Speedy Sermon Writing*
Hint: it doesn't always require writing
Hi, I’m Rachel! We have some new friends joining this week so a quick introduction or reintroduction. I’m a millenial, multivocational pastor in Ohio who spends part of my time leading a delightful small church and the other time writing, teaching piano, prioritizing family time, and generally trying to keep paying off my student debt. I love being multivocational and wanted to set aside time to reflect with a wide enough window so that others could join in for encouragement, resources, and general camaraderie. I've written about saying no to nice church people, part-time money, and the joy of being me. I’m glad you’re here.
When I was in high school I was part of the exceptionally nerdy Academic Decathlon team. I never did quite get the hang of the economics tests or memorize enough history facts, but there was one event I consistently loved and did well in. That event was impromptu speech.
Just as it sounds, there was no preparing for the topic of the speech. You’d have one minute to gather your thoughts, a notecard for some scribbling, and two minutes to present your speech.
For some, this was horribly stressful. But for me, it eliminated a worry I always had about other topics. There was no worry that I hadn’t prepared enough or studied enough. I could succeed just by showing up and trying my best.1
It is no surprise then that my preaching has been shaped by this experience. As a part-time pastor there are weeks I just don’t have much time to prepare a sermon. It’s not often, but there are Sunday mornings that I just have a scripture and an idea. What I’ve found is sometimes those are the weeks I thrive. But it’s taken some untangling from the intensity of preparation and writing I was taught in seminary. It’s also taken some clearer understanding of my gifts and not trying to make my preaching voice into someone else’s.2
Were you ever taught that one minute of preaching required one hour of study? I was. And this meant that I always felt I was behind. There was never enough time. And I love a seven minute sermon.
It took an understand of me and my preaching voice to remember where I excelled—impromptu speech. I love a good time crunch. And truthfully, I do prepare for my sermons all week. It’s just not when I’m sitting down and writing at my computer. It’s when I’m at the grocery store, or cooking dinner, or out on a walk. I think my sermons more than I write them.
To be perfectly honest, this approach makes for some pretty mediocre preaching weeks. I lose control over making each sentence and phrase exactly right. Impromptu speech does not make for good editing.
It’s a good spiritual practice for me to have a little less control though. And I have high trust in my congregation, that they value my preaching, but also my prayers, and my music leadership, and are content to show up the next week if the sermon was just a bit meh. Their trust also gives me a chance to live as me. An impromptu speech loving, time crunched, bivocational pastor.
Welcome Festival of Homiletics Attendees!
A special shout out to those joining via the Festival of Homiletics. You’ll be receiving some more of my preaching thoughts this week and the next—not from a preaching expert, but from someone who understands the grind of preaching mostly weekly in a 20 hour a week position (more on that later this week!) But also I share lots of other nonsense because this is all about being my full self which also means romance recommendations, weird music, and pet photography.
What I’m reading
After a bit of a book slump I had a stellar reading week which included Several People Are Typing by Calvin Kasulke. I recently joined Slack for a summer sabbatical gig I’m doing—perfect timing. This book is a series of Slack messages about someone who has become trapped in Slack. It’s goofy, funny, fast, and definitely dystopian. My spouse tells me this is a modern epistolary novel, but that's just a fancy way of saying it’s always fun to read messages over someone’s shoulder.
What life looks like
Sunny spring days (spot Josie)
I really want you to know I got a silver medal in this event but this was also nearly two decades ago but I’m still proud, you know?
I do have a preacher voice though which is not dissimilar from my sister’s phone voice. But I try not to because it’s just really weird and I would like to sound like a human if possible.
This is so, so, so resonant. Someone recently asked me how I "only spend 3 hours a week" on sermons, and it hurt a bit because I would *love* to be able to be a "resident theologian" and spend 20 hours/week on the writing a sermon that would make Ernest Hemingway, Walter Brueggemann, and Stanley Hauwerwas proud all at once. But my pastoral leadership *has* to be more than pulpit leadership, and if I'm honest, the bulk of my sermon-writing is the reflections that happen in day-to-day life—the stuff that makes me open the Notes app in the middle of a meeting at my health-insurance-providing job or housecleaning.
oh my gosh...what a relief to hear that there is someone else who doesn't necessarily spend that "one hour per minute" of study. I have been engaged in an argument with self for quite a while now; the seminary grad in me says "you do not study enough, write enough, research enough" to prep a sermon every Sunday. The "me" says.....this is really just not possible in the life God has me in right now and "is that okay?". Most of the time my Sunday sermon comes from a few hours of reading/studying on one day, the other days are thinking about the scripture, the big picture of the message, and considering how I might build that bridge between the ancient scripture and today. The actual writing and crafting of the sermon is my Sunday morning routine. Sometimes it is quite nerve wracking....I find myself thinking oh my gosh what if nothing comes out when I write, but gradually I have come to trust that God has this, that whatever comes from my fingers and through my mouth will be supported by the Holy Spirit!