Slowing Down 5.25.2023

     It is common for athletes “in the zone” to describe their experience by saying that “everything moves in slow motion.” When a ball player moves up from college to the pro level, they often struggle until they get to this magical place where everything slows down, the game comes to them, and their gifts can shine. 

    Something similar needs to happen in preaching. This month we have talked about a few of the details of putting together a message and how we must be patient at our work. Those observations are tempered by the bald fact that Sunday is coming. That is the deadline. This week I want to discuss another layer of how we can get into that zone where like an athlete “it all slows down for us” even though the Sunday deadline looms.

    This is another process and tool-driven discussion. We can’t change the calendar, but we can change expectations and we can alter our workflows so that we build slowness into our practice. It won’t add any more time but will help you “see the ball better” and slow things down. Think of this as an equation in which you need to master the inputs to get consistently good outputs.

Multiple Drafts+Multiple Passes+Multiple Tools=Quality preaching.

No, this is not scientific, though it is based on experience and observation. And even though I have described it as an “equation” it is more process and best practices.

Multiple Drafts

    I’ve often written about how much material good preachers and writers leave on the cutting room floor. Good editing and proper cutting begin with clear boundaries between drafts. If you sit at your computer hoping to create a perfect sermon in one pass you will become frustrated and prolong the process.

    You want a good sermon for the pulpit. The challenging work won in the study requires detailed attention to exegesis and proper hermeneutics. Then you will need to work out your message, in your voice, using colloquial English. 

    Commit yourself to the preparation of multiple drafts. They need not all be identical. You can experiment. You can move things around (God bless the computer industry).  You can test words, phases, transitions, illustrations—all the “homiletical devices”. Throw it all at the wall and see what sticks. 

    I write my first drafts in an outliner. I’ll discuss why in a moment, suffice it to say that first drafts need to be flexible, factual, and focused. They need to be anchored fully to the text. They need to be complete enough that you can edit without turning subsequent drafts into full rewrites. 

    In the second draft, you move from writing for the eye to writing for the ear. A sermon, like a speech, is experienced in a specific context. The first draft should nail content, and the second draft should focus on context. The first draft clarifies what the text says. The second draft is concerned with who you are speaking to, and how you will speak. That is the most essential quality of good preaching.

    When you complete the second draft you should have a preachable sermon. The twenty-first century, however, requires much more of us. As I edit my pulpit manuscript, I can prepare a slide deck and a handout at the same time. “This saves time”. Of course, I am “saving time” at something that wasn’t even a thing when I started preaching--oh the tyranny of Parkinsons Law! So, you have a sermon that’s ready to go but you have more “deliverables” yet to complete. Though you are done drafting, every separate document you prepare is another opportunity to edit your work, refine it, and revise it. 

Multiple Passes

    This brings us to the second part of our “equation".  Each time you draft, review, or edit you are making another pass through the document. I think that this is where, even after years of pulpit work, we can continue to improve our preaching. 

    I admit, I get tired of reading my own writing. I have been doing this for a long time, and some of you have as well. It is easy to fall into sloppy habits of deciding that passable is good enough. Repeatable, structured processes help us to overcome the inertia of avoidance. 

    Every draft is another pass through your document. We have very capable tools that help us find repeated words, misspellings, grammatical errors, and perfectly formatted, grammatically correct nonsense. You’ve gotta do the work to cash the check. The more you invest the greater the return. 

Multiple Tools

    Some of you may think this part of the equation is overkill. And each man must select His own tools. Here is my “tool flow” if you will. I will discuss how each is used, but let’s look at it panoramically first. 

Draft 1: OmniOutliner. (Fully outlined manuscript)

Draft 2: Logos Sermon Writer. (Refined and formatted materials ready for each "deliverable")

Draft 3: MS Word (Pulpit Manuscript)

Draft 4: MS Word (Handout)

Draft 5: MS PowerPoint. (Slides)

Let’s break it down. I do my notetaking, researching, and drafting in an outliner program, currently OmniOutliner. My entire sermon calendar for the year is one huge outline. Each week has a place for study, notes, and my first draft. This allows me to move bits and pieces around, archive things that might be useful later, and see sermon structure throughout the drafting process. Next, I cut and paste everything into Logos Sermon Writer. I format my manuscript for my iPad—, Huge type, Churchill’s “Psalm Style” structure, lots of white space, and clear transitions. This is also when slides are “made”, and blanks added for answers in sermon handouts. When I’m done here, I have a preachable sermon. But I’m not finished.

