone else read the text.
– Read it from different translations
Practical tips for Sermon
Preparation
• Utilize a holy imagination
and engage your senses.
– What are you seeing?
– What are you smelling?
– What are you hearing?
– What are you tasting?
– What are you touching?
“Empathy, intuition, and
imagination move in and out
of the most disciplined and
calculated procedures of
interpretation.”
Craddock, 125
Practical tips for Sermon
Preparation
• Develop a single sentence
that encapsulates the entire
message.
• Develop “sound bytes”
• Anticipate questions and
objections
Practical tips for Sermon
Preparation
• Immerse yourself in the
congregation
– Go and sit in the pews. Think about who
sits there.
– Immerse yourself into that person’s life.
– Ask, “What is the Word of the Lord for this
person?”
Practical tips for Sermon
Preparation
• Learn how to prepare a
variety of sermons
– Expository sermons
– Character sketches
– Topical sermons
“In short, the work of the
sermon is to help God’s future
happen in the lives of its
hearers.”
William E. Hull,
Strategic Preaching: The Role of the
Pulpit in Pastoral Leadership
Monday Morning Evaluation
• Was the Gospel preached?
• Was the message true to the
text?
• Were the people challenged?
• Did hope and grace show up?
Monday Morning Evaluation
• Was “The Monday Connection”
made? (William E. Diehl,
HarperSanFrancisco, 1991)
Questions?
Worship Planning
Practical Tips and
Insights
An Understanding of
Worship from Isaiah
• Celebration of God’s holiness
• Conviction of sin
• Cleansing and assurance
• Call
• Commissioning
“Worship isn’t a means to an
end; it’s an end in itself.”
Ronald Byars,
The Future of Protestant Worship
What are we teaching?
• Explicit
• Implicit
• Null
Worship Styles & Wars
Styles found in Kentucky
Methodism
•
•
•
•
•
•
Country/Bluegrass
Southern Gospel/Gaither
Country/Wesleyan
Classical/High Church
Blended
Multi-sensory/Multimedia
Context is Everything
• Assess your context
• Work with your musicians
• How to introduce new hymns
• Sharing the responsibility
The Liturgical Year
• Advent (Purple or Blue)
• Christmas (White)
• Season after Epiphany
(Green)
• Lent (Purple)
The Liturgical Year
• Pentecost (Red)
• Sundays after Pentecost
(Green)
• Trinity Sunday (White)
• All Saints’ Sunday (White)
The Liturgical Year
• Christ the King Sunday
(White)
Using the U.M. Hymnal
• “The Basic Pattern of
Worship”
• Use of Creeds/Prayers
• Selection of Hymns for
Sunday worship
Using the U.M. Book of
Worship
• The Great Thanksgivings
• Baptismal Covenants
• Weddings
• Death and Resurrection
• Special Days
Using the U.M. Book of
Worship
• Prayers for Various
Occasions
• Blessings
• Occasional Services
• Healing Services
Thoughts about
Bulletins
Questions?