PREPARING a good sermon takes time. It is a creative enterprise and therefore challenges a person's inner resources because what is created is born of the soul. But as a church elder, the time you give to the work of the church is limited. You are not a professional public speaker or "preacher," and therefore, you may have to settle for less than the ideal. Yet, you are not excused from doing your very best. You are not free to step into the pulpit on Sabbath morning and just "fill" the hour. The pulpit is not the place for you to tell of your trips abroad, the churches you have visited and the wonderful Adventist friends you have met, except as you use such experiences to illustrate a point. The pulpit is not the place for you to ride some hobbyhorse of doctrine, no matter how "basic" it may be, to whip the saints for being so unsaintly, to fumble and stumble through some article you have read.
Many stories can and have been told of things heard from the pulpit that would be humorous if they were not so tragic! But all this need not be. Some of the principles and procedures I have outlined in this series of articles will help get the task done properly and in less time than it would take to do it in a haphazard way. It may not seem that way at first, but as the principles are applied and experience is gained, the task will seem far less burdensome.
You may have read an article that you would like to share with your brethren on Sabbath morning. You may have come across something that is inspiring and helpful. You may feel impressed by the Holy Spirit that this is what you ought to bring to the church the next time you are called upon to preach. Very well. But do so without presenting it in a boring manner, without reading it word for word, void of expression and life.
Using a good article from the Review (or These Times, or The Signs of the Times), or a chapter from a book (written perhaps by Ellen G. White), or a published sermon (or one you have heard) does save time and effort. But the key to using such material is to make it your own! Caution should be used, of course, so as to avoid plagiarism credit should be given where credit is due, but you can "make it your own" without claiming credit for it in a dishonest way. What I mean is this:
Analyze the article or the body of material. What is the central theme? How is the theme amplified? What are the major divisions, the subdivisions? Make an outline, see how it all fits together. As you do this you may see where you can add a thought of your own here and there, where you can insert an illustration of your own. Having taken the time to study it in this way, it will become more a part of you. You will fix the main thought and supporting ideas in your mind and you can then verbalize it all in your own style. When the message has gotten "into you," you can then share it as yours and you can do so with conviction and enthusiasm.
A sermon like this may well begin with the words, "This morning I would like to share with you something I read in . . . , or something I heard . . ." At times during the presentation it might be well to read word for word what the author wrote, because to use his exact words might make the point more effective. But, for the most part, it should be your presentation, your delivery, you/ style, your witness to the truth of what is said. Few things are more deadly than a sermon that sounds "canned." Take it out of the can, give it life, give it shoes, and "make it walk"!
Be jealous for the flock en trusted to your care. Guard the pulpit and the sermon hour so that the Word of God may be heard in His house. You have been called to a high calling. Honor that calling with sacrifice and dedication, give yourself to the preaching of the Word, and it will amaze you what God can do through you!
In this series of articles no at tempt has been made to cover all of the aspects of homiletical and communication theory. The emphasis has been upon clarity and coherence. Much could be done to improve the quality of preaching in our churches on Sabbath morning, or at any other preaching service, if more attention were given to making what is said clear and coherent. The hearer of God's Word should not have to say again and again, "What the preacher said was not very clear, it just didn't make sense."
For the preacher who is interested in further and continued study on the subject of preaching, there is a whole library available to him, and more books on the subject are being printed every year. In addition to those already mentioned in this series, here are a few that I have found most helpful:
Adams, Jay E., Pulpit Speech (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1971).
Blackwood, Andrew W., The Preparation of Sermons (New York: Abingdon Press, 1948).
Craddock, Fred B., As One Without Authority (Enid, Oklahoma: The Phillips University Press, 1971).
Koller, Charles W., Expository Preaching Without Notes (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1962).
Luccock, Halford E., In the Minister's Workshop (New York: Abingdon-Cokesbury Press, 1954).
Miller, Donald G., The Way to Biblical Preaching (New York: Abingdon Press, 1957).
Perry, Lloyd M., Biblical Preaching for Today's World (Chicago: Moody Press, 1973).
Perry, Lloyd and Whitesell, Faris D., Variety in Your Preaching (Westwood, New Jersey: Fleming H. Revell Company, 1954).
Unger, Merrill F., Principles of Expository Preaching (Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1955).
