48a) Preacher & His Present Relationship to His Paper, #1

The point: Never read a complete manuscript from the pulpit when preaching to God's people in ordinary circumstances of pastoral ministry.

Martin quotes Dabney's argument that reading a manuscript cannot be called preaching because it removes the critical element of living interaction and invention that occurs between preacher and people.

If that's all done in the isolation of the study, and that is then brought into the pulpit, paper and pen, or paper and the laser printer, having done its work, that being read, he says, that can't be called preaching. And one of the reasons is that a critical element of what makes preaching preaching, the things that happen in the living interaction between the preacher and the people, as his own mind and soul are engaged with the truth, that in turn will give birth to enriched thought and enriched utterance, you've excluded all of that by carrying over the manuscript into the pulpit and maki...

10:51 - 12:07 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin presents the first guideline: never read a complete manuscript from the pulpit, distinguishing it from lecturing. He quotes Dabney extensively, who argues that reading a…

Martin quotes Dabney describing how some gifted preachers master their manuscript so thoroughly, even its 'geography,' that they can refer to it without breaking the flow of delivery, making it appear extemporaneous.

These write with the greatest possible care and with rhetorical structure a manuscript having two-thirds the length of the intended sermon. After the final verbal corrections, they spend, in many hours of the intensest toil, not in committing to memory the words written, but in absorbing the ideas in their exact order. They even fix in their memory the geography of their manuscript, if I may so apply the term, in order that they may know without searching on what part of any page to find the beginning of a given paragraph or thought in case the ardor of delivery shall have carried the eye and ...

13:46 - 14:54 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin presents the first guideline: never read a complete manuscript from the pulpit, distinguishing it from lecturing. He quotes Dabney extensively, who argues that reading a…

Martin quotes Dabney, who quotes Cicero's analogy of a ship's momentum continuing after the oars are dropped, illustrating how prepared material can carry the mind through impromptu additions in preaching.

All you're conscious of is a flow of utterance in articulating thought that is gripping and compelling. And Dabney says it's because people are not tied to the sub-processes as McElvain would call them of letting the eye get the sub-processes of the sense of the words register on the brain and then fishing with what remaining powers are there for some strength of utterance. They use these words not at the mere dictate of eye and memory they are not mechanically read from the paper and they have not been memorized for the purpose but at the dictate of their conscious fitness. They also indulge ...

16:41 - 17:54 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin presents the first guideline: never read a complete manuscript from the pulpit, distinguishing it from lecturing. He quotes Dabney extensively, who argues that reading a…

Martin quotes Blakey's assertion that the general judgment of the Christian church is against reading sermons, as it interferes with preaching as a 'free, living force' and makes it a dull intellectual operation.

It frees us from artificial rules and regulations. If the liberty of eye and thought and emotion can be acquired while still having a fairly full manuscript in the pulpit Dabney says I've got no complaint. But if you're reading in the truest sense of reading then he says I'm going to call you an indolent and slovenly practitioner of the art of preaching. Now Blakey in his book for the work of the ministry states the issue as follows and here again I quote the book these old masters because well for a number of reasons not the least of which is to apprise you that in emphasizing these things th...

19:53 - 21:04 Read in full sermon

The point: Make a sober assessment of your own temperament and gifts when considering how much paper to use, avoiding both tempting God by going without notes if unsuited, and ignoring wise counsel by remaining overly dependent.

Martin recounts the anecdote that when Chalmers preached, he made the rats tremble with the sheer power of his voice, highlighting his exceptional delivery despite reading manuscripts.

You know what the word is. Now, in summarizing what he's saying about individual temperament, listen to Blakey's very helpful insight because almost everyone will cite, well, what about Chalmers? He read his manuscripts. Ah, but they said when Chalmers preached he made the rats tremble with the sheer power of his voice and I'll give you some more of what it was like to look and listen to Chalmers when he preached.

23:46 - 24:11 Read in full sermon

Driving home: One is a taking in, if I may call it, mental inhaling and the other is mental exhaling. And you cannot inhale and exhale at one and the same time.

