Richard Allen Farmer

PO Box 540997

Grand Prairie, TX 75054-0997

972.642.7962

Email: raf51@sbcglobal.net

www.richardallenfarmer.com

Preaching to be Remembered

I spoke with a mentor of mine recently about this topic. I asked him if he, having

pastored one church for 42 years, ever prepared his sermons with the thought of being

remembered in mind. He referenced Harry Emerson Fosdick (late pastor of the Riverside

Church in NYC) who said that sermons are like rain. They water the soil while falling.

Then the sun comes and dries them up.

Maybe sermons are only to live for a few minutes or hours. Maybe sermons are like daily

meals. We don’t remember each one but we remember that while we were eating, we

were nourished. So, let me change the metaphor. Suppose our sermons were like

extraordinary meals. Culinary feasts. Suppose we set a table every Sunday morning,

heavy laden with the choicest of meats and vegetables and desserts. Perhaps we could set

a table at which the saints would sit down and eat a meal they’d not soon forget.

I have heard sermons that I have remembered for more than 25 years. In response, a few

years ago I began to pray a prayer in my study: “Papa please give me insight to this

passage and a way to communicate it that will last in the hearers’ ears for twenty years.”

Is that an inappropriate prayer? I think not. I work hard at the task of writing and

assembling the sermon. I do not want it forgotten by Sunday afternoon.

So, what does one do, if one buys the thesis that memorable homiletical feasts can be

prepared and delivered? How do we change the quality of our sermons so that they last in

the memories of the hearers? Note that I am not suggesting that we must always improve

the sermon. Some sermons are very good, but not memorable. That is, they are faithful to

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scripture and well constructed. However, they are full of tired language and delivered

without passion. What can we do?

1. Be done with clichés.

List the clichés that are seemingly ever-present and then avoid them.

At the end of the day

Take it to the next level

This is your season (or destiny)

The bottom line is…

Thinking outside the box

Win-win situation

Paradigm (paradigm shift)

Push the envelope

Living on the edge

???

2. Turn a phrase

That is, change the order of words in a sentence. You may also change the word itself

and, via word play, give it freshness.

This makes your sentences memorable. Some I’ve heard:

“It’s hard to be optimistic when you have a misty optic.”- Vance Havner

“During the Lewinsky scandal, Hillary Clinton switched from defending the Bill of

Rights to defending the rights of Bill”- comedian on XM radio

“We sing, God, Bless America. America, bless God.”- Anonymous

“Our preaching is not a matter of the blind leading the blind. It’s the bland leading the

bland.”- Anonymous

“He didn’t say things in a big way, he said big things”- Speechwriter Peggy Noonan

on Ronald Reagan

3. Describe items and people and events with more colorful language.

Exercise: Describe the wealthy farmer in Luke 12. Write a paragraph or two that

helps us see him.

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Illus. Read John Ortberg’s description of the same in It All Goes Back In The Box. I

have a recording of a sermon John preached from Luke 12 on this parable. I will

remember that sermon for a long time.

Illus. Gardner C. Taylor on Acts 7:56: “Standing! Standing! Heaven on tiptoe.”

Illus. “It was about as poetic as a broom”- Peggy Noonan on one of Reagan’s

speeches

Illus. “There is a temptation to rush to canonize your memory. There is no need to do

so. You stand tall enough as a human being of unique qualities, you do not need to be

seen as a saint. Indeed, to sanctify your memory would be to miss out on the very

core of your being- your wonderfully mischievous sense of humor, with a laugh

that bent you double, your joy for life transmitted wherever you took your smile,

and the sparkle in those unforgettable eyes, your boundless energy which you could

barely contain.”- Earl Spencer in his eulogy of his sister, Princess Diana

4. Use rhetorical rhythm

Caution: this can be overdone very easily. Use sparingly.

The rhythm is created by the use of similar word endings, actual rhymes or measured

cadence.

Illus. “Why have a religion that is unquestioned when you can have a religion that

has been cleansed, corrected, fortified, clarified, purified, rectified, sanctified,

beautified, magnified, qualified…”- Charles G. Adams

Illus. My passage from Experience God in Worship.116

Illus. Psalm 19:7-9 (“the___of the Lord is…)

5. Use alliteration- the use of the same letter or sound in a sequence of sentences

Caution: this can be overdone very easily. Use sparingly

Illus. What God does with our sins. He puts them

1. Behind his back,

2. Beneath his blood,

3. Beyond his beckoning. - Donald Hubbard

“He (the Lord Jesus Christ) converts you from corruption. He cleanses you from guilt

and self-condemnation. He communes with you through prayer. He counsels you with

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his word. He commissions you to serve him in a compassionate ministry to those who

need help and healing.”- J. Alfred Smith, Sr.

6. Use anaphora-the repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of successive

clauses. This is a very common device in African-American preaching. Like

every other rhetorical device, it can be overdone.

Illus. MLK, Jr’s “I Have A Dream”.

7. Use triads

“A triad is the expression of related thoughts or ideas in a group of three, often with

the initial words or sounds the same for all three, and almost always with each

element of the triad using the same grammatical form. The elements of the triad can

be single words- nouns, adjectives, adverbs or verbs. They can also be phrases,

clauses, even sentences”- Richard Dowis in The Lost Art of the Great Speech. 117

“There’s something almost mystical about the number three. It’s as if two are not

enough and four are too many.” Ibid. 116

Illus.

Earth, wind and fire

Blood sweat and tears

…that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not

perish from the earth.

Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness

“And now these three remain: faith, hope and love.”- I Cor. 13:13

For everything in the world- the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes

and boasting of what he has and does- comes not from the father but from the

world”- I John 2:16

“In essentials, unity; in non-essentials, liberty; in all things, charity.”-

Attributed to Augustine

8. Use illustrations that are dramatic, very humorous or otherwise compelling.

Avoid illustrations that are merely cute, overused or irrelevant. If you have to

work hard to make it apply, it is the wrong illustration for that presentation.

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Where do we find such illustrations?

Newspapers

Magazines

Reader’s Digest

Compilations of quotations, anecdotes and illustrations

Your little black book

Bibliography

1. Allen, Ronald J. The Teaching Sermon (Nashville: Abingdon, 1995)

2. Broadus, John A. On the Preparation and Delivery of Sermons (San Francisco:

Harper & Row, 1979)

3. Elliot, Mark Barger. Creative Styles of Preaching (Louisville: Westminster John

Knox Press)

4. Freeman, Harold. Variety in Biblical Preaching (Fort Worth: Scripta, 1987)

5. Liefield, Walter L. New Testament Exposition (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1984)

6. Lloyd-Jones, D. Martyn. Preaching and Preachers (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1972)

7. MacArthur, John, Jr. Rediscovering Expository Preaching (Dallas: Word, 1992)

8. Massey, James Earl. Designing The Sermon (Nashville: Abingdon, 1980)

9. Olford, Stephen F. Anointed Expository Preaching. (Nashville: Broadman& Holtman

Publishers, 1998)

10. Robinson, Haddon W. Biblical Preaching (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1980)

11. Robinson, Haddon W. Ed. Scott M. Gibson. Making A Difference In Preaching

(Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 1999)

12. Stott, John R. W. Between Two Worlds (Grand Rapids: William B.Eerdmans

Publishing Company, 1982)

13. Wilson, Paul Scott. The Four Pages of the Sermon (Nashville: Abingdon, 1999)

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