Summary: A friend of mine once described a young preacher this way: "He has some great ideas but they aren't organized. It's like he offers people a bunch of pearls without the string." My friend was talking about how to structure your sermon. The string is your big idea—your central theme based on your text. The pearls are how you line up what you want to say about your big idea. Here's a crucial rule for preachers: some structure is better than no structure. And here's a corollary: a simple structure is better than a complex structure. After preaching for over 25 years, I'm still learning how to make a structure that's textually based, clear, simple, memorable, and transformational. If you want to get some more practical ideas about how to outline your sermon check out this episode!
