How to Preach without Notes , livre ebook

How to P REACH WITHOUT N OTES
How to P REACH WITHOUT N OTES
Charles W. Koller
1962, 1964, 2007 by Baker Book House Company
Published by Baker Books a division of Baker Publishing Group P.O. Box 6287, Grand Rapids, MI 49516-6287 www.bakerbooks.com
New paperback edition published 2007
Combined paperback edition originally published 1997 by Baker Books
Combined hardcover edition first published 1969
Previously published as separate volumes under the titles Expository Preaching without Notes (LC 62-21703) and Sermons Preached without Notes (LC 64-15866).
Printed in the United States of America
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means-for example, electronic, photocopy, recording-without the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Koller, Charles W., 1896-1983. [Expository preaching without notes] How to preach without notes / Charles W. Koller. p. cm. First work originally published : Expository preaching without notes. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker Book House, 1962. 2nd work originally published : Sermons preached without notes: Grand Rapids : Baker Book House, 1964. Includes bibliographical references. ISBN 10: 0-8010-9193-4 (pbk.) ISBN 978-0-8010-9193-3 (pbk.) 1. Preaching. 2. Baptists-Sermons. 3. Sermons, American-20th century. I. Koller, Charles W., 1896-1983. Sermons preached without notes. II. Title. BV4211.3.K65 2007 251-dc22 2007014763
Contents
Foreword by Michael J. Quicke
Part 1 Expository Preaching without Notes
Introduction
1. The Scriptural Conception of Preaching
2. The Patterns of Scripture Presentation
3. The Primacy of Expository Preaching
4. The Advantages of Preaching without Notes
5. The Importance of Structure
6. The Sources of Preaching Material
7. The Homiletical Devices
8. The Steps in Preparing an Expository Sermon
9. The Preliminary (Factual) Data
10. The Analysis of the Scripture Passage
11. The Heart of the Sermon
12. The Structural Components of the Sermon
13. The Way to Note-Free Preaching
14. The Way to Perennial Freshness
15. The Essentials of an Effective Preaching Service
16. The Basic Appeals in Biblical Preaching
17. The Minister s Vocabulary
18. The Systematic Filing of Materials
Appendix
Notes
Part 2 Sermons Preached without Notes
Introduction
Topical Sermons
1. The Living Plus Sign (2 Cor. 5:20)
2. Slightly Soiled, Greatly Reduced in Price (Ps. 24:3-4)
3. Living above the Snake Line (Isa. 40:9-11, 28-31)
4. The Hope of the Home (Eph. 6:1-9)
Textual Sermons
5. Looking toward the Light (2 Cor. 3:18)
6. The Life Line from Heaven to Earth (Eph. 2:8)
7. Christ and the Golden Candle Sticks (Rev. 3:11)
8. God s Best for You (Rom. 12:1-2)
Expository Sermons
9. Near to the Heart of God (Habakkuk 2)
10. In the World, but Not of the World (John 17:11-23)
11. Something Better than Gold (Acts 3:1-11)
12. Plains of Peace and Hills of Joy (Phil. 4:4-9)
13. Living with Your Frustrations (Phil. 1:12-21)
14. Building for the Ages (John 4:5-14)
15. Always Ready for Life s Big Moments (Daniel 1:8-21)
Foreword
I owe much to Charles W. Koller. In the summer of 2000, I left Spurgeon s College to occupy the C. W. Koller Chair of Preaching and Communication at Northern Seminary. Ever since, my job title has irrevocably linked me with this great former seminary president and renowned preacher. Countless conversations have been sparked: Oh, you are the Dr. Koller professor! I will never forget him preaching in my church. I was a young person, and he was just magnetic. We loved him! Of course, he wrote a famous book, didn t he?
Soon after I arrived at Northern Seminary, Dr. Koller s family gave me an audio set of his sermons. As I listened to the sermons, I heard the commanding voice, Scriptural authority, imaginative language, humor, and fluency that one would expect to hear from most eminent preachers. But here was such palpable spiritual vitality. This man clearly lived by the truths he preached; he witnessed with his whole life. Koller wrote, The effect of a preaching service is to be measured by its spiritual outcome, and his impact lives on in the testimonies of many people I have met since coming to the States.
