While preparing for my sermon last week, I had a day where I hit "sermon block." The more I tried to think, the more frustrated I got. I had done my exegesis, and I read and re-read the best commentaries. Still I could not articulate in my mind the point that the writer was trying to make. I could not see where the argument was leading, let alone how I was going to communicate it. I muttered, "I couldn't think my way out of a paper bag today if my life depended on it." So I simply acted followed a piece of profound advice from Eugene Lowry's book, The Sermon: Dancing the Edge of Mystery (Abingdon, 1997).
Lowry counsels preachers to conclude sessions of sermon preparation at the point of a felt difficulty rather than at the point of closure. In other words, there's an advantage to walking away from your desk frustrated. The reason is that your mind continues to work on the sermon even when you are not consciously thinking about it! When you leave at a point of frustration, you give your mind something on which to ruminate. Yes, the mind does some of its best sermon preparation when you're concentrating on something else. That's why the best insights come when you wake up in the middle of the night or when you take the trash out to the curb on Wednesday morning.
So, I dealt with my frustration by walking away from my sermon preparation for the rest of the day. When I came back to my office the following morning, the insights started to flow. For a moment I wondered if I was brilliant! No, it wasn't that! But my mind formed some surprising insights while I was doing something else besides sermon preparation. I've been practicing Lowry's advice for a decade, and it really works. I don't walk away at the first sign of frustration. But when I'm having "one of those days," I abandon my sermon preparation for a few hours or for the rest of the day.
This approach works, but only if you get started on your sermon early in the week or even the week before you preach a particular message. You can't take a break from your sermon preparation if it's Friday afternoon or Saturday afternoon. But if you start the process early, then you don't have to fret that "Sunday's comin!" when you get hit with sermon block on Wednesday. Rather, you can relax and realize that "Thursday's coming!" ? and with it, a new set of insights that your mind put together while you were mowing your lawn or while you were sleeping.
Posted by Steve Mathewson at 10:07 AM on June 19, 2007
Comments
Walking away and allowing the message to percolate in my thoughts and heart always helps me tremendously. And it’s a lot better than be frustrated.
Thanks for the great piece.
Posted by: Greg Johnson on June 19, 2007
What is great about this idea...is that while you are not consciously thinking about the sermon, the pieces are still comign together. I think that it is hard to do better than starting preparation and then sitting back for a while...then come back with renewed vigor and understanding.
Posted by: Sherman Haywood Cox II on June 20, 2007
When I was a newspaper reporter fresh out of college, a colleague/editor showed me his trick of writing a story's lead the day before he would write the actual story. That helped then, and this same approach (though I didn't know Lowry suggested it until I just read this story) has helped with numerous messages since. Thanks!
Posted by: Dick McDonald on June 21, 2007
Thanks to Greg, Sherman, and Dick for sharing how you have practiced this principle in your own ministries! The newspaper reporter's approach certainly affirms the validity of the 'work-walk away-return' approach.
Posted by: Steve Mathewson on June 26, 2007
Thank you for your advice.
Posted by: Laila from Finland on June 29, 2007