Written Composition of the Sermon

Introduction: The Question of Written Composition in Sermon Preparation

0:00 The seven major axioms guidelines needed for the construction of the three major species of sermons, the topical, the textual, and the consecutive expository sermon. However, in this final lecture, intimating that next week I'm going to give you the full

0:46 time to ask questions. We've had very little time for interaction, so all the questions you've got, write them down and come prepared to use the time that way next week. So this, in our final lecture, I want to take up a subject that must be addressed as we make the transition from the seven general axioms to the specific guidelines. And the subject that we're going to take up in this transition is how much should I write at the level of my specific preparation for my pulpit ministry?

1:21 how much should I write at the level of my specific preparation for my pulpit ministry now when we come to discuss the act of preaching itself we'll have occasion to consider the place of our paper in the pulpit but that's not what's under discussion today not the place of paper in the pulpit but the place of pen and paper at the level of preparation and those are two separate things Just as surely as our preparation is separate from the act of preaching, so the place of paper in preparation is distinct from the place of paper in the pulpit, though obviously there may be some overlapping. So our precise concern is, how much should I write, how much should I engage in actual composition at the level of my specific preparation for the pulpit ministry?

Four Biblical Principles Guiding Written Composition

2:20 Now, in addressing ourselves to this question, it's quite obvious that we will have little, if anything, in the way of explicit scriptural testimony to guide us in our judgment. However, there is sufficient in the way of implicit, indirect, and inferential testimony to address the subject in a biblical framework. so in order to set this much debated subject in a biblical framework as we take up the question to write or not to write that is the question let me set before you with that little bit of butchered Shakespeare leading the way four principles from the word of God

3:05 that do shed light and exert pressure upon this vexed question First, the mandate of maximum edification. The mandate of maximum edification. We have had occasion to refer to these verses again and again, and you will hear more of them in days to come. 1 Corinthians 14.12 and 26b So also you, since you are zealous of spiritual gifts, seek that you may abound unto the edifying of the church.

3:46 Paul is concerned that in all of the discussion about spiritual gifts he should keep before the minds of these Corinthian believers that they are to have a sanctified passion to abound unto the edification of the church. Not to abound unto their own good feelings, unto their own convenience, but abound unto mutual edification. And likewise, he repeats that same directive in the end of verse 26, let all things be done unto edifying or unto building up. So in deciding this issue for ourselves, not for our brethren, but for ourselves,

4:33 We must not permit our practice to be guided primarily by our native inclination, by our previous practice, by personal convenience, or by the contemporary consensus of our peers.

4:55 Native inclination must not guide our decision with regard to this question. Some of you feel much more comfortable in your preparation with pen and paper before you. Some of you don't feel too comfortable. Some of you have a native inclination to compose.

5:12 Some of you have a native disinclination. But that must not guide you. The mandate of maximum edification. What will result in my greatest usefulness to the people of God?

5:25 That must guide me. So not native inclination, not previous practice, personal convenience, contemporary consensus, but maximum edification of the people of God. That is my duty, to take whatever course results in conformity to that mandate. But then secondly, there is the mandate of maximum accuracy. The mandate of maximum accuracy. And here the key text is 2 Timothy 2 and verse 15. Give diligence to present yourself approved unto God a workman that needs not to be ashamed, handling a right or cutting a straight course or holding a straight

6:17 course in the word of truth. Now that verb spudazo that is there in the imperative is used in its aorist imperative form in chapter 4 and verse 9, give diligence to come shortly unto me, and in verse 21, give diligence to come before winter. That is, employ all of the legitimate means to come to me shortly. Timothy, whatever it takes for you to make every legitimate effort to get to me, do it. That's what giving diligence means in the context of verse 9 and verse 21.

6:57 And now he says, in the same way, Timothy, whatever is involved in the application of all of your God-given faculties, to see to it that you are a workman who holds a straight course in the word of truth, you do it, whatever that involves. Now, what is involved in being such a workman who is not ashamed, who handles a right or cuts a straight course in the word of truth? Well, for most of us, that kind of accuracy, succinct, clear expression of thought, needs at some point the discipline of the pen. Most of us are so constituted that without the discipline of the pen, we will

7:44 not produce our most accurate and succinct expressions of thought. Most of us are so constituted that without the discipline of the pen, we will not produce our most accurate and succinct expressions of thought. For most of us, the old saying is true. Reading makes a full man.

8:12 Speaking, a ready man. Writing, a correct man.

8:18 Reading, a full man. Speaking, a ready man. Writing, a correct man. so as you personally wrestle with this question oh Lord how much should I put pen to paper at the level of preparation not only must you feel the downward pressure of the mandate of maximum edification but the mandate of maximum accuracy do your utmost give diligence to be a workman who needs not to be ashamed holding a straight course in the word of truth and if accuracy and clarity demand the discipline of the pen no matter how much my flesh recoils against it

9:05 I must submit myself to that discipline for for most of us reading does make a full man speaking a ready man but only writing a correct man then the third biblical principle is the mandate for manifest personal progress the mandate for manifest personal progress. 1 Timothy 4, 12-15. You remember that after laying upon Timothy many and varied official ministerial responsibilities as an apostolic representative, Paul then turns to Timothy himself in chapter 4 and verse 12

9:51 and says to him, let no man despise your youth, but be an example to them that believe in word, in manner of life, in love, in faith, in purity. Till I come, give heed. Pay close attention to reading. To the public reading of the Scriptures is probably the reference, to exhortation, to teaching.

10:14 Do not neglect the gift that is in you, which was given you by prophecy with the laying on of the hands of the presbytery. Be diligent in these things. give yourself wholly to them in order that your progress may be manifest unto all. Timothy was to have as one of his motives to ministerial faithfulness his own manifest progress before those to whom he ministered.

