Lesson 5: Delivering What You Prepared

(My Original Blog Post: http://ping.fm/8pDmg)
Now we have come to the point of implementing what we have written. It is now the time to get ready and preach what we learned from our study. In this chapter, we will talk about the things to prepare before preaching and the things to remember and to while preaching.

Preparing Your Sermon Manuscript

Some pastors don't prepare sermon manuscripts. All they do is to write the outline of their sermon. However, I would still recommend that you write a sermon manuscript because if you use to write it, you can still use it for many other things such as blogging, documentation of sermons by your Church, and book writing in the future.

These manuscripts can be a good source of knowledge in the future. As for my experience, I used my manuscripts in my blogs, authored ebooks, training disciples, and even writing books. These sermon manuscripts can be useful more than you can imagine.

Being now in the modern world, the use of computer now is almost a necessity. This is why I strongly suggest that you encode your sermon manuscripts and print it if you know how to use the computer, at least for typing purposes. This will enable you to save a hard copy of the hardwork that you just did. Furthermore, the digital format of your manuscript can be used for blogging, making ebooks, and even starting a future book.

What to Wear in Preaching?

About 15-20 years ago, most preachers would still prefer and sometimes will not preach unless they are wearing long sleeves, coat and tie. In the Philippines, most pastors will wear “Barong” in their preaching engagement.

Today, some new breed of preachers doesn't pay too muc attention in the clothes they wear. I have seen preachers who preaches wearing a T-shirt, Jeans with some slashes on it, and a Sneaker style of shoes. It seems that wearing respectable clothes are no longer important for the young generation of preachers.

However, as for personal advice, I think wearing respectable clothes is still a lot better and more dignified for a preacher. We have to remember that as preachers, we are delivering God's word. We are not just mere persons who were called out of the blue to deliver the message. Most preachers in our days now were ordained, which means they are expected to be more respectable performing their duties as pastors.

I also believe that wearing the best clothes that we have in preaching is a show of respect to the King of kings and Lord of lords.

Posture, Gesture and Voice

In delivering your sermon, there are three main things that you have to remember.

Good Posture. Since grades school, good posture is being thought in the school. Not only in the way we sit and walk, but also in the way we stand. A preacher (granted that he doesn't have any deformities) must learn how to stand erect but normally.

Standing erect doesn't mean that you must stand like a soldier, it just mean that you have to learn how to stand in a dignified way. A good poise puts the audience at ease. A preacher who acts awkwardly, seems to be uneasy, or stiff, will also make his hearers uneasy. We have to remember that we are infront, and psychologically how we appear infront of our audience also affects their perception about us. In addition, a preacher ought to act with freedom and ease maintaining a good poisture.

Gestures are the things that we act normally. There is no fix rules on gestures like the good posture. But whatever we do infront should be normal, not offending. One good rule is to “be natural”. There is no greater thing to be like in delivering the sermon than to be natural in delivering it.

Some preachers especially those who are still practicing to be one, tend to forceably act faking his gestures which also draw attention to his audience. A preacher needs to learn how to incorporate his normal gestures with his sermon as if they are one.

Avoid mannerisms. Things like swinging your arms unnecessarily, scratching your head, standing at one feet, are forms of mannerisms. Things like these are not good to look in front.

Voice should be loud enough to be heard by all, this is the main rule of thumb in your voice. Most churches now use microphones which is already a big help for the preachers. But there are churches that do not have any sound systems especially in churches that you will find in rural areas where the only instruments that they have is the guitar. If you'll be preaching in churches like this, I suggest that you follow the rule of thumb.

If possible changing tones of voice to give a strong emphasis to the main points will be very helpful. Monotone preaching is boring to hear and will look like a classroom lecture type. Preachers should practice the changing of tones so that the atmosphere during preaching will be alive and your audience attentive.

Taking Care of Time

In Biblical times, especially during the time of Moses, it probably took them hours and hours whenever Moses speaks with the Israelites about the Law. Jesus teaches people for hours, and there were even incidents that it even falls at night time.

In the post-modern world however, most preaching has a limited time. An average preaching time in a church is about 30-45 minutes. In addition, the average tolerable time for your audience to listen to you attentively is of the same time.

