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\nCount \u2018em \u2013 4,800 words. That\u2019s what it takes to fill up 30 minutes.<\/p>\n
Sermon Writing: Tappin Into Niagara<\/p>\n
By David B. Smith<\/p>\n
\nCount \u2018em \u2013 4,800 words. That\u2019s what it takes to fill up 30 minutes.<\/p>\n
Sabbath morning looms . . . and for the preacher, it looms every single week. At 11:30 a.m., he or she will stand in the pulpit and deliver God\u2019s message to God\u2019s people. What will come out of the mouth? And how will it get from the Bible . . . to the mind . . . down to the paper . . . and then again to the mind and mouth of God\u2019s servant? For a full decade, I faced the exciting challenge of creating and shaping sermons for the Adventist Church\u2019s foremost radio ministry. These were shorter sermons \u2013 approximately 1,600 words each \u2013 but they were needed daily. Christian media is a script-gobbling machine, and it was like writing for a sanctified soap!<\/p>\n
Fortunately, the Word of God is a never-exhausted rich resource. It is a veritable Niagara Falls, which surges ceaselessly past the tourist crowds at the steady rate of 194,940 gallons per minute. I once had a young intern confess to me, \u201cDavid, I just . . . can\u2019t think of anything. What shall I preach about?\u201d And while I was sympathetic with him, I recall thinking to myself: \u201cMan, you\u2019re in the wrong business.\u201d A preacher who reads just the Bible would find many things to fill up sermons; a diligent, voracious reader who is in tune with the awesome world around him will discover sermon opportunities everywhere.<\/p>\n
Fill Yourself Up<\/p>\n
A Christian wife named Ruth once advised her husband Bill, \u201cHoney, your job as a preacher is to simply read and study and \u2018fill yourself up.\u2019\u201d And Pastor Graham confesses in his autobiography, Just As I Am: \u201cThe most effective preaching [comes from] the overflow of a heart and mind filled not only with the Spirit but with much reading. Hence, I picked each sermon topic carefully, read myself full, wrote myself empty, and read myself full again on the subject.\u201d<\/p>\n
When I read the Bible and other classic Christian books, sermonic ideas are everywhere. Both the possibilities and the passion begin to overflow \u2013 a nice feeling! Still, how does one harness Niagara and get it onto the manuscript pages that tuck into our Bibles?<\/p>\n
Preaching Sermon Series<\/p>\n
When I was on the radio sermon treadmill, I found it vital, first of all, to be preaching extended series. That took away the fatigue of \u201cWhat next?\u201d If I was doing ten radio sermons on that Prodigal Son, that was next. I once dove into First Corinthians \u2013 a Monday-Friday radio series per chapter \u2013 and found it very easy (and rewarding) to write 80 sermons from its 16 chapters.<\/p>\n
First things first: a full \u201cbarrel\u201d of ideas and notes. I always prepared one computer file before launching into a sermon series. If preaching from a Bible passage, I found it helpful to simply type in every single verse from the chosen chapter, perhaps in as many as 3-4 versions: my favorite NIV, the King James for its rich and familiar expressions here and there \u2013 [the horn] whose look was more stout than his fellows \u2013 and also a contemporary paraphrase like The Message. Just the side-by-side comparing would often yield fascinating tidbits and insights that were worth weaving into the sermon.<\/p>\n
Then to a couple of Bible commentaries. Borrow \u201cinsider\u201d perspectives the average lay person wouldn\u2019t know, a slice here and there of \u201cin-the-original-Greek\u201d wisdom, historical facts provided by the experts.<\/p>\n
Then I like to simply sit and stare at the ceiling until sermon illustrations come. What books have I read (and underlined) that have a bearing on this topic? Is there a dynamic story that I could use as a lead-in? (This is especially important for a radio sermon where one has to hook the listener almost immediately.) What\u2019s happening on CNN or Fox News or in Time magazine that dovetails with this week\u2019s topic? I aim for \u201cfive and five\u201d \u2013 illustrations and Bible references.<\/p>\n
Where do the very best sermon ideas come from? Your own life. Your hurts and joys, ups and down, childhood stories, adventures and anecdotes, mistakes and miracles that happened personally to YOU. Nothing is as memorable as when a preacher steps out from behind the pulpit and says earnestly, \u201cListen now, and let me tell you, church family, what Jesus has personally done for me.\u201d<\/p>\n
