Thursdays.
For a couple decades now, Thursdays have been the day I’ve tried to devote to preparing and writing a sermon. Life’s not that smooth, of course. You can’t always protect one day. And really the sermon begins much earlier as ideas are worked over. But still, Thursdays have typically been the day when all that comes together.
When I was young, I had a kind of formula for working through a text and coming to a sermon. That’s a good thing, I think. It’s why sports always begin with fundamentals.
But as I’ve aged, I feel less like I’m doing something to the text and more like scripture is doing something to me. So much of my sermon preparation is mulling: reading the words slowly again and again . . . praying through the words, soaking up the words of gospel that they proclaim . . . letting my imagination run free as the sermon begins to appear as a journey. (In my earliest days, the sermon was like classic oratory — complete with intro, points, and conclusion. Now it’s a journey — a journey with that has a specific beginning and a specific ending but with many bends along the way. [Sometimes, of course, that journey comes with intro, points, and conclusion!])
There’s still the hard work. But even that is part of the mulling. As I translate the text (NT) from Greek and as I read through my Spanish testament, I usually don’t think I’m gaining any special insider’s knowledge. But it forces me to slow down and to dwell on words and phrases and images. It allows me to ask questions: What difference does this make? How do these words speak words of good news? Do they sharpen our understanding of discipleship, of community, and of mission? Do they call for change? How do they point to Jesus?
The older I get, the more I realize what people don’t need and what people really DO need: the good news that the reign of God has broken in through the life, death, resurrection, and presence of Jesus in our midst. A new day has come. Hope abounds.
Tony Campolo wrote a book called It’s Friday But Sunday’s Comin’.
Someday maybe I’ll write a preaching book called It’s Thursday But Sunday’s Coming.
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I’m feeling in the minority right now. No governor or senator from my state has yet announced a presidential bid for 2008.
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The “Letters to the Editor” section of the Abilene Reporter-News has been quite active since the city council voted to ban smoking in all restaurants and bars. Most of the rhetoric has been libertarian concerns (the government shouldn’t tell anyone, including business owners, what they have to do) vs. communitarian concerns. It’s been very interesting.
love to hear your words and its interesting to hear how that all comes together..however you are doing it …you are doing it right..love to hear you preach.
wish it could all be black and white as to how much the government dictates what I do but I am happy about red lights and stop signs. Liberty is such a sweet blessing in this country and I can understand the fear of those who ask how far the government will go.
After GWB, can America ever trust another Texas politician?
Enjoyed hearing the “mechanics” of your sermons. At least the ones I’ve heard, I know the spirit has a place in there as well!
Our city has banned smoking but they went all the way. We have no smoking in any public building in town. And…..any smoking outside has to be 20 feet away from the front door. We have many angry people in our town, especially since it was done without a vote! Now we have petitions going around to make it a vote.
Actually, they have been reporting that it has not affected the bars and “smoking” places as much as they thought it would. Since I don’t smoke, I’m not sure how accurate that is, but I know for us, it has given us more places to go eat because we can now breathe while we eat!
c’mon ses~ tell me another president who has been thrown a 9-11 terroristic blow and a war WITHOUT borders? NONE!!!!!!!!!!
I think GWB has done a fine job with the information he had at the time. He is an honest, God fearing man. Would you have wanted to be in his place, I sure wouldn’t have~~~~~~~~~God Bless America and GWB
lee
Ditto, lee
Great thoughts on the process of sermon preparation, Mike. My sense is that our listeners can almost immediately tell the difference between a sermon that grows out of our efforts to do something with the text vs. allowing the text to do something in an with us.
Regarding the ban on smoking in restaurants and bars: This has been the law in Delaware for several years now. I’m not a big bar-hopper so I can’t speak to that side of the prohibition. But, I can say that it is so nice to be able to dine out without having to contend with second-hand smoke.
