This month’s preaching article continues a series that gives readers a taste of several different aspects of preaching. Articles will discuss preaching’s purpose (why we preach), content (what we say), form (how we arrange what we say), context (where and to whom we preach), and the person of the preacher (the preacher’s relationships with his listeners and with God and his Word).

The way we arrange our thoughts in a sermon is probably not something we think about much (or ever). We let our thoughts flow in a way that makes sense, and we leave it at that. Preachers develop an intuitive awareness of how to answer the question, “Will people be able to track what I’m saying?” This sense is so intuitive that we may not think about it at all; we just write and preach. Plus, thinking through the order of what we’ll preach may conjure up unpleasant memories of sweating over basic and expanded outlines during seminary days. Preachers may think, “Putting outlines on paper may be fine for beginning preachers—necessary even—but I don’t need to do that anymore. Anyway, who has the time?”

That may usually be fine. Experienced preachers can take shortcuts because they have internalized enough experience to know what works and what doesn’t. Without thinking about structure, they write thoughts in a way that makes sense. But the day may come when someone remarks, “Sorry, pastor, I couldn’t really follow where you were going in the sermon today.” Or, “I can pretty much predict what the preacher is going to say, because it’s the same stuff in the same order every time.” Then it may be time for the preacher to ask the gut-check question, “Have I really mastered sermon forms as well as I think I have?”

Today we’ll look at three reasons why it’s beneficial for preachers to be conscious of the form or structure their sermons take. Don’t worry—this will not be a guilt trip, as if it’s wrong to do anything other than a by-the-book, theme-and-parts expanded outline. Nor will it be a homiletics prof haranguing preachers to write out full outlines every week. Instead, my aim is to help preachers and their listeners by encouraging some once-in-a-while thinking about how thoughts are arranged in a sermon.

1. Every sermon will end up with some structure anyway. So, what will it be?

In every sermon, the preacher will end up saying one thing first, another thing second, another thing third, and so on. That’s just how time works! You can’t say everything all at once. For that reason, preachers will end up ordering their main thoughts, stories, exhortations, illustrations, etc. One response to the objection, “I don’t need to think about form and structure of sermons,” could well be, “You are thinking about it anyway, whether or not you realize it.” So, since every preacher will order his thoughts in some way in every sermon anyway, the preacher might as well pay a little attention to how he’s doing it.

“But I’m bored with theme-and-parts. And I’m pretty sure my listeners are too.” If you think this, you’re not alone. For his senior thesis in 2022, Pastor Jared Lindemann interviewed preachers who had been in full-time public ministry for three years or fewer.¹ He found that many of them had abandoned the theme-and-parts structure they had learned in seminary. Or, if “abandoned” is too strong, they had at least experimented with other sermon forms. Which other forms did they use? Some tried Lowry’s Loop or other forms with more inductive movement. But others, when asked what form they used instead of theme-and-parts, answered vaguely; they didn’t really have any structure in mind when they wrote their sermons.

I have a hunch that what this survey revealed is common. Mark Paustian, in a 2021 Preach the Word article, recalls the time early in his ministry when he departed from the theme-and-parts deductive form. What did he replace it with? “Early in my days as a preacher, there is no doubt that when I ditched deductive preaching, I turned instead to a method I must now refer to as the ‘hot mess.’”² Even talented preachers with an ear for communication may struggle when they shape sermons only “by feel.”

This is one reason it may be good to get acquainted with several sermon forms. The senior preaching course at Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary now does this. Students, by senior year having more than two dozen sermons under their belts, look at different patterns for arranging thoughts in a sermon. (Some have experimented already, many of them encouraged by their supervising pastors during vicar year.) The Grow in Grace program’s courses like Survey of Sermon Structures (and similar courses that preceded it) offer pastors similar opportunities.

Every sermon will have a structure anyway. Theme-and-parts often works great. But beyond that, it’s good to have some other sermon forms in the toolbox.

