How Preparing Your Talk (Sermon) Is Like Preparing A Meal

I'm finishing up prepping for my 2nd e-class tomorrow and I had an idea I wanted to share with you...

There is a lot in common with preparing a meal and preparing a talk. Let me show you.

1. Preparing Your Meal

When you're preparing a meal, the first thing you need to do is come up with a menu - what you will serve.

Preparing Your Talk

When you're preparing a talk, the first thing you need to do is come up with a topic or theme (i.e. the truth you will focus on serving).

2. Preparing Your Meal

When you're preparing a meal, the next thing you need to do is decide what ingredients you will use - what you will put in your dish.

Preparing Your Talk

When you're preparing a talk, the next thing you need to do is decide what ingredients you will use - what you will put in your talk to express and explain the idea/truth you want to get across.

3. Preparing Your Meal

When you're preparing a meal, the next thing you need to do is to put the ingredients together and cook (or prepare) them.

Preparing Your Talk

When you're preparing a talk, the next thing you need to do is to put the ingredients together and prepare your talk. This is where you decide on the overall flavor and come up with the final way it will "taste" to your students.

4. SERVING Your Meal

When you're done preparing a meal, the final thing you need to do is to decide what courses will come first, and in what order, and then serve your dish.

This is the final test of all your plans before. You will now know whether people enjoy and are able to digest what you served them.

SERVING Your Talk

When you're done preparing your talk, the final thing you need to do is to decide what "courses" (or parts) you will present first and in what order you will present the ideas/verses/illustrations to serve the truth you have to share.

This is the final test of all your plans before. You will now know whether people enjoy and are able to "digest" what you served them.

Think about this analogy as you prepare your talk (sermon) for this week.

• Have you ever tasted some type of food cooked one way, by one person and thought you HATED it?
• But then later tasted the same type of food prepared a different way, by a different person, found out you actually LIKED it?

When that happens you find out your problem wasn't with the ingredient. It was the CHEF!

You don't ever want someone to reject God's truth, because of HOW you serve it!

You don't want to be the barrier to God's truth! You want to be the one who prepares and presents God's truth in the best possible way.

We need to become the best we can at presenting God's truth to our students. We need to do it in a way that they can enjoy or at least digest it!

If they reject it, we want it to be because of the truth itself, not because of how we served it!

I'm going to talk more about what to "sprinkle" throughout your talks (sermons) in my 2nd e-class Wed. 12/2 @ 10am PST and AGAIN Thurs. 12/3 @ 11:30am PST. If it sounds like something that would help you, then I hope you can make it!