Preaching: Take Them on "The Journey"

I'm speaking at a retreat this weekend. That's had me thinking about what do I do when I want to write a special occasion sermon. I put hours upon hours into all of my sermons. I think about them weeks/months in advance. I never wing it. But what are the added elements I add to the mix when a special sermon arrives.

One of the techniques I've used in many of my strongest sermon is "The Journey." The journey is exactly what it sounds like. You take your audience on an emotional journey through someone's life. I'll find a powerful story from scripture, my life, or that I've heard, and I'll spread it across the entire sermon.

I'll normally look at the entire sermon in light of Freytag's analysis of the dramatic structure(I had to look that up on Wikipedia). The entire sermon is your truth applied. The introduction/exposition shows where the person is at and what they're missing. The rising actions are the obstacles which stop us from applying the truth. The climax is when the truth is applied. And the denouement is what happens when the truth is applied.

The idea is to engage and inspire the congregation not by propositions and mere intellectual facts, but by showing them what the scriptures look like lived out. It brings the passage to life by saturating it in real-life stories. In Bible college they referred to these types of stories as "truth applied."

Normally, when I make an intentional effort to treat a sermon as a journey, I'll also map out the emotional journey I want the audience to take. I'll work the illustrations so that the sermon is filled with emotional twists and turns with transitions between them all.

Suggestions:

• When preaching a passage: Ask yourself, "What story from my life, from scripture, or that I've heard demonstrates this passage applied or lived out?"
• How does this story need to be told to have the greatest emotional impact?