Blesssings,
-bill
I’m with Bill; if there’s one good thing about our forced relocation to California, it’s no longer having to hear “smoking or nonsmoking?” when we go out to eat… and then being seated 5 feet away from a table of smokers.
Mike-
I’m sure I speak for many when I say that I appreciate your sermons and the fact that you seem to let the Spirit organize your “journey”. A lot of times it seems our identity is shaped by our “jobs”, and the number of people who read your messages every day or nearly every day speaks to how the Spirit has led you on the journey; in life and in sermons. I believe you are following your passion. Keep on.
C
We are smoke free in Louisiana - even at the Waffle House! (Not sure about bars - I think that’s still ok if it doesn’t serve food). Very nice…
I like what you said about sermon prep - Mine take more mulling - I’m still new at this, so weeks of mulling help me. I suppose I could do it once a week, had God called me to do so. For now I only minister to small groups of ladies. I love the prep time - God speaks so sweetly and personally to me when I seek Him that way.
-Laura
Good post. I often explain to the congregation here that some in some weeks sermon preparation is like wrestling with the Spirit of God. (Akin to Jacob’s wrestling with the angel) I have what I want to say and he has want he wants me to say and the wrestling match starts. I always pray that this wrestling ends in a blessing for me and for the congregation.
Fred Craddock calls it “the preacher’s own wrestling with the question of what it is we are doing.” He continues, “To do that wrestling until one walks away with the blessing of sufficient clarity to give reason and impetus to one’s preaching ministry is what is being urged.”
He says preachers should write at the top of their sermon notes “So what?” and if we can’t give a sufficient answer to that question, we should rethink what we are going to say.
We’ve been smoke free in Florida for years and it is a great blessing, especially to someone like me with serious allergies.
Peace.
Laura -
Yes, it does take weeks of mulling. In fact you often realize the Spirit has been working on you for a message for weeks, months, years.
Keep on!
G’ampa C - Thanks, my friend.
Mike
Mike, Bless you for mulling with the Spirit! We are blessed as a result. I too love your preaching!!
As far as smoking ban. I lived in California when all this hulla-ba-loo went on. Same song and dance, “we’ll go out of business if our clients/customers can’t smoke” - “we have a right to let our c/cs decide if they want to smoke or not.” None of the dire predictions came about. In fact, the major number of business reported an upswing in their business revenues.
I’d hope to remind the smokers that when there is a smoking section there is NO non-smoking section in the same venue. Smoke invades the farthest nook and cranny. I’m forced NOT to enter any building that allows smoking due to serious allergy induced asthma, all caused, to my shame, by years of being a smoker. But PTL, He delivered me from continuing to destroy my lungs and brought in its place, an allergy to smoke, all smoke, be it cigarettes/cigars or fireplaces, et al.
btw - Mike.
I’ll remember your Thursday mullings in my prayers each Thursday.
One of the “pros” of only speaking every 3 weeks or so is that the sermon has time to gestate…there are a lot more drives home during which the Spirit can speak and the Word can move and breathe.
One of the “cons” is that sometimes the message loses its immediacy. Sometimes I hear “too much.” I almost always think too much. It’s too easy sometimes to outthink the Spirit.
It is great how the Holy Spirit works in sermon prep. and in preaching. It is powerful!
I didn’t know that Abilene banned smoking in all restrauants and bars. I can understand restraunts and that I think is great. I think smokers can wait at least until after a meal to light up. People go to bars to drink and most drinkers smoke. They enjoy a drink and smoke. This comes from the people that I have worked with through AA.
I have ministered to men and women who struggle with alcoholism. Taken them to AA regularly and found them sponsors they needed. Drinking and smoking go hand in hand. If you have been to AA meetings alot of smoking and coffee.
I’m with all those praising the no-smoking states and areas. i love going into a place and not having to smell the smoke. I grew up in a smoke filled house. both mom and dad smoked. I probably smelled horrible at school and church, but I had no idea. However, I fear the government’s continuing chipping away at our freedoms. Will there be in the near future a no smoking nazi police checking reports of parents smoking? Will they be hauled off from their homes for smoking in the presence of minors (their own children?) Perhaps that will never happen, but with the current climate you gotta’ wonder.
