Sunday Sermon Summary - Introduction

Not all Sunday afternoons lend themselves to reflective blogging. Having admitted that, I’m going to try a new feature – the Sunday Sermon Summary (truth be told, I just like the way those words go together). This won’t be a cut and paste of my sermon. What I intend to do is give a brief summary of what I have learned this week in my sermon preparation and delivery. Some weeks, I’m so spent that I might have a hard time figuring this out (okay, what did I preach on this morning?). Those will be times for a long nap, not blogging (though a brief nap later wouldn’t be unwelcome).

Before I do that, a few preacher points come to mind:

• After weeks of thought, many hours of preparation, a full manuscript and not enough prayer (usually), the only comment you get on your sermon will be about something you said off-the-cuff.


• Sermon curiosities: The more you thought you nailed the sermon, the less response you get. The more you thought you really blew it, the more likely someone will mention how significant your message was to them (or, at least, some off-the-cuff comment in that sermon).


• None of this gives a preacher license to be slothful in preparation. We must study hard, prepare well and pray earnestly for God to move.


• It is God that is responsible for His Word. It is the height of presumption to think that our words will change hearts. We must be faithful stewards of the Word of God and then watch Him work.  


• Preaching is widely misunderstood. Sadly, this appears to be the case in many church pulpits, let alone in the pew and society at large (see my last post, Classical Preaching).

Before I go for that Sunday nap, I’ll see if I can actually get to my Sunday Sermon Summary post that I set out to do over an hour ago.