Transcript

Hello and welcome back to our masterclass

My name is Ian White and right now we’re going to take our next step towards crafting a sermon

We’re likening this experience to the building of a bridge between the Bible’s word and our own.

We’ve done the background work on a passage from the Bible,

We’re content with the heartbeat of our talk

We’ve got a feel for how it’s going to be structured – it’s framework,

and now the big question: what should I actually write in my notes?

What should be the content of my talk?

Now how do we go about putting that down in such a way that it will have the same impact on our hearers that it’s had on us.

 

Nobody ever told me this!

When I was studying in preparation for church ministry, there was an assumption that, because you can write essays, reports and reflections, you can write a sermon!

That assumption is largely false.

I’ve heard too many sermons (often from people who have recently graduated) that sound like college essays (some of them actually were – essays!)

Preachers who quote obscure theologians whom the congregation have never heard of

Preachers who use abstruse language that doesn’t connect with the people sitting right in their eye-line!

and sometimes there’s an implicit message – “Oh you ought to be reading this stuff!” or “you really should know this concept”

• it injects a little flash of unwarranted guilt into the hearts of the congregation.

Don’t misunderstand me. We have to do the background work. Read the theology, digest the commentaries, use their insights to preach God’s word compellingly, but we don’t need to foist our research nuts and bolts on the congregation.

(end of rant!)

 

So which words will we be using and how are we going to use them?

Words

By this stage you’ve got a jumble of notes, you’ve got a big idea that excites you (heart of sermon) , you’ve got some idea about it’s structure (the framework),

What is the content going to look like?

 

When we stand in front an audience or congregation we need to have something in front of us (pieces of paper, file on a device) that will guide us through the process of giving our talk

We need something that is clear enough for us to follow

• so the inspiration of the text, flows uninterrupted through your voice and into the minds and hearts of the people listening to you.

I’ve been preaching for over 50 years, and for 35 of those, peaching was a significant part of my job. I calculated I’ve written and spoken about 8,500,000 words in preaching so far!

I’m still learning! Both from preachers who have been at it for years and preachers who are younger and communicate so powerfully – often in ways very different from my own.

Clarity

Probably the most important aspect of writing words is to make them clear to the listener

1 Keep your sentences short

Most analysts would agree that clear writing has an average sentence length of 15 to 20 words.

This does not mean making every sentence the same length.

Be punchy.

Vary your writing by mixing short sentences (like the last one) with longer ones (like this one).

For me, the basic principle of sticking to one main idea per sentence, is useful because it stops me waffling or being unnecessarily complex.

The top journalists do this very well!

As a rule of thumb (and why is it a thumb?) I don’t want a single sentence to be longer than a tweet.

2 Use active verbs wherever possible

Do you mind if we go back to the English basics we learned at school.

There usually are three main parts to almost every sentence:

• a subject (the person, group or thing doing the action);

• a verb (the action itself)

• an object (the person, group or thing that the action is done to).

‘Peter watched the television’:

• the subject is Peter (he is doing the watching);

• the verb is watched; and

• the object is the television (it is being watched).

Of course, there will usually be other words as well. For example:

• ‘Peter, the boy from number 17, watched the television every Friday night’.

But the subject, verb and object are still there.

Watched is an active verb here. The sentence says who is doing the watching before it says what is being watched.

The passive equivalent is “the television was watched by Peter”

The object has become the subject!

Passive sentences are hard to understand quickly (and our congregation need to understand quickly because you’re going to go on the the next idea in the next sentence!)

Passive verbs cause several problems for live communication

• They can be confusing if someone listening loses concentration for that moment.

• They make writing less lively and engaging

• And I’ve discovered they are particularly difficult to comprehend if English is not your first language.

So rule of thumb – prefer active verbs.

3 Show, don’t tell

Personally, I want to use vivid words and illustrations as much as I can.

It’s a well-established principle among writers – you can put it in your search engine and find lots of helpful examples.

In particular I try not to use adjectives (description words) which tell you what to feel about the thing you’re describing.

Instead, I’ll try to tell you in such a way that you’ll feel it.

• Don’t just say ‘It was terrible’ but describe it in such a way that will make me go “Ugh!”

• Don’t just say ‘It was exciting’ but describe it in such a way that I will go “Yeees!”

