I have often been asked to share, step by step, how I go about preparing to preach and thought now would be a good time to do something about it. I am just beginning to prepare a new series of sermons and so I thought I would walk you through how I am going about this, in real time, as it were, as I begin.
When I am teaching Homiletics, the art or discipline of preaching, I use an analogy that likens different parts of the sermon preparation process to a human body, so I’ll follow that analogy in these posts.
Stage 1: Conception and Gestation
Stage 1b: Filling in the Background
Stage 2: Focussing on the Flesh
Stage 3: Finding the Skeleton
Stage 4: Every Text has a Heart
Stage 5: The Arms and Legs of the Text
Stage 6: The Brain of the Sermon
Stage 7: The Heart of the Sermon
Stage 8: The Flesh and Bones of the Sermon
Stage 9: The Arms and Legs of the Sermon