On Sermon and Homily Retention

Think about it… what did your pastor preach on last Sunday? What were the highpoints, what scripture was used to back them up? If you are like many folks, you will scratch your head. I’ll go a bit further, some months back, on the way back from church, I was thinking “wowzers, that was really cool”… and then going, “ok doggone it, I dont remember what pastor said, but I know it was cool”. Thus, other than by osmosis/related absorption, how do we act upon what we hear, if we dont remember it? Granted, I think osmotic retention does work on our hearts to some extent, even when we dont remember, so not all is lost, but such is only a fraction of what likely could occur.

Here is a list of things which I’ve found helpful over the years.

• Read the scriptures ahead of time
• Take notes during the sermon
• Reread the scriptures after church
• Meditate on the text, tie it to the sermon
• Make a point to act on the text within 2 weeks
• After 2 weeks, review what happened

Pre-reading

Pre-reading the scriptures is a huge deal, and I think its something that somehow has been lost over the years. I remember as a youngster, the local newspaper would have a list of the upcoming scriptures for the next Sunday in the church section. Being the Catholic Church and the mainline protestant churches all use a lectionary, and ~95% of the time, the USCCB and the RCL lectionary are identical, such was pretty cool, irrespective of denomination. Today, while its unlikely to see such in a newspaper anymore, www.lectionary.com exists and it breaks down the lectionary for the week 3 ways, the USCCB, RCL, and Episcopal versions. It has links for the Psalm, the Old Testament Lesson, the New Testament Lesson, and the Gospel. For folks whose church doesn’t follow a lectionary… almost always, the pastor will clue you in as to what scriptures will be talking about ahead of time if you ask, or even check his blog/website.

Note taking

Note taking during the sermon is pretty cool. I dont remember the pastor at NLCC, an Assembly of God church from way back when, but he was really hard core on sermon note-taking. He walked the talk, in that when he wasnt himself preaching, he was there with a little notepad too. Its not dictation, as much as it is picking up high points. Since the era of the Palm device… thats pretty much been my main approach, albeit I use a scribble type app, rather than OCR. One of the cool things I picked up from Faith, is right next to the bulletin in the entry way, they had sermon notes sheets, with some preprinted headings. I’ve also been known to take a bulletin, and fill nearly every white space with notes at times as well.

Rereading the scriptures

A few hours after the sermon, I reread the scriptures… its not a detailed read, but more so a review of what I;ve heard. This is something likely I picked up Grace Bible Church, a non-denominational, dispensational church, and my primary flight instructor from way back when. He’d bring his Bible out to the FBO, and in between lessons on Sunday afternoon, he’d be poking through it, so I asked him what the deal was. He said a review shortly after the sermon helped him remember what was said, such that he could act on it.

Meditate on the text

This could be formal, such as Lecto Divina, or just a matter of pondering the text, reading it, and praying as one feels is needed. After such, consider how it ties into the sermon of homily.

Act on the text/sermon

Jesus said something to the tune of, “if you love me, you will keep my commands”… he didn’t say, “you will ponder them, and then do nothing” or that “you will blow them off as too hard, too much a culture of 2000 yrs ago, or too unrealistic”, or “if you have time, you will do them” he said something more like “you will keep them in your heart and you will do them”. For me… the dude with 10 pt lists and time frames, typical goal setting stuff works. For others, likely something more formal like a schedule, or less formal, like yep, I will do this would work. Its not the how part that matters, it is the doing part.

Review

Review what goes down as you walk with Christ. How has the scripture, how as the sermon impacted your life? Has it made a change, if so cool. Has it done nothing, if not, why not? This is a time for reflection… and for those who do accountability circles and the like, perhaps included in such types of activities, both from an individual walk point of view, but also such that others would be edified.

My response:

Ultimately, what I do is hose up much of the above. At different times, I’ve taken on different parts, and when it all comes together, its like wowzers… Its the sort of thing that doesn’t come natural per se, but it is something I find I am continuously working on as part of my walk. Likely my biggest issue is the meditation aspect… its just not something I get into, possibly a ramification of the five solas… but it is something i am working on.