10:42 It is not wrong for a minister, particularly a young minister, to desire the approbation of his stated hearers that he's making progress in grace and in gifts. If it's wrong, then Paul was encouraging a wrong mode of intimacy. And there I would let the case rest. The mandate for manifest ministerial progress.

11:06 Now this progress not only includes progress in graces and in general godliness, but in the gifts of public ministry. And that's the emphasis of the context. Till I come, give heed to the reading, to exhortation, to teaching, public ministry. Do not neglect the gift that is in you.

11:25 And there the reference is obvious. It's obviously to the matter of his gifts of public utterance. Though given in an unusual way by prophecy, it is nonetheless his personal responsibility to stir it up, not simply to maintain its present level, but that progress in the exercise of that gift will be manifest not just to a few, but it will be so patent that it will be manifested unto all. The most discerning and the least discerning will have to confess when I return, Timothy, and I say, hasn't Timothy had a good ministry among you?

12:08 That all of them, from the least mature to the most mature, will say, Paul, you ain't heard nothing yet. Since you left us, he has developed his ability to open up the Word of God, to make it clear, to make it come home to our consciences, to make it stand out in bold relief in our minds. That's what he was saying. Timothy, till I come, you do this, and do it in such a way that your progress will be evident unto all.

12:34 The clear indication being that when I come and start interacting with the people, I'll have a readout of that patent growth in manifest or in progress in your gift. So that's a mandate that must exert its pressure upon us when we're wrestling with the question to write or not to write and how much to write at the level of preparation. Then there is a fourth mandate, a fourth biblical principle which ought to exert its pressure upon us And it's what I call the mandate of spiritual freedom. The mandate of spiritual freedom.

13:14 And the text is 1 Thessalonians 5 and verse 19.

13:23 In these various exhortations Paul is bringing toward the close of this epistle, he says, Do not quench the spirit. Do not despise prophesying. prove all things, hold fast that which is good, abstain from every form of evil. And as those of you who've studied this text know, that the concept of quenching not the Spirit means don't put out the fire of the Spirit.

13:52 And there seems to be, in some instances, in some instances, there seems to be a tendency with some men to allow whatever has gone through their mind and through their pen to get so locked in by that exercise that they literally quench the fire of the Spirit in the act of preaching. And having attached their thoughts to pen and paper, even in the study, and though they may not even bring it into the pulpit, it so locks them in to that form of expression that when there is an impulse for amplification or alteration in preaching, they're very timid about making it. Their pen becomes their chain.

14:39 And they end up continually quenching the Spirit. When some of their richest thoughts, some of their most penetrating thoughts, some of their most accurate analyses of truth come in the act of preaching, but because that which comes to them does not follow the track that their pen cut in the study, they're very reluctant to follow that track.

15:03 So, where the first three seem to be putting pressure on you to say, uh-oh, I know where he's going. I'm going to have to put pen to paper. This one now brings us back and says, wait a minute. I have another mandate to take into consideration as I wrestle with how much I, not my brethren, I can't answer for them, in the peculiar chemistry of what makes me me, I must wrestle with this vexed question, feeling the pressure of the mandate of spiritual freedom.

Summary of Biblical Principles and Approach to the Debate

15:35 And you will only probably come to convictions on this matter as you work at it by trial and error, by going a little bit too far one side and a little bit too far the other, until you find that golden mean, that razor's edge, which is for you the place of optimum usefulness, while maintaining a sensitivity to this mandate for spiritual freedom, quench not the Holy Spirit. Now, in summary, let me say you can readily perceive that any consideration of this moot subject must give way before these relevant biblical perspectives. These are the crucial biblical perspectives

16:22 that must continually walk before us as we try to find our path in terms of how much shall I put pen to paper at the level of preparation. And what I'm going to do, as I've already intimated, is set before you a brief survey of the best arguments on both sides of this issue, and then become a Hegelian after giving you thesis and antithesis, come up with a synthesis. Though I'm not a Hegelian, I wouldn't know what I were if I was one, or if I were one. I wouldn't know what I was if I were one, however you say it.

17:00 All right?

17:02 I'm going to take the position of Nicholas Murray when he says on this vexed question, the question as to the effectiveness of extempore preaching, that is, preaching without any writing preceding or attending that preaching, over written sermons has been frequently and ably discussed, and there is very much and very reasonably to be said on both sides. It is one of those questions which can never be settled. Extreme opinions on either side betray a great lack of thoughtfulness, if not ignorance, on the whole subject. I don't want to be thoughtless or ignorant, and therefore I'm going to play safe

17:48 and let the old masters set each other up and knock each other down. So what we're going to do now, having given you these four biblical principles that set the thing in a biblical context and perspective, we're going to now engage in a survey of the main arguments on both sides of the issue. To write or not to write at the level of preparation. And please don't let your mind drift into the area of paper in the pulpit.

Arguments for Detailed Written Composition

18:16 No, we're talking about paper in the study, not in the pulpit. All right, first of all then, the strong advocates of detailed written composition.

18:29 And these are men who advocated for those who are in the discipline of regular pastoral preaching.

18:39 And those that I've read, I find that their arguments can be reduced under six major headings. All right, number one.

18:51 Detailed written composition forces us to wrestle with clarity of expression. So from here on in, I'll use the term it, and it refers to detailed written composition. It forces us to wrestle with clarity of expression.

19:12 You've often heard someone say, well I know what I mean but I just can't say it.

19:17 Well you don't know what you mean until you can say it and you don know that you can say it until you can write it You can kid yourself You know you got a heading there on your notes and say well that be easy to express Well is it If so, then express it succinctly and clearly on paper. Let your own eyeballs read it. Then have the courage to let someone else read it and say, is that clear? See, we can constantly play head games on ourselves.

19:42 And just like we rationalize about our sins, oh, it's a little one. so we can rationalize about our lack of clarity of thought by saying, oh yes, I'll be able to express that clearly. I just need that little note in my notes to remind me what to say, and it'll just come out nice. Well, will it?

