Sunday, October 7, 2007 I had an opportunity to do something I don’t do very often: preach.
Such opportunities come my way about four to five times a year. This is often enough that I have become confident and comfortable in the pulpit. After all, I have completed the junior and middler preaching courses here at Luther and other courses and I am building a solid set of skills for preaching (and a small library of resources to aid in preaching).
Still, when I stood at the pulpit on Sunday morning I stood on wobbly legs. My legs were wobbly, I think, because it is a really big deal to study a text on behalf of a group of people and ask God to reveal how this text is relevant.
I like to carry the texts around with me and read the text several times over the course of the week. As I read it in different locations and at different times of the day, different aspects of the text catch my attention. By Friday evening and Saturday morning hopefully I have completed a preaching worksheet I adapted from Thomas’ book, They Like to Never Quit Praisin' God: The Role of Celebration in Preaching. Before I complete the worksheet, I use the skills Shore outlined at http://www.readnew.net/. After these steps I begin to write the sermon and at the top of the manuscript I write a focus and function statement that keeps me on course. I really get worked over in the sermon preparation process. By the time I am done preaching, I am exhausted AND very satisfied.
My legs were not wobbly because of fear of how the congregation would receive me—I looked from pew to pew and saw many engaged and supportive faces. I am fortunate that they are a vocal bunch and their “amens” and other responses contributed much. They hung in there as I connected the music of Bruce Hornsby and RUN DMC and texts from Habakkuk and Luke. Trust me, something wonderfully mysterious happened and it all came together.
Such opportunities come my way about four to five times a year. This is often enough that I have become confident and comfortable in the pulpit. After all, I have completed the junior and middler preaching courses here at Luther and other courses and I am building a solid set of skills for preaching (and a small library of resources to aid in preaching).
Still, when I stood at the pulpit on Sunday morning I stood on wobbly legs. My legs were wobbly, I think, because it is a really big deal to study a text on behalf of a group of people and ask God to reveal how this text is relevant.
I like to carry the texts around with me and read the text several times over the course of the week. As I read it in different locations and at different times of the day, different aspects of the text catch my attention. By Friday evening and Saturday morning hopefully I have completed a preaching worksheet I adapted from Thomas’ book, They Like to Never Quit Praisin' God: The Role of Celebration in Preaching. Before I complete the worksheet, I use the skills Shore outlined at http://www.readnew.net/. After these steps I begin to write the sermon and at the top of the manuscript I write a focus and function statement that keeps me on course. I really get worked over in the sermon preparation process. By the time I am done preaching, I am exhausted AND very satisfied.
My legs were not wobbly because of fear of how the congregation would receive me—I looked from pew to pew and saw many engaged and supportive faces. I am fortunate that they are a vocal bunch and their “amens” and other responses contributed much. They hung in there as I connected the music of Bruce Hornsby and RUN DMC and texts from Habakkuk and Luke. Trust me, something wonderfully mysterious happened and it all came together.
posted by Simone at 10:17 PM
2 Comments:
Sounds like one I wish I could have heard! Especially the connections between the music and the texts... Thanks for sharing your process!
It is indeed an awesome responsibility to stand in the pulpit, and ask God to speak through you. How wonderful that it was such a supportive congregation.
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