* * * T H E P R E A C H E R ' S S T U D Y * * *
U P D A T E & E Z I N E
"Energize Your Preaching!"
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http://preacherstudy.com
Third Tuesday of December, 1999
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Published on the first and third Tuesday of the month.
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(The material in this Ezine is copyrighted. Reprint by author's permission
only, however, you may forward it in its entirety to friends and
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In This Issue:
[1] Greetings!
[2] Featured Article: Sermon Writing as a Stage(d) Production
[3] Preacher's Study Website Updates
[4] Coming Attractions
[5] Contact Info
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[1] ***Greetings!***
A hearty welcome to all of you! You are receiving this ezine because you
subscribed to it. If you should ever wish to unsubscribe, instructions are
always at the bottom.
Our readership continues to grow. It now stands at 1114. You can help us
reach more people by forwarding this ezine to friends and associates.
Though its contents are copyrighted, you may send it in its entirety to
anyone freely.
I'm excited about this issue because it contains an article that speaks to
something close to my heart: creativity in preaching. "Sermon Writing as a
Stage(d) production" may be just what you are looking for to release the
tiger of imagination onto your own sermon preparation. I hope you'll take
the time to read it carefully. If it sparks something that helps you, I'd
love to hear about it. If you know more about this than I do, I'd really
like to hear from you. You may drop a note anytime to this lonely ezine
editor at:
editor@preacherstudy.com
As always, back issues are available at the following address:
http://preacherstudy.com/bkissue.htm
BTW, I guess we have the Y2K issue finally coming to pass for whatever
will or won't happen. My computers are as ready as I know how to make them
and my ISP and webspace provider assure me that their Unix servers are
immune. As for me personally, I intend to welcome the New Year among
friends at the church building where we are putting together a ten-year
time capsule. It will be fun and I'll take along my flashlight just in
case I have to walk home. :-) If, due to computer glitches, we are
separated for a few days, know that I will be doing everything I can on my
end to get the mail out.
Happy Holidays
Dave Redick, Editor
[2] ***Featured Article***
"SERMON WRITING AS A STAGE(D) PRODUCTION"
[Author's note: There is both the human element in sermon preparation and
the divine interplay between the preacher and his God. This article
concerns the human element only. Please understand that I fully
acknowledge the need for the divine. In this article, I will assume,
however, that you pray, ask for guidance, meditate on God's word, etc.
Perhaps I will write about those things at another time. -D.R.]
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle knew something we preachers would do well to
discover. He recognized that creativity comes out of unconscious as well
as conscious thinking. His celebrated lead character, Sherlock Holmes,
would often stop in the middle of a case and take his ever-present
sidekick, Watson, to a concert. While this annoyed his devoted helper
because it seemed like such a waste of time, the case was usually solved
in short order afterward.
Have you ever gone to bed after wrestling with a problem, the solution of
which thoroughly eludes you, only to awake the next morning (or sometime
during the night) with the answer? Have you ever been thinking of
something entirely unrelated or perhaps been engaged in a dissimilar
activity and suddenly had a flash of "inspiration" for a sermon? Perhaps
you wondered to yourself, "Where did that come from?"
Have you ever been seized tightly in the grip of sermon writer's block
late on a Saturday night, unable to get your message beyond the mundane
stage that you know will put everyone to sleep? Finally, in desperation,
you get up and take a walk or a nap? Then when you arrive back at your
desk you find that your thinking is flowing again? What happened? Did
someone roto-rooter your brain while you were out? (Stick with me here. If
taking a walk or nap always released the creative juices, I'd say "Go for
a walk" and end this article right here. You know it doesn't always work
that way.)
Those who study the creative process point out that there are at least two
distinctly different aspects of creativity: the conscious and the
unconscious (also referred to as the critical and the generative). The
conscious part is "left-brain" oriented. It is rooted in logic, order, and
facts. It is prone to the critical and analytical. It weighs, measures,
and evaluates for accuracy. The unconscious part is rooted in the
"right-brain." It groups and regroups things together, looks for designs
and patterns, and "creates" fresh ideas by arranging and rearranging old
thought categories into new vistas for understanding. It thinks "out of
the box," to borrow a hackneyed business phrase. Of interest to preachers
is that this right-brain activity is largely responsible for the ability
to present the "Old, Old Story" in fresh, new, and interesting ways.
I'm not qualified to give you a lesson in psychology or physiology here.
I'm a simple country preacher who just exhausted his great store of
knowledge of such things in that last paragraph. I do know what works for
me, though. I have also been a student of what works for others when it
comes to creativity in preaching. In this vein, I have often recognized
these two kinds of thinking and that brings me to the point of this
article.
These two thinking processes don't always get along well together. Said
another way, one usually manages to crowd the other out when they compete
for the same time and space - with results that can be a detriment to your
preaching. If cold logic crowds out creativity, you end up with an
accurate, but boring sermon. If creativity crowds out order and fact, you
end up with nothing but fluff that fails to honor God and his word.
Finding and managing a balance between these two is a pastime worth
pursuing because where the two intersect you will find sermons that both
elucidate and motivate your hearers.
If you wait until late in the week to start on your sermon preparation,
and end up doing all of it in one day, you're putting both kinds of
thinking in the same cage together. Did I mention that they don't always
get along?
That is where staging comes in. By staging, I mean dividing up your
preparation tasks into smaller daily projects that take better advantage
of these two kinds of thinking. In some cases you might even spread the
work over several weeks. I'll use my own preparation as an example here.
If you can do it better, go for it.
