- I'm basically an expository preacher. My usual pattern is to ask people to open their Bibles to the selected passage, introduce with an illustration, read the text, teach upon it, and then conclude with a prayer and an altar call.
- I rotate between Gospels, Acts/Epistles, and Old Testament in my passage selection. I might move to Lectionary preaching someday, but right now I only do it for high holy days.
- I preach from the selected text, but I also weave in other texts. These seem to pop up frequently: Micah 6:6-8, 1 John 2:7-11, and Luke 11:37-44.
- I have managed to move Holy Communion from a free-standing element in the liturgy to now follow the sermon. I think that I will make the last lines of my Communion Sunday sermons the opening words to Word and Table II. This is still in the experimental stage, though.
Saturday, November 03, 2007
My Preaching Thus Far
I've now preached weekly for six months as a student local pastor, giving me a lot to learn about the proclamation of the Word of God.
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7 comments:
That sounds like a reasonably simple and reliable procedure.
What comments have you heard from the congregation?
My non-answer is "I have received a wide variety of comments."
I think that it is best to be extremely careful about what I blog about in general, and what I say about my congregation in particular.
OK; I wasn't asking for identifiable details. I was just wondering if they liked it, or if they had made suggestions that have caused you to change your style.
Notes or full text?
Full manuscript.
Oh, I can't wait to be on a schedule. Right now, every once in a while they let me out of my cave.
The comments I look forward to are the ones that come after Sunday. I do my best to make sure to give my congregation something to take home (not literally) to consider. So many people tell you, "That was a good one," or "Good job." I appreciate their kind words, but that really drives me nuts.
Usually my format goes like this: 1)background (teaching) information about the text 2)how and in what ways our lives coincide (or don't)with what the Scripture gives us and 3)an invitation to allow the meaning of the passage(s) transform our lives in a new way.
I tend to wrestle with the lectionary in order to avoid preaching on the same texts over and over and over again. I like to plan for a season and know in advance which track I will try to follow.
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