20:00 How do you know? Are you tempting God? Are you presuming?

20:05 Well, this is why Bridges strongly advocates written composition, and I quote now from page 289 in the Christian ministry.

20:13 And he says, we must admit the advantages of written composition in avoiding wearisome repetition, defective modes of expression, a confused arrangement of the flowing thoughts of the moment, evils more or less incidental to the opposite scheme, and embodying our matter in greater compactness and solidity, in lucid order and correct style, so that, at the early stages at least, the Roman orator may justly recommend, quote, much writing as the best preparation to good speaking, end quote. The Tyro in theology has probably little conception of his own immature attainments until his ideas have to be expressed on paper.

21:01 That's a good statement. The Tyro in theology has probably little conception of his own immature attainments until his ideas have to be expressed on paper. At every step he finds the need of expansion or condensation. Not having prepared his way as he advanced, by a thorough maturing of his subject, he has to lay again the foundation of what he fancied himself to have attained.

21:25 The quantum of composition will, however, vary according to the natural or acquired habits of the mind. But in few cases can a certain proportion be omitted with advantage. rarely do young men unite sound judgment with a lively imagination, and therefore ordinary sermons without any pains of written composition will be a mass of inanimate matter deficient in apt illustration and pointed application. So the bottom line for Bridges is that unless we write, we will not wrestle with clarity of expression, and also his final point, with a balanced degree of expression in terms of illustration, application, and explication.

22:16 James Stewart, in his excellent little work on preaching, writes on page 158 in favor of detailed written composition, it is worth emphasizing that freedom of delivery in the pulpit depends upon carefulness of construction in the study. It is surprising how often this point has been missed in the debate between read and merely spoken sermons. To the question, ought I to risk oral delivery of my sermons, that is, preaching without a manuscript, the right answer surely is that it all depends on the sermon. Some sermons it would be almost impossible even for the man who wrote them to carry in the mind at all. They meander with mazy motion. They return upon their tracks. Ideas overlap.

23:11 Single paragraphs trail on for pages. There's not one illustration like a beacon to light the way. For such sermons, oral delivery would involve prodigious feats of memory, and that's not true preaching. On the other hand, it should be quite possible for the preacher, without the stiltedness of mechanized memorizing, to get a sure grip and clear conspectus of his own sermon, provided that certain conditions have been observed in the writing of it. These conditions are clarity of logical structure, well-defined divisions and subdivisions, exclusion of irrelevances, short paragraphs with a single clear-cut thought in each, not long unbroken stretches where a dozen ideas jostle,

24:01 balance and progress and development with one or two strong and vivid illustrations marking out the track. The point is that freedom of delivery will tend to vary in direct proportion to accuracy of construction. And his point is, you will have no real test for accuracy of construction unless you force yourself to write. So there's argument number one.

24:27 Of those who strongly advocate detailed written composition in the study, it forces us to wrestle with clarity of expression. And brethren, I may say from many years of experience to this day, I may wrestle as long sometimes as a half an hour in my opening sentence of a sermon. and write and rewrite and cross out and chuck away and take up another sheet and continue. To me, that's the most difficult thing, getting into it in a judicious way.

24:58 And it's labor. And you think, well, I know how, and then you say, well, let me put it down. And you look at it and say, no, that doesn't do it. And that doesn't do it.

25:04 And you face the reality of your own lack of clarity when it's staring up at you from your own pen and paper. Then secondly, the strong advocates say, it forces us to cut off the fat of empty verbiage or wordiness. It forces us to cut off the fat of empty verbiage or wordiness.

25:37 Now here again, listen to Bridges on the bottom of page 289. the excursive preacher the one who tends to go down every lovely little trail as he's making his way through the works needs the use of his pen to restrain himself within the limits of an accurate and connected plan without which digressive and unconnected matter would probably form the main substance of his discourses the fluent, unfurnished preacher without this resource to fill his shadowy mechanism will be wordy, declamatory, unsubstantial, and uninteresting. So he says, if you've got the gift of gab, take it into the pulpit without the discipline of the pen, and these four words

26:23 will describe you. Declamatory, unsubstantial, uninteresting, and wordy. Indeed, the gift of fluency without furniture or application is rather a misfortune than a desirable qualification.

26:37 That's pretty strong language, But I think he's right. The gift of fluency without furniture or application is rather a misfortune than a desirable qualification. Besides the personal danger of neglecting intellectual improvement, it digresses from our proper subject at times of embarrassment to irrelevant or more agreeable points. Thus some have been spoiled from want of the book, and that's the old term they use for writing out and doing detailed composition at the level of preparation, as well as others who have been fettered by the use of it.

27:15 So the point that Bridges is making is we must be forced to cut off the fat of empty verbiage, wordiness, unnecessary digressions, etc. And here, the poem on page 292, though some of it fits with the matter of the act of preaching, it's in Gibbons' Christian Minister, and Bridges has recorded this, and it's very interesting that Nicholas Murray closes his chapter on dealing with the composition of sermons by quoting this poem as well. Should you, my friend, the important question ask, With or without my papers shall I preach? And I would change it to, With or without my papers shall I prepare?

28:03 But we break up the rhyme. My answer, hear and way. Your sermons write from end to end. and every thought invest with full expression, such as best may suit its nature and its use, and then pronounce as much as your remembrance can retain, rather read every sentence word for word than wander in desultory, which means disconnected strain, a chaos dark, irregular, and wild, where the same thought and language oft revolves and re-revolves to tire sagacious minds, however loud the momentary praise of ignorance and empty fervors charmed.

