* * * T H E  P R E A C H E R ' S  S T U D Y  * * *
* * *  E Z I N E * * *
"Energize Your Preaching!"
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      http://preacherstudy.com

Third Tuesday of May, 2000
                        
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Published on the first and third Tuesday of each month.

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Editor's note: The material in this Ezine is copyrighted. Reprint by author's permission only. You may forward it in its entirety to friends and associates. Please do not cut the articles out and paste them into other documents or publications.
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WHEN YOU'VE FINISHED THIS ISSUE, why not visit The Preacher's Study Website? Thousands already have. In existence four years, it contains a wealth of sermons, lessons, and other items pertaining to preaching. There is a free section containing Bible studies and lessons for immediate reading or download and there is a section which contains more than four years of creative, full-text, illustration filled sermons, accessible by a password you may purchase for a very reasonable annual subscription fee. (Note that the password you received with this ezine will not work on the website.) To go there now, use the following URL:

http://preacherstudy.com

-Dave Redick

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IN THIS ISSUE:

[1] Greetings from the editor

[2] Featured Article: USING OTHERS' MATERIAL IN SERMON PREPARATION (PART 2 of 2)

[3] Contact Info

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[1] ***Greetings!***

That God would allow human flesh to represent Him and His will here on the earth is a never ceasing source of amazement to me. That I and others like me, people like most of you readers of this ezine, would be involved as those who share in that task is nothing short of incredible. We must do our best and then reach inside and give a little beyond our best effort.

Welcome to this issue of the ezine. A first welcome to new subscribers.

In this issue I will conclude the topic begun in the last: USING OTHERS' MATERIAL IN SERMON PREPARATION. There are pros and cons that should be weighed - maybe more than the ones I have mentioned here. May God grant us the wisdom to know what is approriate and pleasing to Him and in harmony with His written Word.

-Dave Redick
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[2] ***Featured Article***

USING OTHERS' MATERIAL IN SERMON PREPARATION (PART 2 of 2)

(Continued from last issue)

To view the last issue, go to:

http://preacherstudy.com/ezine15.htm

Probably most if not all of us have experienced it. We've found ourselves facing Sunday with little time left for sermon preparation after a jam-packed week of numerous, unscheduled responsibilities that simply couldn't be ignored. There is little time for any kind of preparation, and even less time to be creative.

In the first half of this article I addressed several positive reasons for "borrowing" (with permission of course) from others' material in sermon preparation. I discussed the time crunch most ministers deal with and the relentless need to produce quality content. In a perfect world, all of us would produce all of our own, top-notch sermons all of the time. In reality we sometimes find ourselves needing help. In this issue I want to add another positive reason to what has been said and then discuss somepossible drawbacks.

MENTORS UNAWARE

I have kept copies of nearly every sermon I ever preached, including the ones I wrote and delivered while still in school. I'm glad that I'm the only one who knows where these primal homilies are hidden. In the privacy of my study, with all of the shades drawn, I bring these early manuscripts out of their dusty, remote concealment once in awhile to affirm two things: (1) I'm not as inept as I use to be and (2) God's people are gracious indeed for what they have put up with!

During the years that passed between those first attempts at sermonizing and wherever it is I am today there were numerous start and stop struggles, many anxious moments, and more fitful nights of tossing and turning than I care to remember. I suspect I endured more by fear and tenacity than realization of any particular abundance of gifts.

I wouldn't bring these things up here if it weren't for the awareness that there are young preachers out there who are tramping a similar path, feeling perhaps as bewildered and inadequate as I did.

One of the greatest assists I found during those struggling years was reading and listening to the sermons of others. Whenever I heard a moving message from the pulpit or on the radio, I would try to get a recording so I could listen again and try to figure out just what it was that caused the sermon to have such power. With machine and tape in hand, I would spend hours transcribing it to paper in order to analyze its content. How was it outlined? How were the illustrations used? How long was it? How were the various transitions made? If I were anywhere near the preacher
who delivered the message, I would go and ask if I could have a copy of his notes so I could see the form he used when he carried it to the pulpit. [There is, of course, both art and heart in preaching. I refer to the "art" in this article.]

Naturally, some of these messages found their way into my own preaching - sometimes nearly word for word and sometimes carefully reworked - but always edited to weed out anything I didn't consider to be sound biblical teaching. I had my favorites, of course. In such cases I listened to everything I could get my hands on that these preachers produced.

As time progressed, though I had not anticipated such an outcome, I found myself less and less dependent and more and more resourceful. I was developing a unique style of my own, though I was studying the work of others. Ultimately, and naturally it seemed, I could push away from the dock (so to speak) and sail on my own.

These preachers, though they never knew it, were my mentors. "Mentors unaware" I liked to call them. They taught me things by their preaching that I didn't learn in school. Their names aren't important here. Chances are my readers wouldn't know some of them anyway. What is important is the process and I commend it as a possible way to improve your preaching.

So much for the positive side of the issue. What about the negative side of using others' material? I want to mention two issues that are closely related.

OVER-DEPENDENCE AND SLOTH

Won't using others' material create an unhealthy dependence? Won't it produce lazy preachers?

It might. There are probably cases where it does. I've seen my share of shiftless servants, as I suspect you have. They seldom study. They spend little time in preparation. They don't pray and their relationship with the God they supposedly represent is shallow at best. I'm fairly convinced, though, that these kinds of people would be lazy no matter what they did or didn't do about getting help. Laziness is a character issue or, should I say, a lack-of-character issue. A lazy person will find a way to continue to be lazy. I'm not at all suggesting we become lazy in this piece. I'm suggesting ways to cope and do our work more effectively. I'm suggesting ways we can improve the quality of our messages. As in other realms, we can use the help of others to make ourselves stronger or we can lean on others to the extent of handicapping our own abilities. The outcome isn't determined by the means or the method. It's determined by the character of the person. Here are some possible guidelines for avoiding over-dependence and sloth:

a) Don't overdo it. We need the stress of producing in order to grow. We  need our own relationship with God and our own reservoir of hard-won truth from which to draw. We need to develop our own sources and build our own understanding of the scripture we preach. As a muscle doesn't develop until it is put under a load, so we seldom improve without a struggle. Perhaps a person responsible for two messages a week might produce the first one alone and the second with help. If we can do better than that, fine.

b) Have clear purpose. A lack of time, as has been mentioned, may be a suitable reason sometimes for borrowing from others. Make sure that it is a legitimate lack of time and not the result of poor or nonexistent planning. The need for quality may be another good reason. Make sure you are also developing your own quality material as well - or learning how to produce it.

c) Spend the necessary time. The kind of "mentoring unawares" I mentioned above might take even more time than your own preparation, especially at first. Transcribing and analyzing an entire message is a big chore and may need to be done in addition to regular preparation. Learning and improvement is seldom easy.

The decision to use or not use others' material as a help in sermon preparation must ultimately be made with careful consideration, purpose, and integrity. I say, if these are right and you borrow with appropriate permission, go for it!


(c) Dave Redick, The Preacher's Study, 2000. All Rights Reserved. Reprint by permission only. Please do not cut articles out of this ezine and paste them anywhere else without permission. You may, however, forward this entire Ezine to friends freely.

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