I've been sharing about how I tend to preach without notes. Of course I take notes when I'm studying to prepare for my sermon. I write out a lot of information. Then I'll usually do a run-through of my sermon to get a sense of what I want to say. I may refer back to the notes in this process. Then I'll take and put together my visuals to support and emphasize my message. Then I'll go through the sermon one more time with the visuals in place to make sure everything fits.

For me, running through the sermon as if I'm preaching it to the church is the best way to get a sense for what I want to say and how I want to say it. But preaching without notes leaves room for the Holy Spirit to step in and divert the sermon to a different point or direction than I originally intended.

How do you make room for the Holy Spirit while you preach?

Preaching Notes - part 2

Last week I looked at the two main methods for taking notes when preaching. But I don't use either method. Usually I try to preach without notes. This comes, in part, from my experience with non-church presentation. Look at any great presenter and you'll see that they don't use notes. Watch the TED talks and you'll see that they don't use notes. Learn from Steve Jobs who doesn't use notes.

Professional presenters don't use notes because it provides a better connection with the audience and does a better job of getting their message across. It may be difficult to get away from your notes or your script, but we only grow when we're challenged.

What would it look like for you to preach without notes? Stay tuned and I'll share some more on this process for me.

Preaching Notes

How do you put together your sermon notes? Over at the Acts 29 blog they have a good post on the difference between scripted sermons and outline sermons. Usually those are the two methods of taking notes for sermons that preaching students will learn in school. I've learned both and experimented with both myself. Personally I tend more toward the outline school, but recently I've been trying to preach without notes altogether.

I know that seems weird. There's so much information to go through in a sermon, but I find that notes often get in between me and the congregation when I'm preaching. If I prepare my sermon so that I can give it without notes I stay more connected with the people and engaged with the process. It also makes it easier to work with visuals because I can change things on the fly.

I know that my style may not work for everyone, but I'm going to share a bit about my methods in the coming posts. Take what works for you and leave the rest.

I'm curious, though, how do you take notes for your sermons?