Martin quotes McElvain's analysis that the sub-processes of reading (taking in sense through the eye) and speaking (giving out sense by voice) are reverse and highly incompatible, hindering effective delivery.

Well, those are Blakey's sentiments on the matter and the reason for this almost universal conviction against reading a manuscript lies lies in the analysis that McElvain gives to what goes on when someone is standing before a living congregation and seeking to communicate thought by means of reading a manuscript. And here, in my judgment, no one has subjected this matter to more sound philosophical and critical analysis than has McElvain. I quote him now from page 138. The sub-processes in reading and in speaking from manuscript are the reverse of expression. Now listen carefully to what he s...

24:51 - 26:19 Read in full sermon

Driving home: One is a taking in, if I may call it, mental inhaling and the other is mental exhaling. And you cannot inhale and exhale at one and the same time.

Martin uses the analogy of mental inhaling (reading) and mental exhaling (preaching) to explain McElvain's point that these two processes cannot be dominant simultaneously.

and these processes are the reverse of those which belong to the giving out of the sense by the voice and to the impressing of the thought and sentiment upon other minds. You see what he's saying? One is a taking in, if I may call it, mental inhaling and the other is mental exhaling. And you cannot inhale and exhale at one and the same time.

26:19 - 26:48 Read in full sermon

Driving home: I see no indication that when Peter stood to preach on the day of Pentecost when Paul was in a more didactic situation such as you find in Acts 20 I see no indication that he had any kind of manuscript in front of him

Martin quotes Etter's summary of historical opinion, favoring the 'primitive mode of extemporaneous address' as the best for all times and men, supported by numerous homiletic authors.

And I believe his thesis is undeniable in our own self-consciousness. This is why even in sharing these quotes with you I read them over and over again until I'm not just reading them to you that I can read them with some degree of felt passion and reading your eyes to see if it's registering to know at which point I'm going to bring in my illustration of inhaling and exhaling so that I'm not just simply as it were for the first time opening up McElvain and concentrating on seeking to see where his commas are what is the main verb what is the main thrust how to shade the words so that the mean...

29:45 - 31:14 Read in full sermon

Driving home: I see no indication that when Peter stood to preach on the day of Pentecost when Paul was in a more didactic situation such as you find in Acts 20 I see no indication that he had any kind of manuscript in front of him

Martin quotes a description of Dr. Chalmers' sermon reading, noting his convulsed frame, flushed face, bulging veins, and 'foam flew from his mouth in flakes,' demonstrating an intense, animated delivery despite using a manuscript.

has written the most systematic treatise on extemporaneous preaching among the Methodists not one is known says Dr. Kidder that was ever a reader of sermons this mode of delivery was also adopted to the most successful preachers of nearly all denominations and then he cites the leading preachers of the Congregational Church of the Baptists of the Episcopals and he says all who possessed a high reputation as the most powerful preachers were accustomed to speak extemporaneously the greatest pulpit orators of today Newman Hall Charles Spurgeon Joseph Parker Henry Ward Beecher T. DeWitt Talmadge b...

32:42 - 34:09 Read in full sermon

The point: Aim at reducing your sermon to a one-page skeleton to be carried into the pulpit, forcing mastery of structure and content, and maintaining the sermon's thrust.

Martin quotes James Stewart on the dangers of being 'tied slavishly to his manuscript,' which surrenders directness, versatility, and liveliness, acting as a barrier between preacher and hearers.

dependence upon that and you'll be much more likely to really labor at these other aspects of being sensitive to that empathetic interaction between yourself and your listeners to be able to read your people to see that person that's going off to sleep that unconverted person that you prayed for on Wednesday night who's out but they're sitting there glassy eyed and you'll be free then on your feet to do some additional invention you're saying Lord help me to get an illustration tell a story something to get that man's eyes whereas if you're bound to your manuscript you might miss that opportun...

40:05 - 41:35 Read in full sermon

The point: Aim at reducing your sermon to a one-page skeleton to be carried into the pulpit, forcing mastery of structure and content, and maintaining the sermon's thrust.

