You Teach / You Learn

I recently taught Process Preaching to a group of Mennonite pastors in Ohio. Here are some things that I learned.

1. During an individual session with one of the pastors I noticed that the very first time through the first chunk of his sermon he was amazingly fluent. He did not have to consult his notes for the entire section. For some reason I asked him to do it a second time even thought he seemed to have it down pretty well and I was amazed by what happened. During his second run through he was much more animated and expressive. He was no longer having to think so much about what came next and he was able to focus on the meaning and purpose of his words in a much more personal way.

This experience helped me see that fluency and not having to read our manuscripts is not the only reason for doing the run throughs. After two or three run throughs we are able to preach our sermons with much more spirit and enthusiasm. I believe this is because we are not so worried about what comes next and can focus on the meaning of what we are saying better.

2. The pastor who I was working with when I noticed this has been preaching his sermons freely but more or less in an impromptu way. His method is to write out a manuscript and then do some thinking about it and after reading through it a couple of times getting up and pretty much winging it, relying on the tremendous power and inspiration of the moment of preaching. He was excited about what oral rehearsal would mean to his future preaching. In our individual sessions he was amazed by how much more confident and less fearful he was after a couple of run throughs. When he preached for the class he was relaxed and was able to put himself totally into his sermon.

Working with this pastor reminded me that Process Preaching and the oral rehearsal process can be of great benefit to those who have been preaching in various impromptu ways.

3. Early on in the seminar one of the students asked if there was any proof that preaching freely was more effective than reading sermon manuscripts? It was a very good question and I had to admit that there has been little or no research in this area that I am aware of. I believe that the difference in comprehension by a congregation listening to a pastor preaching freely and someone reading a manuscript is categorical. However, surveys need to be done in the field before it can be said that there is proof.

4. The pastor who organized this seminar said that after he took the course at Spirit in the Desert retreat center in Arizona last winter he returned and started writing purpose statements for his sermons a month in advance. He said that he gives his purpose statements to his worship leaders and others involved in planing the Sunday morning services and they are able to support the theme and purpose of the sermon with music selections etc.

Marking The Manuscript

During the run through process I encourage pastors to mark their manuscripts but I have never said too much about it. Recently, when I was preparing a sermon and doing the run-throughs I noticed all of the different marks I have come up with over the years to identify various things and how well these marks work as memory joggers as I continue the run through process. I am putting together a sample of these marks for my next class. Since I can't write free hand in this blog I will just try to describe some of these marks to you.

I underline things, put brackets around things, put boxes around words and phrases, I use arrows, I put large stars to emphasise important points, I circle things,, some times two or three circles around the same thing. I put parenthesise around things. Numbering is a very important thing,, 1,2, 3 etc. also a. b. c. etc. I use large roman numerals sometimes. I'll put a series of numbers or letters and circle them so I can see them.

The purpose of all this is to help organize the material in my mind. I think it really makes a difference, not only in the run through process, but also during the sermon when you forget something for a moment you can look down and your brain recalls that it is an item you circled or numbered and your eye goes right to it.

You can come up with your own system or markings but I believe that it is important that you do it. It will be an invaluable thing and it is definitely going to be included in my book on Process Preaching.

Meaning Makes the Difference

Alan Baddeley, the memory expert, in his book, "Human Memory" hints that there is a connection between meaning and memory. Recently when I was doing my run-throughs for an upcoming sermon I began to see that when my brain grasped the meaning of what I had written in my manuscript I was able to speak that meaning freely. It made me see again the importance of having a focus and purpose for a sermon. I think that the point that Baddeley is making in his book is that it's harder to remember things that have no meaning such as lists of numbers etc. Once there is a meaning attached to something the brain remembers it much easier. I have always said that it is difficult to preach in the extemporaneous mode if what we have written doesn't follow and make good sense. In fact, the brain will not let us make moves from one part of what we have written to another unless what we are saying logically follows and makes sense.

Perhaps this can help an extemp preacher during the run through process. If we look at a chunk that we have written and ask ourselves what am I trying to say here it might help us be able to speak it freely more quickly.

WHEN YOU TEACH - YOU LEARN

I just completed a class at Luther Seminary and it always seems like I learn new things when I teach the class. This class was no exception and so I would like to share a few things I learned this week with all of you.

1. After I did the oral rehearsal demonstration one of the pastors said that by the third or fourth run-through she could practically preach the sermon herself. I had someone say something similar to this several years ago. After running through the first section of my sermon several times I said, "notice now I can say it with out looking at my notes." The student responded, "and so can we." My thought is that this would just not be the case if I had simply read this part of the sermon to them several times. When people speak freely it may be true that the audience remembers what is said better. If that is the case, it is another good reason to speak freely. Certainly having people remember what we say when we preach the gospel is a very good thing.

