Preaching Presentation Hints

I'm teaching the Conference CLM class, and we just finished a month talking about preaching.  What follows are the 10 preaching presentation hints I shared with the class based on my own experience (so, grain of salt time)

1. It is the great debate – what to use in the form of notes for your sermon.  I think the answer is that you have to use what works best for you.  Just remember that the sermon is not a reading – it is a speech.  It is talking.  And it is relationship building with people.  Don’t sacrifice the connection because you are too busy reading from a manuscript, or searching through your notes.
2. That said – the best way to accomplish that is to practice ahead of time.  Out loud.  If you are comfortable, with someone to listen to you.  Saying it out loud means that you will hear what you are saying and catch those things that don’t flow well, or don’t make sense.  Someone else can help you with that, too.  Saying it out loud means that you will be more familiar with it – more confident in it. Saying it out loud means that you can time it. 
3. Speaking of timing, honor the time that you have been given. 
4. Ask someone to watch you preach.  Are there any strange habits you have?  My church has a pulpit that extends down the sides, so that when you preach, you are in a U shaped area.  I caught myself leaning on the sides and hunching my shoulders.  Be aware of what your body is doing when you preach and don’t let it be a distraction. 
5. If you are using notes at a pulpit, turn the pages in a way that no one sees them move.  Just pull them across rather than turning them like a book.
6. Speak more slowly than you think you should.  Speak more clearly than you might usually.  Aim your voice to the people who are listening.  Pause when you need to.
7. If there is a microphone, use it.  Even if you think you are loud enough, use the microphone.  Don’t ask if everyone can hear you without it, because those who can’t, won’t tell you.  There will be those who cannot hear you.  Use the microphone.    If microphones make you uncomfortable, practice with one until you aren’t any more.  I am serious about this.  Use the microphone.
8. Make eye contact.  Or at least look where the people are. 
9. Have water available.
10. Stop when you are finished.  Don’t keep going.  End.  And be done.

Why Preach?

What is the purpose of preaching? I think anyone you ask would have a different answer to that question.  Preaching is such a centering point of our worship experiences, that asking its purpose is an important question.  I think it is a question we need to ask, because the "why” question is always important.  So, why preach?  What is the “so that” of preaching?

Fred Craddock was a Professor of Preaching at Candler School of Theology at Emery University in Atlanta.  His definition is “Preaching is making the revelation of God present and appropriate to hearers.”  The author of From Pew to Pulpit, Clifton F. Guthrie, said in his book: “Aim rather that your preaching will have a cumulative effect on the faithfulness of your hearers.  Trying to change or convert them all at once can be manipulative, and conversion really God’s business, anyway.”  Reading that, I can conclude that one of the purposes of preaching is to have a ‘cumulative effect on faithfulness.’  In Preaching Grace, Kennon L. Callahan says that most sermons that are preached are helpful, and after reading his book, I think he would say that the main purpose of preaching is to help the listeners.  

“Most preaching shares help and hope.  People discover the love of God.  Grudges and resentments no longer have power over them. Forgiveness and reconciliation come.  Anxiety and fear lesson. Anger and rage become strangers.  Serenity and peace enter their lives.  Compassion and community become good friends.  Lives are richer and fuller.” 

It’s a tall order – but be sure to see it in parallel with what Guthrie said – a cumulative effect on faith.  We don’t have to – and are not able to – accomplish everything Callahan says in a single sermon.  Still, preaching is meant to be helpful.  In fact, a question you can ask yourself as you prepare a sermon – How will this be helpful for people?

The purpose of your preaching and my preaching is to be a means of God’s grace to enter into our lives.  What I say when I preach (or any other time) does not really have the power to transform people’s lives.  That isn’t to say that words aren’t powerful – they certainly are – they can heal or hurt, encourage or diminish.  But, God’s work is God’s  work, and none of us is God.  Preaching is a means of grace by which others can come to know God, through God’s action, through us as preachers.  Rest in that.  Find peace and joy in that.  What happens after the words are spoken – in the air between you and your listeners – is shaped by God.  You may never know the effect of your preaching – you should never assume that it has no effect just because you don’t know what it is.  What you are doing when you preach is sacred.

Frog in Hand

 

Existing for Someone Else

Our CLM Class is reading Faith Sharing Congregations by  Roger K. Swanson and Shirley F. Clement.  Have you ever thought of the unchurched as homeless? 

What does it mean to have a home.  Home is where you belong.  Home is where you are safe.  Home is, hopefully, where there are people who care for you.  "Everybody wants to go where someone knows your name."  This quote from Swanson and Clement's book started me thinking about hospitality in a different way.  A few thoughts:

1. What about those who have been joining us online.  Do they feel like they have found a home?  How do we make it home for them?  How do we connect? How do we offer hospitality?  How do we involve them in ministry?
2. What about those who we say we are trying to reach?  What are we doing to reach them?  Would our plans and actions change if we thought of them as "Homeless."  Would ilt add to our urgency?
3. What about those who join us in the church building?  How do we welcome the stranger - the stranger who is homeless?

Someone asked the other day if those who are joining a particular church online are contributing to the church financially.  The answer was no.  Does that change how we offer a home to the homeless?

If we are unique as an organization - in that we exist not for ourselves but instead for those who are not part of us, then how does that change or enhance our answers to these questions?  How do we live into the idea that we exist to serve others? Would that change the question about financial support? Would it change the priority of our ministries?  

Lots of questions.

Preaching

 

I'm teaching a CLM course for the Conference.  Our most recent topic was preaching.  The class read From Pew to Pulpit, and I additionally read Preaching Grace.  Callahan, who wrote Preaching Grace, advises readers to find the method of preparing a sermon that works for you, and use that.  That was an interesting suggestion in the light of Willimon's book, Guthrie's book, the module, and our guest presenter (Mike Estep, who did a wonderful job talking about preparing to preach).  All of them provided ways to prepare a sermon (all of which were helpful), and Callahan's statement lifted some of the guilt of having all of these methods for sermon preparation and not always following them.

How do I prepare a sermon?  What works for me?

Ideally:

1. Read the lectionary readings at the beginning of the week.  Let them bop around in my head for a day or two.
2. Read the lectionary readings again in a Study Bible with notes, to enhance my understanding of the scripture.  At this point, I hope I'm narrowing down to the actual scripture I'll use as the basis of the sermon.
3. Read Commentary.  This helps me to see more clearly how I can bring these words to life in a sermon.
4. Intentionally pray - somewhere else if I can.
5. Outline my thoughts - short outline - what is the focus? How will I develop it?  If I can do that, I feel I "have" the sermon.  I have direction and know where I'm going.
6. Start writing.  I might not start at the beginning, though.  I usually start a sermon with a story because I think it is engaging.  I might not have that story at the beginning of the writing.
7. I write and write. 
8. I let it sit and bop around.
9. I pick up pieces of the sermon that don't belong and move them to the end.  This feels better than deleting them.
10. Read it through and refine it.  Delete those extra pieces at the end.
11. If possible, ask someone else to read it
12. Read it out loud. Time myself.  Fix the bumpy bits.
13. Print it, if I haven't already.  

I do preach from a manuscript.  I hope I don't read it - I hope I preach it.  But I do use a manuscript.  

And that's it.  Toss the manuscript, and move on.