A too short sermon will leave your hearers hanging while a too long sermon will distract your audience to boredom. So you may want to really take care of time.

Here's a sample time budget for a sermon. Granted, that you have a 3 point sermon;

Introduction 2 minutes

Point 1 3 minutes
Illustration 2 minutes
Application 2

Point 2 3
Illustration 2
Application 2
Point 3 3
Illustration 2
Application 2

Conclusion 3
Illustration 2
Application 2

Total minutes 30 minutes

Please note that the time can still be stretch to about 40-45 minutes. This is just an average presentation of what you can do for your sermon time budget.

Do's and Don'ts While Preaching

Here are the things that you should remember while delivering your sermon.

1. Always maintain a good poisture while standing in front of the pulpit.


2. Maintain a good eye contact so that your audience will feel that you are talking to them. Having a good eye contact will help make your hearers attentive all through out your sermon.


3. Make your voice loud enough that people behind are able to hear it.


4. Avoid mannerisms as much as possible. Mannerisms can distract your audience and will make them feel uncomfortable.


5. Do not use vulgar illustrations especially that touches about sex.


6. Do not use vulgar words for no matter how acceptable it is in the community, it is always not acceptable in delivering the word of God.


7. Do not confess in front of the people that you haven't studied so much, or you are not having devotions anymore. Doing this is humiliating yourself in public because you are expected to deliver God's message yet, God's word is not true to your life. Therefore, your audience doesn't have any reason to listen to you. Furthermore, preaching time is not a time for preacher's confession.

Lesson 4: Hunting For Good Sermon Illustrations

(My Original Blog Post: http://ping.fm/Liop0)
Illustration is a very powerful tool in delivering a sermon. Jesus Christ used parables in delivering his teachings. Though some parables were not clearly understood by his audience, rest assuredly, he has made his hearers think about it.

In our time, illustrations are widely used not only in preaching, but in public speaking, teaching in classroom, and even during presentations. Some were expressed through a story, some by riddle, some by plain narrative, some by experiences, some by demonstrations. There are lots of creative ways in presenting illustration. Though we may not be able to mention all of them, I do hope that this will be a good start to know them.

Where to Find Good Illustrations

There are many sources of good illustrations. Here are just some that you may want to consider to check.

The Bible – Great Biblical stories like that of Samson, David, Jesus, Jeremiah, Joshua, Moses. Etc.
Personal Experience – I am sure, there are lots of things that you can tell about your experiences. And these can be a good source of illustrations.
Newspaper Comics – I love this one, this is usually found at the end of newspaper with the cross word puzzles and movie list. The best thing on these stories, they are funny.
Illustration Books – If you have one, better. There are lots of illustration books now that you can find in the market. Some are good, some were not so good. But your main advantage is that, you'll have now a better library of illustrations.
Internet – The dawn of the internet gave a big leap for sermon illustrations. There are lots of sermon illustrations that you can find on the net. I personally recommend that you subscribe for http://ping.fm/niIvz, best of all, they are free. They give free illustrations almost every week.
Stories and Movies – Stories you read and good movies you have watched can also be a good source of illustration.

Choosing the Right Illustration

Now you have the list of good sources of illustrations. The only question now is what kind of illustration are you going to get. Here are some guidelines.

• Choose illustrations that are relevant to your topic, particularly to the points of your sermon.


• Choose illustrations that gives clarification to each point.


• Choose illustrations that are good and clean, not worldly, and as much as possible touches Biblical views.


• Choose illustrations that are not offending nor vulgar.


• Choose illustrations that builds up not attacking people.

The Do's and Don'ts of Illustrations

As we have said, illustrations are powerful tools but sometimes, preachers tend to abuse the use of illustrations. This is not good especially if the illustration that you use are vulgar and offending, and personal attacks on a person's character.

Here are some tips that we can do to keep the use of illustration focused on the message so as avoiding criticism from audience and maintaining a good heart for listening.

• Do not use illustrations that are personal and attacks a person's character.


• Do not use vulgar illustrations such as sexually related illustrations that has a thin line between a green joke and a plain worldly joke.


