Clergy Guide to Sermon Preparation: Including 40 Sermon Ideas and Outlines

By John Zehring

“Clergy Guide to Sermon Preparation” is designed for seasoned clergy who are always on the lookout for new ideas. A section on “Quick Tips for Preparing Sermons” serves as a checklist of reminders for how to write for the ear and craft sermons which grab listeners to create vibrant, contemporary, and creative messages. Also included: “How to Keep Weeks Ahead... and why you should.” The book explains how preparing weeks in advance maximizes your flexibility, permits coordination with other worship leaders, promotes coming sermons to the congregation, demonstrates that as a professional you are prepared, stimulates creativity, wins the appreciation of office staff, reduces anxiety and, once you get ahead, it is the exact same amount of work but without the stress. With all those benefits, why not master the art of keeping ahead? Alfred North Whitehead wrote "Ideas won't keep. Something must be done about them." Ideas are the lifeblood for busy clergy who must prepare fifty or more original and creative sermons a year. Clergy are always watching for new ideas. “Clergy Guide to Sermon Preparation” provides forty sermon ideas and outlines, rich with illustrations, stories, quotations, and organized points to help apply the bible’s teachings to the everyday lives and needs of your listeners. There is every confidence that once you discover a good idea for a sermon, you will know what to do with it and can run with it, well-equipped with some material to undergird your own sermon preparation.

• Language: English
• Publisher: John Zehring
• Release date: Nov 21, 2015
• ISBN: 9781310607882

John Zehring

John Zehring has served United Church of Christ congregations as Senior Pastor in Massachusetts (Andover), Rhode Island (Kingston), and Maine (Augusta) and as an Interim Pastor in Massachusetts (Arlington, Harvard). Prior to parish ministry, he served in higher education, primarily in development and institutional advancement. He worked as a dean of students, director of career planning and placement, adjunct professor of public speaking and as a vice president at a seminary and at a college. He is the author of more than sixty books and is a regular writer for The Christian Citizen, an American Baptist social justice publication. He has taught Public Speaking, Creative Writing, Educational Psychology and Church Administration. John was the founding editor of the publication Seminary Development News, a publication for seminary presidents, vice presidents and trustees (published by the Association of Theological Schools, funded by a grant from Lilly Endowment). He graduated from Eastern University and holds graduate degrees from Princeton Theological Seminary, Rider University, and the Earlham School of Religion. He is listed in Marquis' WHO'S WHO IN AMERICA and is a recipient of their Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award. John and his wife Donna live in two places, in central Massachusetts and by the sea in Maine.

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Introduction

Ideas won't keep. Something must be done about them, wrote Alfred North Whitehead. If you preach, ideas are your lifeblood. When you grasp a great idea, you run with it. Yours is not the problem of learning how to research, how to gather information or how to flesh out a sermon. Rather, when you preach a sermon fifty-two times a year, you crave new ideas to help you bring the teachings of the bible into the everyday experiences of your people. When you awaken in the middle of the night with an idea for a sermon, you know in your heart that you must arise and make some notes lest it be lost between and betwixt your dreams. You possess the skills, the talent, and the calling to preach well. The struggle always is to discover a new idea.

There are two basic parts to preaching: content and delivery. I am honored to help pastors with their DELIVERY with my eBook titled Clergy Public Speaking Guide: Improve What You Already Do Well which is available wherever you buy eBooks. (https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/457056). Now I address the CONTENT with some ideas for you. I have full confidence that when you grasp a new idea for a sermon, you will know how to build upon the foundation. My goal is to provide a few ideas which may stimulate you to create a new message for your people that inspires them to know God better and to love God more.

