A question to all preachers: What is it about the sermon you are preparing to preach that can only be proclaimed by you?
If you were to write out your sermon, word for word, could someone else read it and communicate what you are saying just as well as you could?
The flip side of this question is: What about this sermon is an outgrowth of the transformation God is working in your life? How has this word of God that you are proclaiming already taken flesh in your life? Has it worked its way down through your head and into your heart? Has it worked its way out from your heart and into your life? What difference has it made in your life in the world?
Do you practice what you are about to preach?
How can you help your listeners make the connection between the word and their lives in the world? How have you seen this word already become flesh in the people you are preaching to?
Which brings us back to the original question in the other direction: What is it about this sermon that can only be preached to these people?
