1. Tell the Story
2. Make the Main Idea Clear
3. Apply the Main Idea

In a bit more detail, here’s my suggested “default” starter outline:

Introduction – whatever is needed to make people want to listen to you and to the passage and message.

1. Tell the story – tell the story so people can imagine it happening.  Tell it accurately, tell it engagingly, tell it with energy.
2. Main Idea – make it clear what we are supposed to learn from this story. What is the main point the author is trying to communicate?
3. Application – take some time to describe the difference this idea could make, should make, to our lives.  Be specific.

Conclusion – review the main point, encourage application, stop.

So here’s a question from Philip on this site the other day: What differences should their be when preaching narrative passages to an audience of children as opposed to an audience of adults?  Will the differences be in the manner the story is told or taught?  Or only in the truths the story teaches?

Difference in Manner?  I would say not especially.  While we might feel the need to be more exaggerated and “hyped” to keep the attention of children, I suspect they can be gripped by a well told story minus excessive clowning from us.  On the other hand, perhaps we need to utilize more energy and motion in our story telling to adults!?

Difference in Truth?  I would say not especially.  We might state the truth more simply to children, but a story has one main idea.  That is the main idea whoever the audience.  A story isn’t theologically loaded for adults, but a simple moral instruction for children.  What changes is how we present and apply that specific truth.

Difference in Application?  Yes, this would be different.  We don’t need to help children imagine trusting God’s goodness in the face of employment challenges.  But the same truth is needed in their school and home experiences.

Difference in Awareness?  Yes, this is the main thing that comes to my mind.  Children don’t have the same historical and geographical/spatial awareness that adults tend to have.  We need to beware of assuming too much knowledge with adults too (in an increasingly biblically illiterate society), but I think details in a text that may be fascinating to adults can be confusing to children.

Same passage, same truth, but differing levels of detail, and differing specifics of application.

What do you think?

I understand the challenge faced by many preachers with other work commitments and family priorities.  I understand the feeling that some express, namely, that without borrowing the outlines and sermons of other preachers from the internet, they would never be able to preach a sermon on a Sunday.

Just as we close the week out, I’d like to offer an encouragement.  Even if you are limited for time and feel unable to do the work of fully developing a sermon for your listeners, consider not taking the short-cut of outline borrowing or sermon lifting.  Even if you are only able to develop what feels like an inadequate sermon for Sunday, try it anyway (how about next week?)

I suspect your listeners would prefer to feed on the real food of your Bible study in preparation than the canned contents of some internet repository.  Your intro may be weak, your conclusion may be unsophisticated, your illustrations may be lacking, your outline may be undeveloped and your main idea might be just plain, well, plain.

But if your heart has engaged with God’s in prayer for theirs, and you have spent time with the Lord pondering how to present this text with relevance emphasised, then your listeners will be better fed than if you offer a sophisticated super-sermon that is not your own.

When we have guests, it is always hard to serve less than an adundant feast.  But the truth is, visitors would rather have home cooked food than an abundant but canned meal.

You will also find that with regular practice, the process becomes more manageable, even on a very limited time budget.  Let’s go for fresh over canned, for the sake of souls: both ours and our listeners’.

1. Personal stagnation.  John Wesley is widely credited with saying “Once in seven years I burn all my sermons; for it is a shame if I cannot write better sermons now than I did seven years ago.”  (Apparently, though, he was quoting another preacher, and disagreeing with him.  We need to be careful when we recycle quotes!)  But there is a validity to the sentiment expressed by whoever it was.  If I always recycle the same message, I am missing out on all the growth of personal, devotional, spiritual biblical study and application, as well as the blessing of praying through new messages (since repetition of “successful” messages could lead to complacency and trust in the message rather than God).

2. Ministry burnout.  Too much recycling can lead to a dangerous equation.  An increase in activity (if I recycle I can preach in every possible gap in the schedule), combined with a decrease in personal feeding (since I can recycle in the wrong way without any time in God’s Word or presence), will lead toward burnout.  Easy to be a firework in ministry.

3. Preaching thin.  I mentioned this in passing the other day.  When I prepare over several days and then preach a message, the message is much more than the outline or notes I record at the time.  It is actually more than even the message I record and have on record as an audio file.  There is also all the wealth of exegetical study, the supporting biblical content that didn’t make it into the message, but was fresh in my heart at the time of preaching.  Returning to that message in the future means returning to a skeleton of the original.  I am in danger of preaching “thin” – without the wealth of supporting materials.