28:53 But never do your notes be so enslaved as to repress some instantaneous thought that may, like lightning, dart upon the soul and blaze in strength and majesty divine. as he concludes, remember the mandate for spiritual freedom, but he says for the most part, far better have a man read every word than just run off at the mouth in the name of preaching. And so Bridges would also argue that it not only forces us to wrestle with clarity of expression, it forces us to wrestle with economy of expression, cutting off the fat of empty verbiage or wordiness. Then thirdly, the advocates of detailed written composition tell us that it forces us to wrestle with the difficult aspects of the rhetorical art.

29:46 It forces us to wrestle with the difficult aspects of the rhetorical art, of which preaching is a form. It is much more than a rhetorical art, but it is that. and what are some of the difficult aspects of rhetorical art? Pungent statements.

30:09 Statements that stick like barbed arrows. Clear transitions so that the eyes of the mind are eased from one scene to another. They are not still looking at scene A while you're describing scene B. That to me is one of the most frustrating things in preaching.

30:27 I'm trying to give myself with attention to the preacher and he's describing scene A and he's four, five, seven sentences into describing scene B before he took the eyes of my mind and said, my friend, we're now moving along in the picture gallery. We now come to scene B. That's a difficult part in the rhetorical art. Not only pungent statements, statements that stick, but clear transitions.

30:53 Then the whole matter of style, completeness of thought. these are some of the difficult aspects of the rhetorical art and those who advocate detailed written composition argue that we will simply not wrestle with and master these difficult aspects of the rhetorical art unless we put pen to paper in great detail at the level of preparation. Let me give you Broadus as a sample of those who argue in this way. On page 439, Broadus says, still further, writing serves to secure in several respects greater excellence of style. As a general thing, unwritten speech cannot equal that which is written in grammatical correctness, in precision, conciseness, smoothness, and rhetorical finish.

31:50 These are highly important properties of style, and particularly with respect to the demands of some congregations, occasions, or subjects. Thus, if one is discussing a controverted point of doctrine in the presence of persons already disposed to misunderstand or misrepresent him, it is even more than usually desirable that his language should be precise and unmistakable. So he argues that in the whole matter of style, which means the proper blending of the various aspects of the rhetorical art, the discipline of writing is what is necessary to take us along that path.

32:37 Then, fourthly, the advocates of detailed written composition argue, it aids in the fixation of the mind in the very act of preparation. It aids in the fixation of the mind in the very act of preparation.

32:56 Now, the maintenance of spiritual concentration is always a difficult thing in and of itself because of the reality of Romans 7. when I would do good evil is present with me and perhaps you will never feel more powerfully the effects of remaining sin upon your mental faculties than when you are seeking to exercise those faculties with regard to the declaration of that grand instrument of tearing down the kingdom of darkness, God's truth so if we can expect remaining sin to be most active, the nearer we get to the center of those issues which attack the kingdom of darkness, then you can see what the desk of preparation

33:43 is going to be in terms of conflict with remaining corruption. And those who advocate detailed written composition say that it's a fact of observation. Can't prove it from Scripture. But it's a fact of observation that the discipline of taking pen and paper generally greatly assists in the fixation of the mind upon the subject that is before us.

34:14 And here Broadus of the various men that I've written gives I think the clearest expression of this when he writes on page 439 writing greatly assists the work of preparation by rendering it easier to fix the mind upon the subject. Mental application is facilitated by any appropriate bodily action, and men who do not write often find it necessary to walk the floor, or in general to assume some constrained posture, or perform some regularly recurring act. He has a footnote. It was the habit of Schleiermarker to lean out of a window for hours while composing his sermons.

34:58 Now a man who is one of the most able preachers in our generation, who can preach for 70, 75 minutes without a note in front of him, I happen to know that he composed many of his sermons when he was in the pastorate, walking through his quiet, as our British friends would say, garden. When he was here preaching with us, paced up and down in the nursery for a few minutes. Well, whatever it is, whatever physical exercise or posture helps in the fixation of the mind, then you ought to employ it. And for many of us, just the physical activity of having to use the pen and keep something that approximates even lines on paper

35:43 at the level of preparation does indeed greatly assist in the fixation of the mind. All right, fifthly, the strong advocates of detailed written composition argue that it lays a foundation for future extended usefulness in the form of printed discourse. It lays a foundation for future extended usefulness in the form of printed discourse. They argue that if you've gone through all the labor of exegesis and then the labors of homiletics, why not give yourself to detailed written compositions so that if in the future there seem to be compelling reasons

36:36 to let what you have given in preparation for one congregation be shared by many in the form of printed discourse, you don't have to go back to square one. now in the kind providence of God when I called Pastor Bob this morning and I said in the light of the fact that we know next fall you're going to unload on the men that from here on in Turabian's manual of style is going to be a lord of composition around here he said oh brother he said I've already unloaded on them yesterday I said well I'll try to clinch the nail this morning I didn't even know that he did that but he told me when I called him early this morning But this is one of our concerns, brethren, that we do pray that out of your ranks God will raise up those who will make

37:22 not the contribution of novelty, which will die with you, but some contribution to the great stream of Christian literature that has come down to us from previous generations. Surely it's not presumptuous for us to believe that from men whom God has been pleased to give sound, balanced theological training on the front end of their lives would come some who would enrich that stream. And who knows? Who knows? Some of you may enrich that stream. And those who advocate detailed written composition say unless a man develops the discipline of the pen early in his ministry, he may never know whether or not he could have been used of God in that way. And I have

38:10 to say that I endorse that perspective. Then they set forth a sixth argument.

38:18 I should say I set forth the sixth one. This one's mine.

38:23 It ought to give a general facility in writing a lost art in our day.

