The Structure of a Sermon

The outline of sermon usually contains three major elements.
1. The Introduction
2. The Main Body
3. The Conclusion
1. Introduction:
It is the most important part of our message. Here we have to say brief plan of the message and the area intended to cover.

I. What all things needed in an Introduction:
a. Capture Interest: It should immediately capture the interest and imagination of your hearers.
b. Establish Rapport: It should establish a rapport between you and your audience.
c. Afford Acceptance: It should afford you an acceptance from them. You need to win their interest, confidence and esteem.
d. Inform: It should inform them of what your subject is and how you intend to deal with it.
e. Convince: Convince them of the importance of your topic, and win their careful attention for the remainder of your task.
Never open introduction with an apology. It shows your own inability to do sermon with confidence.
II. Characteristics of a good Introduction:
a. It does not promise more than you can deliver: Sometimes a preacher may, make a most dramatic introduction to his sermon. He excites the audience for what is to come but f it not reach that level it will be an anti-climax. The audience also lose confidence in him.
b. It would not be too sensational: do not create an atmosphere that for you can’t maintain. Rather, let your introduction be modest, and then your audience will be pleasantly surprise when they discover the sermon to be much more interesting than they anticipated.
c. It should not be too long: remember that this is only your introduction, not the sermon.
d. It should bear obvious relationship to your theme: the introduction should lead into your theme, so it must always be vitally related to your subject. It may be a story, which illustrates the truth of what you plan to say.
e. It should be carefully prepared: Careful thought and preparation is needed.
f. It should provide a natural transition into your theme: When properly presented, it should be obvious to your listeners just where the introduction concludes and the sermon begins.

2.The Main Body of the Message
It will always be good to divide the main part of your subject matter into different section. This section need not all be the same length. There should be a natural, logical and smooth progression from one point to the text.

3. The Conclusion of the Sermon:
It is important. The conclusion should be included in the preceding part what then of the sermon. Here we need a re-collection, not speech repeated. It should not any longer than the introduction, consist of 3-5 minutes length. When the preacher says, and now finally, let it be final.
How can we conclude the Sermon?
a. Repeat the text and conclude.
b. Can conclude by telling an appropriate story, incidence, parable etc.
c. Can conclude by telling a quotation.
d. Can conclude by singing a song.
e. Can conclude by giving a challenge.

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