SERMON
PYRAMID
Have
I memorized the outline? Gone through it aloud? Did I speak the whole thing
aloud? How involved am I in it? Is there a place for vitalizing? Am I excited
with it?
11. Prepared Delivery
Are
there illogicalities in my sermon? Is it dry and concentrated though logical?
Are there clumsy, complex, dull wordings? Any sentence, illustrations, quotes
unnecessary? Have I to hurry through to finish?
10. Revision
While
preparing have I talked directly to people? Was the preparation a dialogue? Did
I see the reactions of the congregation in imagination? Who are the various
sorts of people to listen? What would they get out of it? Is it personal and
conversational?
9. Visualizing People
will
the type be large enough? Plenty of
space? Have I sued capitals, underlining and symmetrical position of words?
Will I turn or slide the paper? Do I have proper furniture, microphone clock to
check? Any distracting material to be removed from pulpit?
8. The Mechanics
Workout
my sermon on my head? Or write it down? The advantages and disadvantages of
writings?
7. Composition
Where
the whole sermon or any of its parts have too little or too much? Which parts
are likely to lack interest or clarity where should there be cutting or
strengthening? Are minor matters given major times? Should I leave out
anything, which is repetitious or redundant?
6. Proportioning
What
is the structure for the best use of material? What is the Chart on sermon’s
progress? What are the main and sub points?
5. Full Outline
What
are the possible ideas? From my own thinking, experience reading, research and
discussion? From contacts, journals, and newspapers?
4. Accumulating Ideas
What
the development might be? How to enter into and end the sermon? Is an original
sort of conception possible? What does anybody need to hear?
3. Rough Outline
What
do the reading really mean? How they can be interpreted what do commentaries,
versions dictionaries say?
2.
Bible Research
Stating
the purpose: General purpose: what is my specific goal? What does the
congregation need to hear? What do Bible
readings say? What is most prominent in people’s mind? What is the special
feature of liturgical season?
1.Picking the Theme
HOW TO WRITE A HOMILY?
The
writer of the homily has to Scripture texts and reflected on the needs of his
people. From these two sources he has decided what particular aspect of the
general theme should be the message in his homily. Now he begins to think of
the Human approach in presenting his message.
1.
First Stage: Human Approach
He starts from a
real life experience that corresponds in some way to the scripture event. It
may be an incident or just a remark or a quotation from some author or any
simple little fat that reflects the human values recognized inn the scripture
readings. This not only gets the attention of the listeners but they can relate
to it. In this way he is laying the foundation on which he is going to build.
2.
Second Stage: Anthropological Constant
(Globalising)
An incident in
itself may not appeal to the whole congregation. The preacher must show the
universally accepted values contained in it so that each and every person may
identify with them. We all have the same human nature so that this stage can
easily be carried out. Unfortunately many omit it and take away from the force
of their communication.
3.
Third Stage: Revelation
Now we have to
throw the light of revelation on these human values. We can use the readings
the people have just listened to (without just retelling the parable or the
incident contained in them). We can also use the teaching of the Church,
council documents, t4adition and lives of the saints, the content of the
liturgy etc. these should be a core of doctrine in every homily. Without this
we can fail into the fault of mere moralizing. We now go on to draw out the
implications of this doctrine for our daily living. (Moralising is giving a
series of ‘dos’ and ‘donts’ in the abstract).
4.
Forth Stage: Consequence for Daily Living
We link up God’s
revelalito0n with the situation in which our people find themselves. As far as
possible we talk in concrete terms about the Christian response Christ is
asking them here and now.
5.
Fifth Stage: Link with the Eucharist Celebration
A little thought
makes it easy to link our homily with the Eucharist. The homily is intended to
help them towards a more meaningful celebration. Since the Christian life is
the living of the Paschal Mystery and the Eucharist is the celebration of this
same mystery the link is easily made. We show them how to live the Mass in the
particular aspects treated of in the holily.
To
Sum up:1. Start from life-- from a real life experience that
corresponds to Scripture event. Analyze its human value, its
meaning on human level.
2.
Shed light of Scripture on this human experience draw
out significance of this; its bearing on our situation.
3.
Draw
out what this implies in daily life, showing how the mystery of salvation which
we celebrate and in which we share in the liturgy of the Sacrament gibes new
life and calls for Christian living (Avoid mere moralising).
MANAGEMENT OF THE VOICE WHILE PREACHING
A few hints
may be profitably borne in mind.
1.
Do not begin on too high a key. One is particularly apt
to do this in the open air, or in a large and unfamiliar church, or when much
excited. It is wonderful how difficult a speaker finds it to lower the main key
on which he has once fairly stated. He may become aware of it in three minutes
and make repeated effort to correct the mistake, but in most cases he will
fail, and when impassioned passages come, in which the voice must rise, it will
rise to a scream. Every one has often witnessed this process. It is, of course,
not impossible to change the key, and this should be carefully attempted when
necessary. But the great matter is to avoid beginning wrong. Tenor voices, it
obvious, are especially apt to begin too high.