Mike, I would love it if you wrote a book on the process of developing a sermon - or God’s way of developing a sermon in you. I would definitely read it. And I think there are a lot of us younger preachers (especially those of us who didn’t get to go to ACU) who would enjoy learning from guys like you and Randy and Jerry and others about that process.
I cannot bring myself to begin writing sermons before Thursday. I, too, enjoy sitting with a text, praying over a text, and hearing a text for myself and for the sake of my congregation. Images begin to form, my imagination begins to run wild, my own heart begins to hear and to change, and I begin to see faces of the people I preach in front of appearing in the text. This process breathes passion within my bones.
Then, Saturday night comes–a night that might bring 5-6 hours of sleep. I never sleep well on Saturday’s. I feel pressure. I feel responsibility. This pressure and responsibility isn’t to perform well, but it is this realization that I am an instrument and voice of God. Broken people will sit in the worship center looking to me to speak redemptive words. People are looking to me to speak words of Christ. Therefore, I can’t sleep well. And, I hope that this nervousness and sense of responsibility never leaves me.
Mike, Thanks for sharing this. I start mulling on Mondays too. I find myself dreaming about my message, thinking about it, and sometimes preaching portions in the shower all through the week. It is most definitely a journey for me. I have tried so hard to dedicate 15 hours per week to preaching, culminating on Thursdays, but it doesn’t always go my way. I do find God shaping and speaking to me throughout the week and even challenging me to live what I might say before I say it, so that I might really live in the things I speak of. I pour over my texts, through the greek and through many paraphrases and translations. Each week, God gives me at least one word, sometimes several in these places that get underneath my skin and into my heart and will not fade and for that I am thankful.
When you write your book, put me down for a copy, I’m in. Shalom!
I read today that 66% of Texans would like a state-wide ban on smoking in restaraunts. We should do it since the majority should always rule in issues involving private businesses.
In a parallel thought, it is those folks who pray out loud before eating that really get me. Most of us don’t do that and it is really annoying to hear all those prayers by the minority who think that way. Christians, Muslims, Jews, etc. In this day and age that is just way to big of a risk for conflict.
I bet there is way over 66% of us who don’t pray. I think we should squash that minority too.
Oh man… the non smoking nazis continue to steal people’s freedoms.
When you ban smoking at all resturaunts, of course all ofthem are going to continue making the same revenue… people still want to go out to eat.
The problem is, its the will of some triumphing over the will of others. One person denying another person a right to do something that they want to. No one is forcing anyone to go to a resturaunt that allows smoking. But now, a person who owns their own business, is being told they can’t allow something that is totally legal.
The market will determine what they do, without government having to tell them. If enough people don’t want smoking in resturants… guess what happens? Resturaunts will ban smoking on their own accord. But if they make more money by allowing people to smoke, then that’s their right too.
And many of these people pushing these bans are republicans… but they don’t care cause its convienent for them.
What if I want to ban fat people from resturaunts, cause I have an allergy, or just don’t enjoy seeing a 300 pound person eat a 24 ounce steak with cheese fries and a diet coke?
There really is often as much beauty in process as in “product”. If everyone would pray through the words we would all be blessed.
In Ohio the no-smoking thing has just been passed and I say it’s about time. I saw a bumper sticker not long ago that said “A smoking section in a restaurant is like having a peeing section in a swimming pool” ! Now who really wants that!?! Smile! I know you all are!
I always agreed with the saying “Your right to smoke ends at the tip of my nose.” Or something like that. I to was reared with a father who smoked. Had bronchitis my whole childhood. Finally, after I was married and my husband smoked, the doctor told him I would have to move or die. He never smoked in the house again. I so enjoy NEVER having to smell smoke. Those were the first two things I asked Steve when we met. Are you a Christian? And Do you smoke? He answered correctly.