After I have chosen a passage or topic with its accompanying verses, I
nearly always begin with Bible study. Early in the week I read over the
English passage a number of times, using several translations, carefully
trying to grasp the author's meaning. I consider context. I may outline
the passage (not necessarily my sermon outline). I look at the text in the
original language. I watch for key thoughts and words that are repeated. I
search for the central idea and try to express this in a word or a
sentence. All of this is recorded in a file in my word processor (since I
type much faster than I write). I don't just "store it in my head" since
I'm prone to forget key points when I sleep on them.
Next, I consult my commentaries (both paper and electronic) to see what
others have said the passage means, again recording anything I learn in
that same computer file. I have found that I can usually complete this
initial phase (self-study and commentary study) in a single day and
sometimes in a few very productive hours. Of course, during this phase I
don't send the creative side of my brain to the beach for the day. If I
get any flashes of inspiration in my study (and I often do) I write them
down for consideration later. It's just that I don't try to force
creativity at this point. If it comes, fine. If not, it's no big deal.
Creativity is free-spirited and easily chased off when you try to wrestle
it to the ground with harsh demands and tight schedules. Like a shy
animal, it may come out only after you have gone in the house and shut the
door. That's why it usually functions so poorly when you demand its
presence amid the stress of a late Saturday night.
O.K. class, which side of the brain have we been using so far? Left?
Correct! Logic, analysis, order, facts. By now I have a pretty good
assessment of what the text meant to its ancient recipients and I've given
at least some consideration to what it means to us living today. Now,
disengage left brain (exaggerating here, of course) and take a break -
preferably an overnight break. Go do something unrelated. Pat yourself on
the back for a good day's work even if it has only been part of a day.
Since you started early in the week, you're ahead of the game anyway.
The next day, with most of the hard study out of the way, I get right to
work preparing my sermon. With the grunt work largely behind, I'm freer to
be creative and find that usually I am much less hampered. I begin by
re-reading the text and my notes, looking for homiletic clues - ways to
present the truths of this passage that will be fresh and interesting.
What jumps out at me? What grips me? What excites me? What applies to the
burning issues of today? What comes to mind as I consider the various
subjects the passage raises? What aspects are particularly interesting to
me (based on the assumption that if they interest me they will probably
interest some others)? What is an appealing way to say what this passage
teaches that will get the attention of my hearers? I can't tell you just
how creativity comes but in this freer context, it will usually begin to
poke its head out of the bushes. It may even come running
Imagination not flowing yet? That's OK. It's still early in the week,
remember? After a session of writing, if nothing comes forth, take a
couple of hours off. You could even take the rest of the day away from
your preparation if you needed to, but be sure if you do that you keep a
pad and pencil with you at all times. That unconscious mind will be
working on the project even when you are doing other things. I find brisk
walking enhances my own creativity. I go three miles every morning, rain
or shine, micro-cassette recorder in hand. Sometimes nothing happens, but
more often than not, I can hardly keep up with what "pops out" of that
oxygen enriched right brain.
Here is what my ideal sermon-staging schedule looks like. You can probably
come up with your own version. Just be sure you spread it out over several
days or all week so that you can take advantage of both brain functions
without slamming them together in the same cage.
MONDAY: Choose text and topic (or just text). If I'm in a series or have
been planning ahead, this work is already done so I start on the step
below.
TUESDAY: Study passage in detail (self-study first, then commentary
study). See more detailed description of this in the paragraphs above.
WEDNESDAY: Outline the sermon and begin serious consideration of a title.
If there is time, begin the sermon manuscript. Search my database (kept in
Parson's Bible Illustrator) for stories and illustrations.
THURSDAY: Write sermon manuscript draft. (I manuscript my sermons because,
among other advantages, I find it spurs creativity).
FRIDAY: Take the day off (but keep that pad and pencil or tape recorder
handy). If you have fallen behind in the schedule above, this can also be
a catch up day.
SATURDAY: Reread sermon, fine-tuning phrases and ideas, adding insights,
sharpening focus.
SUNDAY MORNING VERY EARLY: Go over message one more time with the benefit
of the heightened tension/pressure of the pending delivery. Add any
compelling creative elements that come at the last minute. Take advantage
of what some call the "gel factor" (i.e., insights precipitating at the
last minute).
Staging won't solve all your sermon writing problems, but it may put you
on the road to more effective sermon writing and preaching. I may just
coax your creativity out of the bushes. Try it if you haven't already. If
you have ideas that can enhance my own staging, write to me.
(c) Dave Redick, The Preacher's Study, 1999. All Rights Reserved. Reprint
by permission only.(However, you may forward his entire Ezine to friends
freely.)
[3] ***Preacher's Study Website Updates***
A three part series has been added to the Premium section of the website
since I last spoke to you. It is called "Birth Announcements" and it is
based on the first several chapters of Luke. If you are a subscriber, all
three messages are found at:
http://preacherstudy.com/premium/series8.htm
If you're not a subscriber and want to learn more about the benefits of
access to the Premium section, go to:
http://preacherstudy.com/subinfo.htm
If you're not a subscriber yet, don't despair. We have a bunch of lessons
and articles that may be viewed freely at:
http://preacherstudy.com/free.htm
Of special interest in the free section is a new article by Ralph Johnson
called, "Tyre, the City Cast Into the Sea". Click the link below to read
it now.
http://preacherstudy.com/tyre.htm
[4] ***Coming Attractions***
I haven't yet decided what to run in our next issue. Like you perhaps, I'm
feeling the holiday hurries. I'm sure they will pass. Whatever the next
issue holds though, I'll try to make it something about preaching that you
may not have learned in seminary.
God bless.
Dave Redick
[5] ***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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