Sunday, October 13, 2019

Teaching Sermon Writing

Ten years ago, we had an intern in the Church -- and I was tasked with teaching him sermon writing. I set aside a week for the task, and taught him the following method:
• I asked him to choose a text for a series of sermons
• We set aside a day for background reading, only that
• The next day he derived concepts from the text
• The next day (to break him out of the “crafted sermon” mode) I asked him to put his mind out of gear, and write his entire sermon from the heart in two hours. One might call it “automatic writing”, a well known concept.
• Then we returned to the sermon for more thoughtful revision
OBSERVATION: I emphasised writing through prayer and under the influence of the Holy Spirit, so this is assumed in the above.

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