I so respect the mulling aspect that preachers do week after week. I mull a thought for weeks sometimes.
I also think George W Bush has been a great President and leader. We were attacked more times than on 9/11. We went with the information we had. I do not like the naysayers that think they have the answers with the present information. Hindsight is 20/20.
hmmm….Justin, I can’t help but be lured into your debate…(smile)
The difference is that my 24 once steak and high cholesterol will not invade the eyes, clothes and lungs of your 6 month old daughter. Good try, but until smokers wear spacesuits that contain the emissions and fumes, smoking in confined places is a health and quality of life concern to the public. Now, the moment that you can smell my fatness on your clothes 6 hours after sitting next to me in church, I will listen to the argument.
Having said all of that, I kind of agree with your premise that we should at least be cautious about having government decree business choices that free market should mandate.
Jordan,
Having had babies (mine) who puked on the folks next to us in church, I can attest that babies can, much like smoke, uh, transfer to the next person.
Maybe we should regulate those, too. They make a lot of noise and sometimes smell really bad. How about no babies in restaraunts!
Last comment;)
Kent
Justin: “…people still want to go out to eat.”
That goes for the non-smoker as well. The huge difference is the smoker can go out to eat with or without the smoking ban. Many non-smokers cannot go out to eat in a smoking facility because it makes them deathly ill, me included. A smoker really IS taking away the rights of others since their habit invades/permeates others’ areas, whether they want it to or not. As I say, I was a long time smoker, much to my disgust with myself, but never smoked in the presence of non-smokers. If non-smokers were invited to my home, I didn’t smoke while they were there. In a public place, which is just that PUBLIC, if one decides to smoke, the non-smoker must deny themselves either their good health, or deny themselves the right to be in the same public place as the smoker.
iow, a smoker can survive in a non-smoking atmosphere. Many non-smokers cannot survive in a smoking atmosphere. Smoking is a private decision and, imho, should be kept in a private area, not in a public one. But then, that’s just mho.
Whenever it’s time for me to prepare my next sermon, it helps me to crack open a copy of “The Faith of George W.Bush” and light up a big stogie.
Just kidding.
Kent, that just means you are a bad father.
Kidding Kidding!
“Crying Babies are like good intentions, they must be carried out immediately.”
-Mark Twain
Scott, I am ready to buy the WWGWBD? bracelet.
SMOKE-FREE WAFFLE HOUSE!?!?!?!
I don’t think the food would taste right…
how wierd
Scott:
That would be in a restaurant, right?:)
I dare anyone to watch “Thank you for Smoking” and not laugh out loud many times (caution - it is rated R). Texas politics won’t be the same without Molly - God rest her soul.
Just because something is legal, doesn’t mean it’s right.
Also….smoking is like being nude. It’s OK in my own home, but I can’t be naked in public. (And would public nudity really be as hurtful as public smoking? At least nudity doesn’t cause cancer!)
Mike,
I enjoyed peeking over your shoulder as you prepare a sermon. I relate to your experience. Years ago, sermon prepreparation seemed more wooden and forced at times. I still find the preparation itself to be difficult but incredibly more satisfying.
Quoting: “Whenever it’s time for me to prepare my next sermon, it helps me to crack open a copy of “The Faith of George W.Bush” and light up a big stogie.”
This is the funniest thing I’ve seen all week! Thanks for the laugh…
Quoting: “People go to bars to drink and most drinkers smoke. They enjoy a drink and smoke. ”
I have to take objection to this one… it really gives all of us drinkers a bad name.
But, regardless, I think your math may be off. I also really wish that Abilene had a few good pubs… Cheers kinda places. I enjoy finding them when I travel. Kind of the church of the common man - in many ways.
As for Texas Senators running for president - God help us all. I was really hoping that Hutchinson would run for governor… that way she could only undermine the well being of the poor in Texas instead of nationwide.