Suppose the passage is Mark 10:17ff I could say

• “I wish you could have been a fly on the wall when he swaggered up to Jesus. He was tiny – but did he have a presence! His face still had teenage pimples but he was wearing a brand new Armani suit. Gold cuff links glistened from his sleeves and his shoes were so shiny you could see your reflection!”

• Or I could just say “Jesus met a rich young ruler” – but which is more interesting?!

Rule of thumb: Don’t tell me what to feel, help me feel it!

4 The person of the verbs

Should I us “I” or “you” or “we” or “they”

I find I want to be aware of which person I’m using because they each have different nuances

By default I prefer to use ‘we’ because it helps people to feel that I, as a speaker, am identifying with them as listeners.

This applies particularly if I’m issuing a challenge of some sort.

To say

“we really need to devote more head-space to listening to our heavenly Father”

That sounds very different from

“you really should devote more time to listening to our God”

The first one feels as if I’m encouraging all of us to behave like this

• second one sounds as if I’m telling them off

and the difference – the person of the verb (and possibly the tone of voice)

Rule of thumb: identify with your audience as much as possible Using “We” is a good way of doing it.

5 Don’t be afraid to give challenges

Jesus did!

However, if we give no encouragement and motivation along with a challenge, people may feel more burdened than built after listening to us.

So try to balance challenges with encouragements and motivation

• E.g. the challenging statement “Church, you ought to pray more!”

• the encouraging statement “We’re facing a problem here – We can pray about this and see God do something wonderful”

Personally I am very cautious about using the guilt words.

• “you ought, you must, you should”

• because, the congregation often feel they are being told off.

Rule of thumb – challenge, but do your best to avoid guilt inducing wording.

6 Use everyday language wherever possible.

• This is what the NT writers did. They avoided formal Greek that was used by the philosophers and chose every-day language so the hearers could understand them.

Write sincerely, personally, in a style that is suitable and with the right tone of voice. And always check that your writing is clear, helpful, humane, courteous and direct.

Formatting your notes

We each have our own personal style. Your notes will look different from mine.

Allow me to share how I do it in the hope it will give you the odd steer!)

I have the advantage of using a computer, but I did the same when I wrote everything by hand

E.g. my father’s notes – use of underlining in different colours.

Incidentally, I have been writing down more as time has goes on.

• Before I retired from church leadership, I used to speak 2-4 times per week.

• In that situation it’s impossible to remember that quantity of material so I end up writing quite a lot!

• I advise you not to rely on your memory – even if you think it’s pretty good!

• That wonderful idea you had when you were preparing might evaporate when you get into the service!

If you think of yourself as a trapeze artist – your notes are your safety net!

Here are some things I’ve got used to doing which have got me out of trouble more often that I care to admit!

1 Write the more important things in bigger text

And underline them if necessary

Use headings and sub-headings.

• And there are short-cut keys on the PC or MAC so you don’t have to keep fussing about with a mouse

I tend to write each new idea or sentence on a new line,

• then any supporting text as a bullet points underneath etc

• (again, I have short-cut keys which will do this in a single key-stroke)

• Similarly with quotations from the Bible or elsewhere – which I indent in the text to make them stand out when I look at my notes.

• (again, there’s a short-cut key which will do this in one hit)

2 Count your words or pages

This helps us know how long we’re going to speak for

• I regard it as a common courtesy not to keep running beyond the finish line!

We can measure how long it takes to preach one page!

• And it’s better to make this calculation based on an occasion when you’ve been speaking live., not a theoretical estimate in front of your mirror

The speed of delivery is generally much slower than conversation.

• Your computer will count words for you and if you know you preach at (say) 95 words per minute (that’s my approximate speed) You can work out how much material you’re preparing.

Its better to finish early and leave people wanting more of you than to finish late and to leave them wanting less!

3 Be Glance-ready

This is my go-to principle when it comes to formatting the stuff I carry on to a platform.

• In the moment, while I’m preaching, I know I’m not going to have time to read much text – let alone find my place in a page full of closely typed paragraphs!

So I format my notes in such a way that I only need to glance at them to know where I am and where I’m going next.

 

I recognise in this segment we’ve been thinking about concepts and practices that are second nature to some of us, but I hope it’s been helpful

and I really appreciate your feedback which you can put in the box below.