Language to listen to

3 A step-by-step guide to sermon preparation
Language to listen to

A sermon is a spoken event. The ‘sermon’ is not the script, even where that script is available to take away and read, but the event in which the sermon is delivered and the congregation responds. That event takes place only once; its impact must therefore be immediate. The congregation has one chance to hear the message – even where it is available afterwards through the internet, the immediate impact needs to be sufficient to persuade them to listen again – so the sermon must be as comprehensible as possible at first hearing…