How to write a sermon or message when you speak only now and then
Being asked to give the message is a particular kind of honor and a particular kind of panic. Maybe your group's regular speaker is away for a month. Maybe the retreat committee wants a member to give the Saturday evening talk, or you have been asked to open a community gathering with a short reflection. You have three weeks, a theme or a reading, and no habit of doing this.
This guide covers how to write a sermon or message when you speak only now and then: how to get a clear brief, find a single idea, build an outline, time it and carry it to the front. It deliberately says nothing about what your message should teach. That belongs to you and to the community that asked you. What follows is craft: shape, length and delivery, the things that make any message easier to listen to.
Get the brief before you write a word
Occasional speakers lose more hours to a vague brief than to anything else. You write twenty minutes on hope when the organizer pictured twelve minutes on generosity, tied to the food drive next weekend. One short conversation prevents that. Ask the person who invited you these questions, and write the answers down where you will find them:
MESSAGE BRIEF
Date and time of the gathering: ______________________
Who will be there (roughly how many, what ages): ______
How long should I speak? Is that a firm limit? ________
Is there a set reading, theme or series to follow? ____
What comes right before and right after me? __________
Microphone? Screen? Who runs them? ___________________
Anything the group is going through that I should know?
Anything to avoid (topics, length, humor)? ___________
Should I send an outline to anyone? By when? _________
Two of these deserve a word. "What comes before and after me" tells you whether you are following a long run of announcements (start sharp) or leading into discussion (end with something worth talking about). And "anything the group is going through" saves you from a light joke about moving the week three families packed up and left town.
Find the one idea the message carries
A message of fifteen or twenty minutes still has room for exactly one main idea. Supporting points, yes. Stories, yes. But one idea that a listener could put into a sentence on the drive home.
If you have a reading or a theme, spend the first few sessions living with it before you plan anything. Read it aloud several times, over several days. Write down what strikes you, what puzzles you and what you think the people in that room might need this month. Questions about meaning or interpretation belong with the person who invited you, or with the study resources your community already uses. This is a good moment to ask, not to guess.
By the end of the first week, try to write the idea as a single plain sentence, the kind with a subject and a verb and no semicolons. If you end up with three candidate sentences, you have three messages. Choose one and keep the other two in a file for another day; occasional speakers tend to get asked again.
How to write a sermon outline that holds together
With the brief and the sentence in hand, the outline comes quickly. Most messages that work for occasional speakers follow a simple arc: a way in, a few moves that develop the idea, and a way out. Here is a template to copy into a document. It is built for a twenty-minute slot; scale the times for yours.
MESSAGE OUTLINE (about 20 minutes)
Main idea (one sentence): ____________________________
Reading or theme: ____________________________________
1. WAY IN (2 to 3 min)
Opening image, question or story: _________________
Why this matters to this room, this week: _________
2. THE READING, OR SETTING THE SCENE (2 to 4 min)
Read it, or describe the situation plainly: _______
3. MOVE ONE (4 min)
What I am saying: _________________________________
Example or story: _________________________________
Transition line (written out): ____________________
4. MOVE TWO (4 min)
What I am saying: _________________________________
Example or story: _________________________________
Transition line (written out): ____________________
5. MOVE THREE, optional (3 min)
What I am saying: _________________________________
Example or story: _________________________________
6. WAY OUT (2 to 3 min)
Main idea again, in the same words: _______________
One thing to think about or do this week: _________
Last sentence: ____________________________________
If short of time, cut: _______________________________
If I run short, add: _________________________________
A move is not quite the same as a point on a list. A move takes the listener somewhere: from the familiar to the surprising, from a story to what it shows, from the situation on the page to the situation in the room on a Tuesday morning. Each one should leave people standing in a slightly different place from where the last one left them.
Notice the transition lines. Occasional speakers often write strong blocks and then lurch between them with "Um, so, anyway." Writing each transition out in advance, word for word, is one of the cheapest fixes there is.
If your slot is closer to ten minutes than twenty, drop move three and see how to give a short talk, which works through a tighter three-block plan and a way of speaking from one card.
Openings, transitions and endings: what to say
These are the three places where an unpracticed speaker is most likely to freeze, so it helps to see some actual lines. Adapt them to your own voice rather than reciting them.
Ways in
- A question with a show of hands: "How many of you have been the new person in a room where everyone else already knew each other?"
- A small, specific scene: "On Tuesday the kitchen at the hall had eleven mugs in the sink and a note taped above it that said 'whose turn?'"
