Sermon resources-III

Sermon resources-III: your library and file

Keeping yourself organized will help your ministry

Floyd Bresee, Ph.D., is a former secretary of the General Conference Ministerial Association, and continues to pastor and preach in Oregon, where he and his wife, Ellen, live in retirement.

It happened in a ministers' meeting of the Evangelical Church in Germany. A young pastor waxed eloquent in recommending his new approach to preaching. He no longer needed to spend long hours in sermon preparation. He simply walked into his pulpit and depended solely on the Holy Spirit to tell him what to say.

An elderly pastor rose in disagreement. "The Holy Ghost never spoke to me in the pulpit. Yes, I remember, he did speak to me once. When I was going down the pulpit steps after a poor sort of sermon, the Holy Ghost spoke to me. He said only three words, and what He said was 'Heinrich, you're lazy!' "

I don't mean to belittle in any way the necessity of relying on the Holy Spirit in the pulpit. But God seldom rewards indolence. As Emerson said: "You can have truth or repose. You cannot have both."

Where do we go to find this truth about Christ that we preach from our pulpits week by week? Previously we've mentioned two sermon resources: your Bible and yourself—your personal experience with Christ. Let's look now at two additional resources: your library and your file.

Your library

Preachers must be readers. According to Megatrends 2000, by John Naisbitt and Patricia Alburdene, one in five American adults buys at least one book a week. I was surprised to learn that "people 18 to 34 years old buy 2.6 books a week. And they read them."

Dare we who preach to these people in our congregations read less? Preachers must be readers. When you haven't anything to preach, check, and you'll likely find you haven't been reading.

But what should we read in the sermon preparation process?

Bible commentaries. First, of course, we read the Bible. But second only to that should be Bible commentaries. They should not come until after we have got ten everything we can directly from the Bible. But they should probably come before we go anywhere else. They give us more biblical insights per minute of study time, and they help protect us from expository misinterpretations.

Books on the subject. You seldom have time to read a whole book when preparing a sermon. Read ahead of time, underlining and writing on the flyleaf ideas you may want to use. Get into your file a reminder of where the material is.

Books of sermons. These should be used sparingly. They may produce ideas around which you may form your sermon, or even a framework on which to hang your sermon. But a sermon is as personal as a toothbrush. You ought to use your own.

Your file

A filing system is one of the greatest time-saving devices known for sermon preparation. From 50 to 75 percent of your sermon should come from your file.

Ministers who quit studying as soon as they have enough material to "fill the hour" will always be mediocre preachers. Before you begin putting the sermon together, you should ideally have gathered two or three times as much material as you can use.

What you do at this juncture is the hardest mental work in sermon preparation and does most to separate good sermons from poor. Sermon material tends to fall into four categories: 1. This sermon. Material you will use now. 2. Poor sermon. Material that is a little second-rate. Throw it out. If you didn't use it this time you shouldn't use it next time. 3. Long sermon. This material cries out to be used, but it will make your sermon too long. It's hard to put it aside, but easiest if you have a way to file it for later use. 4. Wrong sermon. This is good material, but it doesn't quite fit this sermon. You're preaching on A, and you come across some excellent ideas on Z. Don't preach an A to Z sermon. File it for the day you'll be preaching on Z.

Forget you can remember and re member you're bound to for get. I thought this idea was clever enough when my homiletics teacher said it that it got into my notes. Through the years it has proved so practical it finally got into my head.

Carry note paper everywhere you go. Write every usable idea down immediately. Otherwise, it will likely leave you like the attractive stranger who smiled at you one night, then walked away, and you never saw him or her again.

Topical file. It can be as simple as a cardboard box or as complicated as a computer, but a topical file must include a fairly complete index. Don't fill it with illustrations only. It should represent all your former study on any subject. But when you want to file something and can't find a place to file it, you give up on filing.

Sermon file. This file is set up for three categories of sermons: Possible sermons—sermon ideas you may want to pursue later. Planned sermons—sermons you are specifically planning to preach soon and for which you need a place to be gathering material. Preached sermons— (Don't lose the sermon or the research material used in its preparation. Some day you may want to preach it again.) Next time, a final sermon resource: your congregation.


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Floyd Bresee, Ph.D., is a former secretary of the General Conference Ministerial Association, and continues to pastor and preach in Oregon, where he and his wife, Ellen, live in retirement.

March 1992

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