I was having breakfast with a pastor friend the other day. We were discussing his next sermon. He was struggling, trying to come up with answers to the four questions I say are helpful to work on early in the sermon-preparation process:

1. What’s my subject?
2. What’s my desired response?
3. What are the “how-to’s”?
4. What’s the “how long”?

“This is hard work,” he said in his frustration.

My not-so-kind response was, “And how hard do you think it is for your listeners when they can’t figure out the answers? I mean, you sit there patiently for 30 minutes and can’t even figure out what the subject is that’s being talked about. After a while, you just stop listening!”

My point was made, and he agreed to it. So we went back to work again. As far as I was concerned, the subject of his text was easy. But because he had never been trained to think this way, it was excruciatingly difficult for him.

His text was Matthew 13—the parable of the sower.

The conclusions he eventually came to were that:

1. His subject was “responses to Jesus’ Kingdom message.”
2. His desired response was that people would hear the word, understand it and produce a crop that yielded 30, 60 and 100 times what was sown (verse 23).
3. How to do this was to understand and act on the basic conversion message and/or, with the help of the Holy Spirit, put into practice time-honored Christian descriptions.
4. The “how long” would depend on where a listener was in the process. If he or she was not a believer, conversion could take place that very day. For those who were already Christian, it might be good to choose one discipline to work on from a short list of helpful suggestions. That decision could be initiated in the coming week.

I told him that his conclusions were fine in my thinking. Did he have enough to say? His response was that he didn’t know how he was going to get everything in.

As far as I was concerned, it was a good conversation.

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Please click here to visit David Mains’ Sermon-Coach.com website.

You will also find a variety of resources for pastors and congregations at the Mainstay Ministries website. Please click here.

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I just finished reading Killing Jesus: A History by Bill O’Reilly and Martin Dugard. So the anchor of The O’Reilly Factor has once again teamed up with the New York Times best-selling author to produce a third “killing” book. It follows bestsellers Killing Kennedy and Killing Lincoln. The reviews have been very positive. This new release has only been in the stores a short while and already it’s jumped to the number-two spot on the USA Today bestseller list.

From the start, the writers state that this is not meant to be a religious book. Though they are admittedly Roman Catholic, their motive is not evangelism. Then again, it’s probably not possible to write a book about Jesus without touching on basic spiritual questions. For my money, it was a great read, and I recommend it highly. If I were a pastor, I would tell my people to get a copy and read it.

My thinking is that many people will be open to talking about the book because of its popularity, and “I don’t want to be uninformed.”

Then again, I found it extremely helpful, especially in terms of better understanding the political world of Jesus’ time. This included not only the Roman influence, but background on the leading Jewish families also. Long-standing questions were answered for me, such as why our Lord was so careful in the way He presented Himself.

I can also imagine that Killing Jesus will prompt many people to go back and read the gospels. All this is good.

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Please click here to visit David Mains’ Sermon-Coach.com website.

You will also find a variety of resources for pastors and congregations at the Mainstay Ministries website. Please click here.

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I don’t know if you ever listen to Garrison Keillor’s long-running radio show The Prairie Home Companion. If you have, you know that it features stories that consistently make use of a sound-effects person. Obviously Keillor’s audience loves these presentations, because you can hear their pleased response. And, he’s been doing this kind of thing for years and years, so it’s a feature of his program.

I recall in my younger days hearing Louis Paul Lehman, on his Bit of Heaven broadcast, utilize this same technique. He was very good at this. His programs can still be heard on the Internet on the Bible Broadcasting Network.

I’m not sure why more ministers haven’t picked up on the idea of occasionally using sound effects. I’m quite confident that if they did, they would get a good response from their congregations. I don’t believe it would be that difficult to get a volunteer to work with you on such a production.

This sermon starter obviously makes use of simple sound effects. This can be done by someone in the sound booth, or by a person sitting nearby the pulpit on the platform.

Don’t, however, go at this half-heartedly. If you think you might try it, make that a full commitment and go for it full-fledge.

If it fails? Hey, nothing ventured, nothing gained. And, what if it’s a great success?

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Please click here to visit David Mains’ Sermon-Coach.com website.

You will also find a variety of resources for pastors and congregations at the Mainstay Ministries website. Please click here.

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