Why Blog 5? Development of sermons

I used to think that the pastor had to get alone with God, pray, struggle, study and come up with what God wanted to say to the congregation, and anything other than that meant I was not a good pastor/preacher; I was letting down my congregation. I have found that not to be the case, though. The more I interact with others, taking what I believe the Lord is leading me to do, the text, my understanding of it, and sharing it, the better the sermon becomes. This will never take the place of the study I need to do, but it can (and already has) enhance how the material is presented and how it will be received and applied. I learned this first from Traci, my wife. As I shared with her what I believed I was to preach, we would talk, she would ask questions, give ideas, and I’d incorporate that into the sermon so that I was better able to communicate what God was saying to the congregation. I have done that with others this fall, talking about the text, the sermon, and getting feedback from them. And because of that interaction, the conveying of the Scriptures and how to apply it has become even more clear.