Thursday night is when my sermon outline comes together so it can be printed for the bulletin on Sunday. That is my goal at least. It's not that my problem is procrastination. But that is a topic we will get to later. Most weeks the material is ready to be put down on paper. This does not mean that the entire message is ready. My approach is to use every moment possible to pull the rest of the sermon together. Tonight will simply be the start of the basic outline for what I want to say. There are still two days left to build around the skeleton that will be printed.

How does a good preacher come up with sermons? I wish that I knew the answer. I only know how it works for me. Let's start with the ideas for messages. Obviously the basic source of the material is the Bible. Beyond that there are tons of places where ideas are born. Sometimes I will look at websites of other preachers just to get some idea on what others are saying. It is like getting a different view on what is within my heart. Sometimes the ideas may come from browsing bookstores on the latest popular books or interests of people. That is not one of the main sources for me but it is still an option. Sometimes there is just an idea that comes when reflecting on life, God and such. This latest series related to the 40 Days of Love came while out running one winter afternoon. My daughter even gave me inspiration on one occasion by mentioning she thought that Paul really rocked. That led to several weeks preaching from Ephesians. Also, the summer is usually a time when we go with a series to last until school starts. These tend to become some of my favorite times of preaching.

The point is there is no limit to where the ideas originate. That is about half of the battle. During the week my mind is always looking at conversations or reading for inspiration for the upcoming Sunday. I place a heavy value on the bible study notes made in research. In fact, you could steal my sermons if you leave me the notes. You want to know my real opinion? Sermons as such are often overrated. They are only as good as the research in the foundation. I know people forget the sermon usually by the time the Sunday afternoon nap is over. Let's be honest about this. Do you really remember the outline of the last sermon you heard? It's really ok as the act of preaching really is not about me. Only God can take the preparation to make it sink into the heart of the listener. My chief source of enjoyment is in the interaction with God's word in the research.

Having killed that rabbit, let's move on to the nitty gritty of preparation. Usually two copies of the Bible are consulted. One is a contemporary translation while the other is usually the New American Standard version. It is technically close to the original language. Do I spend time dealing with Greek or Hebrew? Yes I do. Just today I spent time looking at the verbs of my text for Sunday. You can often find the original premise and the eventual outline by looking close at verbs. Now it is time to consult commentaries for insight into the passage. Some of the books are technical in dealing with the language and such. Some of the commentaries are more practical in their outlook. These are often the source of devotional type ideas based on the passage. These notes are written out or sometimes typed out for posterity. This is what is so valuable to me.

Once upon a time, I would write manuscripts for the sermon. There are still times when that happens now. Most of the time though I use a fairly detailed outline for the sermon. My goal is commit most of it to memory. It's my view that if you work that much with the information then you should be able to retain most of it. For me, its better to speak out of the overflow of the preparation. Confusion sometimes happens in the middle of the message when trying to remember exactly what was written. That is not to say my sermons are ever less than confusing. But if there is a manuscript it is usually better for me to mostly read it like a speech rather than try to memorize pages of words. I don't know if I ever really complete a sermon before Sunday. It works best for me to stay open ended with the preparation until it is actually delivered.

We can revisit this topic at a later date. There is much more we can say about sermon preparation. It is one of my main priorities in ministry. Some ministers major on pastoral care or church management. My sense of ministry always places great weight on preaching. I don't think that I really do it well but I try. If you heard me years ago it is my sincere hope that you would think there was real improvement. Maybe someday I can get to a point of confidence in my abilities. Maybe that won't happen so there is a greater dependence on God. Either way, its time to put the outline to print. Let's hope for a decent one this week.

Bro. Trey