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Parker Manuel

Preview prototype, still being built. “From the guide” sections are Parker’s words; everything else is an editorial draft for review, not cleared for public release. Worked examples are fictional. Preview hub

Installment 3

Choose the text and discover it yourself

Choose a passage, soak in its context, and observe it carefully yourself before reading anyone else.

Editorial draft for review. “From the guide” sections are Parker's words; “Working it out,” examples and worksheets are editorial.

Guide sections: The Sermon Prep System — Step 1: Choose text; The Sermon Prep System — Step 2: Personal discovery first

Read

Read “From the guide” first, out loud if you can. Then read “Working it out.”

From the guide

Step 1: Choose the text

Identify your passage.

Read:

  • the chapter before
  • the chapter after
  • the entire book (if possible)

1–12 verses is usually ideal.

Soak in context.

Let the Word speak to you before you speak to others.

Step 2: Personal discovery first

Before commentaries:

Ask:

  • What is repeated?
  • What is commanded?
  • What is promised?
  • What is revealed about God?
  • What is revealed about people?
  • What bothers me?
  • What encourages me?
  • What would a skeptic say?

Write as many questions as possible in 20 minutes.

If you follow the verbs, you’ll usually find the meaning.

Working it out

Set the boundaries. Pick a complete unit of thought and be able to say why it starts and ends where it does.

Twenty minutes, no commentaries. Set a timer. Write every question the passage raises, without stopping to answer them. Your questions are material for the sermon.

Follow the verbs. Who acts, who receives, and what changes?

Check the setting (editorial addition). What genre is this? Who first received it, and what was their situation? A command or promise given to a specific person or group may not apply to everyone in the same way.

Worked example (fictional, process only)

Sample work on Mark 4:35–41. A preacher set the passage's boundaries at the new scene that begins in 4:35 and the disciples' closing question in 4:41 (“Who then is this…?”). Reading the chapter before, she noticed the passage follows Jesus' parables about the kingdom, and the scenes after it (5:1–43) keep answering that question by showing his authority. In twenty minutes she wrote 23 questions. Her observation sheet listed a word repeated three times, two commands, and one question she could not yet answer. She did not decide what the passage meant yet.

Discuss

  1. Why does your passage begin and end where it does?
  2. What comes just before and after it, and how does the whole book frame it?
  3. Which verbs carry the action, and who is doing what?
  4. What in the passage bothers you, encourages you, or would raise a skeptic's question?

Mentor: do the 20-minute exercise on the same passage and compare lists.

Practice

Read the chapter before, the chapter after, and the whole book if you can. Then set a 20-minute timer and write as many questions as possible. Work through Parker's eight questions on the observation sheet. Do all of this before opening any commentary. If one of the eight does not apply, write “not present in this passage” and why. Mark each line as an observation (what the words say) or an inference (what you conclude from them).

Worksheet

Copy onto paper or download below; nothing is saved here.

Passage (book, chapter, verses)
Why it starts here / ends here
What comes before / after
Genre and first audience
My 20-minute questions (how many?)
What is repeated
What is commanded
What is promised
What is revealed about God
What is revealed about people
What bothers me / encourages me
What a skeptic would say
Key verbs (who does what)
Observation or inference? (mark each line above)

Review

Artifact: Context notes, 20-minute question list and observation sheet.

Complete when: The question list and all eight observation questions are done before any outside reading. Each observation points to words in a verse, and any question marked “not present in this passage” gives a reason.

  • Boundaries are explained by something in the text.
  • Context before and after is noted.
  • 20-minute question list exists.
  • All eight answered, or marked “not present in this passage” with a reason; each observation points to words in a verse.
  • No commentary opened yet.
  • Observations and inferences are marked.

Mentor feedback

Bring the work you made, not just your answers. Show one place where the passage shaped a decision. Name one strength, choose one useful improvement, and check the revision together.

  1. Name one real strength in the work.
  2. Name one priority improvement, based on evidence in the work.
  3. Revise, then recheck against the review list.