For me, preaching by heart was an idea born of necessity. I was struggling to articulate how I felt that I should be approaching sermon delivery. On the one hand, I was dissatisfied with preaching from a manuscript—no matter how well I worked it, there was an unavoidable sense of reading. [1]
On the other hand, neither did I want to memorize the sermon and deliver it. Not only is this an exceptionally arduous process, at its best the product tends to be what my mentor calls “reading the teleprompter in your head.” It still lacks connection.
And so I developed this notion of preaching by heart. What does this mean? Here’s my technical definition:
Preaching by heart is a way to proclaim the gospel that internalizes the core content of a sermon in order to deliver the message without notes in the power & guidance of the Holy Spirit.
Let me break this definition down into three parts:
1) Internalization
Think of the great Collect for the Word, in which we aspire to “hear, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest” the Holy Scriptures. So preachers also aspire to “inwardly digest” the message of the sermon so that it, in a sense, becomes part of them. You own it, and not just know it.
Thomas Long, furthering the thought, advises preachers to practice their sermon such that they “absorb it”: “We do not memorize it, but we learn it ‘by heart’ and, thus, can be more present with and for the hearers in the actual event of preaching.” [2] This is the fundamental step to preaching by heart.
2) Without notes
Among preachers, much has been made of the notion of “preaching without notes.” I don’t think it’s a bad idea; in fact, I’m all for it. I just think that it’s an insufficient idea.
The reason I say this is that the concept confuses means and ends. The pastor’s goal isn’t merely to preach from a naked pulpit; the pastor’s goal is to preach by heart. For the message to become part of you, and so come forth as naturally as conversation with a friend.
3) Spirit-filled proclamation
For classical orators, the goal of good public speaking was to seem genuine—whether or not one happened to believe the message. As preachers, we don’t just want to seem like we’re actually committed to the gospel. As the Scripture says, “I believed, and so I spoke” (2 Cor. 4.13). This is no show for us.
And so, preaching by heart is proclamation in which there is harmony between preachers’ message and their manner, between their heart and their delivery. It facilitates the convergence between your faith-filled imagination and the Spirit of God.
Simply put: preaching by heart is preaching like you believe it.
1. This reminds me of a story I heard about the great Lutheran Hour preacher, Oswald Hoffman. Story goes, a preacher asks the LHM speaker for some honest feedback after he had been present for his sermon. Hoffman says, “You’ve got three problems: one, you read your sermon; two, you didn’t read it well; and three, it wasn’t worth reading.”
2. Thomas Long, The Witness of Preaching, 3rd ed. (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2016), 269.