a Shared Life

I had the opportunity to preach this Sunday. I love preaching. It’s challenging and rewarding. I’m always blown away at how God uses my personal time seeking Him to challenge and encourage others in their faith.

From the beginning of my life as a blogger, I have always sought to share my life and what God is doing in it. Preaching is an enigma to most people. The average person who listens to sermons gets up, goes to church, hears a sermon–and probably has no idea how that sermon came to be. While I can’t speak for others, I can show you how the sermon I preached this morning came to be–and through the convenience of mp3s, you can even listen to the final product.

Stage 1: Reading & Praying
I read the Bible–and I love to study it. It’s the primary way God speaks to me. When I read it, often passages stand out. When they do, I write them in my journal. (I use a journal with removable pages so it’s easy to move things around into different categories–sermons, potential series, thoughts for my small group, etc.) Often I’ll go back through the journal and an entry might make its way into a sermon. In this case, which is typical for me, I wrote down a passage and just couldn’t stop thinking about it for several weeks. I would read it often and jot questions and thoughts in the margin of my journal. At the same time, I began to read Bible Dictionaries, Commentaries and Theological Journals. (Because that’s the way God wired me!)

Stage 2: Outlining
Since the opportunity to speak was coming up, I began to flesh out an outline. As I outline what I’m going to say, I continue to pray for clarity of thought with the passage and insight into what the people who will be there need to hear from God. As I do that, I begin to outline the message and put extra thoughts in the margins. (Please excuse my poor penmanship!)

Stage 3: Finish the Outline
In our church, we hand out outlines for the message. So I type it up and email it to the person who prints them and puts them in the bulletin. I have been intentionally low tech up to this point–except for digital commentaries, etc. I prefer handwritten notes in my journal while praying and developing sermons. Normally I like to type my own outline at this step because it is easier to edit–and I like to see how it lays out on the paper. Since we use an 8.5 x 11″ piece of paper cut in two,there are two pages to the outline.

Stage 4: Organizing my Notes into the Outline
Although I have been thinking and praying about the message for quite a while by now, I have to decide what will make my notes for the sermon. I don’t like to script everything out so that I’m tied to the pulpit. And, of course, when preaching, often God brings things to mind during the sermon.

Stage 5: Pray and Preach!
Nothing is more important than our relationship with God–especially when preaching! So, I just enjoy His presence in my life and continue to pray…and here’s the final product…

IntoTheDeep.mp3

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