Lenten Practices In Your Church

[Jaebius]

Always remember though that the sermon preached is never exactly the sermon written. Even a manuscript is more along the lines of lengthy notes.

Yes revsdd, that is most certainly usually the case. I did at one time know one minister who used to carefully preach his manuscript just as he had written it.

 

[Mendalla]

Always remember though that the sermon preached is never exactly the sermon written. Even a manuscript is more along the lines of lengthy notes.

Oh, agreed. My later sermons are done in Word's Outline View so are really just talking points. The one I posted in a thread somewhere (I forget which thread just now) is one of the older ones where I actually did write the sermon out though, as you say, it rarely came out as written. The reason I gave up writing them out in full was (a) I never stuck to the script anyhow, and (b) I do still write/rehearse them in my head, I just find the words never look right on the page/screen.

Yes revsdd, that is most certainly usually the case. I did at one time know one minister who used to carefully preach his manuscript just as he had written it.

In my experience, people who do this, whether preachers or speech makers, are rarely as dynamic and interesting as ones leave room for embellishing and extemporizing. I accept that not everyone can preach from a set of talking points like I do but simply standing there reading (and being obvious that you are doing so by always having your eyes looking down at the printed page) often (but not always) leads to rather static, listless public speaking.

 

[Jaebius]

In my experience, people who do this, whether preachers or speech makers, are rarely as dynamic and interesting as ones leave room for embellishing and extemporizing. I accept that not everyone can preach from a set of talking points like I do but simply standing there reading (and being obvious that you are doing so by always having your eyes looking down at the printed page) often (but not always) leads to rather static, listless public speaking.

Yes, I would agree. This particular minister was quite good at his preaching - but I did feel like he could have done even better without following the manuscript word for word. The preachers who's style impresses me most are those who can give a solid message without using any notes at all. However, I think it's not a style for me.

 

[Mendalla]

Bruce Sanguin is the only minister that I have seen preach live completely note-free and do it well. He did not even use the pulpit, but stood out front and wandered a bit, rather like a presenter at a professional conference but without the teleprompter (at least I did not see one) and Powerpoints . I have thought of trying it now that my church has wireless head mikes but haven't risked it yet.

The televangelists seem to do it but I suspect they use teleprompters and just hide them well.