4. Loss of attention.  If the listeners get the sense that this is old material, rather than being a message from God for them, today, in particular, then the level of attention invariably drops.  They will be subconsciously tempted to evaluate your performance, rather than listening for God’s message to their hearts.  If it is recycled, it must be prayerfully re-prepared for them – don’t dump leftovers from the fridge, serve them with care!  I know the various stories of “I’ll repeat the message until you act on it!” – but the truth is that it is much easier to be bold in an anecdote.

5. Loss of integrity.  If the content you are recycling is not your own, then you lose integrity.  More on plagiarism tomorrow!

1. Time.  Time is a valuable commodity.  If I committed to never recycling a sermon, then I would have to take on a significantly lower amount of preaching in venues other than my local church.  It can be a privilege to serve another group with a recycled sermon that doesn’t require me to sacrifice my main ministry commitments or my family.

2. Greater conviction.  The first time a message is preached, it may only have a few days to saturate the heart and life of the preacher.  If that message is recycled prayerfully and honestly, then the reworking of the text and the re-preaching of the message can allow the truth of it to penetrate deeper into the preacher’s life.  This is not the case when a sermon becomes a mere performance through prayerless and heartless repetition. Sometimes I will listen to a message again, allowing it to minister to me, as part of my preparation to preach the same basic message.

3. Better message.  If point 2 suggests that recycling can lead to a better preacher, then this point suggests the possibility of a better message.  By prayerfully reviewing the first presentation, and by working further on both text and message, the recycled sermon can be a better one that its predecessor.

4. Offering our best.  Let’s say a preacher is invited to preach as a guest somewhere.  While it may be fair to critique itinerant preachers with their single polished gem of a sermon, there is also something to be said for a preacher offering their best.  So for example, a younger preacher may have far better training and study in one particular book – why impose the requirement of preaching from a completely new section every time?  I’d rather hear a preacher handling a text well than struggling through something that is new to them.  If a sermon has been prepared well and it was worth saying once, why wouldn’t it be worth saying again (if refreshed, see yesterday’s post).

5. Reinforcement.  I am sure we are too quick to move on in our preaching.  That is, people need reinforcement.  Typically this will come from thematic reinforcement from multiple messages, but perhaps there is a place for going back over familiar ground.  People don’t tend to transform instantly, so why not recycle in the same venue (again, only if refreshed!)

Undoubtedly, a recycled sermon takes less preparation time than a sermon from scratch on a passage previously never preached.  But my suggestion, if you are preparing to re-preach an old sermon, would be to follow a process along these lines:

1. Prayerfully consider the text itself before looking at the old notes or outline.  Even if you only have time for a brief engagement with the text, there needs to be a freshness about your approach to it, even if the end result remains the same in terms of message outline and details (since the passage does communicate something specific, and that, at one level, does not change).  Be sure to feel the impact of the text on your heart as you pray through it.

2. Prayerfully consider the specifics of this occasion before looking at the old notes or outline.  It is good to get a clear image of who the message will be preached to on this occasion.  What are their circumstances, what are their needs?

3. Prayerfully walk through the whole passage preparation process as you reconsider the previously preached sermon (or ideally, your old exegetical notes).  Why are you selecting this text?  What are the pertinent elements of exegesis that should drive your understanding of this text?  What do you now think was the author’s purpose in writing this text?  Is that main idea still the best summary you can make of this text?  You may find that your interim growth and biblical studies have changed your level of understanding so that you start tweaking your old passage or study notes.  If you only look at the end product (outline, notes, etc.) then you are preaching without the richness of the exegesis that didn’t make it into the notes, but was fresh on your heart.

4. Prayerfully walk through the message preparation process as you reconsider the old sermon.  What is your message purpose this time, this congregation, this occasion?  Can you improve the message idea to fit this particular preaching event, or to better reflect the text’s idea?  Is your old outline the most effective idea delivery strategy?  Do the details of introduction, conclusion and “illustrative materials” fit?  You may well find that the message also changes in some ways.

5. If at all possible, prayerfully preach it through out loud.  Listeners can spot a stale notes-dependent presentation.  Just because it looks ok on paper, does not mean it can be preached with freshness from your heart and mouth.  Run through it and prayerfully “own it” again.

