How is a sermoan prepared?
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1. Choose the Preaching Portion.
2. Read and Study Entire Context of Preaching Portion.
3. Read Repeatedly Through Preaching Portion – Perhaps as Many as a Dozen Times.
4. Outline the Passage.
5. Check Key Words and Phrases in the Original Language.
6. Discover the Theme of the Passage.
7. Consult Commentaries and the Writings of Others.
8. Discover an Angle for the Sermon.
9. Formulate a Proposition.
10. Write the Sermon Outline.
11. Write the Sermon Draft.
12. Choose a Title.
13. Revise, Tighten, and Reword Where Necessary.
14. Get the Final, Printed Copy to the Church Secretary for Distribution to Absentees, Deaf Ministry, Shut-ins, etc.
15. Preach Message. Distribute Tapes and Printed Copies.
16. Repeat This Process, at Least in Part, for the Evening Service. Start Over Again on Monday.
Adapted from http://preacherstudy.com/time3.html
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Exactly like a teacher does in every classroom worldwide:
- reflecting on subject matter
- consulting reference material
- consulting curriculum / institution guidelines
- considering age and ability of students
- preparing material
- delivering material
- getting feedback from students via assessments / tests
- evaluating effectiveness of material and delivery for each student
- remediating if necessary
- repeat for every class
Absolutely no different at all and exactly the same process - only a teacher does far more. No clergy sets an assessment or test. No clergy does sermoans every day of the working week.
No sermoan is is complicated. No sermoan is geared above a person of average intelligence. No sermoan goes into great detail. No sermoan is a literary masterpiece. They are also simple monologues geared to Stage 3 or lower in Fowler's Stages of Faith and using language and vocabulary of an average 10 year old.
I offered to write a full year's sermoans for one famous Aussie clergyman and do it in one day - for the cost of his yearly salary. I even told him how it could be done.
You pick out special days and look at bible verses that related to them - Mother's Day, Father's Day, Australia Day, etc. You do a month each on Easter and Christmas. With those five items mentioned you already have 11 different week's material - almost a quarter of the year. You only use the most popular bible verses found at http://www.topverses.com/ and fill in the rest of the year using those bible verses. You consult sermon outlines to pinch material from such as that from http://sermonoutlines.org/
You make three simple points for each sermoan such as the areas of:
1. Meaning
2. Application
3. Evaulation
Dead easy and simple to do. It is a simple creative writing exercise. I can do a year's sermoans in 24 hours and my offer is still open to any clergy who want to test me. My fee is the clergy's complete yearly salary (including love gifts, fees for speaking engagements as a visiting minister and at seminars and retreats, sale of dvds & books, perks, etc.)
Paying clergy a salary for a 20 plus hour writing of a sermoan is a scam that requires exposing.
For a related article see http://www.stufffundieslike.com/2011/11/how-to-write-a-sermon/ I quote from that link: "No good sermon should ever take more than 20 or 30 minutes to write. If you’re spending more time than that, you’re doing it wrong and should probably just use the sermon that you heard a guy preach at that conference that one time."