In my experience as a Senior Pastor, I found it helpful to take a Pastor’s Survey every once-in-a-while to ask my congregation what they were seeking and which messages resonated with them best. Almost always they responded that they desired sermons that helped them to relate the teachings of the bible with their everyday experiences, which felt contemporary and in-touch with current life, and which possessed illustrations and examples from modern situations. Your members could care less about the lectionary, the ecclesiastical calendar, the history of the Hittites and Jebusites, or an exegesis of an obscure text. Your members want to be fed spiritually. They want to come away strengthened, inspired, educated, their souls restored and their spirits raised up. Indeed, if they can leave church saying to God Thou restoreth my soul then you have fed them and guided them into an encounter with the Divine.

I once had a member who asked if I took my sermons from the internet. It was an innocent and curious question, but it shocked me into the realization that every sermon should become so personal and connected to my listeners that no one could ever again ask that question. Ask yourself if your sermons are so warmly personal that no one would ever ask if you took it from the internet. Is it possible that your creation might appear as generic?

The #1 highest priority question for every sermon is: Where is it centered? Is it listener-centered? That is the highest and best message. Is it Preacher-centered? That is a bore and ultimately a waste of time. Is it text-centered? That is somewhat satisfactory, but only if it later connects with the listener’s interest. Is it topic-centered? Who told you that your audience cared for that topic? To make your sermons come alive and speak directly to the interests and needs of your hearers, become listener-centered. Speak to their needs, values, worries, interests and thoughts. Ultimately, your message is about THEM! Speak to them where they reside.

As you prepare to preach and to count upon the Holy Spirit to speak through you to those who have come to worship God, consider where and how the Holy Spirit works. The Holy Spirit works in your study as you prepare as well as in the pulpit when you deliver. It almost seems as an affront to the Holy Spirit when a preacher waits until the last minute, does not do his or her homework, does not prepare and then counts upon the Holy Spirit to rescue them from laziness. The reality: A great sermon requires one hour in the study for each minute in the pulpit. Even then, there can be false starts, do-overs, and throw-always to craft a worthy message for your people. It is always a big challenge and time consumer to create a sermon which makes it worth your congregation’s while. But, when done well week-after-week, your people will cherish the preparation and advance work you invest. And so, call upon the Holy Spirit to work within you as you labor over your preparation as well as in the pulpit.

In any writing, whether a novel, an essay or a sermon, the mix is 60% research and 40% writing. Make the investment in research, in uncovering background information and in the exegesis of each text. Research, research, and research – then the sermon will write itself.

Editing and re-writing should consume a significant chunk of your preparation. James Mitchner once said I am not a great writer, but I am one hell of a re-writer. Edit, edit, edit. Listeners will appreciate it. Anyone can bore for 25 minutes. Edit that in half. A well-educated audience will recognize good organization and will appreciate fine editing. If you labor to shorten rather than to lengthen your message, it will show. Strive to bring your beginning and your ending closer together. A good message is always shorter than your audience’s attention span.

I have been blessed to serve congregations which held the highest expectations for an outstanding worship service which lifted them into an encounter with the Divine. And so, ever so simply, each time I set out to craft a new worship service I made a note to myself: If you cannot make it great, make it short. That may sound simplistic, but the truth is that a twelve minute sermon took almost twice as long as a twenty minute sermon to create. It is significantly harder to craft a highly-edited and tightly-written message than to produce a long, rambling sermon. Twelve minutes grabbed their attention span and compelled them to listen than a longer and less-well-edited sermon. If you cannot strike oil in twelve minutes, stop boring. A twelve-minute sermon radiates a highly-crafted and well thought-out message for your people. It may require hours of preparation but it will be remembered, cherished, utilized, and lifted up as God’s message to restore, renew, and recharge those who have come seeking to have their strength renewed and to have their spirits lifted to mount up with wings like eagles.

A FEW NOTES ABOUT THIS BOOK

All scriptures in this work come from the New Revised Standard unless otherwise noted.

I have attempted to use inclusive language wherever possible in the words I have written, although I have not altered the author’s reference to God as he. I recognize that the Divine has no gender and for many it may be just as appropriate and accurate to acknowledge God as Mother or Father. Whichever pronoun we use, I consider God as a loving parent.