• Do not use vulgar words while illustrating something.


• Avoid the use real names especially if your illustration is a negative illustration and the audience knew that person personally.


• Use illustrations that are encouraging.


• Use illustrations that are clear and direct in its message.


• Use illustrations that are worth remembering.


• Use illustrations that are valuable.

Frequency of Illustration.

The general rule of thumb concerning the frequency of sermon is “one illustration in each point”. However, the use of illustration is not confined only with this rule of thumb because you can still use illustration in the introduction and in your conclusion.

This means that if you have 3 points in your sermon, then you can use as much as 5 illustrations in your whole sermon with the addition of 1 illustation at the introduction and 1 at the conclusion.

I do not suggest that you use 2 illustrations at one single point. Time will come that you will find it harder to look for illustration because you already have used most of it from your library.

How to Use Illustration Effectively

As I have said, there are many creative ways in using illustrations. Here are some of the best ways in using it.

• Use a good introductory illustration. Illustrations at the beginning of the sermon can set mood for the whole audience just right before they hear the word of God. In my personal observation, a good clean funny illustration is one of the best way to do this.

• Use good direct illustration on every point. I would say that it would be best if you have one illustration in each point. Again, do not over use illustrations in your point. Using too much illustrations might derail you and your audience from your topic.

• After giving illustration, be sure to explain the illustration pointing your audience to an application of the point. This will bring back your audience to the point that they have to learn.

• Use good conclusive illustration at the end of the sermon. From own experience, it is best if you do a demonstrative illustration. Meaning, an illustration like the “gloves and the hand”, the “clean water poured over the dirty water”, and some other like this. Conclusive, demonstrative illustrations are good at the end of the sermon.

• In giving an illustration, you also need to apply the common principles in public speaking like changing of tones, eye contact, giving life to your illustration, etc. It is always best if you can capture your listener. Here is a good post in my blog in getting people listening to you: How To Preach Effectively and Get People Listening to You

Have a nice illustration hunting!!!

Lesson 3B: Basic Inductive Bible Study

(My Original Blog Post: http://ping.fm/bZ1TB)

How to Prepare For More Topics

Most people struggles on what to write. After making a sermon, many of them do not know what comes next. Where are they going to get the next lesson? This a very common problem especially if a preaching student depends so much on the tools that he has. Furthermore, he will have the same problem if he just copy the work of others.

From my own experience, I began to see more things to discuss when I started not to depend on the works of others and from the tools available. I am not saying that I do not use any more tools because I do use them. But the more you work on your study, more open doors for ideas will be opened.

Using the tools is totally different from depending on it. Using the tools will enhance your knowledge of the passage that you are studying. On the other hand, depending on it is simply copying what were written in the tools that you are using and you do not even mind  on meditating on it anymore. People who do this will always find it difficult making their sermon.

Now, how are we going to make more possible topics. It is always better to plan ahead of time. As I said, the more you dig, the more you learn, and more doors for topics will be opened.

I am so much fun of making a series of sermons. Not only that it saves me time in studying, it also gives me more time to concentrate on one topic with different sub topics. Getting more sub topics will also give me more sermons to preach. There are some techniques that you can do to plan for more topics. Here are some tips.

• If you are a pastor and frequently preaches (or at least three times a month) to your church, I suggest that you “walk through the Bible”. This is the most common technique in planning for your topics. You will not have to worry in thinking what you are going to preach. All you have to do is to choose a book to study, and little by little, passage by passage, you will just allow the Bible to tell you the next sub topic that you are going to preach.


• If you will be given a chance to preach for one week of activities, then it will be very helpful to know the theme of the event. From it, you check the Topical Bible to see the related topics about the theme and the passages. It will also be helpful if you have an Exhaustive Concordance for it will help you discover more passages related to the theme.


• While studying your first sermon, look at some of the keywords and topics that will come out from your study. If it is pretty much related to what you have just discussed, then it can be a possible new topic. And that depends on your desire to study further about your chosen topic.

How To Study

You now have the tools and the topics for your study, but how are we going to do it step by step? Here's a simple 4 step guide in making an inductive Bible Study. It can be summarized as P-R- O-W.

