Learn to preach

How each lesson will work

1. 1. Guide
2. 2. Template
3. 3. Lesson
4. 4. Practice
5. 5. Optional feedback

1. Lesson 1: Start with the passage

   Planned outcome: Choose a preaching unit and state what it says in your own words.

   Editorial draft — prototype wording for review. Not written by Parker and not quoted from his guide.

   You will be able to

   • Choose a complete unit of thought, not a fragment.
   • Name the book's genre and how that genre usually communicates.
   • Describe the original author's situation and audience in two or three sentences.

   Passage observation worksheet (draft)

   1. Where does this unit begin and end? What signals the boundaries (a change of scene, speaker, topic or argument)?
   2. What genre is this (narrative, letter, poetry, prophecy, wisdom, gospel, apocalyptic)? What does that genre ask of a reader?
   3. Who wrote it, to whom, and what was happening for them? Note where your answer comes from.
   4. What would the first hearers have needed from this passage?

   Practice exercise

   Read the passage aloud three times in one sitting. After each reading, write one sentence describing what it is about. Compare the three sentences.

   Video: not recorded yet.

2. Lesson 2: Understand what it means

   Planned outcome: Write one sentence summarizing the passage's meaning in its context.

   Editorial draft — prototype wording for review. Not written by Parker and not quoted from his guide.

   You will be able to

   • Separate what the text says (observation) from what it means (interpretation).
   • Support each interpretation with something you observed.
   • Mark questions you cannot yet answer instead of guessing.

   Observation and interpretation worksheet (draft)

   1. List at least ten things the text actually says: repeated words, connecting words (because, therefore, but), commands, contrasts, who acts and who receives.
   2. For each observation, ask: why is this here? Write your interpretation in a second column.
   3. Which interpretations rest on an observation? Which rest on assumption? Cross out or flag the second kind.
   4. How does the surrounding chapter, and the whole book, shape the meaning?

   Practice exercise

   Make a two-column page: Observation | Interpretation. Do not write in the right column until the left has at least ten entries.

   Video: not recorded yet.

3. Lesson 3: Build the sermon

   Planned outcome: Arrange the movements that carry the main claim from the text.

   Editorial draft — prototype wording for review. Not written by Parker and not quoted from his guide.

   You will be able to

   • State the passage's main claim in one sentence a listener could repeat.
   • Build movements that follow the passage's own flow.
   • Check that every movement serves the main claim.

   Big idea and structure worksheet (draft)

   1. Complete: This passage is about ______, and it says ______ about it.
   2. Can someone repeat your big idea after hearing it once? Shorten it until they can.
   3. List the passage's natural sections. Which sermon movement does each one become?
   4. For each movement: what does it explain, and how does it move the listener toward the big idea?

   Practice exercise

   Write your big idea on a card. Read each planned movement and mark it ✓ (serves the idea) or ✗ (interesting but off track). Cut or rework every ✗.

   Video: not recorded yet.

4. Lesson 4: Apply it faithfully

   Planned outcome: Draw applications that follow from the text, not around it.

   Editorial draft — prototype wording for review. Not written by Parker and not quoted from his guide.

   You will be able to

   • Connect the text's original purpose to today's listeners.
   • Distinguish what the passage requires from what is only one possible response.
   • Include application for belief and character, not only action.

   Application check worksheet (draft)

   1. What did this passage call its first hearers to believe, feel or do?
   2. What is the same between their situation and ours? What is different?
   3. Is each application required by the text, or one wise example of it? Say which out loud.
   4. Who in your congregation might hear this application as a burden, and what does the passage say to them?

   Practice exercise

   Write three applications. Beside each, note the verse or observation it comes from. Remove any application you cannot trace back to the text.

   Video: not recorded yet.

5. Lesson 5: Refine and deliver

   Planned outcome: Tighten the manuscript and plan a practice run before Sunday.

   Editorial draft — prototype wording for review. Not written by Parker and not quoted from his guide.

   You will be able to

   • Cut material that does not serve the big idea.
   • Practise aloud and time the sermon.
   • Plan clear transitions and a focused ending.

   Delivery practice checklist (draft)

   1. Which paragraph could you remove without losing the big idea? Remove it.
   2. Read each transition aloud. Does a listener know where they are and where they are going?
   3. How long did your practice run take compared with your target time?
   4. What is the one sentence you most want people to remember? Where does it appear?

   Practice exercise

   Do one full practice run out loud, standing, with a timer. Note every place you stumbled or lost your place, and revise those lines.

   Video: not recorded yet.