2. Knowing some sermon forms can make writing sermons easier.

The preacher has dug into his text. He now has a jumble of thoughts in his head, on his screen, or scribbled on the notepad in front of him. Now what? Many preachers can relate to the way David Schmitt expresses it:

Preparing a sermon can be a messy activity. Meditating on the Scriptural text, the world around you, and the work of God in the lives of his people produces a vast array of ideas and experiences. For example, one week a preacher may gather together a line from a hymn, a scene from a recent movie, a metaphor of the gospel, an exegetical insight, a conversation after Bible class, a controversy in the news, and a child’s drawing left in the pew. Any of these ideas might make it into the sermon. All of them cannot. So the preacher needs to be selective about what he includes and purposeful about when he includes it as he shapes the experience of the sermon. How does a preacher do that? By using a sermon structure.³

This is where having a few sermon structures at hand can really help the preacher. When he is unsure where to start when putting his sermon together, he does not have to reinvent the wheel. Instead, he can turn to a sermon form that has been tried, refined, and proven to work well. Can he change the structure and add his own tweaks as he goes along? Of course. But a time-tested structure gives him a tried-and-true skeleton that he can add flesh to.

3. All preachers are not the same; all listeners are not the same.

For some preachers, the theme-and-parts deductive structure “clicks”; it makes sense to state central idea at the beginning of the sermon and then unpack it, illustrating, expounding, and applying, section by section. But not every preacher thinks that way. For some, the progression of a story feels more natural. They like to start with a difficult question, a complex situation, or a challenging conflict. They explore these situations to reveal sin through the law. Then there’s a turning point or an “aha” moment when the gospel sheds light and answers the question everyone has been wrestling with. In such a structure, law and gospel are still proclaimed, and the text is expounded and applied. But these things happen in a way that “clicks” with the preacher for whom theme-and-parts is a struggle.

Likewise, some listeners appreciate a straight-line, deductive sermon. They appreciate clarity. They know the main point of the sermon because the preacher stated it clearly near the start of the sermon. Other listeners, though, like being drawn into the sermon by seeking clarity as the sermon progresses. They enjoy the journey of discovery that the preacher skillfully leads them on. Cultural differences can also play a role here. Narrative or storied styles of communication feel natural for some listeners, while more linear, “just the facts” styles appeal to others.

This, then, is a third reason for preachers to think about sermon form. Being familiar with different sermon forms can help each preacher preach in a way that seems more natural to him. And hearing a variety of sermon forms can help more listeners engage with the sermon in ways more natural to them.

There’s more to preaching, and there are more important factors in preaching, than just sermon forms and structures. However, for the three reasons above (and maybe you’ve thought of more), it’s worth a preacher’s time to get acquainted with ways of arranging his thoughts in a sermon. Finally, it’s not just about submitting outlines that get an A in homiletics class, and it’s not about being edgy by not doing what was taught at the seminary. Knowing multiple sermon forms is about being good stewards of the Word we proclaim by structuring our thoughts in varied ways that communicate God’s message.

This article in Devote Yourself was contributed by the team that previously created and distributed Preach the Word. View past preaching-related articles at worship.welsrc.net/downloads-worship/preach-the-word.

¹ Jared Lindemann, “A Major Homiletical Challenge Facing the Young WELS Pastor In 2022: Sermon Form,” Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary Essay File. http://essays.wls.edu:8080/handle/123456789/7303.
² Mark Paustian, “Movements in Sermon Writing,” Preach the Word, vol. 24 no. 6 (July/August 2021). https://worship.welsrc.net/archived-resources/.
³ David Schmitt, “Sermon Structures: Overview.” https://concordiatheology.org/sermon-structs/. This website is an excellent resource for learning about different sermon forms. An expanded version of the website forms the “textbook” for the WLS senior preaching seminar and Grow in Grace’s Survey of Sermon Structures class.