This may seem like a lot of work, but actually I could do this process in less than a couple of hours (plus the run through of step 5).  This is a lot less time than a full sermon from scratch, and as we’ll see tomorrow, time saving is not the only benefit.

Ever Old – Every sermon we preach is made of recycled materials.  All of us are standing on the shoulders of the giants who’ve gone before us (and sadly some are standing on the shoulders of non-giants too).  If I stop to think about it, as I prepare a message, I am in the debt of so many people, and I never have new source material.

Ever Old Influences: As I think about yesterday’s two messages, there are too many influences to name.  My mind scans over the preachers I have heard over the years, the professors at seminary who taught me how to handle the Bible, who taught through those particular books in survey or exegesis courses, who taught me the languages, who taught me homiletics and theology and pastoral ministry, etc.  I think of the conversation partners I turned to in the form of commentaries, and the footnotes attest to some of those that influenced them.  I could go on, but you see my point.  I’ve preached hundreds of messages, probably into the thousands, and it would be a bit self-aggrandizing to suggest that I have generated more than a few truly original thoughts.

Ever Old Material: While I pulled out a few illustrative elements for yesterday (and didn’t look them up in an anthology of distant impersonal illustrations), the bulk of the material was the Word of God.We must be ever wary of the temptation to think our thoughts, be they original or probably not, are somehow better source material than the ever living Word of God!  Yesterday in the course of my preaching I returned to texts that I’ve preached in this church in the past year, and without apology.  We need to hear God’s Word.

Always New – Every sermon we preach is new.  The text of Scripture doesn’t change, but everything else does.  The preacher can never stand still.  Either the preacher has grown, or the preacher has stagnated and changed negatively, but life never stands still.  Two congregations can never be the same in constituents or their circumstances, even if it is the same church.  The situation is always fresh.  Different preacher, different listeners, different occasion, different set of needs.  I suppose, in theory, I could preach the same text in the same church once a month for the next several years and never preach an identical sermon.

Tomorrow we’ll probe a bit beyond this foundational level as we seek to be good stewards of a preaching ministry.

This leaves me in the nice position of being finished with the series, yet not finished.  My plan is to allow an aspect of Biblical theology to put the finishing touches on the series.  Let me explain.

One of the big themes in the last chapters of Chronicles is that of the devotion of the kings to the Lord.  Some were, some weren’t.  And the biggest manifestation in pre-exile Israel lay in the issue of overt idolatry.  As the book ends, hope dawns with Cyrus’ decree that the temple should be rebuilt.  Perhaps God’s promise to David will be fulfilled after all?

So in the progression of revelation, we move to a post-exilic Israel where overt idolatry was never a feature again.  Historically we see this determination for purity in books like Ezra and Nehemiah, but canonically, the next step from Chronicles is Matthew.  It’s a new world in Israel in Jesus’ day.  No physical idols.  But no idols?

Jesus addresses the issue of the less tangible idolatry of his day in the Sermon on the Mount.  And the beauty of this is that Matthew 6 speaks so directly to our, typically non-physical idol, cultural setting.  In post-exilic Israel, as in the modern Western world, money has become the “ba’al” for many.  Yet the issue of our devotion to God remains paramount.  Who is bigger in our eyes?  The false god, indeed the replacement god of financial security, or the true God who really cares?

So maybe I will get to preach Matthew 6 tomorrow to finish the Chronicles series.  Maybe I’ll get to push further into the New Testament and consider other areas of covert idolatry facing believers today.  Or maybe I won’t!

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Next Week?  Eco-Preaching: Recycling Sermons

Word Processor – I suspect this is by far the most popular sermon prep tool.  Recording notes in our biblical study, cutting and pasting information in, typing out manuscript or outline, being able to format for fading eyes, etc.

Recording Equipment – While the word processor records through the input of our deftly moving fingers, there are other recording devices that can be useful.  I mentioned audio recording on smartphone apps yesterday, and the same would apply to any type of dictation device.  Sometimes you may not have, or be able to safely or efficiently use, a pen and paper.  And speaking of paper, every time I fly and look in those shopping catalogues in the sky, I’m always drawn to the scanner pens.  Scanning sections of a book to then transfer into the word processor, seems like a nifty gadget.  Anyone use one?  Worth it?

Bible Software – This is a big category, so I’ll post on this separately tomorrow.

