As the guest speaker for the Backstory Preaching Collective+ last week, Dr. Donna Giver-Johnston began our time by saying that no preacher must preach without notes—and encouraged us to preach in the manner that most frees us to be fully present, whether that’s with or without notes or manuscript.
However, she shares ways to ensure a manuscript doesn’t come between our message and our listeners but rather becomes a tool or a step in the process toward connection.
In her new book*, Writing for the Ear, Preaching from the Heart, Dr. Giver-Johnston writes:
I have cultivated homiletical habits through a process I call “writing for the ear, preaching from the heart.” It recovers the lost art of oral performance and describes a proven method by which the words of the preacher do not just go in one aching ear and out the other but whereby the sermon is imprinted on the longing hearts of listeners today.
For those who want to get away from the page but don’t know how to get started, and for those who fear “all the things” that can happen when not using a manuscript, her book offers practical tools to move in that direction, step by small step.
Preaching without notes does not mean preaching without preparation
In fact, Giver-Johnston creates a usable annotated version of a manuscript that offers plenty of security for those who worry about losing their place.
Creating a manuscript version is one way she emphasizes that preaching without notes doesn’t mean winging it in the moment; it requires just as much preparation as composing a full manuscript.
Summarizing the steps she takes in preparing her sermon, she writes:
“I write a sermon, but I write for the ear, using techniques such as reading it aloud, speaking words and phrases to see how they sound (not what they look like on paper), and continually revising.
“I do the final revising, not on a computer keyboard, but as I practice in the pulpit [early Sunday morning]. I speak them aloud and try to internalize the sermon. I rework the sentences as I practice and even as I preach to the congregation.
“The word becomes embodied in me, not just in the preaching moment, but in the weekly process of writing the sermon.”
In the book, Giver-Johnston offers her own weekly sermon prep process along with exercises to increase fluency and comfort to craft a sermon designed for the ear and preached from the heart.
For example, she calls one approach for writing for the ear “I Know You.”
“I Know You” encourages preaching to reflect back the stories of the congregation.
“Avoid using sermon illustrations from books or websites,” she says. “Instead, use what is before you and all around you. See what God is doing in the hearts and lives of people you know.”
To do so, she suggests paying attention to the stories they tell—and the ones they avoid.
Who are their heroes, those who who get talked about with amazement—and who are the ones pushed to the edges of congregational life?
More so, who never walks in the door?
Embodying the Sermon
As to preaching from the heart, Giver-Johnston helps the preacher embody the Word they are about to preach.
To do so, she suggests that the preacher first composes a sermon draft, then annotates that copy.
In this case, to annotate means “to mark your sermon text in order to make the layout clearer, the sentences simpler, and the language more compelling. Ultimately, this process will improve the ability of a preacher to proclaim a memorable word to listeners.”
Once this process is done (and she offers specific steps towards that end) and the sermon is practiced, the sermon isn’t “memorized.”
It’s better than that.
Instead, through this process, the sermon becomes so much a part of the preacher’s very being that the message is offered from their center, from their heart.
For anyone hoping to move a little—or a lot—in the direction of preaching away from the page, or for those who do already and are looking to get better at it, Giver-Johnston’s book offers both the theological grounding and practical steps preachers need.
*Giver-Johnston, Donna. Writing for the Ear, Preaching from the Heart (Working Preacher Books). Fortress Press. Kindle Edition.
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