Pray – Read – Observe – Write

Pray
As I said, it is very difficult to study God's word without a prayer. Pray and ask God for wisdom in understanding the passage. Pray that your study will be helpful and will become a blessing to your future listeners. Pray that God will be with you as you study it all the way through on delivering it.

Read
Read the passage several times until you understand it. Most of the time, you will not be able to understand the passage by reading it only once. It will take you at least 3 times of reading the same passage with concentration before understanding what it really says. Do not hesitate to read it more than three times if you still do not understand what it says.

Observe
Look for “Key words” in the passage. Most of the time, keywords are so easy to spot. Keywords are  words that helps you understand the main idea and other ideas. Keywords are sometimes repeated within the passage.  “ Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher, vanity of vanities—all is vanity.  What profit has a man of all his labor which he takes under the sun?  (Ecclesiastes 1:2-3)”.

Sometimes they are a part of an enumeration of the writer. “For our wrestling is not against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world’s rulers of the darkness of this age, and against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. (Ephesians 6:12)”

Sometimes they cannot be seen but the passage can be summarized in just one idea. “I know that, whatsoever God does, it shall be forever; nothing can be put to it nor anything taken from it—and God does it, that men should fear before Him. (Ecclesiastes 3:14)” Do you see faith as the topic in it?

Look for the “Key phrases” in  the passage. Key phrases are almost the same with key words. The only difference is that key words are just single word and phrases are composed of words with one main idea.

Mark the conjuctions and strong statements. Conjunctions like “But”, “Furthermore”, “Since”, “Because”, “However”, etc are usually significant especially if it starts the sentence. For example: “But” tells us that there is a contrast from the previous statements. The word “Furthermore” tells us that the author is adding something from his previous statements.

Taking note of the tenses of the verbs and the kind of sentences used are also helpful in understanding the passage. Tenses will tell you if that actions are taking place, will take place, or have taken place. While the kind of sentence used will tell you the mood of the writer while saying it and what does he wants you to understand or accomplish.

Write
Write down the main idea that you have just seen. Before you forget what you have just seen, write it down including the supporting ideas of the main idea. This will also help you organize the things that you have seen.

Rewrite the main idea so as making a title. Try to furnish your main idea so that it will give more clarity to your audience what your sermon will be all about. As we have mentioned earlier, a good title should not be less than 2 words but not more than 5 words.

Similarly rewrite the supporting ideas of the main idea so as making each point. There are several creative ways in rewriting your supporting ideas. You can start your supporting ideas by using your title. For example, your title is; “What Heaven Is Like?”. So your supporting ideas can be; “Heaven is like a...”.

There are times that you may want to use acronyms. Just like what we did in our 4 Step Inductive Bible Study. To ease the memorization steps of Inductive Bible Study, we come up to four simple summary of words that will help you remember it easily. P-R-O-W, which means Pray, Read, Observe, and Write.

Write your application and make a summary of all of them. We already have discussed what is an application and what is a conclusion. After seeing all things in the passage and have written the main body of your sermon manuscript, then it is time to summarize it. State there what do you see that the Lord wants you and your hearers to do, and re-enforcing what you have discussed by repeating your main points.

Asking the Right Questions

I keep on reminding all the people that I am teaching both in Preaching and in leading Outreach Bible Study that; “Right questions will lead you to the right answers.” There will be times when it is harder to understand what you are studying. In times like this, a better way to understand it is by asking the right questions.

For 2 years of discipling people, I have seen that most people find it very difficult in composing right questions. In fact, it took me more time training them how to ask the right questions than training them in leading an actual Bible study.

But what are the right questions and how do we know it is good?

• A right question starts with the basic “WH” questions.


• A right question will lead you to direct answer found in the passage that you are studying.


• A right question will not mislead you to other topics.


• A right question will help you understand the passage better.


• A right question will give you more details about your topic which are found in your passage.

So there you have it, a simple guide for a simple inductive Bible study.

