HOW TO PREACH A GOOD SERMON
In very good sermons, like Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr's, the hearer is its proof, is its burden-bearer, is its armor-sharer, is its amplifier, is the echoed reverberation of the spoken word. Hearers' equipages, the church's characteristics, are a preacher's sermonic companions.
A dead church is one without this seminal exchange and coexistence.
A "living church" is one in which the hearer is fed, feted, watered !
I have read and found the following to be effective to any audience of like-minded people, on one accord:
After the subject is given and the text is read, collaboration begins.
Then, a defense of the theorem, of the subject, premise, proposition, follows. It ensues in a manner best suited to the hearts, minds, values, customs, peculiarities, of hearers.
Illustrations, parables, metaphors , fashion, quips, jokes, gestures, tonality, rhythm, pauses, stories, eye contact, aphorisms, proverbs, psalms, are allied, homiletically, with pertinent familiar passages of holy scripture to transport the hearer, via that person's unique imagination, to the desired sermonic destination. The musical selections appeal to feelings of the hearer, as do the sights, scents, of the sanctuary also superimpose a patina that makes the hearer the processor subliminally, Spiritually.
You get out of it what you bring to it. If nothing is brought to the well, if you have no vessel to dip up the healing waters, you derive nothing from that sermon. To whom much is given is much required in church!
Amen!

Monday, April 2, 2018
HOW TO PREACH
HOW TO PREACH A GOOD SERMON
In very good sermons, like Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr's, the hearer is its proof, is its burden-bearer, is its armor-sharer, is its amplifier, is the echoed reverberation of the spoken word. Hearers' equipages, the church's characteristics, are a preacher's sermonic companions.
A dead church is one without this seminal exchange and coexistence.
A "living church" is one in which the hearer is fed, feted, watered !
I have read and found the following to be effective to any audience of like-minded people, on one accord:
After the subject is given and the text is read, collaboration begins.
Then, a defense of the theorem, of the subject, premise, proposition, follows. It ensues in a manner best suited to the hearts, minds, values, customs, peculiarities, of hearers.
Illustrations, parables, metaphors , fashion, quips, jokes, gestures, tonality, rhythm, pauses, stories, eye contact, aphorisms, proverbs, psalms, are allied, homiletically, with pertinent familiar passages of holy scripture to transport the hearer, via that person's unique imagination, to the desired sermonic destination. The musical selections appeal to feelings of the hearer, as do the sights, scents, of the sanctuary also superimpose a patina that makes the hearer the processor subliminally, Spiritually.
You get out of it what you bring to it. If nothing is brought to the well, if you have no vessel to dip up the healing waters, you derive nothing from that sermon. To whom much is given is much required in church!
Amen!