38:35 Detailed written composition of your sermons ought to give you a general facility in writing, a lost art in our day Brethren if you had to read the applications and the correspondence of those who apply to the Academy of course after you applied and it doesn apply to any of you you would be convinced with us that we need no further case for this discipline of putting pen to paper now to take the pressure off you guys I'll tell you that I get letters from people with earned graduate degrees right up at the doctoral level and I am appalled at the pathetic composition of their letters grammatically, syntactically

39:22 and in every way they have never developed any facility in writing or developed very little facility in writing it's one of the sad and tragic fruits of the educational philosophy that has molded many of us. And if we're going to reverse that trend, then I say we need the discipline of written composition if we're going to develop a general facility in writing which will commend your letters to those to whom you write. And as you have opportunity to have to write town officials about getting permission to use the local school building. It's a tragedy if people said, well, no, this must be some dirty-nosed, baggy-kneed religious outfit.

40:06 Look at this guy. He can't even put a sentence together decently. What a tragedy to have a door of opportunity for the church to meet in a decent place closed because you were too lazy to develop some facility in writing. And someone who at least understands a little bit about good style and what an educated man ought to be able to put down on paper looks at that thing and says, ain't no way, Jose.

40:28 This must be ignorant, fringe Christianity, whereas if the letter reflects some sensitivity to style, some sensitivity to syntax and to the laws and rules of composition, just that in itself may impress the superintendent. The superintendent looks at it and says, Hey, wait a minute, this guy sounds like he's got his head screwed on. Anybody that sits under a ministry of a guy that can write a letter like this, they must have their head screwed on right. their presence in our school may even give us an uplift in the community.

40:59 Let's take this up with the next board meeting. So that's just one example out of many that without stretching the truth we could set before you. So the advocates of detailed written composition present six what I think are very compelling arguments. But now let's let the other fellows shoot at them.

Arguments Against Detailed Written Composition

41:19 We take up secondly the strong advocates against detailed written composition.

41:26 Remember now, we're talking about written composition as a discipline of preparation for the pulpit, not the question how much paper in the pulpit. And here's the way they argue. Number one, it, that is, detailed written composition in the study, it hinders the free flow of mind and of tongue. It hinders the free flow of mind and of tongue.

41:56 And here Broadus states the argument from that camp on page 441 as follows.

42:12 441, yes, here we are. If writing aids in thinking, it is apt to render one largely dependent on such assistance. Especially objectionable is the fact that this practice accustoms the preacher to think connectedly only as fast as he can write when it is more natural and more convenient that a man should think as fast as he can talk.

42:43 Now there's a very sound observation and if some of you have listened to any of the sermons of the late Dr. A.W. Tozer.

42:53 And in the past I've played some excerpts, and some of you have heard the record in my home that I have of some of his sermons. There are times when he speaks like a man who had had maybe one glass of wine too much. He almost slurred his speech in choosing his words. Well, it was the fact that the man was such a disciplined writer.

43:16 It was as though his mind were working at the rate at which it worked when he was composing his editorials for the Alliance Weekly or the Alliance Witness. Now in his case, because of his general stature and all the other things, it was not a distraction. But any young man talking like that, I'd say, hey, bug off, man. Learn to think as fast as you speak.

43:39 But don't stand there and have people wonder if you had one too many and then came into the pulpit under the influence. Now again, you see a Tozer, a man of his stature and proven grace and all the other things, the charisma of his person, not only could do that, but it even in some sense was more effective because you were waiting for that choice word to come. You knew that his mind was like a computer going over the seven or ten or twenty different adjectives you could use, waiting to snatch at the right one. And in that case, it even made it more fascinating to listen to him preach.

44:14 But you're not going to find that's one in a generation. and don't assume that another Tozer on his way to being deposited in the church. And so Broadus rightly observes that one of the problems with detailed composition as a regular practice is that it can hinder the free flow of mind and therefore of tongue. Secondly, it can foster a wrong source of dependence.

44:43 it can foster a wrong source of dependence.

44:50 There's a sense in which if you get it out of your mind and onto your paper, then it may no longer be retained in the mind with the same grasp. And if the mind, rather than the paper, does not hold the clearest expression, what in the world will you feel if you go into the pulpit without your paper? You say, I've left half my brain on my desk.

45:19 Well, that's too bad if you've left half your brain. You need every bit of it in the pulpit, I assure you. And you'll wish your head twice as much most of the time. And so one of the problems with detailed written composition is it can, not necessarily does, but it can, excuse me, foster a wrong source of dependence. And then thirdly, it can, not always does, but it can encourage a florid rhetorical style. Put in parenthesis, homiletical fluff. A florid rhetorical style, parenthesis homiletical fluff. Sermons that are too polished, too ornate, too clever.

46:15 They may dazzle some small-minded people, may impress others of even smaller mind, but Discerning people will, after a while, be just plain disgusted and say, please, preen your feathers in private. If you're going to preen, preen in private. If you want to show off your ability to turn a phrase, to embellish God's truth with ornate cleverness, do it somewhere else. And Alexander recognized this danger.

46:50 and he writes on page 16 in his book Thoughts on Preaching, paragraph 4, As men who strut in walking sometimes find it difficult to get out of their strut and step in an ordinary way, so in writing men get into a measured, rhythmical, ornamental flow of diction and find it hard even when the subject demands it to come down to the pedestrian style. Hence a great argument for simplicity. What a wonderful simplicity in Goethe. It is his characteristic in regard to style.

47:28 And then he makes comparison with others, Voltaire and Macaulay, who Macaulay was, I'm not sure. So reading that would mean nothing to me, and I doubt it would mean anything to you. But he made that observation that sometimes as we develop a style in detailed composition, it can imperceptibly become a florid rhetorical style that is not really our natural way of expressing ourselves. Then the fourth argument against detailed written composition is this.

48:01 It is liable to the danger of an overly close line of reasoning. it is liable to the danger of an overly close line of reasoning.