One sermon prop that is either wonderfully effective or painfully corny is to use a resource like Chase\u2019s Calender of Events. If you can tell your church family that \u201cOne hundred years ago today, this exact moment, such-and-such happened,\u201d that can stamp an indelible lesson in their minds. I was writing a radio sermon slated for broadcast a couple of months later, and said to myself wistfully, \u201cSure would be good if this tied into some anniversary \u2018tragedy\u2019 I could borrow.\u201d I dug into Chase\u2019s, and found that the bombing of Hiroshima was just one day off from our chosen air date. Close enough! We made it work, going with \u201cTomorrow as the world reflects . . .\u201d<\/p>\n
Warning: this use of \u201cdatebook trivia\u201d is only effective if the tie-in or application is clear-cut and appropriate. Telling your church family, out of the blue and stand-alone, that this is \u201cNational Eat-a-Cookie Week\u201d may be fascinating, but probably not particularly edifying. (Plus you\u2019ll look desperate!)<\/p>\n
Lastly, I search my memory and my favorite books for one or two compelling \u201cQuotable Quotes\u201d that might really lend punch to a key point. Even if your library contains just five or ten well-chosen and often-studied classic books \u2013 Mere Christianity, The Purpose-Driven Life, Steps to Christ, Pilgrim\u2019s Progress \u2013 embedded in your mind and sparingly shared in sermons, this will help give your messages an extra measure of heft and gravitas. I am not particularly an avid fan of Shakespeare, but my wife is . . . and I also know how to use the Internet to find out exactly what the Bard said about shuffling \u201coff this mortal coil.\u201d [Act III, Scene I]\n
Then comes the grind: prayerfully shaping the half-hour of words that will take your listeners to God\u2019s throne, remind them of His goodness, teach them of His kingdom and will, and leave them inspired to discover and live the \u201cpurpose-driven life.\u201dYour heart and \u201cprep file\u201d are now flowing over; it\u2019s time to pour the best of your collection into an organized whole.<\/p>\n
In my ten years of radio sermon-writing, of course, our sermons were word-for-word manuscripts. And there can be such power in well-crafted lines! Alliteration, cadence, timing, rhyme \u2013 all are tools that can make a sermon sparkle and stir a hearer\u2019s heart. Even now that I am standing in the pulpit myself every weekend, I love the completeness of having a full manuscript, of knowing that I have before me the very words I\u2019ve chosen to use.<\/p>\n
However, most minister don\u2019t find it practical to take all 4,800 words with them to church (A full manuscript with a laptop\u2019s \u201cword count\u201d will keep your sermon length under control). In that case, work with whatever level of \u201coutline\u201d is most effective for you. I\u2019ve seen my own, and my three brothers\u2019, manuscripts, and none of us have the same style. Some use a free-flowing outline that is little short of a full manuscript, with colored highlights here and there to catch their eye. Others have the fine precision of carefully designated A-B-C points, subpoints, bullets, etc. Gifted ministers with a passion for detail and a keen memory can often boil entire sections, stories, and extended themes into just a word or two. My cousin, Morris Venden, routinely would stand in the pulpit with one-half of a handwritten sheet of paper.<\/p>\n
My personal preference is to begin with a word-for-word sermon, if time and energy permits. Then work down from that, creating a more spare outline that abbreviates and trims, but still has some chosen richness of language and elegant flow in the places where you feel the congregation most needs the inspiration. Working as I currently am from my own personal Everest of more than one thousand radio sermons, this is a luxury I can afford for a long time!<\/p>\n
In 2003 I delivered ten sermons in the Philippines using full word-for-word sermons. With the intense heat and gale-force fans blowing my notes hither and yon, it was a tough week-and-a-half. So on a more recent Thailand mission trip to the land of my childhood, I loaded five word-for-word manuscripts into PowerPoint files, putting just a couple of sentences on each \u201cscreen.\u201d Then, using a remote mouse, instead of being tied to notes, I still had the best of both worlds: a full sermon and also the hands-free liberty to move around and deviate from the script as the Spirit moved. It was a bootleg setup, but it worked! Especially in evangelistic settings, if you have the software and personnel to do it right, that would be ideal preaching.<\/p>\n
In the end, simply love and read the Bible. Bob Edwards tells how H. M. S. Richards is said to have remarked to his friend, Wilbur Alexander: \u201cThe Bible is a vast and infinite source of sermons. If you become a Bible preacher, you are never out of sermon material.\u201d
\n______________________________<\/p>\n
David B. Smith wrote this while pastoring the Upper Room Fellowship in Temple City, CA.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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