I tend to be just a wee bit long winded in my writing, and my brain doesn’t typically work in a very linear fashion, as my co-workers well know. In the first few weeks of working with our All Good Things team, they communicated, in a gracious and encouraging way, of course, that if I wanted, I could feel free to start using more bullet points. So in a world where time is a hot commodity, I am going to take their encouragement and feel free to start using bullet points to also communicate some of my messages to you.
So, here’s the scoop on why I personally find value in sermon notes and in making a home for them:
- The artist in me struggles to focus on the sermon because I start writing poetry and designing paintings in my head. Sermon notes help me focus.
My gentle and handsome husband is unaware that he hums through the majority of the sermon, making it that much harder to focus. Sermon notes help me focus.
If I know I have to answer questions like “Put it in one word” or list “take-aways” at the end, I feel like I have a goal to reach. Sermon notes help me focus.
My kind and gracious husband shakes his foot through the majority of the sermon which causes the entire line of seats we are sitting in to vibrate. Sermon notes help me focus.
I like to record just about everything and have a chronological view of my journey with Christ. Sermon notes help me look back and remember.
My children shake the crushed ice from the church ice machine in little styrofoam cups and then try to build little homes out of tearing up tiny pieces of styrofoam while I am “listening” to the sermon. Sermon notes help me focus.
My notes on the church bulletin get moved around from pile to pile on my desk, and they need a place to live. Sermon notes need a home too.
My husband and children put their sermon notes in my purse because a mother has eight arms and for sure wants to be the carrier of all the things, especially everyone’s notes which then float around from pile to pile on her desk because she can’t bear to throw them away. Sermon notes are not trash.
Sermons are a valuable part of our Christian journey but because of the paper influx, I was feeling an overwhelming temptation to throw all the notes in the trash.
But God…
intervened
and said,
“Do not be mean
to Me
or your pastor
and throw our words
in the trash.
Simply batch them
all together
into a book
for taking notes.
Then paper stashes
will stop growing
and one day
your kids will know
what God taught you
through note-taking
on Sunday morning
as they built homes
out of little pieces
of styrofoam
while your husband’s humming
sang sweetly to you,
“Sermon notes
deserve a home too.”
Amen.
Click here to go to the All Good Things Collective Sermon Notes journal.