Lesson 3A: Basic Inductive Bible Study

(My Original Blog Post: http://ping.fm/I7QJj)
There are several different kinds of Bible Study Methods that are equally effective (depending on the use and delivery). In Rick Warren's book “12 Dynamic Bible Study Methods”, Rick Warren presented 12 nice Bible study methods. Personally, I already have tried all of them and found it very advantageous for my ministerial work.

However, since we are just trying to work on simple things, we will concentrate on simple things. I just want to assure the first timers that doing a simple Inductive Bible Study is an adventure.

Tools Needed

Before we go to the methodology of Inductive Bible Study, let us first identify common tools that you will be needing in your study. Just like a carpenter, he needs his tools in order to get his job well done. The same thing in preaching, since you are a preaching trainees, then you will need to have good tools in order to get your job well done.

Bibles – there is nothing more important in studying the word of  God than your Bible. The Bible should be the basis of what you are going to preach and not other books, not other Bible study materials that you can get out from the market. But sometimes, we just try to neglect our Bibles and do not even bother to bring it in our church.

It is up to you what kind of version you are going to use in your study. It is always best to have several versions in your desk so that you can compare it with each other. However, in choosing your preferred illustration, my highest recommendations are NIV, KJV, and NKJV. I know that some other translations are good, but these three translations are not only the most common, but they are easier to understand in our time (except the KJV old english) and to the most part of the world.

I would say that NIV doesn't have much to offer when it comes to scholarly translation, but it is a lot easier to understand if you understand English yet you are not an American. KJV is still the finest translation for me, but because of it's old english style, I rather have NIV than that. The good thing however is that NKJV came out. King James Version is still intact in NKJV, but the English form has been updated and that it became more understandable to common people. (Please see Recommended Bibles)

Study Bibles – I would suggest that instead of using ordinary Bibles use Study Bibles. Aside from a Bible, Study Bibles offers you an all-in-one study tools for making sermons. If you are are just aiming to make a simple Bible Study, Study Bibles will be enough for your needs. A common Study Bible have the following: Commentary, Concordance, Maps, Cross-References, Book's Background, Introduction to each book, List of Measurements, Scholar Notes, Helpful Diagrams, etc. Study Bibles are like Swiss Knives. A very useful immediate tools, but please note that it has a very limited usefulness. Study Bibles is not enough if you are really doing a very extensive Bible study.

Commentary – Commentaries are scholarly collection of notes about each passages found in the Bible. They give explanations to each passages and various interpretations and views. Its main purpose is to analyze and interpret the passages by analizing the words used, introduction, background of the book and of the passages, grammar and syntax, and the relation of each book to the rest of the Bible.

Commentary are very helpful tools and if used properly, can indeed give a great knowledge to its readers. The danger however lies on the user's dependency on Commentaries. There are lots of Preaching Students depend on the comments and notes of the scholars. Instead of discovering more and studying the passage, they settle on what the commentators are saying. Commentaries are very helpful, but we have to remember that they are not Bibles.

Exhaustive Concordance – this is one of the most helpful tools that you may really want to have.  This book contains a Bible Index of words of a particular version of the Bible. As I said, most Study Bibles and some of the Bibles already have a concordance. But this one is an “Exhaustive Concordance”. An Exhaustive Concordance lists every usage of every word aside from giving you all the passages where that particular word has been used.

I will not be going into much details of the Exhaustive Concordance. But these book comes in huge volume and quite expensive but it worth every penny that you will be investing on it.

There are still several tools that you may want to have. But these four are the basic and the most needed in your study. I will be giving you more recommended tools at the end of our lesson series.

Preparing For The Study

It is very important to be prepared in each Bibly Study that you are going to make. Without preparation, your Bible study will fall into a trap of mediocre work and won't become the most delicious spiritual food for your audience.

Here are the tips that I can give you (based on experience) in your preparation for a Bible study.

