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Preaching from a full manuscript has fallen out of favour in recent years, as the emphasis on lively delivery, authenticity and personal connection has grown. In his book Preaching on your Feet: Connecting God and the Audience in the Preachable Moment( B & H Academic, 2008) Fred R. Lybrand writes,‘ Saturation is the key to authentic, high-impact preaching. A manuscript or notes become unnecessary when a preacher is truly saturated, that is, when a preacher truly understands his subject and the passage at hand’( page 102).
The clear implication here is that only those who haven’ t fully absorbed their message rely on written prompts. Others would say that pinning down what you plan to say leaves you unable to adapt to the voice of the Spirit or the needs of the hearers in the moment, effectively committing you to delivering a static, historical document. How can you remain attentive and responsive to God if you have decided ahead of time, down to the last word, what you will deliver?
These might sound like compelling arguments, but my firm opinion is that whether or not you preach from a full manuscript is a matter of personal choice and not a case of right and wrong. There are those who argue that writing out your message in full is for novices and control freaks but many universally acknowledged masters of the craft work from a script and there is nothing wrong with careful deliberation over words. In fact, preaching from a manuscript has several advantages. Firstly, it requires the preacher to work on their structure, direction and key message. You are far less likely to waffle or stray from the heart of your biblical text when you’ ve prepared what you are going to say ahead of time. Secondly, you have a full record of your sermon for future reference, whether to help you in planning and preparing preaching down the line, or to give to those who missed what you said or want to study it more carefully. Thirdly, it allows you to hone your words so that you can be sure you have found exactly what it is you want your congregation to hear and have said it in the clearest, most powerful way possible. Fourthly, it means it will be easier to deliver your sermon under difficult circumstances – if you have a bad cold, say, or if you’ ve had a rotten night’ s sleep or a run in with your spouse over breakfast.
This said, there are definitely pitfalls associated with preaching from a manuscript, so here are some ideas and pointers for avoiding those pitfalls and making the very most of your carefully constructed sermon.
LOOK OUT!
The danger with using a manuscript is that you end up looking down at a page and not out at your listeners. This means you are essentially addressing your lectern. Your voice won’ t carry, but more importantly, you risk undermining the connection you need for your sermon to hit home. When I first started preaching, I would literally write‘ LOOK UP!’ in huge letters in the margin on every page. Eye contact makes communication hugely more effective, and it is that much harder to maintain if you need to keep returning to what you have written down. I’ m not saying you can’ t do it, just that you need to work at making sure it happens. To get a sense of how well you are managing the balance of looking down and up, you could set up a camera and record yourself one Sunday, or perhaps ask a friend to pay particular attention and give you feedback.
MAKE YOUR SCRIPT USER-FRIENDLY
When preaching from a manuscript, it is really important that you are able to see what you are planning to say quickly and easily. Choose a font face and size that you can read at a glance and don’ t use single spacing unless you have it pretty much memorised. I was taught to put only what I can say in a breath on each line, which uses a lot of paper but does mean you rarely get lost. The other thing I do is use a highlighter to mark the start of a new section, a key point, or a quote. And it is always wise to number your pages just in case you drop them half way through.