Proclaimer Blog
The real skill of preparation
Assuming you are the kind of preacher who spends some significant prep time studying the text (and if not, what are you doing?), then I think I've worked out one of the hardest parts of the exegetical work. It's not
- Hebrew or Greek
- working out the structure
- determining the big idea
- thinking through sharp and relevant application
- writing headings
- etc, etc
It's knowing what to leave out. I wonder if this is the real skill of preparation. I'm preparing a sermon on Gen 3.14-24 at the moment. It's for our evening congregation which means it has to be about 25 minutes and straightforward. Daily Express rather than The Times. And the text is full of stuff. Really full. And I can see, even at this early stage, that one of the hardest things I will have to struggle with is what to put in and what to leave out. I think that may even be harder than working out whether Rom 16.20 has any bearing on the curse….!
It's a preparation step that will ensure the sermon hangs together and works for those who are listening, so I dare not cut it out. But here's the thing. Neither can I short cut the rest of the preparation thinking that these kinds of issues will not make it into the final cut. How can I know what to put it and what to omit unless I've done the study work first of all to see how it all fits together.
Tsk. And my Dad thinks preachers just work one hour a week.