Sometime ago I posted about preaching without notes, and promised to follow up with some thoughts about method. I haven’t been blogging for a while, but several people have asked when I would fulfill that promise, so here goes. I think it will be easier to tackle it in a few small chunks rather than lay it all out at once.
I’ve been preaching without notes for six months now, and in that time have preached 34 times, including a couple of occasions in which I’ve preached two different talks back to back, with about 15 minutes in between. Last month I preached 11 times, nearly all different talks. All of this has tested my “method” pretty well, and has helped me to reflect on what I’m doing. So here’s my first point:
1. Know the passage really well. It sounds obvious, since any preacher will study the text closely. But my point includes more than this. First, it is more important to know the passage than to know your talk. This is a good rule anyway, but it especially helps in preaching without notes. One reason for this is that even if you forget bits of your talk, you can still speak about the passage with clarity and depth of understanding.
Also, close attention to the structure of the passage, and particular words and phrases, can serve as a memory trigger for the talk. I will make sure that I know how I want to break a passage up, and then will know what I want to say about each section of the passage. For example, if the first unit is verses 1–3, I’ll expound that unit, drawing out its most important elements. I might have an illustration to help with understanding the main point of the unit, and I’ll know what kind of application I want to draw from the unit. As long as I know the passage well, all I really need to remember are those three steps. As I move through the whole passage, the process is much the same for each unit.
More to come later…
Posted by Con Campbell
Rick Creighton
Bruce Lowe
Con Campbell
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Thanks Con for posting on this.
Your ‘know the break-up of the passage; expound, illustrate and apply each unit’ approach is almost identical to Chappo’s preaching model (as in Setting Hearts On Fire).
Certainly I’ve found that Chappo’s model, far from being formulaic and boring (which are the criticisms I’ve heard numerous times), not only aids clarity in communication, but also makes for sermons that are easy to preach without notes – precisely because the skeleton/form of the sermon is easy to hold in your head.
I suspect that one of the reasons most sermons would be very difficult to preach without notes is that they lack a memorable structure beyond, say, a few headings. Within these headings, there is not a memorable sub-structure.
Anyway, that’s my two cents (which is not even acceptable currency anymore!) – looking forward to the rest of your posts on this.
Mind mapping a sermon first can provide a strong memory framework because of the focus on key words. Spouse tried this recently with a topical subject, and used an adapted map in the service as a digital projection cue for himself and the congregation. Got a strong positive response to this.