48:24 When one is engaged in detailed written composition and can see the various components of a chain of reason hung together with words in the light of this and whereas and therefore, it's sort of like reading some of Paul's dense argumentation in the book of Romans when you've got the two paragraphs in front of you and can meditate upon them and go back over and say now wait for what was the connective and what was the connective there when it's there in written composition before you you can see the logical umbilical cord that runs through it but if you just heard those two paragraphs read and were asked to repeat the close line of reasoning after one hearing orally, you couldn't do it

49:09 unless you just had a prodigious mind, an unusual power of retention. Well, this is the danger of detailed written composition. What may appear very clear in writing to you, you fail to realize it's coming across for the first time and only run by your people once in oral discourse. And they may lose in sentence four or five the connection with the previous thought.

49:36 and you will not as quickly discern that because to you, as you wrote it and as you could see it and your eye was taking, as it were, the whole page as you wrote the last line on the page, you can forget that written discourse and oral discourse in many ways are two different universes. And that's why, for the most part, effective oral discourse is atrocious literature when transcribed word for word. alright so there's one of the dangers it is liable that is detailed written composition in the study it is liable to the danger of an overly close line of reasoning and argumentation to develop in your pulpit style and you just won't

50:21 catch on as quickly because your paper is very clear to your eyeballs but your sermon when preached is not lucid to your people alright Fifth argument against detailed written composition. It can be deceptive as to real substance. It can be deceptive as to real substance. You see, verbal rambling goes off into the wind to join its like substance.

50:49 Wind.

50:52 We call someone a wind bag. Well, we have ministerial wind bags. But one of the good things about their windiness is that it joins its like kind.

51:04 But because something is down on paper and may cover four written pages, you can really think, boy, I've really got some substance here. When it may be nothing but wind converted into orthography on a page. Wind it was when it was in your head. Wind it still is.

51:23 though it's somewhat materialized on your paper in front of you. Whether rambling books are substantial simply because they are books, I leave for you to decide. A rambling discourse is a rambling discourse. And if it is merely spoken, then sometimes you're more quick to grasp the fact that indeed, There has been no real substance, whereas you can comfort yourself, boy, I must really have substance in the sermon this week.

52:00 I've got four, five, six pages that I've written out in longhand. And again, Broadus recognized this as a teacher of preachers and as an able preacher himself. And so on page 441 and 442, he says, If writing compels the preacher to go over the ground more completely, it is not always done more thoroughly. The thinking is more extensive, but it may be less intensive.

52:27 Being obliged to run over the surface everywhere, the preacher may go beneath the surface nowhere. If many sermons are spoken with very superficial preparation, so with very superficial preparation are many sermons written. There is an immense amount of strictly extemporaneous writing. People are apt to think that what is written and read must have been carefully prepared, but they are often gravely mistaken.

52:53 A highly popular preacher once said of course half as a jest that he was so frequently compelled to get up his sermons hastily as to make it indispensable that he should write in order to give them at least the appearance of careful preparation.

53:10 You see what he was saying? He was acknowledging you could have fluff on paper as much as fluff simply in extemporaneous speech. And we don't want to deceive ourselves, brethren, that pages full of ink mean that there are pages full of clear, lucid statements of divine truth, or that we have pages expressive of careful, concentrated mental endeavor. Then sixth, it can, detailed written composition, it can cause an injudicious use of time.

53:46 it can cause an injudicious use of time. The person who is committed to writing out in detailed composition all of his sermonic exercises in the study regardless of what he may carry into the pulpit with him may run the danger of being a poor steward of time. And here again Broadus addresses this problem on page 442. akin to this last is the disadvantage of consuming so much time in the merely mechanical effort of writing. Time which might often be more profitably spent upon the thoughts of the discourse or upon the preacher's general improvement.

54:31 And so we have to be stewards of the time, buying up the opportunity and those who say beware of consuming too much time in written composition would remind us of this fact. Now, not to tip the scales, but only because I believe it's a valid argument. Number seven, and finally, it sets too rigid a framework within which to work or preach or teach, so I use the word work, within which to work with true freedom. it sets too rigid a framework within which to work with true freedom here again Broadus

55:18 having surveyed the art of preaching and listened to preachers and worked in the cultivation of the preaching gift in many men writes on this very point this method that is writing out the discourse in detailed composition deprives the preacher's thinking of the benefit of that mental quickening which is produced by the presence of the congregation. As to thoughts which are then for the first time struck out, it is true that men of rare flexibility, tact, and grace can often introduce them effectively in connection with, and here he is assuming the man is reading his manuscript, but such men establish no general rule, and the great mass of those who read

56:04 have to lose such thoughts altogether or introduce them awkwardly and with comparatively poor effect. And besides the distinct thoughts which occur only in the act of delivery, there's something much more important in the warmer color which the now kindled and glowing mind would give to the whole body of thought. Isn't that a beautiful imagery? a warmer color to the kindled and glowing mind that would be given 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.

56:47 And oh, may God make our preaching that. Living, breathing, burning speech. Yonder stand 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.

57:08 Not less great is the difference between preparation and speech for everyone who was born to be a speaker. Not less different. Get the picture? That hill behind us there in the fall and the clouds have overcasted, everything looks dull and dry, but then the sun breaks out and it's like someone has poured kerosene over it and thrown a match and it's all lit up.

57:30 He said, now that's the difference between the written composition standing in isolation from the living preacher in living rapport with a living congregation handling the living Word of God in the presence of the livingness of the Holy Spirit giving life to it all. Well, you hear the for's, the yea's and the against, the naids.

A Synthesis: Combining Written and Extemporaneous Methods

57:53 Now then, let me attempt a compromise or a synthesis. And I do so by giving you this axiom, brethren, or this word of observation Whenever you find good men of proven ability in similar fields differing greatly on a given point of their mastered art know immediately that the truth lies somewhere in the assimilation of both poles of the argument

58:32 And surely this is part of the biblical statement, or the meaning of the biblical statement, and in the multitude of counselors, there is safety. And no little part of that safety, when we immerse ourselves in a multitude of counsel, even though that counsel may differ greatly, is that it makes us aware that if men who've mastered their art can speak with such a different voice, then there must be elements of truth involved in both poles, both extremes, both affirmations. and so as I've tried to expose you to the multitude of counselors some who speak very strongly for detailed written composition

59:18 some who speak strongly against it's interesting that among some of these very men as well as others we see that synthesis, that point of godly compromise and here I want to expose you to some of that so this is what I suggest as I quote these various men is a happy mean between the two extremes of perspective on bridges on page 295 at the bottom and over to 296 at the top quotes Archbishop Secker after all every man as the apostle says on a different occasion has his proper gift of God one after this manner another after that. Let each cultivate his own, and no one censure or despise his brother.

