write a sermon faster
It's interesting:"You'd think I'd know better than to be out drinking in the early hours of the morning the night before a big wedding - but Paul's a mate and he needed some ..."
Write a sermon, preach it, write another one, preach it... the pace of pastoring is a challenge to keep up with especially with funerals, weddings, and meetings thrown in the mix.
Many pastors struggle to write a sermon in fifteen hours a week. Others claim twenty hours a week are needed to write sermons. How then is it, that some pastors write excellent sermons in less time than that? Why is it that some times a sermon comes together in almost no time at all?
These steps will not take the work out of preaching. However, they will eventually make writing sermons a quicker proposition.
Instructions
1
PRAY SOONER.
Don't add prayer into preaching as an after thought. Spend a few minutes in quiet meditative prayer early on in your preaching process. Then return to prayer throughout.
2
SHARPEN YOUR LANGUAGE TOOLS.
A dull axe requires great strength, but skill will bring success. How dull is your ax? Many pastors elect to ignore language study since it isn't 'practical' in their view, and it is hard work. However, if you have enough skill to use an interlinear and a lectionary quickly it can save you an hour every week or more. Often the visual imagery in the original language gives you the metaphor, the illustration, or the key insight you need. Get a software program or take classes. 15 minutes a day working on languages can save you hours a week in the long run.
3
SHARPEN YOUR STRUCTURAL ANALYSIS TOOLS.
When a passage says 'therefore' do you know what that means? The prepositions for, before, in, through, under, etc. often provide the key theological insight in a passage. Ask yourself how the meaning would be different if another conjunction (so that instead of because) was used. When your structural analysis tools are sharp, the thought flow of the passage jumps off the page at you much more quickly.
4
START EARLIER.
This seems like the opposite of writing a sermon quickly, but it is the key. When you start writing a sermon weeks before it needs preached (instead of Monday before Sunday) it has time to percolate, stew, and bubble in the back of your mind. You can read the passage a few times and walk away. Then, without meaning to work on it, your mind works on it. WIthout taking time out of your schedule, thoughts and ideas come to you in the car, in a meeting, in the shower, or in a dream.
5
MASTER A FEW SERMON FORMS.
A sermon form is like a sewing pattern. You could probably sew a shirt from scratch if you gave it enough thought and experimented a lot. But a pattern gives you a standard off of which to improvise. Here are some helpful sermon patterns to learn so that you can run a sermon through one of them more quickly:
- The Lowry Loop (See related article on this page)
- The Four Page Sermon (Paul Scott Wilson)
- Not this, Not this, but This 3-Point Sermon
- A Big Idea with Sub-points (Haddon Robinson)
- The Climaxing Refrain (Repeated Preaching Phrase)
6
USE PERFORMANCE THINKING.
Many preachers fall into the trap of trying to craft an oral sermon with silent and written tools. For some this works, for many it's like trying to carve wood with a spoon. Read the passage out loud interpretively. Take a few improvisational preaching attempts to see what comes out. Preach through a point or two to see how it flows. Our whole bodies aid our thinking when we allow ourselves to perform a passage and perform a sermon in the preparation process. Do it as early as possible.
7
*See more tips on write a sermon faster below*
Tips &- Warnings
Come to the text with a sense of playfulness instead of pressure. Have fun with it and more creative juices will flow.
Bounce preaching ideas of friends and acquaintances to see how well they work.
Ask others how they read the passage you are studying to gain new perspectives.
Avoid preaching the same form every week. Change up the pitch or you will lose interest.
Tags: hours week, sermon faster, write sermon, write sermon faster, every week, Many pastorsSource: www.ehow.com
