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.