    Next, I export the whole thing to MS Word. When I post my sermon manuscript to Facebook on Friday morning I will use a PDF of the Word file, but it is not ready for public viewing yet. We don’t run grammar and spelling checkers because we don’t know grammar but because our own errors are often invisible to us. Microsoft Editor and Grammarly do a tolerable job of flagging problems. It is also a quick way to see the Flesch–Kincaid score and “readability” level of what I am writing. These give a good gauge of whether I am hitting my target of an understandable sermon for my preaching context. While I am reviewing in Word, I am making the necessary changes in my document in the Logos Sermon writer. When finished, I create a PDF and move on to the next pass. 

    I export my “handout” document from Logos to Word and make another pass through the document. The nature of the document—only headings with fill-in-the-blank spaces means that there is not much content editing to do…but it is another opportunity to go through the material. When corrected, I make a PDF for storage and print copies for the Sunday bulletin.

    The last step is to export from Logos to a PowerPoint file for our media people. After the file is rendered into the correct format—I review it (fifth pass through the material). Any edits to the slides at this point must be made to the original document in Logos and re-exported. Just this week I had to reformat something which required a re-do on this pass through the document. (FYI I am (obviously) doing the final edit of this blog, right now. I am making substantial changes to both format and content.)

    And I know some of you are thinking “How long does all of this take?” I begin a typical week with a substantial amount of work (backgrounds, exegetical difficulties, preliminary outlines) already complete. I try and work 2 hours Sunday afternoon and a full day on Monday. Unless there is a crisis that needs immediate attention, working at a diligent but not breakneck pace this is a hard day’s work. And it is the first thing I do during the week. Not the last. Not when it can be squeezed into an otherwise crowded schedule. First. When I’m fresh, alert, and focused. First thing, every week. None of what I have said about slowing down, none of these skills will help if you do not make preaching your priority. Slowing down is primarily an outcome of prioritizing the ministry of the Word to which we are called.

Patience 5.18.2023

     Patience is not a function of waiting but of preparing. Patience is part of the process of knowing what the steps are and taking them in the proper order. Patience is possible because the foundation is so secure that the building can withstand the buffeting of the elements. Patience can be learned. It is both a skill and a temperament. When one lacks the temperament, it becomes much more important to develop the skill. That is the discussion for this week’s essay. 

    I speak often of proper long-term planning in sermon preparation. One of the reasons is that proper planning allows the preacher to play a long game, to keep the full scope of 52 weeks in view when preparing each individual sermon. This requires a lot of patient reading, praying, drafting, and thinking. It is a serious commitment of time to the central calling of the Ministry of the Word. It returns the most “bang for your buck” and represents the highest ideals of two millennia of preaching. 

    Patience takes more than time. It takes intentionality and focused will. This week I want to focus on a few concepts that help frame long-term sermon preparation so that you and I can work with patient focus through the entire year. 

One word that encapsulates this concept is campaign. Before this term was used to describe a prolonged political-electoral process it was used in military planning. The best comprehensive definitions, taken from my favorite dictionary app are as follows. 

        a series of actions advancing a principle or tending toward a particular end; ...

        several related operations aimed at achieving a particular goal (usually within geographical and                temporal constraints)

These are the second and third options, the first definition describes the now common political use of the term. What each definition has in common is that the describes multiple actions, goal orientation, and some kind of external limitation.  

    As I mentioned earlier, the word historically described military operations. An army in the field orchestrated its actions to achieve the overall aims of the commander. This might require opposing armies to conduct battle operations several times in the “campaign season” but also encompassed all the logistical, maneuver, training, and practical considerations required to keep an army in the field ready to fight. Until modern times the campaign season was brief depending on the geography and space involved. Yearly campaigning requires a general to keep all the necessary constraints in mind should the chance for decisive engagement present itself. Generals thinking in terms of single battles often have tactical advantages that dissipate over the course of a campaign rendering their tactical skill moot. 

    Think of your sermon calendar as a year-long campaign, divided into smaller campaigning seasons each contributing to the overall strategic plan for the year. We want every sermon to succeed. We want it to be Biblical, applicable, and timely. We also want each sermon to contribute to the big picture of the campaign of which it is a part, and to impact the plan for the year. 

This kind of planning is systematic and cumulative. The most significant opportunity for planning comes months in advance when laying out the goals for the full year and each individual campaign. The logistic requirements of laying in “tools and ammunition” can be attended to with months of lead time for necessary preparation. 

    The cumulative angle is what has always fascinated me. When executing a yearly theme, and working through several smaller campaigns, you--the preacher can remain fresh, focused, and engaged. It keeps the congregation interested through long-term creative thinking and it allows you to establish some basic goals for each individual sermon and the complete year. 

    Thus, we return to patience. You will get some clever ideas in your long-term planning that will not bear fruit for many months. You have time to draft, experiment, file, revise, and think. Everything you read and every ministry opportunity can be pondered in light of the big picture. You have time to produce an abundance of pegs on which your congregation can hang the insights from each sermon. You have time to take the time. You have time to make multiple passes through your preaching texts. You have time to read good commentaries and introductory literature without the pressing element of immediate utility. Your preaching plan becomes your study plan, and your congregation will always know where they are being led. Tell your leadership. Inform your elders. Summarize and generalize for your congregation. Then do what you promise.

