Preach Well

A Short Guide to Making Even the Average Sermon Much Better

Darryl Dash

• Publisher: Gospel for Life Inc.
• Year: 2018
• Print ISBN: 9780995271326
• eBook ISBN: 9780995271333
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Christian Ministry

Preaching is central to the ministry of the church. And yet it's easy to get distracted by other demands or discouraged because our sermons aren't as good as we'd hoped.

In Preach Well, Darryl Dash reminds us of some simple ways to make even average sermons better. God uses the faithful, consistent ministry of preachers like you to grow his church.

Read this book to:

- Increase your joy in preaching

- Improve your sermon preparation process

- Decrease stress in your preparation

- Strengthen your confidence that you can preach effectively

- Enhance your appreciation for the charge you've received to preach

III

Preparation

7

How I Prepare Sermons

I enjoy hearing how others prepare to preach. We all prepare differently, and make adjustments over the years.

Here’s how I prepare sermons.

My approach has been to work through a series of questions (see chapter 9). I try to discipline myself in two areas, with varying success:

• Spend enough time in the text before turning to the commentaries. This one is hard for me.
• Exegesis comes before homiletics. Understand the text before you think about how to communicate it.

Before church planting, I’d devote four mornings a week to sermon preparation. On Monday and Tuesday I’d work on exegesis. On Wednesday and Thursday I’d begin to craft a sermon from the exegesis.

Now, I block off one day for sermon preparation. Everything conspires against this, which means that preparation sometimes spills into Friday or Saturday. My goal, though, is to complete my manuscript on Thursday and then put it on the back burner until I preach.

There’s one major disadvantage to saving the preparation for one day: there’s less time to slow cook the sermon over the week. My best insights have come to me outside of sermon preparation time. That doesn’t happen as often when the preparation time is so concentrated.

I like to finish my manuscript a couple of days before I preach. This helps me internalize the sermon.

Right now, I use the Ulysses App to write my sermons (http://www.ulyssesapp.com). It’s available for Mac and IOS. I’ve also used Scrivener, Pages, and Word. I prefer a tool that stays out of the way so that I can focus on content rather than formatting.

I’m rarely happy with my sermon when it’s done. When I review my old sermons, I’m often surprised that they’re not as bad as I remembered.

I was encouraged to read a tweet by Joe Thorn: “Preachers. Most of us are not pulpit giants. We don’t need to be. Preach the Word plainly but with passion. God is ready to use you.”^[1]

I’m thankful that God uses ordinary preachers who prepare sermons while facing the pressures of everyday life.

---

1. Joe Thorn, https://twitter.com/joethorn/status/572021629498212353, accessed August 24, 2016. ↵

8

The Sermon Preparation Wall

The more I preach, the more I realize how much I need a sermon preparation wall.

Every week, I sit down and begin the sermon preparation process all over again. I always feel the pressure of the coming Sunday breathing down my neck. I get into the text and I’m immediately tempted to think of how I can preach that text in just six days.

And that’s just the problem.

Before I can think about preaching the text, I must understand the text. I need a wall to separate the two main stages of preparation.

The Text

For the first half of preparation, I focus on the text, not on the congregation, by:

• reading and re-reading the text;
• meditating on the text;
• asking questions of the text;
• understanding authorial intent;
• writing the exegetical idea and supporting ideas in the text;
• consulting commentaries; and
• applying the text to my life.

I discipline myself to understand the text in its context and in relation to its original audience, not in relation to my congregation.

The Congregation

Once I understand the text, I can begin to think about my congregation by:

• writing a homiletical idea and outline that communicates the idea of the text to my audience;
• shaping the sermon to communicate and apply the text;
• filling in the sermon with illustrations and supporting material; and
• writing a manuscript.

If I rush to the second stage, I tend to shortchange exegesis. Until the text wrestles me to the ground (see chapter 12), I’m not ready to preach.

One of the best pieces of advice I would give to any preacher is to erect a wall in the process of sermon preparation. Spend some time in the text without worrying how you’re going to preach it. Don’t shortchange exegesis in your rush to prepare a sermon.

9

Ten Key Questions for Sermon Preparation

No matter how you prepare a sermon, there are ten questions that every preacher must answer. Not every answer will show up in the sermon, but every answer is important to the shape that the sermon takes.

The first four questions center on the text. The next six questions center on how to communicate the text to our audience.

Four Questions for the Text

1. What did this text mean to the original audience? One of the biggest mistakes is to ask what the text means for us before we know what it meant for the original audience. Forget about your audience for now. Until you answer this question, you’re not ready to proceed.
2. What is the central idea of this text in relation to the original audience? There are many ideas in the passage, but there is one central idea. Until we understand the central idea of the text, we’re not prepared to move forward.
3. What does the passage reveal about God? Is there an attribute revealed? What implications does the author draw from what’s revealed about God?
4. What does the passage reveal about humanity? In particular, what does it reveal about human need? How does this passage reveal our failures (i.e. our sin) and finitude (i.e. our limits)?

Because I’m usually in such a rush to get to my listeners, I have to force myself to spend the time on these questions before I’m ready to move on to the next set.

Six Questions for Preaching the Text

Once you’ve answered the questions for the text, begin to answer questions about how you’re going to preach the text.

1. What does all of this mean for my audience? How does the central idea, as well as what’s revealed about God and about us, intersect with our condition today?
2. How can I express the central idea practically and memorably? How can I express the central idea of the sermon so that people remember it, and so that it applies to people today? How can I structure the sermon so that it has one main point, with (when necessary) supporting points, rather than many different points?
3. How can I raise the need? Good sermons address needs. If the listener is already aware of that need, how can I hook them? If they aren’t aware of the need, how can I make them aware? It’s good to show sympathy in how we raise the need. It’s not their need; it’s our need.
4. How does the gospel answer this need? What is there in Jesus that answers this need? How does he become more beautiful and desirable in this passage?
5. What does this look like today? What are the implications for how we love (desires), think (mind), and live (actions)? Don’t overemphasize actions at the expense...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Table Of Contents
• Dedication
• Introduction
• Fundamentals
• Planning
• Preparation
• Application
• Delivery
• Final Thoughts
• Recommended Resources
• About Darryl
• Other Books by Darryl