We must not begin on a high key, and
yet the text should be distinctly heard. The difficulty thus arising when the
audience is large may be overcome by stating the texts slowly, distinctly and,
if necessary, a second time, and by projecting the voice, instead of elevating
it.
2.
Do not suffer the voice to drop in the last words of a
sentence. Though it must often sink, returning to the general pitch of the
discourse. It must not fall too suddenly or too low. It is not uncommon for the
last words to be quite inaudible.
3.
Never fail to take breath before the lungs are
entirely exhausted; and usually keep them well filled. This will generally be
done without effort in extemporaneous speaking; but in recitation and reading
it requires special attention. Moned says: “ For this purpose, it is
necessary to breathe quite often, and to take advantages of little rests in the
delivery.” A speaker must not gasp
in his breath through the mouth but breath through the nostrils, regularly and
steadily. He must keep the head and neck in an upright posture for the sake of
breathing freely as well as for other reasons; and there must be nothing right
around his throat.
4.
Look frequently at the remotest hearers, and see to
it that they hear you. If particular persons anywhere in the room have grown
inattentive, they may often be aroused by quietly aiming the voice at them for
a moment.
5.
Let there be variety-of pitch, of force, and of
speed. Monotony is utterly destructive of eloquence. But variety of utterance
must be gained, not by assuming it from without, but by taking care to have a
real and marked variety of sentiment, and then simply uttering each particular
sentiment in the most natural manner. Emphasis requires much attention. In
speaking, a correct emphasis will be spontaneous whenever one is fully in
sympathy with his subjects.
For the rest, let rules alone, and think
not about your voice but your subject and those on whom you wish to impress it.
Except that when some marked fault has attracted attention or been pointed out
by a friend, care must be taken to avoid it hereafter.
PERSONALITY OF THE SPEAKER: IMPLICATION
The
qualifications we have received are very demanding. Such goals may not be
realized in our lifetime, but they none the less serve as goals which the sprit
of God can help implement so that we may be more effective in filling the call
of God.
The ingredients of a speaker combine
to make up what the rhetoricians have traditionally called ethos. Note the
well-known comments of Aristotle regarding ethos.
Persuasion is achieved by
the speaker’s personal character when the speech is so spoken as to make us
think him credible. We believe good men more fully and more readily than others;
this is true generally whatever the question is and absolutely true where exact
certainty is impossible and options are divided. This kind of persuasion, like
the others, should be achieved by what the speaker says, not by what people
think of his character before he befits to speak. It is not true, as some
writers assume in their treaties on rhetoric, that the personal goodness
reveals by the speaker contributes nothing to his power of percussion; on the
contrary, his character may almost be called the most affective means of
percussions he possesses.
Twenty-five centuries of
history note seriously altered this conclusion. The possibility exists that
Aristotle was wrong in assuming that ethos is the most powerful of the three
means of persuasion, but modern experimentation does support the conclusion
that ethos contributes to persuasiveness.
For
our purpose it is helpful to note that ethos is of two basic types: antecedent ethos which is the role title,
position that a man brings into situation, and manifests ethos, which is what
the man actually projects in the speaking situation.
Even
if a man has no antecedent’s ethos to speak of, he may earn status with his
hearers during his message or address. Ethos may also be altered in adding to
being created. The dress, voice, manner perceived sincerely, the introduction
given to the speech all these have their effects upon changing the speaker’s
ethos.
Contemporary
studies of ethos have settled on the following elements in defending this
concept operationally: 1) Expertness 2) Trustworthiness 3) Personal Dynamism.
It can be argued with empirical evidence as support that the personal life and
character of the preacher does have its impact. And the things that have been
said in homiletics textbooks for many years are basically true, there must be
integrity, the man who says one things and does another cannot be trusted, and
the man who loves the good life does another have a claim to listeners.
Integrity breaks down when there is separate existence of the house of life and
the house of doctrine.
A significant
form of preparation for preaching is preparation of the preacher. Effectiveness
in the pulpit is indeed tied to the life, the integrity, the Christian
character of the man, which declares the gospel. Good men are of their message
and will be heard.
