I have a small leather 3-ring binder that I use for my sermon notes. I got it some years ago from supply store. It isn’t really a notebook. It’s actually an old address book, meant to hold pages with five or six names and addresses per page. These days you can hardly find address books like this anymore. Everybody(including me) keeps all their names and addresses on their contact list in their smartphones.
But I’d seen Billy Graham preach with his Bible and a full-size 3 ring notebook, and I thought, “Now why can’t I do that?” I’d begun preaching from more extensive notes, and eventually adopted a full manuscript format- something I thought I’d never do. I write out my sermons on half sheets of paper, 8 ½ x 5 ½ inches, and the more pages I wrote, the more a notebook made sense.
Charles Spurgeon used to say that he thought preaching from a manuscript was “a lame business.” But when I read the biography of Martyn Lloyd-Jones, I learned that he wrote his sermons out word for word. And I discovered that Alistair Begg does the same thing in our own time. One old preacher observed that “writing makes for clear thinking.” Psychologists have found the same thing. Even my hand surgeon, Dr.Kathryn Peck, told me that writing something out by hand makes for a more vivid connection with your brain that typing something out on a keyboard (like I’m doing right now). I am so grateful to her for restoring my ability to write again without pain.
So, I looked for a half-size binder for my sermon notes, but everything I could find was too thick, and looked cheap, all covered in vinyl. I wanted something classier and thinner, so I could fit it into a zippered Bible case along with my Bible.
One day I stumbled across a black leather-covered address book, a half-size 3-ring binder that was just what I needed. I bought it, promptly threw away all the blank address pages inside, and filled it with 8 ½ x5 ½ paper. It was perfect. I really didn’t think it would last very long, but I assumed that when it wore out I could just buy another one.
There’s good news and bad news. The bad news is, they don’t make address books like that anymore, for reasons already noted. But the good news is that my little leather notebook has proved to be surprisingly durable. I don’t always preach for a manuscript these days, but when I do, invariably it’s from this little leather address book that I bought fifteen or twenty years ago.
The half-size notebook paper they sell is actually kind of expensive if you use a lot of it. So, I make my own notebook pages. I buy a ream of 8 ½ x 11 ½ inch paper – usually in ivory or an off-white color to reduce glare- cut the pages in half and punch holes in them to fit my leather notebook. Once every three or four weeks I run out of paper and take a few minutes to make a new notebook pages. It’s kind of mindless work, but for some reason I find it very satisfying to fill my notebook with blank pages, ready to be written on.
I keep the notebook with my Bible, and many is the time late at night I’ve had a flash of insight about a passage I’ve been studying, dug out my notebook, and jotted down my thoughts. Often what I’ve scribbled down in those late hours has been the very outline I’ve shared with the congregation the next Sunday morning.
I also make page dividers for my notebook out of cardstock, to divide it into sections for my morning sermon, evening sermon, and miscellaneous notes. And I write things on these divider to encourage myself, things I need reminding of before I preach.
Because preaching is often discouraging. Before you start getting sarcastic, I say this: You try preaching to a room less than half-full of people who seem to be in various stages of distraction. Some are whispering to each other. Some are looking everywhere but at you. Some are trying inconspicuously crane their neck around to see the clock on the back wall. (Helpful hint: Buy a wristwatch!) Some are getting up and leaving for various reasons. (It might have something to do with the coffee we serve before church.) And still others are drowsy, slipping in and out of the third stage of anesthesia while you’re try to expound the mysteries of the Bible.
So, a little encouragement is just the thing, just before you preach. On one of the page dividers, I have written this sentence: “The job of the Sower is sowing, not growing.” That came from a missionary letter sent out by my old college roommate Kent Albright, long-time missionary to Spain. I love it. It helps me to keep preaching.
But when I open my preaching notebook, on the page divider in the very front, I have written four bullet points and a final quote from my long-time pen pal Steve Brown. Steve is a Presbyterian preacher down in Florida who has a radio broadcast (and now a podcast) called Key Life. Steve has written many wonderful books. I’ve told him over and over that if he charged me royalties for every time I’ve quoted him, I couldn’t afford it.
But these four things he wrote to me in a letter (a real letter, “snail mail”) back in the late 1990s. they have encouraged me a great deal over the years. I hope they encourage you, too. Here’s what he told me:
“If God is in charge…”
- I can let go.
- I don’t have to be religious (because mire religion won’t make it better)
- I can be free (so free you’re dangerous).
- This, too, shall pass.
Then Steve told me: “Dave, it’ll get better. Or you’ll die. Either way, it’ll be okay.”
These words have made me smile. And laugh. And relax, and remember to trust God, just be faithful to do what He called me to do, and let Him worry about the rest.
Believe me, those things will help you preach. Or live life.
As Steve would say: “You think about that! Amen!”
Soli Deo Gloria!
Pastor David