Molly Ivins will be missed.
I’m glad the Abilene City Council finally had the courage to pass the smoking ban. I had expected it to be indefinitely tabled. So it took a non-binding referendum to provide the cover, at least they came through in the end.
Okay, enough random thoughts for one day.
Arkansas recently passed a wide-spread no-smoking ban…not only in restaurants but in workplaces! How wonderful for those of us who wind up in the hospital with just a little exposure to tobacco smoke. We are thankful!
The process you describe of writing a sermon is just the process that occurs when one becomes a MASTER (using Yoda’s terms) of a particular subject. Physics, medicine, and even dressmaking…..
You can’t get there by the Holy Spirit……isn’t that like sleeping on your book to prepare for a test? You have study the subject, then you reach the level of “mulling.” Until then…READ THE BOOK!
Why worry so much if God can talk to you and tell you what to say…if he does that, then surely he can talk directly to the guy in the pew and tell him what he needs to know???
Not there…don’t know what I’m talking about.
Okay … if I understand what’s going on here … for topics we have sermon preparation, smoking, and now Beaner has brought in how nudity is like smoking.
I guess for me this means no more smoking while preparing my sermons in the nude! Oh, yea, on Thursdays.
just kidding
How often have I heard sermons with 3 main points and 3 sub points with alliteration, a funny story to open and tear jerker conclusion, that were as dry as powder? And then I have heard sermons with no clearly defined points, nothing clever or cute, but with the power and demonstration of the Spirit evidenced.
I have also preached both. I have found that until the message grips my heart and changes me it is not fit to pass on to others. I fear that many of us set in pews to critique the preacher more than to hear from heaven. Perhaps God has a different view of what a “good” sermon is than do we.
Grace and Peace,
Royce Ogle
I think some of ya’ll missed my point that you do have options of resturaunts to go to that don’t allow smoking. And if there’s a big enough market for it, then some resturaunts (and even bars, there are a few in nashville) will become non smoking of their own free will. Its called freedom and capitalism. Vote with your dollars by not patronizing resturaunts that allow smoking. I have ABSOLUTELY NO PROBLEM with a resturaunt deciding on its own to ban smoking. Its their PRIVATE PROPERTY and they can do with it whatever they want. They allow people in, and cater to their wants and needs to make money. If a resturaunt has crappy food, what happens? They go out of business or they get better food. Smoking should be the same.
Its harmful to my hearing when people and music are loud in resturaunts. Should we ban music and talking to prevent my hearing loss?
I’ll admit - my favorite sermons have been the ones that were born out of the process that you mentioned - though I can’t bust out my Greek NT and Spanish Bible and do much of anything beyond recognize a word here and there.
Like Dusty said - I would love to see you and many others in ministry today go through their process… but there’s no way I could do what you do. You’re genius!…but very understandable!
I’m thankful for your work and the way you’re doing life and ministry.
Thanks
Sorry, the Libertarians have it right. Govco has NO business telling a private business what it can or cannot do. That is up to the free market place as it should be. As our Founding Fathers meant it to be.
It all started with laws regarding seatbelts and the whole country slid down the slope to “Govco knows best how to protect you and your famiy.”
Dude, Roland… the government knows best about everything. We need the government to determine what fair pay is… we need them to determine what my kid learns in school, we need them to determine what doctor I go to.
Cause corporations are evil and people are stupid… but Government… Government is close to God.
Mike, no one from my state (Georgia) has announced for President either. Guess we’re in the same boat.
I too appreciate your reflections on seremon prep. I follow a similiar procedure … minus the Spanish testament. I try to map out a series quite a bit in advance which gives me lots of time to ruminate.
One practice that I started about four years ago was to engage the text I am preaching through “lectio divina” during the week leading up to Sunday. It has greatly blessed and enriched my lessons.
As for the smoking … I do not mind a person smoking in their car, in their home but I do not like smoke coming over from the table next to me.
Shalom,
Bobby Valentine