Preaching Without Notes is not a Brain Dump
Author: Sherman Haywood Cox II (585 Articles)
Sherman Haywood Cox II is the director of Soul Preaching. He holds the M.Div with an emphasis in Homiletics and a M.S. in Computer Science.
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?
- Sermons with or without notes should mostly have a strong “gospel claim.” What are you saying about the gospel. If you are not clear in your gospel claim it will be difficult to be clear about anything else.
- Sermons with or without notes should have a point! By that I mean at least one point and no more than one point. Well OK …if you want more than one point go ahead but make sure that they are related to each other so that they don’t obliterate each other. I fear that sometimes our 5 point masterpieces are either entirely forgotten or only 1 or 2 of the points are remembered.
- Sermons with or without notes should precede logically to a conclusion. And in the Black tradition that conclusion should largely be celebration. I recognize that there may be some disagreement here. But I think usually if you are not headed towards a culmination people will know it at least subconsciously, and will begin to pay less attention to your message. Save your strongest point for the end, don’t end in a whimper.
- Sermons with or without notes should eliminate irrelevant asides. By irrelevant, I mean that they are not connected to your sermon’s point.
I have only begun to dabble into preaching without notes. My temptations right now is to jump from thought to thought as I grasp for something to say next. But Preaching Without Notes is not a brain dump. Just like when we use the manuscript we are called to get all that we can out of the text before moving on.
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