After my first year of seminary, all my fellow students were procuring internships at churches, which was good because the seminary required the church to pay the student $3000. When I asked my church about setting up such an arrangement for the summer, they laughed pretty hard. I ended up with an internship as a chaplain at R.B. Winter State Park in Mifflinburg, PA. I also worked at a private campground and lived there. I loved getting to visit new and regular campers during the week. I would make activities for his kids and youth to help them think about their faith. Of course I preached at both campgrounds every week. My favorite responsibility was sitting around campfires with friends I had made over the summer, chatting the evening away, and eating hot dogs.

It was the first time ever that I had preached every week (and twice every Sunday). In other words, I was clueless. I still remember my first Sunday preaching. I preached at both campgrounds. The next day I made rounds visiting everyone who was there at the parks. One difference between the two campgrounds was that at the private campground, I had the same customers every week.

That Monday after my first sermon, I was visiting in the private campground. I will never forget meeting my first couple, Paul and Dottie. I asked them how they liked worship, and they said it went fine. This shows you I was a rookie: I asked them what they thought about my sermon. They said, “It was ok.” A very underwhelming response. They kept talking about their previous chaplain. In a rare stroke of genius, I asked them what they liked about him. They said he never read his sermons.

You better believe I memorized the next week’s sermon. I went back to Paul and Dottie the next day and repeated the whole visit. I asked, “What did you think about the sermon?” They raved about it. I found it hilarious because the words I memorized and spoke were basically the same words that I had written out for that sermon. The only thing that changed their perspective of my sermons was that I was not reading a manuscript.

That was twenty-two years ago. It took a long time to fine tune preaching without a manuscript, but it has been worth it. I have come to realize that if I write my sermon just the right way, memorizing it is a piece of cake. Here’s the secret I’ve found to doing this: your sermon should be one cohesive and powerful story. In fact, it’s a lot like writing songs. You never see musicians reading their lyrics at concerts and that’s because a song tells a story. I believe all people are natural-born storytellers. That is just what we do. It is a pretty powerful thing to do when it comes to preaching. If you can start learning how to preach without a manuscript it is so amazing what happens during the sermon. By looking at the people instead of a manuscript I am looking at my church friends eye to eye. It becomes a really powerful conversation and sometimes something even hits me mid-sermon that just seems to fit. It just feels like the way I imagine Jesus preaching and teaching.

I am not knocking anyone who does preach with a manuscript. I have seen some amazing sermons that were delivered with a manuscript. In fact, I have tried preaching with a manuscript, and it is honestly hard for me to do. What I am getting at is if you are a manuscript preacher primarily, learn to preach without it if possible. Likewise, if you only preach from memory or a loose outline, learn to preach from a manuscript. As my grandaddy taught me when I was a kid, you should be able to drive an automatic and a stick shift. Same goes for preaching.

Published in the June 2024 issue of For the Messengers

Rev. Matthew Ricks is the pastor at First Christian Church in Florence, Alabama, where southern charm flows freely. He is married to his wonderful wife, Lisa, and has two amazing daughters. He also has two cats, Chester and Archer. Rev. Ricks is a member of one of the Proclamation Project preaching cohort groups.

You might also find helpful:

• Preaching the Story, by Jeffrey W. Frymire — a reader recommendation on narrative preaching and the power of story in the sermon
• The Sound of the Genuine — on finding the authentic, embodied voice that makes a preacher’s story land
• A New Media Homiletic? — exploring how storytelling and narrative shape preaching in a changing media landscape