THE PREACHRERS’ QUALIFICATIONS
1. PIETY: Piety is a
quality of soul. It is moral earnestness rooted in a continuing experience of
fellowship with God. It is reverent devotion to the will of God. It is not a pose
that is struck. It is not suture but moves with the glow and warmth of the
Christian grace. It is not otherworldly in any sense of proud withdrawal from
human interests but mingles with life in the strength of Christian virtues. It
is not weak but heroic and is the inspiration of the heroism, which is the
“brilliant triumph of the soul over the flesh”. It is spiritual reality that
entertains no simulation, and spiritual realism that recognizes and challenges
the moral and spiritual enemies of life. It is not too much to say that this
quality of spirit is the prime requisite to effectiveness in preaching. It
inspires the preacher himself with ardent zeal, and keeps the flame alive amid
all the icy indifferences by which he will so often be encompassed. It gains
foe him the good will and sympathy of his hearers, the most ungodly of whom
will fell that devout earnestness on his part is becoming and entitles him to
respect. And to this is promised the blessing of God upon the labors, which it
prompts. Much false theory and bad practice in preaching is connected with a
failure theory and bad practice in preaching is of piety in the preacher. Just
rhetoeucal principles as well as other and far higher consideration imperative
require that a preacher of the gospel shall cultivate personal piety. It is bad
rhetoric to neglect it.
2. NATURAL
GIFTS: The preacher needs the capacity for clear thinking, with
strong feelings, and a vigorous imagination; also capacity for expression, and
the power of forcible utterance. Many other gifts help his usefulness; these
are well nigh indispensable to any high degree of efficiency. Each of these can
be improved almost indefinitely, some of them developed in one who had not been
conscious of possessing them, but all must exist as natural gifts.
3.
KNOWLEDGE: There must be knowledge of religious truth and of
such things as throw light upon it, knowledge of human nature in its relations
to religious truth and of human life in its actual conditions around us. It was
a favorite idea of Cicero that the orator ought to know everything. There is of
course, no knowledge, which a preacher might not make useful. We may thankfully
recognize the face that some men do good who have very slender attainments and
yet may insists that it should be the preacher’s lowest standard to surpass, in
respect of knowledge, the great; majority of those who hear him, and it should
be the sacred ambition to know all that he can learn by lifelong and prayerful
endeavor.
Piety furnishes motive power;
natural gifts; cultivated as far as possible, supply means; knowledge gives
material; and there remains.
4. SKILL: This
does not refer to style and delivery but also to the collection, choice, and
arrangement of materials. All who preach eminently well and the same thing is
true of secular speakers will be found, with scarcely an exception, to have
labored much to acquire skill. Henry Clay became an accomplished orator by
diligent cultivation of his natural gifts. In an address to some law students
at Albany towards the close of his life he mentioned that during his early life
in Kentucky, he commenced, and continued for years, the practice of daily
reading and speaking upon the contents of some historical or scientific book.
These off hand efforts were made sometimes in cornfield, yet others in the
forest and not infrequently in some distant barn with the horse and the ox for
my auditors.
We are told that the Indian orators
were known to practice their speeches beside a clear pool as mirror.
VERBAL DELIVERY
1.RATE:
The normal speaking
rate is between 125 and 190 words per minute. A reduction in listen-ability
begins somewhere above 200 words per minute. Speakers should strive to be rapid
enough to show vitality and yet slow enough to be certain; there is distinct
articulation and comprehensibility. A proper rate is one that is both varied
and sufficiently rapid to insure interest in the sermonic movement. As a
congregation increases in number and the acoustics become more difficult, the
rate should be slow and down to accommodate that particular situation.
2.VOLUME:
Some
speakers prefer to shout in and attempt to add emphasis. However, when a sermon
is simply an extended shouting session, there is no emphasis art all. Sometimes
a decrease in volume will give the desired emphasis. Unfortunately, it is too
seldom used. Any change in pave or pattern will help a speaker to achieve a
measure of emphasis. And of course we should not confuse volume with unction.
3. TONE:
A frequent fault of
pulpit men is the so-called preachers tone or ministerial melody. This
strange-glass voice is characterized by a habitual pitch tone, that is, it
“makes statements sound like questions, the preacher gives a rising inflection
at the end of indicative sentence just as he would with interrogative
sentences.”
4.
EMPHASIS:
There is a verbal form
of underlining know as emphasis though which we stress important words and
subdue those that are less important. Newkrik Lamar’s very helpful book, how to
speak the written word, says that able communicators have generally avoided two
pitfalls common to public speakers: Overdramatic speech and colorless speech.
One, they have discovered is as bad as the other. Triumphed-up enthusiasm is
readily detected. Audiences feel embarrassed in the presence of such speakers.
They are trouble by the experience so much that they frequently, feel contempt
for the charlatan. When this occurs in the pulpit it is especially heinous.
Falseness in delivery marks the sermon with questionable ness. Frequently, falseness
arises out of noble intentions. The preacher wants the people to be
enthusiastic about his message, but when he finds no natural enthusiasm within
him he restores to fabrication. The results are reciprocally disastrous. On the
other hand, he becomes an actor (of the method school variety) instead of a
person whose method is an indigenous whole characterized by verbal and
naturalness.