1.Clear your mind. You need to clear your mind few days before doing an extensive Bible study. You need to free it from worries of any kind and futile thinking. Any bad thought might hinder us in our focus in God's word. From my own experience, it has been always hard for me to work on God's word if I am thinking of another thing. Let us say I am planning for an outing, or I am planning to start a business. Before I go and sit and work on my study, I need to clear my mind from all these things.
2.Pray before starting. Before we start our study, we have to pray first to God for wisdom who gives it generously. I did tried studying the Bible without praying. The results where catastrophic, I never got the things right and it seems that I haven't studied at all. This is the uniqueness of God's word in comparison to all other books. The Bible is harder to understand especially if we do not have the blessings of the Holy Spirit while reading it.
3.Set a particular time for your study. This will help you give enough time in studying rather than studying only when you want. Time is gold, and we always want to make the most out of our time.
4.Deal with your study per project. What I mean is, make a self-project stating what you want to accomplish in each study. This will help you see the developments of your work and will help you encourage yourself to go a little farther than what you already did.
5.Do not depend on the tools so as copying other peoples work. Remember that you are to study and discover and reflect on God's word with the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Tools are there to help you understand the passages that you are studying. But depending on it won't give you any advantage of fulfilling the purpose of your study.

Lesson 2: Basic Elements Of Sermon Manuscripts

(My Original Blog Post: http://ping.fm/Tw0c1)
Sermon Manuscripts are simply your sermon “blue print”. It is more or less your copy for your sermon outlines and content. For the purpose of our study, we will need to learn how to make a sermon manuscript which is very useful to beginners like you.

Like all other ministries, Sermons has basic elements. Usually, these elements are very necessary so that our sermons can be clearly understood by our hearers. Thus, each element plays a very important role.

Theme
This is the main topic of preaching. In some books that I have read, Topic and Theme has been defined separately. Well to be exact, they are different from each other. Theme is broader while Topic is more defined in scope.

Theme stands for the scope of the whole program of the church. Let's say the year theme of your church is all about “The Cost of Discipleship”. Under it, we can discuss about; “What are the cost of being a disciple”, “Who are the real disciples?”, “What are the things to do in being a disciple?”, “How to become a disciple?”, “Characteristics of a good disciple”.

Theme is the overall idea of your Topic and Title. It is the basis of your sermon. It means that you made your sermon in accordance to your theme. Most churches if you are already pastors have yearly themes. The theme is what is to be seen and expected the whole year.

Topic
Let us say that you already have identified the theme of your church. The next thing that we have to do is to get the topic of your sermon. The topic is a the more defined idea of your theme. In the illustrations above, topics are simply the ideas surrounding the theme. In a sermon, you will have to focus only to one of those topics that you have identified.

Your whole sermon will be about the topic that you have picked up. Each points should hit the topic or at least present and support the idea of your topic.

In a Topical Form of Bible Study, topics are easier to identify. Here are the characteristics of a good topic.

• It is relevant to the current theme of the church.


• It is explanable, understandable and can be seen directly from the given passage.


• It is composed of 1-3 words only.

Title
Title is stands for the name of your sermon. It is more specific than your topic. It should directly tell your hearers what is the possible content of your sermon with an intriguing part telling them to discover more about it so as encouraging them to listen carefully as you preach it.

A good title is not less than 2 words but not more than 5 words.

Text
Where did you get your sermon? It is important to give the text passage of your sermon to your audience. This will tell your audience that you took your sermon based on what was written on the Bible.
The text should be a good basis for your sermon. The content should be taken from the text.  A text is composed of the name of the book, particular chapter of the book, and the verses included for your passage.

For example; James 1:1-5. James is the book, “1” is the chapter and “1-5” are the verses included for your passage.

Points
Any sermon manuscripts that you will be making should contain main points. It will be the sub topics of your title which will be the discussion of the whole main idea. Main points will clarify and will present what your hearers need to know about your topic.

Main points introduces us to the main body of the sermon. Most of the words used and the idea will be presented within each points. Thorough explanation is also made within the presentation of the points. Exposition of God's word also embedded in it.

Illustration
Illustrations are generally not part of each points. But it is used to explain the points clearer. Here are some of the characteristics of a good illustration:

• Relevant to the point


• Will clearly explain the point you just have presented


• Will not consume more than 3 minutes in presentation


• Good and clean


• Not offending and not vulgar

More will be discussed later about illustration.