     Which brings us back once again, to patience. You will produce stuff in February that will not become exposed until June. You will be tempted to pre-empt yourself. You will think about going off-plan. You will want to “jump the gun”. Don’t. The plan works best when you work the plan. Patience is a skill that we develop by being patient with ourselves and the program we establish for ourselves. Virtually every preacher controls their time, but not everyone has control of their schedule. 

    All this time helps us to get a broad understanding of our weekly text so that we can extract the right message, for this congregation, at this point in its life, amid this campaign. Patience is not waiting, it is working. Patience transforms generic messages, which may be powerful and on point, into a word from God--for this time and this place. Patience produces particularity. And the best preaching is always particular rather than general. 

    When you and I preach this Sunday, our goal should be to speak God’s Word here, and now, for this congregation. The ripple effect of good preaching is only possible because the preacher has been diligent with his time and specific in his goals. The impact of patient preparation overflows to the benefit of the whole Body when a particular part of that Body is properly nourished.

Some Assembly Required 5.11.2023

     Dreaded words for any parent: some assembly required. The reason is that each of the terms in the phrase conceals, or plain lies about what is meant. “Some” really means “most” or “all”—essentially you have a box of parts. “Assembly” means basic manufacturing. “Required” means that you will be up late, become angry, and perhaps, even fail. Woe to the man who reads these words at 11.00 p.m. Christmas Eve!

    Every week the preacher faces something like this phrase hanging over, even haunting our work. I wish to encourage you by stating that, unlike toy assembly, Sermon assembly is a process you can master and improve, week by week. Yes, some assembly is required—actually, lots of assembly, but we have many models and precedents as well as well-designed tools to use and procedures to follow. If we work hard with the outcome in mind, we can get better at the study and writing that go into the “assembly of sermons.”

The “Picture on the Box”

    My dad was an avid model builder. Every model he built began with looking at the picture on the box. Now, Dad was a good artist. He could paint elaborate insignia and modify the old-fashioned decals that came with the model airplanes he made. Regardless of how he modified and decorated the finished work,  he first made the model so that it looked like the picture. 

       If the basic representation of the airplane was incorrect, if the engines were in the wrong place or the canopy on the bottom it did not matter how much he prettied it up. First things come first. An accurate and realistic model will look like the thing it is representing. 

    Our job is to preach scripture. Whereas we don’t actually have a “picture” of what the text says we should approach sermon building with a primary understanding of the text in mind. Before we pretty the sermon up we need to follow the “picture on the box” or anything further will be a distraction. 

Blueprint/Plans/Instructions

    Every model my dad built came with instructions. There is a basic order to building something whether it is at 1/30th scale or the “real thing.” For the Christian, the scripture provides all that we need to inform doctrine and practice. By aligning our lives with scripture, we construct our lives around the example of Jesus. 

    To prepare consistently good sermons you need a blueprint. You need instructions. You need a plan. There are many ways to organize the work of preaching. My plea at this point is to use the same instructions every week and follow them every time. 

    By using the same basic blueprint every week, we develop regular rhythms and something akin to muscle memory. When the basics of production become second nature this allows us to focus on a deeper study of the text before us week by week. 

Intended Use

    What is it for? How will it be used? What is the intent? We will leave behind my father’s airplane modeling and consider how Mrs. Beckman works when she crochets. Every item begins with a pattern and set of instructions. 

    The stitch-by-stitch work is the same, but a mitten is not a scarf. The intended use of the item produced contributes to the process of production. The gauge of the hook used, the weight of the yarn, and the tightness of the stitch are determined by the intended use of the item. 

    You and I make a similar choice in sermon-making. Is this message intended for a typical Sunday morning audience? Is this study intended for Christian service camp? What are the ages of the kids being taught? Our job is to preach and teach the Word so that God’s people are equipped for service. We cannot preach everything to everyone in a single sermon. Choices must be made. Environment and use have a bearing on the words we choose and our approach to explaining the text. This requires some consideration of who the audience is, the context of the message, and our relationship with the congregation. 

Review (Editing)

    Virtually every time you write a sermon there should be a lot of material on the cutting room floor. Something that sounds clever or particularly effective in isolation may lose its effectiveness in the context of the entire message. Bringing points and subpoints into harmony requires not only accurate but creative writing. Words are your friends and words are your adversaries. Choosing them wisely is a lifelong task we must execute sermon by sermon. Learn how to edit your work and edit relentlessly. Find a friend and enlist your wife. Eliminate extra words, learn how to write the way that you speak. As the saying goes “Murder your darlings”. 

