* * * T H E P R E A C H E R '
S S T U D Y * * *
U P D A T E
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First Tuesday of May, 2000
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(Editor's note: The material in this Ezine is copyrighted. Reprint by author's permission
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WHEN YOU'VE FINISHED THIS ISSUE, why not visit The Preacher's Study
Website? Thousands already have. In existence four years, it contains a wealth of sermons,
lessons, and other items pertaining to preaching. There is a free section containing Bible
studies and lessons for immediate reading or download and there is a section which
contains more than four years of creative, full-text, illustration filled sermons,
accessible by a password you may purchase for a very reasonable annual subscription fee.
(Note that the password you received with this ezine will not work on the website.) To go
there now, use the following URL:
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-Dave Redick
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IN THIS ISSUE:
[1] Greetings from the editor
[2] Featured Article: USING OTHERS' MATERIAL IN SERMON PREPARATION (PART 1)
[3] Preacher's Study Website Updates
[4] Contact Info
[5] Easy Subscribe/Unsubscribe Instructions
[6] Copyright Info
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[1] *=*Greetings from the Editor
Welcome friends. A special greeting to new subscribers.
In the last issue I mentioned the subject of using others' materials. That is the subject
of the article in this issue. I am cutting back the size of these articles a bit in the
hope that more people will read them.
As always, your comments are welcomed.
God bless.
-Dave Redick
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[2] *=*Featured Article
USING OTHERS' MATERIAL IN SERMON PREPARATION (PART 1)
By Dave Redick
I am often asked what I think about using others' material in sermon preparation. In one
sense, my answer is obvious. I run a website that provides such material for others to use
and have done so for more than four years. Yet there are some pros and cons that should be
considered. Such use can be a blessing or a curse, depending on how it is practiced. The
following is one man's opinion, but perhaps it will help someone evaluate this issue more
clearly. It will be written in several installments.
TIME
Perhaps the number one issue that brings us to consider using material prepared by others
for our own sermon preparation is the time crunch. Many weeks there simply aren't enough
hours to prepare two or three or even four fresh messages and still get anywhere near
fulfilling other necessary tasks in a busy ministry.
Two weeks ago I had to prepare three funeral messages, one Sunday morning message, and one
Sunday evening message - all in the same week. The Sunday morning message had to be
correlated with other things in the service, so it had to be done early in the week. I
also lead several Bible studies with individuals and households, along with the normal,
everyday tasks including a website and an ezine. This doesn't happen every week, to be
sure, but I have had similar weeks before. I interviewed the families and prepared the
three funerals myself. I also wrote the Sunday evening sermon. The Sunday morning involved
was the day we celebrate the resurrection. We usually have a packed building on that
Lord's Day so I try hard to prepare something special for the occasion. This time there
simply wasn't enough time. I called a friend and asked him to fill the pulpit the previous
Sunday, then "borrowed" the main points and some illustrations for a
resurrection message from a trusted source. It was either that or "reach into the
barrel," that is, preach something I had already done. I seldom get away with this
latter option. People remember.
Do I feel guilty about this? Not at all. I would rather give my hearers something fresh
and interesting than warmed leftovers or a shallow message. Besides, by the time I was
done adding my own creative elements to the borrowed message, the assistance wasn't
obvious at all.
QUALITY
I still remember a certain scathing letter I received from a concerned preacher who
thought that I was wrong for providing my material for others to use on my website. His
thought was that I was promoting laziness. Any preacher worth half the wood (or Plexiglas)
in his pulpit should prepare every message from scratch he told me. Isaiah, Jeremiah, and
Paul didn't borrow from others.
I have no objection to this idea. I certainly don't want to promote laziness and sadly,
there are lazy preachers who never study or prepare their own messages. Preparing things
from scratch is certainly my preferred way of doing it. In fact, since I also write for
others, I'm forced to prepare my own material most of the time. I am concerned with
quality, though. Anyone can talk and read scripture. Doing something creative and
interesting takes time. A sermon should instruct, encourage, and call people to come God
and serve Him - all without dwelling on the obvious or boring its hearers. "Old"
truth needs to be presented in a fresh way without actually changing that truth. In many
cases the preacher is addressing people who have heard him speak many times. They've heard
all of his "off the cuff" material. Repetition detracts from effectiveness. I
asked this sincere man how many hours he generally put into a message. He said three. Hmm.