Alarm Clock – Here’s a clever little piece of technology.  Some of my most productive hours are early, but without my alarm I often wouldn’t see them!  And for “bi-vocational” preachers, I suspect this is a must.

Square Scolls – Talking of all this newfangled gadgetry and advanced technology, let’s not forget one innovation that surpasses everything listed so far this week – the book.  There is a very real danger that preachers get caught up in contemporary technology and miss the powerful combination of some earlier advances in technology – the codex and the printing press.  What a privilege to own even a single book!  It is intriguing how technology is supposed to save time, yet sometimes it seems to create noise and squeeze out time from things that really matter.  Preach well this week, get your nose back in a book!

There are a few places where this danger lurks:

1. The notion that explanation is not needed from the preacher, for the Spirit will bring home the truth of God’s Word.  I have come across this a few times.  It comes across as if something profoundly spiritual is supposed to be happening as the preacher states the Word, but fails to explain it.  It may be accompanied by knowing comments and tones that give the impression that those “in the know” have some sort of insight here, and hopefully the rest of us will get that mystery knowledge too.  Then maybe the preacher carries on with this statement-without-explanation approach, or perhaps they move into a list of highly relevant personal applications (or anecdotes).

From my perspective this lack of explanation tends to come across to some as profound spirituality that inspires or intimidates, and at the same time it can come across to others as indicative that the preacher is incapable of explaining the text and is sort of bluffing.  Preacher, lean fully on God’s strength and pray continually for the Spirit to be at work, and explain the text, that’s part of your role.

2. The idea that application is the Spirit’s work, not the preacher’s.  I have come across this one more than the other, perhaps at the other end of the ecclesiastical spectrum.  It is exemplified in my experience in a sentence that rings alarm bells – “Now may the Spirit apply to our hearts and lives the truths we have seen in His Word.  Amen.”  This sentence sometimes comes after a lengthy lecture of biblical content devoid of overt application and clarified relevance.  Why is that somehow the Spirit’s role, but not at all the role of the preacher?  Is this phrase suggesting that the explanation was all of the preacher, and nothing of the Spirit?  I hope not.

So why not follow through and not abdicate a key role the preacher is called to – namely to not only lecture biblical content, but rather to communicate the meaning of the text with an emphasis on its relevance to the contemporary and specific listeners?  Preacher, lean fully on God’s strength and pray continually for the Spirit to be at work, and apply the text, that’s part of your role.

One more area tomorrow – the whole matter of delivery.

1. Preaching topically may be fine.  I’ve avoided the more obvious approach of addressing a subject that Proverbs addresses with multiple references, but it’s fine to do that.  And it would be fine to not be exhaustive, why not just focus more on two or three proverbs and aim for effectiveness over exhaustiveness?

2. Preaching a shorter sermon will be appreciated.  I’ve shared how a full-length sermon may be possible from a two line truth, but why not preach short?  Finish ten minutes early and your listeners may talk about the message for years!

3. Preaching a section may be effective.  You can check out Bruce Waltke and discover structure that you’ve never seen before.  Or you can go where my Hebrew prof suggested . . . preach a series of apparently random proverbs since that is how life is experienced from our perspective.

4. Remember that Proverbs is primarily observation, not promise.  Don’t turn an observation of life lived under the covenant of Deuteronomy 28-30 into a promise for all people of God in every age.

5. Preach a pugilistic match-up of contemporary wisdom with Proverbial sagacity.  That is, take a saying from our culture and watch it lose in a fight with one of God’s inspired sayings.

6. Preach Proverbs with humour and with poetry.  Help people see what life is like and what it could be like with a healthy dose of sanctified wit and biblically saturated poetic presentation.  Certainly the main idea should be proverbial, poetic, memorable, pithy, precise.

7. Preach Proverbs for living with godly wisdom, don’t preach godly wisdom to fuel the fires of self-centred success.

8. Provoke further thought, don’t bore listeners into submission as if your extensive knowledge is the focus.  Their further thought, in the fear of Lord, worked into their hearts and lives: that is the focus.

And if you don’t have it yet, get hold of a copy of Jeff Arthurs book, Preaching with Variety – his chapter on Proverbs alone is worth the price of the book.  Actually, the rest is good too . . . and I will be giving a copy away on the facebook page promotion later this month – click here to go to the promo information.