60:11 This was Mr. Robinson's judgment of this matter, who, with a decided preference for extempore preaching, that is, no detailed written composition preceding or entering the pulpit, taught his people to relish either, and to consider, book or no book, as one of those circumstantials in the fulfillment of the ordinance which was of secondary or rather of no real importance. However, this is one of those questions that can never be decided upon paper. The conscientious minister will consider the nature of his situation, the temper of his people, the character and suitableness of his individual talent, which mode is most adapted to subserve his own ministerial efficiency, optimum edification, optimum progress in the development of his

61:02 gift. It will probably be well for him to use both methods for himself to combine the freedom and vigor of extempore preaching with that clearness, regularity, and fullness of matter which is best secured by much reflection and much writing. So his final counsel is, use both. So that you may keep your freedom, but that you may grow in clarity and fullness of matter.

61:36 That's the counsel of bridges. Use both. Well, what's the counsel of the doctor? Who stood head and shoulders above most preachers in his own generation.

61:50 He says, it's always wrong, page 215 of Preaching and Preachers, It's always wrong to lay down absolute laws on these matters. Once more, every man has got to know himself and has to decide for himself. What I regard as being important is you should preserve freedom. This element can never be exaggerated.

62:10 Yet, at the same time, you must have order and coherence. As is so often true in this matter of preaching, you're always in the position of being between two extremes. You're always on the knife edge. But I would ask the question, what's wrong with combining both these methods, the written and the extempore?

62:30 In many ways, it seems to me to be the ideal. And then he tells his own experience. In the first ten years of his ministry, he wrote out one sermon in full, word for word, every week, and preached the second one only, as I understand from sketchy notes. Not extempore in the sense of no preparation, but in terms of writing out in detail, and then he said after the first ten years of his ministry, he said toward the close of his ministry, I cannot remember the last time I wrote out a sermon in full.

63:03 Well, here again, as the years proved his worth and his mind was disciplined and trained in those early days, both as a physician and as a preacher, then obviously he could attain clarity of expression, succinctness, etc., without the discipline of the pen. That's his counsel. Well, Stuart, on page 154, also gives helpful counsel.

63:27 On page 154, Stuart advises us, you will be well advised whichever method of delivery you propose to adopt to begin by writing out your sermons fully. During the first ten years of your ministry, or perhaps over a much longer period than that, there is no substitute for this essential discipline. It will safeguard your work against diffusiveness, ambiguity, and redundance. It will make for clarity of thought and perspicuity of style.

64:00 My favorite word. Therefore, establish it as a rule that one of your two sermons each week, some would go further and say both, shall be not merely drafted, but wrought out in full from beginning to end. Sound very familiar? It's almost as though the doctor took his counsel from Stuart, though I don't know.

64:21 Stuart had not written at the time the doctor adopted that plan. But even down to the ten year or the decade suggestion will then shed in his excellent work on homiletics and pastoral theology gives us some counsel. In each week he should regularly page 211 preach one written sermon and one unwritten sermon to the congregation. If the preacher must be confined to but one kind of discourse that he should write.

64:51 No man can meet the needs of an intelligent audience year after year who should always deliver unwritten discourses. So here you have the balance again. You have two discourses. Have one that you've written out in full.

65:03 The other in which you have stopped short of that. And then Spurgeon. Now if anybody would warn us against being bound and keeping our freedom it certainly would be Spurgeon. And yet, listen to what he told the young man of his college.

65:23 Page 141. Very strongly do I warn you against reading your sermons, but I recommend as a most healthy exercise and as a great aid toward attaining extemporizing power the frequent writing of them. Those of us who write a great deal in other forms for the press, etc., may not so much require that exercise, but if you do not use the pen in other ways, you will be wise to write at least some of your sermons and revise them with great care.

65:56 Leave them at home afterwards, but still write them out, that you may be preserved from a slip-shod style. And I think of Spurgeon. After pouring himself out on the Lord's Day, Monday morning, those who have read his biography know what he faced. he faced the transcription of his previous sermon and all of that editing that he had to do to get them in proper form I marvel that the man even lived to be 56 with that kind of pressure upon him but it was that very discipline you see and you can see how much he radically edited the things because what was effective in oral discourse did not appear as effective in a printed discourse and if you've not read that section in the early years

66:42 Please do it, because you'll be discouraged when you read Spurgeon's sermons. If you think what you're reading in the Metropolitan Tabernacle came out of the pulpit the first time that way, that's a fairy world. That's not true. You look at the facsimile, the photocopy of some of the original drafts, and you realize that what's there in the Metropolitan Tabernacle pulpit is about one half in terms of substance and form and sentence structure and everything of what actually came over the pulpit.

67:13 Otherwise you get discouraged. But it also explains why Spurgeon, over the years, had such effectiveness in lucidity and in pointed statement because he was under that discipline in spite of all of his native gifts. There was a constant honing of the gifts by the discipline of the pen. And then likewise Broadus takes the middle of the road position again when he says on page 465, The beginner in oratory and the experienced ready speaker must constrain themselves to write much and carefully.

