* * T H E  P R E A C H E R ' S   S T U D Y * *
    * * E Z I N E * *
  "Energize Your Preaching!"
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  http://preacherstudy.com
  First Tuesday of June, 2001
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Usually Published on the first and third Tuesday of each month.
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Editor's note: The material in this Ezine is covered by copyright. Reprint by author's permission only. You may forward it in its entirety to friends and associates. Please do not cut the articles out and paste them into other documents or publications without permission.
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VISIT THE PREACHER’S STUDY WEBSITE! A wealth of sermons, lessons, and other items pertaining to preaching are available by subscription. An extensive free area is also available. Sermons are full-text and illustration filled. To see what some of our subscribers are saying, click on the link below:

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IN THIS ISSUE:

[1] Greetings from the Editor

[2] Featured Article: DEM BONES, DEM BONES: Characteristics of a Good Sermon Outline

[3] Preacher's Study Website Updates

[4] On Subscribing to Our Website

[5] Contact Information

[6] Subscribe to this Ezine

[7] Copyright Information
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[1] *=*Greetings from the Editor

Greetings! A special  welcome to new subscribers.

As the demands of my ministry and my other website increase, I'm having difficulty maintaining my long adhered to twice-monthly schedule for this ezine. Some of you already knew that. :-)  I'm considering going to a monthly schedule, or perhaps even an irregular schedule that would be built around the availability of my time.

I realize that as the number of free ezines increase in cyberspace, people are less and less likely to give input to any one particular publication. I would, however, benefit from your input at this time. It will shape the future of this publication. Surely among 2128 subscribers there must be some opinions. :-) Is the content of this ezine worth your time? Please let me know. Thanks.

God bless.

--Dave

[2] *=*Featured Article

DEM BONES, DEM BONES:
Characteristics of a Good Sermon Outline
Part 1

By Dave Redick

"The hand of the Lord was upon me, and He brought me out by the Spirit of the Lord and set me down in the middle of the valley; and it was full of bones. And He caused me to pass among them round about, and behold, there were very many on the surface of the valley; and lo, they were very dry. And He said to me, 'Son of man, can these bones live?'" (Ezekiel 37:1-3 NAS)

More than once, with Sunday looming, amid all the serious trappings of sermon preparation: bible text, outlines, illustrations, commentaries, lexicons, etc., I have asked the desperate preacher's equivalent of Ezekiel's words: "Son of man, can these bones live?" And, I have likewise made the prophet's observation, that at times they are "very dry."

The process of moving from an unstudied bible text to the finished product of a well-delivered sermon has some similarities to what happened in Ezekiel's valley of dry bones. Something that is lifeless (the sermon we are trying to write) must come to life. Of course, we sometimes wish that God would do the miracle and save us the work! In Ezekiel's report, the bones began to rattle and organize themselves (with the help of God, of course). They "came together, bone to its bone."

As we prepare for preaching, our sermon must come together "bone to its bone." Everything must fit to produce a living, functioning result. Most often the early form it takes is an outline. Indeed, to extend my metaphorical use of Ezekiel's writing, the "bones" of the sermon are in the outline.

In this article I want to address the issue of writing sermon outlines. All sermons have outlines just as all living bodies have skeletons. While the outline may or may not be prominent (just as the bones in a human body may or may not show) you can be sure that if the sermon "lives," it has some kind of an outline.

Sermon preparation is very personal. God works in the life of the faithful preacher. This life experience is combined with disciplined study and method. We all have our procedures that work for us. As is usually the case in these articles, I write from my own perspective. It's the only one I have.

What are some characteristics of a good sermon outline?

The typical sermon that I preach has a title, a text, a theme, an introduction, a proposition, main divisions, and a conclusion. These may or may not be outwardly evident to hearers as the sermon progresses, but they are there. For the sermon to be effective, each if these "bones" must fit with the other parts so that the whole sermon works smoothly as a "living" unit. If they don't fit, the sermon will be disjointed and handicapped. We'll leave off a discussion of the title,  introduction, and conclusion here and focus on the other parts.

