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Help! I am down to preach on Sunday! What do I do?
Some notes prepared by John Roxborogh, School of Ministry
Stay calm. Find a spot to sit down and work it through.
Pray that God will guide how you prepare and what you will say.
ASAP decide on Bible Readings that make sense to you and connect with life and faith today.
Start with the readings set in the Lectionary. Check out Lectionary Resources for New Zealand - in Church Dates and Seasons and Ministry Resources. If you don't get lost there is more than enough material available from The Text this Week website. Other web-based resources are listed on the MRT web pages.
Read the passages and note questions, ideas, and connections with your experience and the experience of the congregation.
Practice the readings out loud, in the church if possible.
Check your interpretations with one reputable commentary and ignore what does not make sense to you.
Decide on one topic and not more than three points worth making.
Look out for an illustration which helps explain the passage in terms of a situation or experience familiar to the congregation.
Decide on a practical application - a point of connection with people's lives, something we might do differently because of what is in the passage.
Write a draft copy. Put it away. Revise it later.
Decide what is the one thing this is really about after all.
On the day, read the passages, tell people what that one thing is, share the illustration, explain the ideas and words in the passage you understand (forget what you don't understand), tell people the story of the application and why it appealed to you.
It is not only OK to be yourself, trying to be someone else does not work.
Talk about what you know, not what you don't understand. Speak from your convictions, and from your questions, but give other people the freedom to see it all differently - disagreeing with you is not arguing with God.
See the article, "Preaching about Work" for relating faith and the workplace. People pick up what you most deeply believe without your saying very much.