TLDR: St. Dunstan’s taught me to create a spiritual practice around preaching.

My hope is over the next few weeks, to share a bit more about myself and to prepare you to teach and learn from your new curate, Leesa Lewis, hopefully doing some of this simultaneously. For example, I will share a bit with you about what I know about art from a study that I prepared for St. Dunstan’s, but did not teach. Having a degree in art, and being an artist, Leesa will have a much better knowledge on this topic.

Today, though, I am going to talk a bit about how I prepare a sermon. My eldest daughter asked me about this once and suggested that I blog a bit about the process. Most of St. Dunstan’s recognizes that this has been one of my growing edges, which is why Fr. Roldan had me preaching frequently, especially at the noonday prayer service. In addition to Fr. Roldan, I have received help from another priest, Fr. Les Carpenter, who is helping me expand my preaching skills.  Also, I have engaged some of the resources from Lisa Cresman. All of this together has created a spiritual practice around preaching, which I find fun and exciting.

• Sunday Afternoon/Evening - Read the scripture for the next Sunday.
  • I read through the scriptures myself, have them read aloud using this site, or even using Microsoft Word. The goal is for me to hear different versions of each scripture and see what is speaking to me. I highlight sections or words that standout to me.
• Monday
  • Early Morning: Pray on the scriptures for the coming sermon. This involves walking outside, running, listening for the spirit.
  • Morning: revise last week's sermon (what I have said to you last week likely influences the message this week).
  • Early Afternoon: Pick a question - what question has popped out to me in the scripture?
  • Mid-afternoon: The research begins. In my first seminary experience as well as here at St. Dunstan’s, I have been encouraged to find research that has been done on scriptures. I try to ensure that my resources are diverse across time periods, culture, race, gender, and occasionally sexuality. I have a world view that is uniquely my own and want to find out other’s world view as well.
• Tuesday
  • Morning: The researching continues; I am not as knowledgeable as Fr. Roldan and try to ensure that I have enough sources. Even if they do not all appear in the sermon, the reading is fun!
  • Afternoon: Outline the sermon for the week. Based on my question and research I pick a few points (no more than five!) to share with the parish. My biggest mistake early on was sharing everything when I was preaching. The more focused my sermon is the better the parish is able to understand the scripture, which is of course the point.
• Wednesday afternoon: Write the sermon.
  • This is the fun part, given the outline, I can begin writing about the topic allowing the spirit and events of the week to seep into the process.
• Thursday afternoon: Finish the sermon.
  • I make sure that the sermon begins and ends well at this point. Ending a sermon has always been the greatest challenge for me. After this, I let the sermon rest for a day.
• Saturday: Go over the sermon. I make sure to pray with the sermon and read it aloud. For my style of preaching, it is best not to memorize the sermon as I end up coming across robotics. This is not the case for all priests; however, part of curacy is finding out your strengths and weaknesses: memorization and recital is not in my wheelhouse.
• Sunday: Preach. I see preaching as a prayer. Together, we pray to God and offer the words the Spirit has given me to say. Before the service, I ensure that I have the pages in the pulpit and the sermon in order. Fr. Roldan has been gracious in allowing me to preach at all three morning services and on major feast days.

My style of preaching and method will likely change over time. Moving forward, I will likely preach on Monday Evenings. Yet, I think it is good for you as a parish to know how you have helped shape my ministry experience. Thank you to all of you for helping shape me in this way. My prayer for you today is that you are able to find the Spirit in your vocation as well.

For His Sake,

Mtr. Beth Anne +