How to Write a Sermon

Series Summary

Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ as presented in the New Testament of the Bible. Christians believe that Jesus is the son of God and the messiah prophesied about in the Hebrew Bible. Playing a prominent role in the shaping of Western civilization since the 4th century, Christianity has between 1.5 billion and 2.1 billion adherents. In this free video series on Christianity, a retired pastor and teacher explains facts about the Christian religion. Find out how to write a sermon and where to study sermons online. Get information about purgatory and infant baptism ceremonies. Learn about the Sermon on the Mount and facts about evangelism. Gain knowledge about the Christian faith today with these free videos.

Video Transcript

"How to write a sermon is a very difficult topic, but I'm going to give you some suggestions and resources that might help you at least get started. The first one is really very important, I think, is that whatever tradition you are as in denomination, or faith tradition, speak to your priest or your pastor or your rabbi about the resources that they might have locally for you, or even suggestions about what to read, and I think that would be helpful. And the second would be, from your faith tradition, is to talk about the resources that your denomination might have, or your faith tradition. Whichever avenue you want to explore, I think that those are initial resources that you might have at hand very quickly. Now there are other areas that you could look at very quickly to find resources. My suggestion is, is to look in some of the main religious publications, such as Cokesbury, which is located in Asheville. You'll also find AnnaMaria Press, for the Catholic tradition in Notre Dame, Indiana. You'll also find other religious denominations and Christian bookstores will have several types of books available, such as Thomas Long... his second edition on the book Witness of Preaching. It's an excellent resource, as it anything from David Butrick, or Fred Craddock. Those are significant people in the field of sermon preparation, and there are whole little sets of commentaries that are helpful that might be in your faith tradition's library. Like this series of books... it's called Interpretation. This particular one is on the gospel of Luke, from Fred Craddock. These are the kinds of resources that will help you the most in finding ways to preach. Now there is no way to escape whatever your religious tradition is, is to look into the sacred scriptures of your particular faith tradition, because these are at the very bases of any sermon that is preached in any faith tradition. So please, make time to make sure that you spend a specific amount of time in your faith tradition. And finally, that regular discipline of study is the thing that will most nurture and give you opportunities to search out timely topics and relevant passages of your sacred scriptures to apply to people's daily lives. Remember, you're not up there speaking about how wonderful you are, but how wonderful the faith tradition is, and how it can benefit people to nurture them, to care for them, and give them direction for life."