how i prepare to preach

I don’t find it difficult to prepare a sermon. I choose a text early in the week, read and study it, allowing the text itself to percolate through my mind and heart. Then by the weekend I start noticing themes emerging. Structure. By Saturday the main thrust of what the text wants to say starts to impress itself upon me. Sunday morning I get up really early, make coffee, put on some worship music, and jot down a basic outline in my journal. I preach extemporaneously (no notes). So that’s how I build a sermon.

The difficulty is the emotional and spiritual preparation. You carry the residue of life with you into the preaching experience. Can’t be helped. If Lisa and I are dealing with an issue in our relationship, it’s hard to shake that off for a Sunday morning… to suspend the unresolved. Or if we have struggles with our teenage children the night before, it’s difficult to release the tension. Or, if we have friends who are going through it, it’s hard to preach in the face of such urgent need. Or, if I’m going through my own little spiritual crisis, how do I preach with that trying to drag me down?

So, what I do is be myself. I try to preach the truth of the gospel through thick and thin. I believe in the steadfastness of God in Christ. I preach that, no matter what I’m going through or the people are going through. Like Barth said, he preached as if nothing was happening. He didn’t let circumstances determine the truth because he believed that the truth determined circumstances. I get in front of the people Sunday morning and try to be as weak, honest and transparent as possible, but also try to preach what I’ve prepared with the boldness of Paul. I’m a clay vessel, and a cracked one at that. But so are all the people. Leonard Cohen said that’s how the light gets in.