Customer Feedback

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I have easing myself into this method for years with notes and an outline and recently only key idea notes. Since 
watching this DVD, I have been able to make great strides in going all the way to not looking at my notes in my hand.
Preaching is again exciting and fun – there are times when the Holy Spirit takes hold and the sermon ends in a different place that I thought it would. This also frees me up from trying to duplicate the first service sermon for the second service.
All in all, this was the best money I spent all year for continuing ed. I’ve watched the DVD several times and each time I get something else out of it. I try to watch parts 5 & 6 right after trying a notes-free sermon as a way to critique my methods.

Pastor James Jerpseth – King of Kings Lutheran

I 'preached by ear' this past Sunday and really enjoyed it. The eye contact alone made the experience wonderful. I was also able to mentally/spiritually get out of my own way and let God be part of the process. People's response was unexpected and real. There was a gentle undercurrent of power (through relelvance)?

I've taken the content to heart. It's been liberating. I've used the preparation process i.e. mapping, dialogue, pre-hearsal
etc.. to do a couple of 'people care' presentations for leaders at a local church. The result was engaging - at a glance I could pick-up my next thought and begin to unpack it. Similarly, their interuptions; questions, stories, etc... became a natural part of the presentation without threat of derailing my point. This was nice. Natural.

Stephen Mawhinney

I received the Preach By Ear DVD's yesterday and watched them through yesterday and today. It is my nature to preach by ear, a storyteller mode, I just never knew it was a method of preaching. I love the road map idea and can't wait to try it out next Sunday. This has been one of my shortcomings. I will have prepared and rehearsed my message but at the time of delivery I sometimes lose my way. I know where I want to go but get off the road and find it hard to get back to where I was heading in the message without resorting to a scripted reminder that kind of disrupts the natural flow. The idea of having the icons to guide me should work very well. The homework assignments will be a great help also.

Great tip on the eye contact, I tend to be a scanner.

Thanks,
Pastor Ray Laird

I purchased and watched the series on preaching by ear, but I would like to get some more information on road mapping versus outling a sermon, and how would doing the introduction and the body and then the conclusion play into road mapping?

Thank you, Deon Archer

Reply from PBE

Deon,

Good question. I think in roadmapping you still have an intro, body, and conclusion, but they are of a different nature than the conventional understanding.  Usually you think of previewing what you say in your intro, saying it in your body, and then reviewing it in your conclusion.  But in a more narrative framework the intro is not a preview as much as an exploration where you raise a question, but supply no answer.  Then your "body" is where you wrestle with the question and various possible implications.  But instead of an outline where your body is multiple reinforcing points, the "body" here is more like a progressing storyline where one idea leads naturally into the next. This progression of thought then forms the sequence (and the visual icons) for your roadmap.  Your conclusion is the answer supplied by the text and is the last stop on your roadmap.  The icons on the roadmap can represent an illustration, an application, or direct teaching of the text. Basically, you’re giving yourself permission to be less intentionally didactic and let your teaching come out naturally as you match the flow of thought in the text.  Most of the texts we preach are not nicely organized for Western outlining.  We have to force them into outlines.  In roadmapping, you allow the flow of thought in the text to supply your basic flow of thought for the sermon.  But you’re also adding implications and applications to contemporary life as you go.  Instead of a Scripture text and a sermon text, they are melded into one integrated progession.

Reply from Deon

I'm sorry to bother you again, but I have a some more questions. I have been studying homiletics for a little while now and have read quite a few books on the subject. Four books stand out to me right now that I really enjoyed. and that is Haddon Robinson's Biblical Preaching, Bryan Chappel's Christ-Centered Preaching, Eugene Lowery's Homiletical Plot, and Paul Scott Wilsons The Practice of Preaching. Robinson emphasizes the Big Idea, Chappel emphasizes preaching Christ expositorily from the scripture, and Lowry speaks about the structure of the sermon, and Wilson speaks about all but seems to emphasize movements of language from David Buttrick's Moves and Structures. Now when I look at your model it seems to be like to some degree like the homiletical plot, and Buttricks moves and structures... I like your model because it seems as if it would fit my personality because I never been the type of person to stay in closed doors all the time, and I am a picture type person I can remember a face before I remember a name. So I really believe I will benefit from your model. My first Question is how can I impliment the theological aspect into your model? Can I still preach redemptively from your model? can I still build tension in the begining of the message and give a solution which is found in Christ? How does your model fit the epistles?   Thank you, your  brother in the Lord Jesus Christ

Reply from PBE

Deon,
I think this model is has overtones of all those approaches.  Dr. Robinson was my homiletics prof. at Denver Seminary and Dr. Chappel was on my dissertation committee.  Lowry's work has also been influential.  I would say that the theological element is always going to come from the text and that we are trying to accurately depict the text.  Let the text do the work.  Emulate, follow, express the text and you won't be short on theology (though the book of Esther, in the extreme, has no overt mention of God).  In that sense, Dr. Chappel's  Fallen Condition Focus provides a world/Scripture view that encompasses every text (even Esther).  So even as we try to read each text "for the first time," we do bring to it an understanding of a sin/redemption meta-narrative.

 Hey Dave,

I ordered your dvd's and just finished watching them (except the homework chapter). I'm really excited to try out the process. I'm the Youth Pastor at my church, but I get opportunities to preach here and there. I am also looking forward to trying it at a camp this summer. It's always challenging to have 10 camp messages completely outlined and manuscripted. I think preaching by ear could be a great way to approach a weeks worth of messages.

Andy Hatfield