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Richard Allen Farmer PO Box 540997Grand Prairie, TX 75054-0997972.642.7962Email: raf51@sbcglobal.netwww.richardallenfarmer.comPreaching to be RememberedI spoke with a mentor of mine recently about this topic. I asked him if he, having pastored one church for 42 years, ever prepared his sermons with the thought of beingremembered in mind. He referenced Harry Emerson Fosdick (late pastor of the RiversideChurch in NYC) who said that sermons are like rain. They water the soil while falling.Then the sun comes and dries them up.Maybe sermons are only to live for a few minutes or hours. Maybe sermons are like dailymeals. We don’t remember each one but we remember that while we were eating, wewere nourished. So, let me change the metaphor. Suppose our sermons were like
extraordinary
meals. Culinary feasts. Suppose we set a table every Sunday morning,heavy laden with the choicest of meats and vegetables and desserts. Perhaps we could seta table at which the saints would sit down and eat a meal they’d not soon forget.I have heard sermons that I have remembered for more than 25 years. In response, a fewyears ago I began to pray a prayer in my study: “Papa please give me insight to this passage and a way to communicate it that will last in the hearers’ ears for twenty years.”Is that an inappropriate prayer? I think not. I work hard at the task of writing andassembling the sermon. I do not want it forgotten by Sunday afternoon.So, what does one do, if one buys the thesis that memorable homiletical feasts can be prepared and delivered? How do we change the quality of our sermons so that they last inthe memories of the hearers? Note that I am not suggesting that we must always improvethe sermon. Some sermons are very good, but not memorable. That is, they are faithful to1
 
scripture and well constructed. However, they are full of tired language and deliveredwithout passion. What can we do?
1.Be done with clichés.
List the clichés that are seemingly ever-present and then avoid them.
At the end of the day
Take it to the next level
This is your season (or destiny)
The bottom line is…
Thinking outside the box
Win-win situation
Paradigm (paradigm shift)
Push the envelope
Living on the edge
???
2.Turn a phrase
That is, change the order of words in a sentence. You may also change the word itself and, via word play, give it freshness.This makes your sentences memorable. Some I’ve heard:“It’s hard to be optimistic when you have a misty optic.”- Vance Havner “During the Lewinsky scandal, Hillary Clinton switched from defending the Bill of Rights to defending the rights of Bill”- comedian on XM radio“We sing, God, Bless America. America, bless God.”- Anonymous“Our preaching is not a matter of the blind leading the blind. It’s the bland leading the bland.”- Anonymous“He didn’t say things in a big way, he said big things”- Speechwriter Peggy Noonanon Ronald Reagan3.
Describe items and people and events with more colorful language
.Exercise: Describe the wealthy farmer in Luke 12. Write a paragraph or two thathelps us
 see
him.2
 
Illus. Read John Ortberg’s description of the same in It All Goes Back In The Box. Ihave a recording of a sermon John preached from Luke 12 on this parable. I willremember that sermon for a long time.Illus. Gardner C. Taylor on Acts 7:56: “Standing! Standing! Heaven on tiptoe.”Illus. “It was about as poetic as a broom”- Peggy Noonan on one of Reagan’sspeechesIllus. “There is a temptation to rush to canonize your memory. There is no need to doso. You stand tall enough as a human being of unique qualities, you do not need to beseen as a saint. Indeed, to sanctify your memory would be to miss out on the verycore of your being- your wonderfully
mischievous sense of humor
, with
a laughthat bent you double
, your joy for life transmitted
wherever you took your smile
,and the sparkle in those unforgettable eyes, your boundless energy which you could barely contain.”- Earl Spencer in his eulogy of his sister, Princess Diana
4.Use rhetorical rhythm
Caution: this can be overdone very easily. Use sparingly.The rhythm is created by the use of similar word endings, actual rhymes or measuredcadence.Illus. “Why have a religion that is unquestioned when you can have a religion thathas been cleansed, corrected, fortified, clarified, purified, rectified, sanctified, beautified, magnified, qualified…”- Charles G. AdamsIllus. My passage from Experience God in Worship.116
 
Illus. Psalm 19:7-9 (“the___of the Lord is…)5.
Use alliteration-
the use of the same letter or sound in a sequence of sentencesCaution: this can be overdone very easily. Use sparinglyIllus. What God does with our sins. He puts them1.
B
ehind his
b
ack,2.
B
eneath his
b
lood,3.
B
eyond his
b
eckoning. - Donald Hubbard“He (the Lord Jesus Christ)
c
onverts you from
c
orruption. He
c
leanses you from guiltand self-condemnation. He
c
ommunes with you through prayer. He
c
ounsels you withhis word. He
c
ommissions you to serve him in a compassionate ministry to those who3
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