One of the truly new experiences for me in this new phase of my life is that we have to find a church! In college, I just went to the American Baptist Church in town because that was what I knew. In seminary I had class assignments or jobs in churches and as an adult churches found me.
But this past Sunday the Beloved and I visited a church. We had a good experience -- not perfect, but I certainly know better than to expect perfect. We were welcomed vigorously by a number of people beyond the "assigned" Greeters. Several people sat down to chat with us at the fellowship time following the service. The preacher gave an EXCELLENT sermon, and she did it all without any notes.
I am in awe of those who preach without any notes at all. I've only preached from a manuscript once that I recall (maybe twice), but I've always used what I referred to as a "thick outline" or a thought map or note cards. For one thing, I tend to be a "late writer" -- as in often writing early Sunday morning. I've been thinking about, working on the sermon all week, it's just that sometimes it doesn't come together until Sunday morning in the shower. That doesn't really give me time to memorize it, not even the outline.
I also don't trust myself enough to preach without notes. If I don't write it down I have both a tendency to wander as I speak extemporaneously and to forget important points I wanted to make until we're singing the closing hymn.
I offer all this because several people in the fellowship time asked us if we liked the service. I don't know how to answer that. "Oh, yes, we had fun!"? "No, you used non-inclusive language and I don't like singing without music and I do a different order."? My response was to smile and say, "Your pastor is an excellent preacher." And one woman said, "Oh, yes, isn't she? And she does it all without notes. It really comes from the heart."
This struck me because in one church I served a man continually told me I should preach without notes because he wanted me to preach "from the heart." And it bothered me. Why should preaching with notes, or a manuscript for that matter, not be from the heart? Does writing something down negate its sincerity, its authenticity? Are love letters not from the heart?
My preaching process has always been a kind of a mystical experience for me, which is to say I work on it with a heart and mind tuned to the Holy Spirit's guidance in what to say and how to say it. After a number of years I began to see preaching as a kind of performance art -- there was no way I could duplicate or recycle a sermon ("dip into the barrel") even if I wanted to -- the circumstances of who was listening and the time in which it was delivered were different and because it was from the heart, the sermon changed as well. Sometimes the tinkering was minor, but it was always different.
A sermon is an odd kind of a creation, and the best ones are born of a love for God, a love for scripture, and love for the people who are listening. The preacher can give it a liveliness in delivery that it does not have on paper; most sermons are average reading at best, even when they created electric reactions in their hearers. But a sermon that has been written and memorized so that it can be delivered without notes is no more "from the heart" than one that is read from a manuscript. A love letter, read aloud may be (may be) more authentic and sincere and can be read again when one needs to remember a word of encouragement, reassurance, and inspiration.
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