I seldom have my exegesis and outline finished in that amount to time and at that point am
not even half done. Either he's a much smarter man (a distinct possibility) or he preaches
some very shallow sermons.
There are several important elements to a good sermon. The first is the overall teaching
content. Even if the message isn't intended to expound on some particular doctrine, it
will teach and therefore needs to be sound. The hearer should leave knowing or realizing
more truth than he or she came with. A second element is the creative part of the message.
The introduction and conclusion, the illustrations, and even the outline are all part of
this. It is the way we present the truth - the way we package it - that makes it
interesting - or boring.
It takes me as much time to prepare this creative aspect of a message as it takes to
handle the doctrinal content. I can tell people that God loves them in a sentence or two.
It would take about five minutes of concordance work to prepare. I can creatively
illustrate to them how God loves them, adding stories, anecdotes, examples, quotes, and
suchlike, in addition to what the scriptures say and it may take several hours of
thinking, research, and writing. I'll let you guess which is most effective.
Like it or not, in the US and many other "developed" countries, we preach to
media saturated people who are accustomed to short sound bytes and creative camera angles.
Watch the credits roll some evening after the six o'clock news. There is a huge team of
people behind its production. No, we cannot compete completely with millions of dollars of
resources, but we do need to do all we can to get and keep our hearers' attention. Finding
just the right story to grab their focus or make a point can mean the difference between a
memorable message and one that is forgotten before our hearers reach the parking lot - or
even more sobering, the difference between a saved soul and a lost soul.
This creative element is most time-consuming, especially if you do your own research.
Listening to someone else's creative sermon makes it sound so very easy - it just flows
naturally like it is spontaneous. Seldom is this the case. A creative sermon is usually
the result of many hours of research and preparation. Big name preachers often employ
research teams to help them with this element. Ultimately they write their own messages,
but the creative resources are a team effort. I can't afford such a team. Most of my
readers can't either. That's why they get help from others' material when they just can't
pull together a quality message on their own. As often as I can I do my own research. I
write my own sermons. Once in awhile though, especially when I can't get it going myself,
or lack sufficient time, I borrow ideas - the creative ones - from others.
I'll address more pros and cons in the next issue, along with some thoughts on the ethics
of borrowing.
Until them, God bless.
Copyright (c) Dave Redick, The Preacher's Study, 2000. All Rights Reserved. Reprint by
permission only. Please do not cut articles out of this ezine and paste them anywhere else
without permission. You may, however, forward this entire Ezine to friends freely.
[3] *=*Preacher's Study Website Updates
Paid subscribers to my website will find a new Mother's Day message called "Affirming
Godly Mothers" that has been added since last time. If you have purchased a password,
you may view it directly at:
http://preacherstudy.com/premium/mothers1.html
If you need a password, go to:
http://preacherstudy.com/subscribe.htm
Also new is a third message in the "Abraham the Believer" series called
"Looking Back on a Forward Glance." It is based on Genesis 12:1-9 and Galatians
3:8. With a subscriber password you may go there directly at:
http://preacherstudy.com/premium/abraham3.html
Finally, a brand new section of funeral messages has been added to the Premium Section
with five new messages including sermons for the following:
*An elderly gentleman who became a Christian, fell away from the Lord, then returned to
God before his death.
*An elderly gentleman who became a Christian just a few weeks before he died of cancer.
*An elderly Christian lady who was religious for most of her life.
*A 50 year-old Christian lady (and close friend) who died of cancer.
*An infant girl who died at birth.
New messages will be added to this section in the future. Check out the new Funeral
Section at:
http://preacherstudy.com/premium/funerals.htm
[4] *=*Contact Info
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The Preacher's Study Website & Ezine
http://preacherstudy.com
"Energize Your Preaching"
Owner: Dave Redick
Email: editor@preacherstudy.com
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[6] *=*Copyright Info
The material in this Ezine is copyright (c) 2000 by The Preacher's Study. Reprint
articles by permission only. Please do not cut and paste this material into any other
documents. You may, however, forward the email version to friends and associates.