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* * T H E P R E A C H E R ' S
S T U D Y E Z I N E * * Third Tuesday of September, 2000 Subscribe free on the web at: http://preacherstudy.com/maillist.htm Published on the first and third Tuesday of each month. Back Issues available at: *=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=* *=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=* VISIT THE PREACHER’S STUDY WEBSITE! A wealth of sermons, lessons, and other items pertaining to preaching are available by subscription. An extensive free area is also available. Sermons are full-text and illustration filled. To see what some of our subscribers are saying, click on the link below: http://preacherstudy.com/testimonials.htm Or go to the home page at: http://preacherstudy.com *=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=* IN THIS ISSUE: [1] Greetings from the Editor [2] Featured Article: TEN DAYS TO A BETTER SERMON [3] On Subscribing to Our Website [4] Contact Info [5] Subscribe to this Ezine [6] Copyright Info *=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=* [1] *=*Greetings from the Editor Hello everyone. A special welcome to newcomers. This ezine now has 1735 subscribers. Please help us make it grow. If you like it, tell a friend. Better yet, forward him or her copy. I have just come from a week of vacation and do I feel energized! It's amazing what a change of scenery can do for a tired body and mind. In this issue I want to turn your thoughts to something covered back in Issue Number six of this ezine – that is, scheduling the steps involved in sermon preparation. This time though, my hat is off to Haddon Robinson for his idea of a ten-day cycle of preparation. I have taken his idea and adapted it to my own expository series preparation efforts with good benefit. Since not everyone prepares in the same way, these thoughts may or may not be helpful to you. As a good friend of mine frequently says to me, "Eat what you can and can what you can't." God bless. -Dave [2] *=*Featured Article TEN DAYS TO A BETTER SERMON By Dave Redick Solomon's pronouncement that "there is nothing new under the sun" (Ecclesiastes 1:9) ought to keep all of us from becoming too smug with our "new" ideas. Surely where preaching is involved, whatever our approach, someone has probably been there before us in the effort to influence hearers with God's truth. This point acknowledged, it is still nice on occasion to come upon something worthwhile that is useful to us. It is in this spirit that I share the topic of this issue. In Haddon W. Robinson's recent book, MAKING A DIFFERENCE IN PREACHING [Scott M. Gibson, editor, Baker Books, 1999, p. 100], in the section called "Busting Out of Sermon Block," Robinson suggests working on sermons in ten-day cycles. If you read this ezine regularly, you may recall that in an earlier issue I shared my own seven-day approach. [See Issue #6 – "Sermon Writing as a Stage(d) Production."] Having for some time recognized the benefits of spreading study and preparation out over a period of days, I was intrigued with the idea of spreading the work out even more. Robinson's advice, based on the need to provide more of what he calls "simmer time," goes this way: Ten days before the Sunday you are to preach the message (Thursday in Robinson's schedule, apparently based on taking Mondays off) pause your regular sermon work and do your exegetical work for the message you will preach Sunday after next. Since this will be the only time you actively study the passage this week, the aim is to go as far as you can this day in completing your exegetical work. Write down those areas where you find problems with your understanding of the text. Then tuck this study away and spend the rest of your week working the sermon you will preach for the Sunday just ahead. Then on the following Tuesday, resume work on this message, working through the days until it is complete. Pause again on Thursday to do your exegesis for the message you will preach ten days from now, then resume your work on this week's message. I found it easiest to understand his method when I diagramed it on a calendar. The link below will take you to my own rendition of Robinson's ten-day schedule. (Please forgive the garish colors. I'm more concerned with the concept than I am with the art.) Using this schedule Robinson indicates, "Thus, ten days before I preach a sermon, I know what I need to be thinking about, which I do while driving the car, taking a shower, or laying awake at night. This also directs my reading. I know where the gaps in my understanding are, and I can more quickly find the answers. I can cull twenty commentaries in an hour if I know the key questions." (Apparently, with this schedule, he has the leisure to do it! – D.R.) I have only recently begun to practice this schedule. So far I find that it is very workable for me. One of the immediate benefits has been that I start my week with the sense that I am well underway in preparing for the Sunday immediately ahead. Haddon Robinson's comments about "simmer" time are also quite valid. The only way I have altered the schedule is an adjustment for my custom of taking Friday (rather than Monday) off. This effectively moves my own preparation schedule one day ahead of Robinson's, meaning that I do my exegetical work on Wednesday instead of Thursday, giving me an eleven day cycle. I will continue to test this schedule to see how well it works for me over the long haul. I'm happy enough with it now though, to suggest it for your consideration. If you're preaching an expository series, give it a try. Copyright (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. [3] *=*On Subscribing to Our Website This ezine, The Preacher's Study Ezine, is actually an extension of our website, The Preacher's Study. The two entities work hand-in-hand to promote what is unashamedly my greatest passion: promoting accurate, interesting, relevant preaching of God's Word. If you enjoy these articles, please do visit the website. You'll find the same quality of material there. Yes, there is a modest subscription fee for access to part of it, namely the Premium area, but I believe that, as our current subscribers testify again and again, you'll find good value there. All of us purchase books and commentaries to enhance our understanding of the Bible and improve our preaching. Some of these simply become inert additions to already crowded bookshelves. A subscription to The Preacher's Study will not likely become shelfware. Come see for yourself at: [4] *=*Contact Info The Preacher's Study Website & Ezine [5] *=*Easy Subscribe/Unsubscribe Instructions To subscribe or unsubscribe, go to the following web page and follow the simple instructions: http://preacherstudy.com/maillist.htm [Your email address will be kept fully confidential and will never be sold or given to anyone.] [6] *=*Copyright Info The material in this Ezine is copyright (c) 2000 by The Preacher's Study. Reprint articles by permission only. Please do not cut and paste this material into any other documents. You may, however, forward the email version to friends and associates.
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