Parts of Clergy Guide to Sermon Preparation are drawn from other eBooks I have written. Information is available at the end of this work in the biography section which lists my eBooks. My websites can be found by searching online for Clergy Guides by John Zehring or John Zehring books.

I am assuming that if you are reading this work, you care about preparing well for your sermons. May God bless you as you seek to lead your people in the worship of God and in service to all of God’s children.

John Zehring

"Ideas won't keep.

Something must be done about them."

Alfred North Whitehead

Quick Tips for Preparing Sermons

Write for the ear. A danger is that what we write may end up like something to be read than to be heard. Consider the difference between writing a story for a newspaper and writing the same for the radio. It is a different style of writing. People read the newspaper but listen to the radio. Likewise, people listen to your sermon. So, a sermon must be written for the ear, not the eye. When writing a message, talk it out loud as you write to see how it sounds to you. Imagine how it will be heard by your listeners. Rehearse it out loud before delivering it. Commandment number one: write for the ear, not for the eye.

Favor shorter words and brief sentences. Winston Churchill said Short words are best and the old words when short are best of all. Jesus, Plato, Lincoln, and King employed words mostly of one or two syllables. Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address contains 271 words and all but twenty are only one or two syllables. Favor short words and short sentences.

Transform verbs from passive to active. Active verbs power a sentence. Avoid overuse of the verb to be. While it is no sin to use is, was, or am, go through your finished draft and aim to replace the verb to be with active verbs.

Use "you" words. The first person singular is the pronoun cherished by listeners: I, me or mine. We like those and use them most. Consider the 23rd Psalm’s use of the first person singular: MY shepherd… ME to lie down… ME beside still waters… restoreth MY soul… 17 times in this brief Psalm. From the pulpit, the word "you has the same effect: it is well received and causes the listener to pay careful attention because the speaker is talking to me. When you use the word you in public speaking, use it in the singular, not the plural. That is, speak to you" as an individual, not to you as a group of people… "you people. Speaking to you all" loses the impact of speaking to one person… to me. Consider: I am glad you are here today makes it sound like you are glad I am present. "I am glad you are all here today" makes me just one of a bunch, noticed or not.

Keep your labor in the background. Baseball great Yogi Berra said People don’t want to hear about the labor, they want to see the baby. Avoid the temptation to bore listeners with how hard you worked to research, prepare, edit, write or wrestle with the texts. It’s not about you. It’s about them and their relationship with God and with God’s children. Lift them up and embrace them, and you will have them listening to you on the edge of their seats.

Give your message some breathing space. Pianist Artur Schnabel said The notes I handle no better than many pianists. But the pauses between the notes -- ah, that is where the art resides. A well-edited and brief sermon allows you time to pause, to speak slower, and to make use of intentional silence. Allowing listeners some pause time provides them an opportunity to assimilate your words and process your message.

Choose your words well. Mark Twain nailed it when he wrote "The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and the lightning bug." Choosing the right word makes preaching into an art form.

Choose familiar words. Build rapport with your audience. You do not want your audience to consider you long-winded, stuffy, ostentatious, self-righteous, or a show-off.

Favor concrete words rather than the abstract. Choose the specific rather than the general. Give a single, specific illustration or story and then, if needed, fan out from there to generalized applications.

Eliminate superlatives like "very." Employ your verbs to do the heavy lifting.

Create word pictures. Make your listeners smell the bacon cooking over an open campfire. Appeal to the senses.

Tell the audience your point. Every public speaking class ever taught began with this axiom: Tell them what you’re going to say. Say it. Then tell them what you said. Do not keep the point of your message a secret. Do not presume your audience will get it. Make it clear: Tell the audience your point. Then summarize at the end to reinforce learning and the retention of your message.

