How to Create Sermon Outlines That Won't Bore Your Church - Part Three
Too many Biblical preachers do a great job of creating sermons that are faithful to the text, but they can't craft sermon outlines that won't bore your church. The audience will need extreme motivation to listen, something few church attendees bring on Sunday. So, we'll look at putting together an outline that hearers will naturally want to listen to since the preacher figured out how not to bore his church.
In part one of this three-part series on creating sermons that won't bore your church, we examined crafting a Big Idea and transforming it into a preaching framework. However, we didn't discuss the concept of making that sermon more engaging until part two. Now, we'll put it all together in part three. This is all part of our 10 Steps of Creative Sermon Prep in the Digital World. These three posts comprise Step Five: Outlining a Creative Sermon.
Create Sermon Outlines That Won't Bore Your Church
Let's put together our Big Idea and Sermon Outline. Remember that we used Proverbs 3:5-6 as our sample passage. It says...
5- Trust in the LORD with all your heart,
And lean not on your own understanding;
6- In all your ways acknowledge Him,
And He shall direct your paths. (Proverbs 3:5–6, NKJV)
Our exegetical idea is, "If you trust God in everything, then he will guide you through life’s obstacles."
Let's now brainstorm an illustration that can help us state this exegetical idea as a preaching or sermon idea. We used the concept of road crews working on a highway to make it straight. We could also illustrate this with a windy driveway that a homeowner straightens out. What if the highway department of a state built a road through the mountains and blasted the higher parts of the roadway to lower them and filled in the lower parts to make the highway less hilly? All of this helps us with straightening the path, but we must also consider the notion of obstacles.
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Inductive v. Deductive Sermon Outlines
We previously discussed the idea of an inductive versus a deductive approach to presentation. Don't confuse this with inductive Bible study, which approaches the text, examining the details before developing a sound exegetical idea and outline. The preaching outline that takes an inductive approach will progress from the parts to the whole, from concrete to abstract theological concepts.
This sermon on Proverbs 3:5-6 lends itself to a good inductive approach. We can introduce, in the early stages, the kinds of obstacles believers face, giving concrete examples. Then we might examine familiar questionable sources for advice on how to deal with these kinds of obstacles. That would then result in the conclusion that tells us to trust God to offer solutions to life's challenges as He directs our choices.
An Inductive Creative Sermon Outline for Proverbs 3:5-6
We would introduce our sermon with an illustration of a person who must travel through a region that he's never been to before. To successfully navigate the areas, he needs to look out for obstacles. The first part of our sermon's body would cover life's obstacles. We would then move to bad sources for guidance through these obstacles. This would communicate the 2nd and 3rd command in verses five and six, which say "... and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him." This transitions our sermon to the final section, which tells us to trust God completely or "with all your heart" as you "acknowledge Him." The final movement of the message conveys what our Big Idea states.
To get where we're going, we can trust God to direct us through the obstacles and bring us safely to our destination.
Here's Our Actual Outline
Introduction: Illustration of driving through an unknown area needing directions and updated information to avoid obstacles like construction or traffic jams.
Need Element or Fallen Condition Focus: We face many obstacles in life - examples of obstacles.
I. We can find many proposed solutions to obstacles faced - bad examples (leaning on your own understanding)
II. There's only one trusted source of accurate and up-to-date directions (trust the Lord with all your heart; in all your ways acknowledge Him)
III. When You Trust God's Directions, You Arrive at God's Destination
Some Explanation of Our Creative Sermon Outline
The Need Element mentioned above comes from Wayne McDill's book on preaching entitled The 12 Essential Skills of Great Preaching. Bryan Chapel, in Christ-Centered Preaching, calls it the "Fallen Condition Focus", but it refers to the same thing (Affiliate Links to Logos Books). This refers to the concept in the passage that communicates the problem this passage aims to solve. It is often sin-related, but it is always the result of living in a world where sin has an influence on us. For Proverbs 3:5-6, it will include the concept of trying to get through life's problems without ever consulting God's word or will.
Using the illustration of GPS guiding a driver through a new locale helps us take the concept of God's guidance and makes it memorable in a way most people can relate to.
In step six of our 10-step approach to preaching, we'll look at putting meat on the bones of this outline. What does that mean? Find out by reading that post. You can sign up to get notified using the email sign-up to the right.