Some More Sermon Preparation Tips

In a previous article that I had written, I went over a few sermon preparation tips for giving a better sermon. They involved getting a passage of scripture first, telling a personal story to start off with and keeping the sermon short. In this article, I’m going to share a few more tips that will greatly help you in giving a sermon that will keep your congregation interested and awake.

You will find, and I kind of touched on this briefly in another article, that if you outline your sermon first, it will go a lot smoother. One way to do this is by writing down a list of bullet points that you want to cover in the sermon itself. These can usually be sandwiched in between an intro and a conclusion. From the outline, you can then write the completed sermon. This will help you stay structured and organized.

Another thing you want to do is actually give the sermon out loud (by yourself) before you give it. There is a strange thing about the written word. It sounds one way when reading it silently, but can sound totally different when read out loud. This is why you want to read your sermon out loud before you give it. You will probably find that some of the wording just doesn’t sound quite right and you will end up wanting to change it. Had you not read it out loud before giving it, you would have never picked up on this.

Finally, if at all possible, you want to memorize as much of the sermon as you can. The reason for this is that if you have your face buried in the text through the whole sermon, you’re going to lose your congregation. They want to see YOU. They want to feel that you’re speaking to THEM and not to the notes on the pulpit. If you can’t memorize the sermon, at the very least, make sure you read ahead and look up as often as possible. The sermon doesn’t have to read word for word, though that would be preferable. Point is, you need to make eye contact with the congregation to be effective in your delivery.

There you have it. Three more simple tips to help give you the best sermon that you can possibly come up with. Make an outline, make sure you read the sermon out loud to yourself first, and make eye contact with the congregation. If you do these 3 simple things, added to the tips I gave prior, you’ll find that your sermon is the best one you can possibly deliver.
Bible Lessons and Sermons

So You Want To Give A Sermon? Read This!

So, you want to give a sermon. Well, before you dive into the biblical waters, so to speak, you might want to read this article first. If you’ve seen ministers give sermons, you know it looks so easy. Well, part of the reason it looks so easy is because they work very hard on preparation beforehand. This article is going to touch on a few things you need to know before giving your first sermon so that it isn’t your last.

First of all, it’s important to know that your congregation wants to like your sermon. Nothing makes them feel more miserable than thinking that they’re going to be listening to some bore of a lecture. It’s bad enough that most of them are at church because they feel that they have to be there. Don’t make them suffer through the process. Point is, they want to be on your side. They want to like what’s coming. So you’ve already got a head start on pleasing them, kind of like a comic at a comedy club.

Secondly, you need to be prepared. You CANNOT wing this. So many people have tried to go up to that pulpit and just speak off the cuff. It’s very hard to do. What usually ends up happening is that you end up wandering all over the place with no real destination in mind. These sermons usually end up going on for 30 minutes or longer. And let me tell you, any sermon over 20 minutes is in serious danger of losing the congregation. So whatever you do, don’t wing it. Be prepared!

Finally, and this is something few people think about, come with a strong speaking voice and plenty of water. Nerves are going to get to you. They get to everybody. Dry mouth is going to creep in like mold on a wet soggy day. So having plenty of water to drink is going to be a must. You’re not going to get through a whole sermon without it. As for your voice, do some vocal exercises to loosen it up before you start speaking.

Like I said, giving a sermon LOOKS easy. That’s because a lot of work goes into giving one before the first words are even spoken, such as a specific bible verse to lecture off of, a well written outline, and some personality thrown into the mix to keep everybody awake. That is what makes a good sermon.
Bible Lessons and Sermons

3 Simple Sermon Preparation Tips

So, you want to write a sermon. It can be quite a daunting task, especially if you’ve never written one before. Where do you start? What are you going to talk about? What passages of scripture do you use? How do you tie everything up in a neat little bow? Can you even do that? After all, a lot of scripture is open to interpretation. Well, if you’re wracking your brain trying to write that sermon, these 3 simple sermon preparation tips should help.

At the top of the list of things to do is to make sure that you have a passage of scripture that you want to preach off of. A lot of times, this will lock you into a subject. For example, if you’re preaching on the Last Supper, you’re not going to stray and start talking about the sermon on the mount. Having specific bible verses in mind will make the sermon itself go a lot smoother and even, in some cases, write itself.

Another thing you want to do is start the sermon off with a related personal story. Try to make it a humorous one if you can. The reason for this is because you don’t want the congregation falling asleep on you. If you dive right into the theological stuff right off the bat, you’re going to lose a lot of your congregation before you even reach the second paragraph. Adding the human element will greatly help in keeping the parishioners interested.

Finally, you want to keep your sermon brief. A wise minister used to say, if you can’t get your point across in under 20 minutes, then it wasn’t worth getting across in the first place. One way to keep your sermon brief is to make a list of bullet points that you want to cover in the sermon itself. Try to keep them to 3 or 4 points in total. If you limit each one to about 3 minutes talking time, you should have no problem keeping your sermon to around 20 minutes.

There are other things you can do to improve your sermon, but we’ll cover those in future articles. In the meantime, if you follow the tips I’ve outlined above, getting a specific passage of scripture, starting off with a personal story, and keeping the sermon to about 10 minutes, you will find that your sermon will go over a lot better with the congregation and they won’t end up falling asleep on you.
Bible Lessons and Sermons