67:55 Writing promotes accuracy of thought as well as exactness of statement. The thought becomes objective and thus can be more carefully scrutinized. Thus our habits of writing and of speaking will maintain an equilibrium in our methods of thinking and style of expression, while yet each is practiced according to its own essential and distinctive character. well Alexander gives similar counsel on page 17 and then Nicholas Murray on page 129 and 130 and I'll just give you this brief quote in his book Preachers and Preaching

68:41 on the whole we lean strongly to the opinion that to write sermons carefully to deliver them well with energy and unction freely to use the thoughts that may suggest themselves in the delivery is the best way of preaching to the same congregation for a lifetime. Then he says, missionaries, itinerants, evangelists who change their place of labor, they may work on another plan. But he said, those of us who have a settled ministry must write and write continually. And then he quotes at the end of that chapter that same poem that is quoted by Bridges.

Specific Factors Regulating Personal Decisions

69:21 Now, the specific factors that should regulate your own decision in this matter, and here perhaps we ought to just take a break. I didn't realize I'd gone so long, brethren. Let's take a little break.

69:35 All right, brethren, let me just now conclude the lecture by trying to give you some specific factors that should regulate your own decisions in this matter. of how much pen to put to paper and for how long. It seems to me there are at least six factors that should enter in as you continually assess this matter. Number one, your native gift of expression.

70:04 Your native gift of expression. And here we come to Romans chapter 12 and verse 3. I say through the grace given me to every man that is among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think but so to think as to think soberly according as God hath dealt to each man a measure of faith. And so seek to come to some accurate assessment of the level of your native gift of expression.

70:35 And secondly, the measure of your cultivated gift of expression. Have you had in your past influences that have forced you to be disciplined in expressing your thoughts clearly, accurately, pungently? some of us can look back and bless God for one or two teachers that came across our paths in our formative years and forced us to wrestle with certain fundamental grammatical distinctions we forever thank God for them some of you haven't had that benefit some of us have had disciplines that have forced us

71:21 and continue to force us to cultivate a gift of expression for example in my own situation having to dictate so many letters knowing that I'm not even going to proofread them.

71:33 It forces me continually and sit sometimes four and six hours at a stretch composing and knowing that that is the first draft is the last draft for better or for worse. And the sheer volume precludes a second edition. Now we don't do that with letters that go out from the eldership on official matters. sometimes those letters undergo literally 20, 30 hours, man hours of scrutiny.

72:02 It may only be if one went out a week ago that was just one page, but I figured out it was somewhere between, I think, 18 and 20 hours, man hours went into the composition of that one letter.

72:14 But now, of course, you can't do that. If you wait to write the perfect letter or preach the perfect sermon, you'll never do anything. But some of you may have certain disciplines that will force you to continually cultivate clarity, poignancy, and pointedness of expression, etc. But constantly assess that native gift of expression, the cultivated gift of expression.

72:35 Thirdly, your own peculiar practical dangers. What are your peculiar practical dangers? In the light of the dangers of not writing and the dangers of writing, go back through that material as you're settling into your own ministry and ask yourself alright which of those dangers am I more exposed to and in the light of them do I need more of the discipline at the pen to avoid the dangers or do I need less for a while in order to avoid the dangers on the other hand alright number four honestly and accurately assess your opportunities for ministry.

73:26 Honestly and accurately assess your opportunities for ministry. Your opportunities may be such that if you do not write out in full at least one sermon a week, it will be an indication of laziness. On the other hand, God may thrust you into a situation where to write out a sermon in full, not simply to write out in full your introduction, your transitions, your conclusion, some discipline of complete and thorough composition, might be the squandering of time that could be better spent preparing for another God-given opportunity that God has set before you. So you have to assess that all along the way.

74:05 Now, on the threshold of your ministry, most of you will be faced with a situation that your opportunities will be such that there is no excuse for you not to write out at least one sermon per week. Most of you will be in a situation where your opportunities will be limited, and that very limitation can be a means of grace to cultivate good habits on the front end of your ministry. And then number five, and this is somewhat akin to it, but it is a separate category, the present demands made upon you in the will of God. The present demands made upon you in the will of God.

74:46 And those are never static. They vary. And you want to be sensitive to them. And then sixth, your age and experience.

74:57 Your age and your experience. I had occasion to mention to someone just recently or several people that I never went abroad on a two-week ministry more unprepared as far as having matter on paper clearly sorted out what I could call my normal pulpit notes in ink not ballpoint pen yet I said my comfort is I'm not going into a strange situation. I'm not going as a neophyte. I'm not going in this condition because of laziness.

75:36 Just the sheer weight of responsibilities and unexpected intrusions into time that was marked out. And so I had to say, Lord, here I am. And I can testify that I don't think I ever preached with greater help, and I hope with more mature substance in the stuff that demanded that. It's the testimony of others who've known me over years.

75:56 but you see that's coming after being at this thing for 35 years and for me to have gone in that condition even 15 years ago would have been presumptuous and so to keep my conscience from feeling false guilt I had to sit down and go through some of these things myself in order to be able to get on the plane with a good conscience and face the various demands without guilt that somehow I had failed in preparing for these ministries So these things are never static, and you have to continually wrestle with them, and you can't allow someone else to legislate for you. I hope you will listen to counsel, and if someone who's wise enough and experienced enough discerns in your ministry what appears to be the fruits of the lack of the discipline of the pen, that you listen to them when they tell you that and say,

76:48 Brother, I think you need to spend more time with pen and paper before you come into the pulpit. But ultimately, this is a matter where you must, before God, be fully persuaded in your own mind. And I think the counsel of both Stuart and Dr. Lloyd-Jones is good general counsel that's settled in your mind now that unless there are some unusually extenuating circumstances that make it patent that you ought to be the exception, that you are committed the first ten years of your ministry of writing out a full manuscript for one sermon per week and then critically analyzing that manuscript and whatever you take out of it in the way of an outline into the pulpit

77:33 that's another matter for another day and another topic how much paper in the pulpit but I trust that you'll be able to convince have your own conscience convinced that this is the wisest course to take all things. All right, that's all I had to say on the matter.