Martin shares the anecdote of Father Taylor, the sailor preacher, getting entangled in a sentence and declaring, 'I have lost the nominative of the sentence... but I'm bound for the kingdom anyhow,' illustrating the occasional grammatical imperfections of free preaching.

urgency of the message if he is perpetually fettered and shackled by the tradition of the red discourse R-E-A-D not R-E-D if you dispense with your manuscript and preach freely from a single page of notes sound familiar your sermon may indeed lose something of artistry and literary expression there may be gaps and broken sentences occasionally even murdered grammar brethren cried Father Taylor the sailor preacher finding himself entangled in a sentence from whose labyrinthine subordinate clauses there seemed to be no exit I have lost the nominative of the sentence and things are generally mixe...

43:03 - 44:32 Read in full sermon

The point: Look at your paper only as frequently as is absolutely necessary, prioritizing the living current between you and your listeners over perfect precision or elegance.

Martin quotes Spurgeon's confession that if he used longer notes for two Sundays, he would need them longer still on the third, likening it to developing a dependence on a stick or spectacles, illustrating how reliance on paper can grow.

and I want us to hear Spurgeon if you're happy enough to acquire the power of extemporary speech pray recollect that you may very readily lose it I've been struck with this in my own experience and I refer to that because it is the best evidence I can give you if for two successive Sundays I take my notes a little longer and fuller I make my notes a little longer and fuller than usual I find on the third occasion that I require them longer still and I also observe that if on occasions I lean a little more to my recollection of the things of my thoughts and am not so extemporaneous as I've been...

47:30 - 48:58 Read in full sermon

The point: Look at your paper only as frequently as is absolutely necessary, prioritizing the living current between you and your listeners over perfect precision or elegance.

Martin quotes Broadus, who argues that writing out a full manuscript in the study deprives the preacher's thinking of the 'mental quickening' produced by the presence of the congregation during delivery.

something being lost in that living interaction between himself and his people again listen to Broadus that master in Israel while his immediate subject is that of discussing writing a manuscript at the level of preparation he obviously assumes that that manuscript was going to be carried into the pulpit and this is what Broadus has to say to us this method deprives the preacher's thinking of the benefit of all that mental quickening which is produced by the presence of the congregation he's saying don't even write your sermon out in full in the secret place and giving as his in the study as h...

48:58 - 50:25 Read in full sermon

The point: Look at your paper only as frequently as is absolutely necessary, prioritizing the living current between you and your listeners over perfect precision or elegance.

Martin quotes Broadus's analogy of autumn trees, dull under a gray sky, being transformed by the setting sun's light, to illustrate the difference between sermon preparation and the 'living, breathing, burning speech' of actual preaching.

in the warmer color which the now kindled and glowing mind would give to the whole body of thought in those differences of hue and tone which change the mass of prepared material into living breathing burning speech you understand the autumn trees with their many colors all dull and tame beneath the ashen sky but presently the evening sun bursts through the clouds and lights up the forest with an almost unearthly glory no less great is the difference between preparation and actually speaking for every single man who was born to be a preacher see what he's saying what's the difference when thes...

50:25 - 51:55 Read in full sermon

The point: Look at your paper only as frequently as is absolutely necessary, prioritizing the living current between you and your listeners over perfect precision or elegance.

Martin quotes Broadus on how reading sermons leads to less effective delivery, often resulting in coldness, monotonous tones, unnatural gestures, and page-turning that breaks the 'continuity of delivery' and the 'spell' of immediate contact.

of the exegesis is not going to change that is born of careful responsible use of our exegetical tools and the essential structure based on sound principles of homiletics all of the leaves and all of the trees are there but the study is more like those trees in the cloudy dull day but in the act of preaching with a lively congregation and with a heart inflamed with passion and desire to see good done to men and God glorified in his truth and the presence of the Holy Spirit in the midst of the gathered assembly is like the clouds parting in the setting evening sun irritating those same trees wi...

51:55 - 53:24 Read in full sermon