2. We had a Zulu pastor in our class from South Africa. He said that it bothered him when people came up to him after he preached and commented on how he had touched them with his words. He thought this might be an even bigger problem if he preached freely. ( In Africa he was taught to always preach from a manuscript and so he always read his sermons.) I tried to assure him that although he might touch people more often and more deeply when he spoke freely this was not necessarily a bad thing. I told him that it is not we who touch people with our words but God who touches them through us. His point, however, is well taken since the last thing we want is for our preaching to lead people to glorify us. We, of course, want to lead people through our preaching to glorify God. It certainly is an ever present danger but one that we can, I believe, avoid as long as we remember to always give God the glory.

3. After we watched the Dan Glickman tape one of the pastors shared an interesting insight. I was commenting on how much more powerful Glickman is when he speaks freely as he did when he told the story about his son. The pastor agreed and said that he found himself caring much more about what Glickman was saying when he spoke freely. When he was reading his script this pastor said he didn't feel compelled to listen to what Glickman was saying. However, when he started speaking freely he found himself not only listening to him but actually caring about what had happened to his son. Part of that is no doubt the result of Glickman sharing a personal story but I think part of it is also the fact that he didn't read this story but told it freely with a great deal of feeling and passion. Perhaps it is true that when we speak freely people care more both about us and about what we are saying.
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I look forward to getting your feedback on these things or on anything else you would like to share or wish to discuss.
I will not be sending out any more Extemp Expressions newsletters as it became too costly to send out newsletters via snail mail and too complicated to send them out via e-mail. I hope this blog will serve a similar purpose.
**My next class at Luther will be September 24-26, 2007. I hope you will consider recommending my class to your colleagues in ministry.
Thanks for your ongoing interest in Process Preaching
Jerry Larson

WHEN YOU TEACH - YOU LEARN

I just completed a class at Luther Seminary and it always seems like I learn new things when I teach the class. This class was no exception and so I would like to share a few things I learned this week with all of you.
1. After I did the oral rehearsal demonstration one of the pastors said that by the third or fourth run-through she could practically preach the sermon herself. I had someone say something similar to this several years ago. After running through the first section of my sermon several times I said, "notice now I can say it with out looking at my notes." The student responded, "and so can we." My thought is that this would just not be the case if I had simply read this part of the sermon to them several times. When people speak freely it may be true that the audience remembers what is said better. If that is the case, it is another good reason to speak freely. Certainly having people remember what we say when we preach the gospel is a very good thing.
2. We had a Zulu pastor in our class from South Africa. He said that it bothered him when people came up to him after he preached and commented on how he had touched them with his words. He thought this might be an even bigger problem if he preached freely. ( In Africa he was taught to always preach from a manuscript and so he always read his sermons.) I tried to assure him that although he might touch people more often and more deeply when he spoke freely this was not necessarily a bad thing. I told him that it is not we who touch people with our words but God who touches them through us. His point, however, is well taken since the last thing we want is for our preaching to lead people to glorify us. We, of course, want to lead people through our preaching to glorify God. It certainly is an ever present danger but one that we can, I believe, avoid as long as we remember to always give God the glory.
3. After we watched the Dan Glickman tape one of the pastors shared an interesting insight. I was commenting on how much more powerful Glickman is when he speaks freely as he did when he told the story about his son. The pastor agreed and said that he found himself caring much more about what Glickman was saying when he spoke freely. When he was reading his script this pastor said he didn't feel compelled to listen to what Glickman was saying. However, when he started speaking freely he found himself not only listening to him but actually caring about what had happened to his son. Part of that is no doubt the result of Glickman sharing a personal story but I think part of it is also the fact that he didn't read this story but told it freely with a great deal of feeling and passion. Perhaps it is true that when we speak freely people care more both about us and about what we are saying.
**********************************************************************
I look forward to getting your feedback on these things or on anything else you would like to share or wish to discuss.
I will not be sending out any more Extemp Expressions newsletters as it became too costly to send out newsletters via snail mail and too complicated to send them out via e-mail. I hope this blog will serve a similar purpose.
**My next class at Luther will be September 24-26, 2007. I hope you will consider recommending my class to your colleagues in ministry.
Thanks for your ongoing interest in Process Preaching
Jerry Larson

A New Blog

This is my first attempt at starting a weblog for Process Preaching. I am hoping that it will be a vehicle for my sharing with those who have taken my class in the past, new learning's in the area of extemp preaching. I also hope that others will share their responses and comments as well. Please feel free to share on this blog things that you have learned along your extemporanous preaching journey.