- A plain statement: "Tonight I want to talk about one thing: showing up when nobody is keeping score."
Avoid opening with how unqualified you feel. The room already knows you are not the regular speaker, and they are glad you said yes.
Transitions
- "That is what happened there. Now let's bring it a little closer to home."
- "So if that is true, the next question is an awkward one: what do we do with it?"
- "I want to stay with that picture for one more minute, because there is a second thing in it."
Ways out
- "If you remember one sentence from tonight, let it be this:" (then the main idea, in exactly the words you used earlier).
- "This week, try one small thing:" (then the one thing, said simply).
- Then your last sentence, and stop.
The hardest part of ending is not adding a fourth thought after the close. When you hear yourself say "And one more thing," that is your cue to say thank you and sit down.
Timing: how long each part can be
Before you plan minutes, find your own pace. Read one page of your draft aloud at speaking speed with a timer running. Now you know roughly how long a page takes you, and you can estimate the whole thing without guessing. Most of us speed up when nervous, so leave a margin.
| Part | 12-minute slot | 20-minute slot | 30-minute slot |
|---|---|---|---|
| Way in | 1 to 2 min | 2 to 3 min | 3 min |
| Reading or scene | 1 to 2 min | 2 to 4 min | 3 to 5 min |
| Moves | 2 moves, about 3 min each | 2 or 3 moves, 3 to 4 min each | 3 moves, about 5 min each |
| Way out | 1 to 2 min | 2 to 3 min | 3 to 4 min |
| Buffer (unplanned) | 1 min | 1 to 2 min | 2 to 3 min |
The buffer row is there because you will lose time somewhere: a late start, a long reading, a pause while someone adjusts the microphone stand. Planning to finish a minute early is how you finish on time. Organizers remember the speaker who ran over. Nobody minds a minute back.
From manuscript to speaking notes
Many occasional speakers write out every word, and that is fine as a stage. A full draft makes you find your actual sentences. The real question is what you carry to the front.
| What you carry | Suits | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|
| Full manuscript | Formal settings, exact wording, very nervous speakers | Head down, flat reading voice, losing your place |
| Outline notes (one or two pages) | Most 15 to 30 minute messages | Needs at least two out-loud rehearsals to work |
| A single card | Short reflections, speakers with some practice | Easy to skip a whole move if the card is thin |
If you choose a manuscript, make it easy to speak from: large type, short paragraphs, wide margins, page numbers, and a mark (a slash, or a gap) wherever you mean to pause and look up. Never staple the pages. Slide each one aside as you finish it, quietly, rather than turning it over.
If you choose outline notes, keep the opening sentences, the transitions and the closing line written out in full, and everything else in short phrases. That gives you a script exactly where nerves bite and freedom everywhere else.
Rehearsal and delivery when you are not a regular
Rehearse at least twice, out loud, standing up, with a timer: once to find the clumsy places and once to check they are fixed. If you can, do one run in the actual room, even five minutes the day before, so the size of it does not surprise you.
On the day, arrive early, introduce yourself to whoever runs the sound, and find out who is reading the reading if it is not you. Keep a glass of water within reach. For nerves, microphones and screens, my public speaking tips cover the practical side in more detail than fits here.
Questions occasional speakers ask
Should I send my outline to the organizer?
If they ask for it, yes, by the date they give. If they do not, it is still a kind gesture to send your one-sentence idea and the reading you plan to use a week ahead, so nothing clashes with the rest of the gathering.
What if I am given a reading I find hard?
Say so to the person who invited you, early. They may suggest a different passage, point you to a resource or tell you how the group has approached it before. Asking ahead is always better than improvising in public.
Can I use humor?
A little, if it comes naturally and nobody in the room is the punchline. One light moment in the way in can relax everyone. Do not build the message around jokes, and be ready to move on if one falls flat.
What if I finish early?
That is what the "if I run short, add" line in the outline is for: one extra example you have prepared but do not expect to use. Speakers who prepare it rarely need it, which is part of why they feel calm.
How do I stop myself running long?
Write the time you must begin your way out in large numbers at the top of your notes, and put a watch or a phone clock where you can see it without turning your wrist. When that time arrives, go straight to the close, wherever you are in the middle.
When it is over, sit down, breathe, and later that evening write two lines in the margin of your notes: what you would keep and what you would cut. File them with the brief. The next invitation will start from there, and there is usually a next one. You will find more pieces like this one under speaking.
