This past weekend I listened and looked on the internet to a preacher who was preaching without notes. The preacher simply stated everything that came to his mind on the subject or not on the subject. He had highs and lows, but there was no rhyme or reason to the sermon. Then the preacher ended with a whimper and sat down.

At the end of the sermon it was difficult to remember any points from the sermon. There were a few “flashes of brilliance” but largely it was a long “stream of consciousness” without purpose. What went wrong?

Learn the various options for those who wish to preach without notes. This is a webseminar that I presented earlier this year.

Many SoulPreaching.Com readers have asked that this replay be presented. So here …

When people ask me about preaching without notes, many assume that you must write out the whole sermon and then memorize the sermon. These preachers are looking for a method that will help them memorize such a large amount of material.

Another method used by preachers to limit notes is to memorize part of the message. Here the preacher takes a manuscript, but has a particular portion of the sermon that is to be preached without reliance on it. For example, there are some manuscript preachers that know their introduction so well that they do not refer to their manuscript during this portion. Others like to memorize the conclusion/celebration so that they can close strong.

About a year and a half ago I posted an article about the preaching methodology of Rev. Mark T. Davis of the First Presbyterian Church in Boise Idaho.

Immersion in the Text

The fundamental aspect of the memory system is to connect the thing you want to remember to your brain in a solid fashion. Tony Buzan, in his book Use Your Perfect Memory cites 2 fundamental principles that will aid you in your memory work. In our next post, we will look at the features.

Remember those infomercials about “MEGA-MEMORY?” Kevin Trudeau wrote spoke about learning some techniques to strengthen one’s memory. After seeing the thing for years, I finally purchased the system off of ebay for a big reduction in cost.

The Talking the Walk Blog has an interesting post that seeks to derive help for preachers from an interview with Denzel Washington.

Denzel answers why he did a particular hand movement in a movie by saying:

Richard S. Storrs second lecture in the book entitled Preaching Without Notes: A Series of Lectures describes some specific conditions for success in preaching without notes. These are as follows:

1. Physical vigor kept at its highest attainable point. – The preacher must be as healthy as possible if one is to preach effectively without notes.