Enhance your credibility. Research of public speaking finds that people who hear a well-organized speech believe the speaker to be more competent and trustworthy than did those who hear a scrambled speech. Listeners will notice and appreciate if you are well-organized.

Personal illustrations help you to connect with your people. She is one of us is the intent. They will know you better as an individual and appreciate that you too have weaknesses, faults, mistakes, or funny things that happen to you. Avoid narcissism. Use personal illustrations from the lives of others too, without intruding on their privacy. A readership survey of newspapers found that one of the best read parts of the paper is the obituaries. People like to read about or hear about other people.

A good message has a good beginning, a good ending, and both close together. Invest the most time on your introduction and the conclusion. Have you ever noticed how people talk longer when they know the least… or are the least prepared… or are disorganized? If you grab the audience at the beginning, they will follow you into the rest of the message. A good beginning, like a picture, is worth a thousand words. Imagine hearing I’d like to tell you a story… Follow the model of journalism. Many news stories begin with a concrete example or illustration. They tell a story about an individual and then fan out with the broader story. Start with a specific before applying general principles.

Grab the audience. Ask yourself What is my Attention Getting Device? How will I connect with them and compel them to listen for more?

Tell a story. When listeners hear Let me tell you a story… they lean forward to listen with heightened interest.

Begin with a memorable quotation. Shorter is better. Use a quote that inspires them to think or to nod in agreement.

Humor is a great lead, if it works. If it flops, you risk losing their attention.

Acknowledge other points of view. Be sincerely accommodating of other views, name them, and give them legitimacy.

Consider numbering your points. If you have three points, say so ("Consider three strategies for how to become…"). Examine popular magazines and notice how many articles offer numbered points or bullets (five tips, six myths, seven strategies, four secrets, three mysteries, ten commandments, and so on.).

Keep your introduction brief, usually no more than ten to twenty percent of the message.

After you draft your message, return to the beginning to re-edit and tie it together with the conclusion.

When searching for a conclusion, go up. Finding the ending can sometimes be a challenge. When in doubt, go up. Frequently, the best conclusion already exists a few paragraphs up. A common criticism of sermons is that they contained multiple conclusions and did not seem like they were ever going to end.

Let the audience know you are ending the talk. Near the ending, slow down. Use more pauses. Change your stance, posture, pitch, gestures, tone, or rhythm. Give cues that you are ending: in conclusion, to summarize, let me end by saying…

Summarize your key points to reinforce their understanding – tell them what you said.

Conclude with a bang, not a whimper. End with a quote, a dramatic statement, a story, or refer to the introduction.

Never tell them they are bored or tired. If the service is running late, do not call attention to it. Assume people want to hear what you have to say. If you assume they are impatient because you are starting late, they will feel your anxiety.

Practice the conclusion so that you know it well and can maintain eye contact, control of voice, and management of the ending with a bit of firmness or drama. Practice the introduction and the conclusion most of all, because those are the parts that stick in the minds of listeners. That is a fact about lists: people remember the first and last more than the content in the middle. Same with sermons: they will remember and appreciate your opening and closing.

How to Keep Weeks Ahead… and why you should

At Princeton Theological Seminary, after taking courses in speech and homiletics, we were allowed to take an advanced preaching course taught by one of the well-known pulpiteers from a major church in New York City. Bryant Kirkland from the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church created a class assignment that shaped my ministry. Instead of an exam or a paper, our course assignment was to outline a year’s worth of worship services which included sermon title and description, hymns, liturgical parts, children’s message, and basic themes for the pastoral prayer. Fifty-two worship services in outline provided a template which would serve every future pastor in the course.

Ever since, I have recognized the value of staying weeks or months ahead on my worship preparations and have encouraged my colleagues and friends in ministry to adopt this discipline. Consider the benefits:

It is the same amount of work. Do the math: once you have labored to get ahead a few weeks, it is the exact same amount of time each week to prepare. If you spend an average of ten to fifteen hours a week on worship preparation and practice, nothing changes. You still spent