Illustrations were deemed important in presenting the sermon because usually, illustrations can caught the attention of your audience. It's funny, but sometimes your audience will remember your illustrations more than they remember your sermon points.

Application
This is one of the most important part of each point. Each point should end up with an application. All sermons or even just a Bible Study must end up in application. Your sermon is useless if people will not be able to apply what they have heard.

Sometimes, you will need to have an invitation in your manuscript so that your readers or hearers will understand that they will have to respond or decide for what they have heard. Sometimes, instead of making an invitation to do something, you will have to encourage them to respond to the message.

Conclusion
Conclusion is basically the summary of your sermon. It is usually one or two paragraph long where you will see all the main ideas that you have just presented. It sums up all the things that you have discussed reminding your listeners all the things that they have heard. The main purpose of this is to  re-enforce to your hearers what you just have discussed.

Lesson 1: Introduction To Preaching

(My Original Blog Post: http://ping.fm/hLIOO)
One fine Sunday morning, we sing and praised God for his goodness and all the things that he have done all through out the week. I stood up infront of the people and began to preach. Some children were crying, a few is talking with their sitmates but most listen attentively to what I am preaching.

As I preached, I feel like people have a blank mind, they do not understand what I am preaching, and seems like to look attentively listening but their minds are flying somewhere out there gazing upon their own fantasies as they day dream.

After preaching, I felt like that it was a failure. But just as I am shaking people's hand as they go out the church, a lady which is my member shook my hands saying; “what a great sermon pastor!” I don't know what to say at that very moment. I haven't seen that while I was preaching and is totally opposite to what I felt. How could this happen?

Preaching is one of the most visible ministries that we can see inside the church. And it is undoubtedly one of the main reasons why there is a Sunday worship service, that is to hear God's word. Our worship services will be lacking something without preaching even though many people would desire to sing rather than to listen.

People inside the church listens to God's word through the preacher and then go and move on with their own lives.  Some were blessed with the Lord's message while some do not even know nor understand what had been preached.

I wish this book will be able to explain to preaching disciples the importance and the essence of preaching in the church. I do not intend to make another book or material that will teach us about preaching, but to practice what we already have learned.

What is Preaching?

The dictionary defines preaching as: “To proclaim or publish tidings; specifically, to proclaim the gospel; to discourse publicly on a religious subject, or from a text of Scripture; to deliver a sermon.
[1913 Webster]”

The difference between preaching and homiletics is that preaching is the actual discourse of public speaking of proclaiming the gospel while homiletics is a form of pastoral theology where it is a branch of rhetoric that treats of the composition and delivery of sermons or homilies (Wikipedia).

However, both homily and preaching are being used simultaneously and now known to be the same. But in reality, most protestant churches used to call it preaching while the Catholics and other similar churches like Episcopalian and Anglicans used to call it Homilies.

For the purpose of uniformity, let us use the word “Preaching”.

Why Learning How to Preach is Needed?

Our world now is filled with false teachers. Paul in the book of 2 Timothy warned Timothy to become a man who correctly handles the word of truth preaches it (2 Timothy 2, 3 and 4), being ready in season or out of season. With all the cultic movements going on around the world, we as Christians are being instructed and encouraged to become good steward of the God's word.

I think many people have been asking this all the time. Why should there be a preaching portion in almost every Christian gatherings. Nowadays, I have seen programs now being shortened in the preaching portion and such programs focused now in the event rather than God's word.

Furthermore, there are still very few people who share and teach the gospel. The laborers are still few. We need more workers in the field. We need more people who are willing to commit in sharing the gospel of Christ. But where do we recruit? Who can be the students for preaching? Who can be the future preachers of our churches?

Where to Find Potential Preachers?

There is no better place to look for potential teachers of God's word than the church. Going to seminary and asking someone to come to your church to preach can be an immediate answer but not a long term solution for the lack of preachers inside your church.

If your church doesn't have a seňor pastor and your pastor has just left, what should you do then if you have no preacher in your church for the moment? Hiring someone can be one of our immediate actions. In contrast to this, whether or not our church is in need of preachers for the moment, we as members, as a church should be trained to take over the pulpit if fortuitous events where vacancy for pastoral office will happen.

