Gathering Materials for the Sermon
Ingredients are important. To make biscuits you don’t use
corn meal and you don’t use only flour. You measure and mix
just the right amounts of flour, baking powder, baking
soda, cream of tarter, sugar, salt, shortening and
buttermilk. Then you cut and cook them at the right
temperature for the right amount of time. While they are
cooking, you “stir” the butter and the sorghum. When the
biscuits come out of the oven you sit down to feast.
Regrettably, for sermon preparation there is no supermarket
where you can go and get five pounds of illustrations, a
box of points, and a can of organization. How, then, does
the preacher prepare a sermon that, when completed, his
hearers may sit down to feast? Where does he gather the
ingredients for his sermon? What should be in his pantry?
When the demands are high and the time is short, how does
he go about developing his sermon from “scratch” and avoid
the temptation to use Bisquick™ or, worse yet, Hungry
Jack.™ Moreover, why should he? Can his audience really
tell the difference? Do they even care as long as they get
to the cafeteria on time?
Good questions in this day of fast food restaurants and
precooked cardboard hamburgers. There was a day when you
could hear the meat sizzle and smell the tantalizing odor
as it cooked. Today the only odor is the overwhelming reek
of used grease as it spews from exhaust fans. The former
whets the appetite; the latter dulls desire. Those who have
tasted the former can never be satisfied by the latter.
Since time is money, and fast food by definition takes less
time, fast food restaurants are forgivable. Besides, those
who frequent such establishments are there by choice. The
only consequence of not going is lower cholesterol. Not so
with worship. Worshippers worship at the behest of God.
Though voluntary in the sense that God does not force
attendance, more is at risk than clogged arteries if His
invitation is refused. Those who worship deserve more from
the pulpit than “canned” sermons and fricasseed clichés.
The preacher who loves both his Lord and his hearers will
not be satisfied with a “thrown together” sermon. He will
take the time necessary to gather the finest of
ingredients, and he will prepare them with love. In the
manner of a fine chef, he will labor to make his
presentation both pleasing and palatable. (While not
everything tastes good, even castor oil can be mixed with
orange juice. If a preacher gives the congregation too much
castor oil, he makes things worse, not better. He should
not be surprised that, when he gets in the pulpit, the
congregation greets him as youngsters used to greet castor
oil -- with thumb and forefinger clamped firmly to the
nose!)
So how does the preacher gather sermon material and from
whence does he gather it. First and foremost, the primary
source of material must always be the Bible. This does not
mean that every point and subpoint must be followed by some
passage; it does mean that the focus of every sermon is the
application of God’s authoritative will to the hearer.
Thus, the Bible is the first source for gathering material.
Failure to ground the sermon in scripture results in a
skyscraper sermon – story after story with nothing in
between. If the stories are good they will keep the
hearer’s attention, but they will not fill him with any
sense of the eternal or make him long for the home of the
soul. The study of the Bible should be regular and
systematic. The preacher who opens his Bible to get a text
so that his civic club speech can be called a sermon has no
message from God.
While the study of the Bible must never be neglected,
neither can the preacher neglect the reading and study of
books, newspapers, and magazines. The preacher’s library
should contain, among others, books of history, science,
theology, commentaries, great literature (both prose and
poetry), and discussion of current issues. Commentaries and
other sources should include a variety of types –
exegetical, hermeneutical, and devotional – to provide
material both to understand and to apply the text.
Exegetical and critical information without application
tends to produce lectures, not sermons.
In addition to reading widely on the text and on the issues
chosen to develop the purpose of the sermon, the preacher
should spend time thinking about his personal observations
of life that can add meaning to his sermon. What is there
in nature that is helpful? What has he seen in the lives of
the congregation? What is going on in his city, state,
nation, and world? The Master Teacher commonly began his
sermons with personal observations: “Behold a sower went
forth to sow”; “A certain man had two sons”; “Consider the
lilies of the field.” He who has eyes to see can often see
a better sermon in a brook than he can in a book [unless
that book is the Bible, added by Dobbs].
Finally, the preacher should search his files to see what
he has gathered on the subject. (See “Finding Sermon
Subjects,” Firm Foundation, September, 1996 for a
discussion of the preacher’s files.) In this day of
marvelous filing mechanisms, there is no reason for the
preacher not to have a rich supply of sermonic material at
his fingertips. If he does not, it indicates that he has
not yet mastered the skill of preserving the results of his
study, observation, and meditation. Instead, he treats his
mind like a sieve – that which enters passes through and
leaves nothing but perhaps a little residue.
Preachers who reserve all material gathering for the week
the sermon is finally prepared risk preaching only
half-digested thoughts. The material passes over the lips
of the preacher but not through his heart. He has not made
it his own. Before a cook undertakes the preparation of a
meal, she has the ingredients on the counter. The greater
the selection of ingredients the richer and more attractive
she can make the meal. Preaching is no different. Before
beginning final preparation of the sermon, the preacher
should have materials gathered and at hand. He will have a
greater variety of illustrations and facts at his disposal
to enrich his sermon. Some suggest that the preacher’s job
is not to preach, but to gather and proclaim truth. To do
so effectively, he must be gathering constantly. He must be
always seeking truth for truth’s sake and not for the sake
of sermon preparation. When he does, his sermons will be
richer and his hearers will be blessed.