FROM THE VAULT...How I Prepare, Victoria Lawrence
Victoria Lawrence is a youth and children’s
worker from Tonbridge Wells, and is training to
be a Local Preacher. She enjoys the theatre and
is an Arsenal fan. read Victoria’s top tips for
sermon preparation.
Regardless of the preaching context, I begin
my preparations (usually about a week or two
before I’m due to preach) in the same manner
and it’s always with prayer and Scripture. Being
a Methodist Local Preacher, most of the time, I
select my text in alignment to what the lectionary
reading is for a particular Sunday.
However I believe it’s important to allow God to interrupt all my best laid intentions
and go with what he wants to say to a particular congregation. I believe as
preachers we should be ready for God to have other ideas as to how our preaching
time is best used for his glory!
Once I’ve selected my text, I read it through usually two or three times slowly.
Studying different translations, I write down the key points and words that speak to
me. From praying into the words I have written down I try to summarise the heart
of my message in one sentence: what is it that I am wanting the congregation to
remember or live out as they go from church into the forthcoming week?
For me, highlighting a key theme or sentence early on is what I believe enables me to
deliver a ‘good’ sermon, because I am constantly asking whether the words I share
will bring something of the revelation of God to a congregation’s minds, hearts and
souls. Of course at this stage of planning you can never truly anticipate the effect
the words you share will have on the people who hear them, however I am always
expectant that the Spirit of God will be moving and he will meet everyone’s needs.
When I have the content and a rough structure in place, I try to bring alive the
text by including stories, humour, quotes from other people past and present and
wherever possible, examples from within my own life of how I am attempting to live
out and embrace the message I am preaching.
After I’m satisfied that I have all the elements of my talk in place, I read it through
aloud, to make sure that what I am saying is clear and understandable to those who
will hear it. I check that I can still sum up what I am speaking on in one sentence,
making sure I haven’t lost the essence of the subject upon which I am speaking. I
also like to envision an outcome from my talk before I speak and I spend some time
praying for that.
Finally I offer myself to God in prayer, asking that he will use me to do whatever he
wants to do and that ultimately it would be his breath that speaks through me to
bring his Good News to his beloved children. ■
8 LWPT