The best place to get those potential preachers is inside the church. We need to train our young men to preach. Training preachers inside the church gives  our church advantages:

• Your pastor can do more things than preaching.


• Your church can definitely stand in the absence of pastoral office.


• Your church is at the same time producing more church leaders.


• Your church will have a stronger foundation since more people now will have to study God's word vigorously.

Qualifications of a Preacher

The book of 2 Timothy tells us about how Paul charged Timothy to become a good pastor. In our time, there are some preachers who were not really pastors. But nonetheless, any preacher should live like that as of the standard of a pastor. This is because as preachers, we are the one who teach God's word to people. We are the one who encourage them to live in accordance to God's words. Thus, becoming a teacher means, we should be the first who practice what we teach.

As a pastor of the church, it is our responsibility to identify who are the potential preachers in our churches. “...in the presence of  many witnesses entrust to reliable men who will also be qualified to teach others. (2 Timothy 2:2)” This is what Paul said to Timothy as he charges Timothy to take over part of his work since Paul is already in prison.

To summarize the qualification of a preacher, let us focus broadly in the comparisons that Paul mentioned.

1.A good trainer (2 Timothy 2:2) – a good trainer is able to entrust to reliable men who is also able to teach others. This is very important qualification in order to ensure the continuity of the work.
2.A good soldier (2 Timothy 2:3-4) – a good soldier does not go into civilian affairs. This means that a minister should always take good care of his reputation and not becoming an ordinary person  in terms of his judgment and involvement in controversial issues. This also means that he is expected to be above average and as much as possible to be excellent in terms of putting into practice the word of God.
3.A good athlete (2 Timothy 2:5) – a good athlete competes in accordance to rules. An athlete who violates the rules are being disqualified from the competition. Similarly, a minister of God should abide in a strict discipline, playing in accordance to the rules. Violation results to disqualification and such a minister will not receive the victor's crown.
4.A good farmer (2 Timothy 2:6) – a good farmer is the first to receive the share of his crops. Spiritual farming is very similar to the literal farming. A farmer takes care of his crops well so that in the harvest time receives a good harvest.

The four qualifications above covers the rest of the things discussed by Paul in chapters 2, 3 and 4.

Biblical Background of Preaching.

Probably you are wondering when does preaching started in the Bible. In the Old Testament, preaching can be traced back during the time of Moses, when he had lead the Israelites out of Egypt.

When God gave Moses the 10 Commandments and all other Laws, Moses has to reiterate it to the Israelites. He stand in the midst of the Israelites, telling them about the Laws of God. Moses in these incidents becomes a public speaker of God's word. This has been a regular practice of the Israelites even up to the time of Jesus.

In the New Testament, teachers of the Law like the Pharisees and the Sadducees becomes the public speakers of God's word. Then came John the baptist and Jesus Christ himself. They were followed by the apostles in the book of Acts.

It is notable however that the preaching that they used to do before concentrates mainly in on God's word, reiterating the books of the Law and of the prophets. While now, sermons are made through the sermons of the apostles and their stories. The idea is still the same, but the content of is a little different from what we do now.

Efforts has been made in order to go back to what the apostles have been doing. This is why some Bible study methods have been started and Exegesis has been put forward. This method of Bible Study is “getting the original intended meaning of passage.” The former school was known to be as Allegorical. Allegorical “is giving a meaning to the passage.”  We will discuss more about Exegesis in one of the chapters.

The Source of God's Word for Preaching

Where and what is the source of preaching topics? With the emergence of the so-called “Narrative Preaching”, some people thinks that the Bible is no longer the sole source of God's word for preaching.

In contrast to this, I would say that there should be no other source for preaching except the Bible and a valid revelation from God (which is extra-ordinary and very rare). The Bible is complete and is authoritative enough to be the source of God's word. The Law of Moses and of the book of prophets is included in the Bible Canon plus the books written by the Apostles making it a valid source of authority.

The dangerous thing about “claimed” God's revelation during these days is that many false teachers now claims to have a revelation from God, yet failed when tested in comparison to the Scriptures and the message that it brings.