Let's critique a message I preached on the subject of apathy. I hope I don't bore you by using my own stuff. I feel freest to criticize it because I know the author personally. You may view the full manuscript at:

http://preacherstudy.com/apathy.html

Here is the outline:

Title: Church of the Living Dead

Text: Revelation 3:1-6

Theme: Apathy

Proposition: How can a person escape apathy? Jesus gave the Sardians five commands to overcome their apathy. These five will help us overcome it, too.

Main Divisions:

1. Wake up. (v. 2)
2. Strengthen the things that remain. (v. 2)
3. Remember what you have received. (v. 3)
4. Keep it. (v. 3)
5. Repent (v. 3)

The five main divisions for this sermon came right out of the text. Many passages don't lend themselves to such obvious exposition. This one was quite clear.

With an example before us then, and several others I'll point to, here are the characteristics I consider necessary for a good sermon outline.

1. A Good Sermon Outline Has a Single Theme.

In the example above, the obvious theme is "apathy." While the word "apathy" does not appear in the text, it is certainly implied in Jesus' metaphorical use of the word "dead." Our Lord says, "…you are alive, but you are dead." What a great way to describe apathy! (It also provided a great play-on-words title for the sermon.)

While studying a passage, I keep a pad and pencil on hand to write down words that describe the various themes encountered. Any one of these may later become the theme of my message. A passage may have several themes within it. Usually there will be a main theme and several sub-themes. Once you decide on a theme, you should commit yourself to it and leave the other themes for other sermons. You cannot preach the "whole counsel of God" in a single message.

As an example of isolating a theme, the following passage has the theme, "the grace of God." It would make an excellent sermon on grace.

"For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus; who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds." (Titus 2:11-14 NAS)

If you are new to this you might want to stop at this point and look up a few passages in your Bible to practice isolating themes. Here are a couple of examples to get you started.

1 Timothy 4:7-8 (Discipline)

James 1:19-20 (Anger)

Psalm 37:1-11 (Frustration/"fretting")

There are several ways to arrive at a theme for your message.

· You may simply be studying through the scriptures and a theme presents itself. This often happens when you are preaching an expository series.

· You may decide that there is a necessity to preach on a certain theme and go to various passages until you find one that covers the need that you perceive. A topical Bible is very helpful for this.

· You may decide on a theme, then gather points to expound on it by using scriptures from various passages that bring up your theme. This method is typically called "topical preaching." It is my least favorite method because it doesn't allow much consideration of context. It can be very effective though, if you don't allow yourself to apply each passage to things the biblical writer never intended.

In all of this, your goal is to decide on a single theme for your message. That is my point here: a single theme. Discipline yourself to stay within this chosen theme. If you discover other things to say, write them down as possible material for future sermons.

[To be continued]

Copyright 2001, Dave Redick, The Preacher's Study. All Rights Reserved. Reprint by permission only (which will probably be granted if you just ask.) 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

Five new messages were added to the Premium Section of our Website since the last issue. New messages are added weekly. These may be viewed only if you are a Premium Subscriber.

"Lessons Learned in the House of Mourning" - Ecclesiastes 7:2-4
This is a message preached at the funeral of a teenaged boy killed in a car wreck.

"One Moved, Two Moved Over" - Luke 10:25-37
A sermon on compassion

"Passing the Faith to Your Children" - 2 Timothy 1:1-5
A mother's day message.

"Hold Your Horses!"  - Genesis 15-18
Waiting on God's promises is hard, especially when the answer doesn't come for many years.

"Are You Coming or Going?"  2 Kings 5
The Story of Naaman and Gehazi

[4] *=*On Subscribing to Our Website

This ezine, The Preacher's Study Ezine, is actually an extension of my Website, The Preacher's Study. If you enjoy these articles, please do visit the Website. You'll find some useful material there. Yes, there is a modest subscription fee for access to part of it, namely the Premium area, but I believe that, as our current Subscribers testify again and again, you'll find good value. All of us purchase books and commentaries to enhance our understanding of the Bible and improve our preaching. Some of these simply become inert additions to already crowded bookshelves. A subscription to The Preacher's Study will not likely become shelfware. Come see for yourself at:

http://preacherstudy.com


[5] *=*Contact Information

The Preacher's Study Website & Ezine
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"Energize Your Preaching"
Owner: Dave Redick
Email: editor@preacherstudy.com
To subscribe to this Ezine go to:
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[7] *=*Copyright Information

The material in this Ezine is copyrighted 2001 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.