Yet to generations of students and preachers he is only known through this book, printed many times since 1962. What makes this book worth reading today? Let me identify two reasons found in his favorite expression: expository preaching without notes.
First, Expository Preaching . With crisp, direct language, Koller s brief chapters instruct in this difficult art. Written before the wave of the so-called new homiletic, with its plea for inductive narrative preaching, launched by Fred Craddock s As One without Authority (1971), Koller carefully describes the value of these other kinds of preaching. Yet he claims primacy for expository preaching, with its larger use of scriptural material that has for year round ministering . . . the greater potential for the blessing and enrichment of both pastor and people. Interestingly, now, nearly four decades later, some observers of narrative preaching claim the pendulum has swung too far away from the deductive model. James W. Thompson, for example, in Preaching Like Paul (2001), pleads for more authoritative deductive preaching that builds communities of faith. Lively expository preaching helps to check the balance.
Second, Without Notes . This concept has extraordinary contemporary relevance. Charles Koller s advice inspired Joe Webb s recent work on preaching without notes and expresses how authentic preaching can connect in today s communicationsaturated world. People long for genuine truth from preachers who look them in the eyes and speak directly to their lives. Koller claims that one of the greatest joys of ministry is spontaneity that needs saturation (50%), organization (40%), and memorization (10%)-see chapter 13. His enthusiastic advice should be given to every generation of preachers.
C. W. Koller s voice and influence deservedly live on through this book, and I continue to be gratefully implicated.
Michael J. Quicke C. W. Koller Professor of Preaching and Communication, Northern Seminary
Part 1
Expository Preaching without Notes
Introduction
The last word has not been spoken or written in the field of homiletics. The need for fresh studies continues, and the interest never wanes. When Phillips Brooks had attained to fame as one of the world s greatest preachers, he continued to take lessons in homiletics. 1 Many others, after years of successful pulpit experience, have added to their effectiveness by the discovery of structural principles which had previously eluded them.
In the area of preaching without notes there has been a long felt need, to which the course, Expository Preaching without Notes, has aimed to provide some answers. For more than twenty years its distinctive principles have been taught to seminary seniors, all of whom had at least one year of previous training in homiletics, and many of whom had been preaching for years. Not only have these principles been taught at Northern Baptist Theological Seminary, but at a steadily growing number of other institutions as well. The response to the syllabus, which was published some years ago, has been sufficiently gratifying to warrant the hope that the course might be made helpful to many others if published in book form. It is hoped that certain chapters will be found particularly helpful: The Homiletical Devices (especially the Key Word and The Multiple Approach ); The Heart of the Sermon; The Way to Note-Free Preaching; and The Systematic Filing of Materials.
Preaching without notes does not mean preaching without preparation , as might be suggested by the familiar terms impromptu, extempore, extemporary, and extemporaneous.
Preaching without notes does not mean preparation without notes. Indeed, carefully constructed notes are the basis of freedom from notes in preaching.
Preaching without notes does not mean that there should be no notes on the pulpit. As a matter of fact, the preacher is well advised to have these notes with him whenever he preaches; if at any time he should need them, he would need them badly .
Preaching without notes does not mean to stand free from the pulpit and thus draw attention to the fact that the speaker is preaching without notes; such diverting of the attention from the message might be as costly as improper attire, or bad grammar, or distracting mannerisms.
The material here presented has been developed through years of searching, gleaning, sifting, and testing in the laboratory of the classroom. Every effort has been made to find the surest, simplest, most helpful procedures for effective expository preaching without notes. Gradually there have emerged certain proven principles, practical procedures, a basic homiletical pattern, and a streamlined system of notes for the easiest possible memorization, retention, and recall.
The preacher may be safely assured that when he has mastered the suggested techniques for getting an expository sermon out of the Bible, and setting it up for effective delivery without notes, he will have the techniques for preparing and delivering all other types of sermons as well. Occasionally a preacher, with or without training, will hit upon an excellent outline; but unless he understands just what he did, and how he did it, he will not be able to make such outlines come again two or three times every week. The principles are few and relatively simple, but are not commonly spelled out in the textbooks. To meet this need, is the specific aim of these pages.
The procedures here recommended include the same general and particular preparation that is urged for preaching from manuscript. Beyond this, it