Execution

    Do it well, or don’t do it at all. 

        How long does it take? Until it’s finished. 

Conclusion

    No written project can be completely automated. You’re going to have to think, choose words, move things about, and come to a stop. Each time you prepare a sermon you must make choices, yet those choices can be embedded in processes, procedures, and best practices that become more effective over the course of your ministry. This is not a bicycle, a lawn chair, a model airplane, or a scarf. You are not assembling a different item every week. The topic changes, the text changes, the theme changes—but it’s still a sermon. You can leverage the economies of scale that come with some kind of automation merely by doing the same thing every time.  

Beginning from Moses 5.4.2023

     I am preaching through Acts this Spring. In this week’s text from Acts 8, I will read and comment upon Philipp preaching about Jesus, beginning with Isaiah 53. This text is somewhat similar to Luke 24.27 wherein Jesus corrects and comforts His traveling partners; “And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.” (Luke 24:27 ESV)

      The similarity of these two texts is resonating for me right now because my next two series will be from the Old Testament. What Phillip does on the Gaza Road and what Jesus does on the road to Emmaus remind us of what we must constantly do when preaching from the Hebrew Bible. Using the text before us we must tell the redeeming story of Jesus.

I will make this an emphasis of this Sunday’s message and I will keep the fundamental procedure in mind as I prepare for the following 8 weeks. Our job is to tell the story of Jesus. The text(s) of Scripture and the stories contained are stories we know, and love. Ultimately find their value in Christian preaching as a means to explore the grace of God in Christ Jesus. When we approach Old Testament texts, particularly the ones we know well, we need to understand how they function in relationship to the New Testament. 

Pallet

    The Hebrew Bible, particularly in the Greek translation known as the Septuagint (LXX) provides the basic pallet used by New Testament speakers and authors in creating and communicating the story of Jesus. Color, tone, vocabulary, concepts, and theology do not spring out of thin air. The Apostles had heard Jesus preach and followed His example with respect to interpreting the Hebrew Bible. The earliest Church reformulated and recast their received Scriptures in light of the resurrection of Jesus. 

    Consequently, our reading and preaching from the Old Testament must be informed by this pallet of expectations as articulated in the New Testament. As Christians, we honor all Scripture as inspired, but it is not all inspired the same way and to the same purpose. Paul’s words to the Corinthians should serve as a constant reminder.

“Now these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction, on whom the end of the ages has come.” (1 Corinthians 10:11 ESV)

This does not diminish the truthfulness of the Old Testament but helps us to properly contextualize it for our own times through the fullest expression of God’s intent—the New Testament.

Plan

    We need to understand the plan of God from Creation to Consumption but that understanding needs to be formed by the New Testament as the final statement of that plan. 

    What the Old Testament hints at, the New Testament discloses. Where the Old Testament can seem meandering, the New Testament tends to be more direct. Both Testaments exhibit variety in genre and style, but the Old Testament is far more diverse. 

    In short, the Old Testament articulates a plan that is not fully formed. The New Testament discusses the plan not only as fully formed but as completed by Jesus in His death, burial, resurrection, and formation of the Church.

Plot

    As diverse bodies of literature, it can be difficult to discern the plotline of the Testaments. There are, however, certain refrains in each. Fall, repentance, call, restoration. These Old Testament themes resonate in both the Pentateuch as well as the post-exilic literature. This plot is also found in some of the Psalms as well as touching on some of the events in books like Ruth and Esther. 

    As preachers, we are always looking to bring the plot of scripture to its proper resolution in the complete work of Jesus Christ. There are times when individuals experience this resolution when they come to faith and obedience. Other individuals build upon this resolution when, in finding their spiritual gift, they perceive a call to specialized ministry. Churches experience this resolution when they commit to being explicitly Biblical in choosing and executing the local mission of the Church. 

    When we lose the plot of scripture, when we focus too much on the OT preparation rather than the NT realization, we lose our identity. Everyone has a story. A well-rounded person understands their story and how it is unfolding. When Christians lose the plot of Scripture, we lose our sense of self. 

Promise

    The final theme is promise. The Old Testament describes promises made to Eve, Noah, Abraham, Moses, Israel, and many others. The author of Hebrews makes the following statement in Hebrews 11 as he begins his remembrance of the heroes of faith:

“These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth.” (Hebrews 11:13 ESV)

As in the 1 Corinthians passage, I cited earlier the author acknowledges that perfected faith and the realization of the promises of God—all of them—is found in Jesus.  

    Pictures are painted from pallets of color with the artist giving form to the colors. In stories, plots are resolved. Achievement occurs because plans are followed. Promises are remembered mostly because they are kept. My intent in this essay was not to write an OT Theology or a guide to the OT and yet guiding theology is what we wind up with when we properly contextualize the Old Testament in the light of the cross and empty grave.