★ Sermon Danger

2004 October 14

I’m finding myself in a dangerous rut lately when it comes to sermon preparation. That rut is this: I’m getting better at communicating what I’d like to communicate, and as a result I’m getting confortable.

That may not sound bad to you, but it scares me. I have this nagging feeling in the back of my mind that I could just “mail it in” and get a reasonably decent sermon across. I don’t want that to happen.

I’m also finding that as I get better at sermon prep, it’s easier to minimize the group-talk that I think should be a highlight of the story time – because generating good questions that make people think is difficult to do.

My three goals for this time, as I consider this problem, would lay out something like this:

Lead people into a deeper understanding of the Biblical story, particularly focusing on fully understanding the passage’s unique placement in its Biblical and historical context.

Participatory learning so that everybody who wants, gets to add to the group’s understanding of the passage and its implications. (i.e., not “one to many lecture-style”, but “many to many group discovery of truth, in a guided discussion”.

Naturally lead people into life change, by listening to what the Holy Spirit is speaking to them (whether it’s part of the sermon or not). This usually takes the form of somehow naturally-supernaturally leading to “ministry time”.

That’s off the top of my head, but I think that captures what I’m trying to accomplish.