Conference Report March 2001

Falkirk Baptist Church, March 2001.

The Ten Commandments of Sermon Preperation

1. Define your objective behaviourally i.e. what would the hearer KNOW, and what could the hearer DO as a result of this talk?

2. Distinguish between general aims and the specific objectives before you begin to prepare a sermon, a lecture, a Bible study or a talk.

3. Decide your field of study. How much could your hearer cope with in one of your talks? Limit your field of study to the palatable so that the hearer does not go away with intellectual digestion.

4. Gather your resources. What books / programmes should you always have on your shelves or on your computer? In the absence of cash, how can you gain access to resources which could help you? It is a good idea to join a good library to access the range of Christian Biblical/theological books.

5. Work to a set pattern or template for every task you have before you e.g, in this lecture/sermon it is the exegesis of an Old Testament passage, or the preperation of an Old Testament talk. The template is as follows:
   
   • Analyse the text
   • Crystallise the truth
   • Humanise the telling

6. Analyse the text. Here you need to master the Biblical passage itself, yourself, before finding out what other people say about it.
   
   • Read it many times over to get the 'feel' of it as far as you are concerned.
   • Make notes.
   • Then, whether or not you are dealing with the whole book, or a passage or text within a book, look at an analysis of the whole, so that you have a sense of the sweep or global picture. Truth lies in wholeness. Most commentaries or handbooks give an analysis.
   • Now you can begin to fit your passage into the plan of the book and give your text a context, like a jewel in its setting.
   • Now read your commentaries. As you read, make notes of what you find relevant and interesting. If you are dealing with a very limited field, use a concordance or computer word study to see what the Hebrew or Greek word actually meant at the time it was written, and the use of the world elsewhere n the Bible, so that you begin to catch the sense of its usage throughout the whole Bible. Grammar is important - so try to note the unusual and specific tense or mood of the verb, or the gender of the article.

7. Crystallise the truth. Try to fit what you have learned into rationally comprehensible and logical sections. Deliver your coal in sacks or your meal in courses! Do not lump the whole thing on your poor unsuspecting audience .. Some people abhor alliterative headings as stilted and artificial but whatever your approach , be logical. God made people with minds and brains and He did not mean us to jettison them when we go in to a Christian setting. Such mental organisation is not only good for the mental retention, but for attention. (The B.B.C reckons that about three minutes is the maximum attention span on any one topic.) People nowadays are used to snappy, well-digested news headlines in broadcasting, and newspapers have given us the "tabloid mind".

8. Humanise the telling. This point is not as important for lectures, which are generally cerebrally based, but it is generally good to "give the truth legs" i.e. to present what you are giving so that it could become viable in daily living. In this way, a talk can become life changing. Illustrations in a talk or lecture are like windows - they give in light. The best illustrations are those you have picked up from life, especially your own life. Illustrations help truth to be visualised by the hearers. There is an old Arab proverb "he is the best speaker who can turn the ear into an eye".

9. Polish up the writing. It is good in the initial stages of a speaking or lecturing career to write out everything. Bacon said "writing maketh an exact man". Lots of old preachers and teachers read their talks, sometimes with spectacular effects on their hearers. However, a piece of work that is merely lacks life. It is good to summarise a sermon, highlighting headings and the main thrust of the argument. Read what you have written. Some people like to read aloud what they have written and to practice it in front of the mirror.

10. Rely on God. It is the Spirit who gives us life. We dare not rely on our cleverness. God expects us to discover, develop and use the gifts that He has given us. We are stewards of them, but we must never forget that without Him we are nothing - or at best "noisy gongs and clanging cymbals".