Note: My lovely wife begins a new adventure this week. As a Supervised Certified Lay Speaker she begins serving a small church nearby as their quarter-time pastor. This means she preaches weekly, not her top choice of ways to serve the church, but she is trusting God to help her. She is also wanting help from me, which I am glad to give. Here are some thoughts on preaching prep I offer to her and to you. Can you offer more encouragement in comments?
In the Seminary I attended, the focus in preaching and preaching preparation was intellectual. We first did the full critical interpretation of the passage (exegesis), then we wrote the best paper in bringing that teaching to the congregation. The mind was foremost. Both the exegesis and the written sermon were examined as scholarly documents.
I had a couple problems with that approach. One I knew at the time, the other I figured out much later. The first thing I noticed when I tried to preach these (or remembered trying to listen to others preach their approach) was how unapproachable the Word became. Sure, the ideas and the interpretations were fascinating at one level, but when it came to actually seeing the Bible as a Word to be lived day by day, the intellectual approach did not connect. The anti-intellectual approach didn’t work either. There was no challenge to how my life was currently stuck, and my intellect was unengaged. If we were to love the Lord our God with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength, then the message needed to be broadly balanced to connect with emotion, will, intention, motivation, intellect, and action.
The other problem I later discovered was that I am a highly intuitive person (Meyers-Briggs INFP, high on I and N). The sensing and thinking approach played to my weakness. So over the 20+ years of practicing preaching, I slipped into a more intuitive approach to both preaching and preparation. The preaching I call Jazz Preaching in contrast to what I call Classical Preaching. I never write a sermon, I come up with the preaching equivalent of chord changes and key melody lines, but then improvise the actual preaching moment.
My preparation is also highly intuitive. In trying to help my dear wife with this new venture in her life, I have had to think about my intuitive process.
Yeah, you get the challenge. Here are some thoughts to lay out my approach which is the best I can do in trying to help encourage her (and you?) in bringing the Living Word of God to the fullness of life. These ideas may not work for you, but people seem to respond favorably to the sermons that result from this process in my ministry.
I offer them as directions, in reality what follows lays out what I see myself doing on a weekly basis.
I won’t repeat it, but this whole process is bathed in prayer and trust that the Holy Spirit will work with and through your preparation and presentation of God’s living Word!
Preliminary Phase: Choosing the Scripture
I primarily use the lectionary. Read through the lessons a couple times, not much yet. Don’t think yet about what you might say about them. Be open to preaching any of them. I usually choose 2 of the 4. And yes, I will at times preach the Psalm. It is a shame to waste all those wonderful prayers and images of worship to simply be read.
Look at the lessons as in a school room. Note any passage jumping up and down with hands raised high, “Oo, oo, preach me, please preach me!” That might be one of the two. Does one of the others link up with that one even in an eclectic kind of connection? Those get to stand in front of the class for this week.
Sometimes, all the passages are being shy. With patience, one or two shyly begin to raise their hands to be called on. Usually, those are passages that will be a personal challenge to preach, but being preached they need to be.
After the passages are chosen, I usually choose a title which gives me a preliminary theme. Usually it is a turn or twist of a phrase or word from the passages themselves (or an odd pop culture reference that only a few will get). After that I make a worksheet with just those passages on paper with a lot of white space for notes and ideas.
Phase One: Soaking It In
For the first day, soak in the passages. Read and reread. Sometimes slow, sometimes fast. The focus in this phase is to Notice.
After choosing a title and initial idea, you need to set that aside. You also need to set aside your previous experience with the passage or the story. You want to hear the words in as fresh a way as possible. Be open to seeing new things.
Enter the story, imagine yourself as part of it. What would you expect to happen? How might you fill in the gaps of the story as you live it?
Look at the words and phrases. Underline, circle, highlight, write comments in the margin.
What is…
- interesting
- strange
- weird
- troubling
- … Wow!
At this point you have probably noticed tons of things and have many possible ways to go with the Word. Occasionally the passage remains wrapped in mystery. This is where that trust and prayer keeps you going.
Phase Two: Dig In
This phase is very much a lectio divina approach to preparation. You will not be digging into all the things you noticed. Look through the words and phrases that came out through your soaking phase. What “lights up” and “pops out” to you as you look at them. Your focus will be on what came out of the soaking phase, but be open to new treasure being unveiled as you seek the meaning of the words and passages.
This is where you can get out dictionaries (Bible and otherwise) and look at commentaries. This is the more mind-engaging part of the preparation, but the intuition is the guide.
Suspend for the time being your previous ideas of what this word means or the significance of that phrase. Even still you want to approach the passage with a fresh mind (don’t worry, the Spirit will guard your orthodoxy), because some of our old thoughts and ideas may not be God’s thoughts and ideas (remember humility and grace).
The operative word? “Hmmm….”
What does this word mean in this place? Why this phrase? What is the back story for the passage. What is the context? Why did the author put this here?
Phase Three: Let it Rise
This is where we allow the message to be preached to rise from the dough (or the dead depending on how the ministry week went).
Not everything you noticed or dug into can and should be preached … this week.
Wait and Receive.
This is the hardest part of the process for me to see and describe. Just like we can’t really understand how the lump of dough rises into a loaf of bread, I don’t really understand how the Holy Spirit can take all those ideas from the week’s work and preparation and make a Word for the people. But it happens on a regular basis. (Remember that prayer and trust thing?)
Out of the words and phrases and meanings and little stories what rises to the surface for loving attention this week. Look for that one idea that comes as God’s word for this week.
How does this passage live and work?
…in my life first! This is important. If you are not willing to let the word speak to you first it is harder to bring the word to others with authenticity and integrity. Sometimes the real personal work with a passage comes the week after I preach it. But that openness to hear the word is an important attitude.
Then, what images and connections can help connect this passage to the Sunday, Monday, Tuesday,Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday lives of the listeners to the Word?
This can’t be forced (successfully). This is the hard part, letting the message unfold as we listen to the Spirit. Wait and be surprised.
Hope this helps. Because it is based on intuition it leaves a lot of space for God to fill in the gaps. Yet, as we enter the process it helps to know and believe that God DOES want to speak through us words of challenge and comfort to God’s people.
My prayers are with you.