GESTURES
The
language of the gesture is important. Many distinct and meaningful signals may
be sent via the gesture. Generally, they should be omitted during the opening
moments of the sermon because people are not yet prepared. They must first warm
to the message and the messenger. Once the preacher and parishioners are
involved in the sermon, gestures are very appropriate with in the total
communicative process. One textbook on preaching says:
There are four-conversasional
gestures, so-called because they are the basic hand and arm movements from
which all other gestures are derived. The index finger gesture is one of
location and mild emphasis. The clenched fist denotes dramatic ad strong
emphasis. The palm-up gesture reflects affirmative and ever pleading emotion.
The palm-down gesture displays disapproval, rejection, or contempt. Descriptive
gestures, which are variations and communications of the conversational
actions, are as infinite as the moods they communicate.
Gestures are very easy for some, and
very difficult for others. Whatever you do, make certain that your gestures are
natural. Avoid these titled extremes of elocutionism. This is no place in a
manuscript to record the appropriate gesture. If it comes, fine. If it does not
come, well and good. They should not be tacked on. They should flow very
naturally from a wholehearted involvement with the message being shared.
What are the qualities of good
Gesture? They certainly ought to be definite. Either makes a gesture or do not
make it. There is no value to half with hands or flailing of the arms is always
distracting. This king of perpetual motion is simply a nervous churning of the
sir. Those who practice such gymnastics are advices to put their hands on the
pulpit until they learn control. The ‘face fondlers’, ‘tied tightness’, and
‘pants jokers’.
Gestures should be characterized by
variety. It is very easy to fall into
some comfortable pattern in which you use the same gestures again and again. A
thoughtful critic, church officer, or faithful friend should be regularly
consulted to discourage if there is anything that needs attention. I once heard
of an eccentric professor who, when his lecture approached a high point, would
make a circular gesture in the air. And once he hit that point, he would
puncture the circle with his pointed finger. Rather than being helpful, this
move was looked upon by the class as rather humorous division from the
otherwise dull lectures. Variety, not predictability, is essential.
Gesture ought to be properly timed.
A gesture that is either premature or late confounds than confirms truth.
Gestures, in summery, must flow naturally from the material as an indigenous
part of the preacher’s total expression of truth.
EYE CONTACT
Preaching
is a form of conversation. It necessitates an awareness of the listener who is
being addresses. When the congregation is viewed simply as blurred mass, the
preacher is too wrapped us in his own thoughts and manuscripts of his
listeners. Stevenson and Dielhl say:
When you
talk with people look at them, one by one and see what they are saying back to
you pantomimically. Keep yourself in dialogue with your listeners. Some
ministers address their small congregations as though they were vast concourses
of two thousand people. The late Charles H Spurgeon is said to have addressed
two thousand people as though he were speaking personally to one man.
Because the preachers are not caring
on a soliloquy, they are to look people in the eye, not simply staring but
seeing them so as to discover what their reactions are. The goal is more mental
directness than more physical directness, a relationship with the listener,
which makes him feel that the speaker is thinking of him and talking personally
to him. This goal is difficult to achieve for the manuscript-bound preacher.
According to one study, as would be expected, audience do prefer maintenance of
good eye contact in a face-to-face situation.
Speaker ought to gaze adequately
toward each listener successively or toward well-spread representatives
listeners when the audience is too large for contact with each individual. One
should avoid looking downward, out the windows, or over the listener’s heads.
Too much concentration on certain sections or individuals, while ignoring
others should be avoided. One man whose messages are thoughtfully prepared and
generally well delivered, gazes over the listeners heads to the back of the
sanctuary. Although the truth he shares is important, one senses remoteness in
the interchange. The electric spark, which should leap between pulpit and pew
never, occurs when no eye contact is affected. The speaker should strive for a
balance between blankness of expression and an intensity of eye contact created
by starting. Adequately pause for a second or two with a listener, and then
move to others. On the other hand, rapid eye movement, which is shifty and
darting, which does not stay long enough on any individual, gives an impression
of anxiety.
Certain mechanical hindrances to eye
contact should be cared for. Eye, glasses sometimes glare, especially when
lighting is at a bad angle. Unbalanced or other wise inadequate lighting, a
difficult angle between the pulpit and the pews, or placement of the speaker at
too great a distance form the audience all these contribute to the problem.
When there is a lack of eye contact a barrier is crated. People should inspire
us; look at them in ordered that they may do it. Eye contact gives the speaker
an opportunity to interpret the effect of what he says. Sensitivity to
interpret the effect of what he says. Sensitivity needs to be developed-it will
serve you well. Give everyone the impression that he is important and that you
are interested in communicating with him.
Precious
Blood Missionaries
