Preaching Anew

This past Sunday I preached again in a way that is very different from the way I have been preaching for the last 10 years or so. Normally I have a manuscript in front of me and, having spent countless hours preparing, writing, structuring, and keeping thoughts to a recognizable scheme, I have presented a carefully written out sermon for those in the congregation.

But for practical reasons, a week ago Sunday, I simply preached with some organized notes. You see, I had a time crunch and only wanted to speak for about 5-8 minutes. If I were to have written out something, it would have been much longer. Instead, I had one or two ideas to present and that was it. And you know what? The congregation LOVED it. Personally, I thought it wasn't "fancy enough" or, theologically astute.

One particular congregant, and a newcomer at that, said, "Honestly, I am confused half the time but 'this' time, the sermon spoke to me in such a way that I knew that this is the congregation where I belong." What she said hit me like a brick.

So, this past Sunday, I preached again like I did the week before. And you know what? The congregation was attentive and 'with me' throughout the whole sermon. This time, I had more notes, written down chronologically but they were just notes, or points. And, I really didn't have to look at them all that much. I had prepared throughout the week on the direction I wanted to go. And, given some of the freedom I had in the text, I was able to explain the Biblical texts in greater detail, most notably about King Saul and David. And, the points were made and the sermon ended. Afterwards, the congregation said, "We love the new way you're preaching. It is like the message has suddenly 'come alive' for us. Thank you Pastor Bo."

So there you have it.

And I am left wondering if I can really do this again and again. And, I am concerned that I won't have written sermons of my past sermons on the church website every week.

But you know, something interesting happened a couple of weeks ago that has just now made more sense. My eldest brother and I spoke about church and what I am doing. He said that he is surprised that I don't have a video of my sermons on the website instead of having them written out. I said that the cost was a bit prohibitive seeing how we don't have a digital camera. And you know what he said? He said, as of right now, I will give you $_____ for the purchase of a digital camera and the additional cost of your website running streaming videos. After some quick mental calculations, I figured with the purchase of a digital camera, we could run sermons and other video for 4 years on our site. I spoke with the chair of our Board of Trustees and he said, "Yes, let's do it!"

It is kind of wild how things work together and happen to make other things work out. Sometimes those things don't happen in a recognizable order but in the end, one can say, "Holy cow! We can do this, right?!"