The post below, Faith Comes from the Preached Word of God, should lead all ministers and laity to the same conclusion as Luther's - the preaching of the Word is the most important aspect of the Christian Church.
Each week offers plenty of time to prepare a faithful sermon and write it out. That is the first priority. Second is pastoral visitation and education of the young. Gym workouts are acceptable if the minister gives the Word a workout during the week.
One way to prepare is to ditch the ridiculous Church of Rome three-year lectionary and return to the historic one-year, which is used in The Lutheran Hymnal and Lenker's Sermons of Luther. Then, read this sermon to the family, during the week, as leader of the household. Lenker often has long versions of the sermon and multiple copies. Ideas, illustrations, and Biblical interpretation are wrapped into one inexpensive but priceless package.
Starting perhaps on Thursday or Friday, the sermon should be written out completely. Writing is the most organized form of communication. Our thoughts are a jumble. Conversation is wordy and repetitive. Writing puts all the thoughts in order and develops them. "Writing makes a precise mind." The sermon should be delivered without the manuscript. The minister may need a short outline to stay on track. Walther wrote about having the complete manuscript there, but preaching freely. Many of us are too anxious and will fall into reading from the manuscript rather than simply using it as our blankie.
A Biblical text has its own outline. Each verse is a point. Stop when finished. A well prepared sermon will have an hour's worth of material available in spoken form. Good writing is more like an iceberg. Most of the preparation is concealed. Getting up in the pulpit and winging it does not work but the minister has a lid of ice under him, not an ice mountain. When preaching without preparation, he is likely to sink "beneath the waves with watery groan, unknelled, uncoffined, and unknown."
The Book of Concord and Lenski have many good insights to add. Thanks to the Net, a minister can drop Luther quotes, Book of Concord citations, and Lenski into the text. The digital Lenski and Luther will give the exact citation with the copy and paste. Does Groeschel offer that? No.
I may be unusual in this regard, but I like to put a lot of good quotations at the end. The quotations I use are ones that I have collected over the years. All of them have citations, and they are free for anyone to use. I would rather read good material over and over than look for a fresh and exciting heretical statement designed for itching ears.
The printed sermon ought to be posted for everyone to read. Mark 4 (Matthew 13) teaches us to scatter the Word the way the Sower broadcasts the seed. Google Blogger makes it easy to post the sermon. The Bethany Lutheran Worship blog has sermons only and almost nothing else. Look at the map. People all over the world are using it daily. Plagiarists are not going to blog their sermons, because it is too easy to match them up with the original authors - who are never Lutheran.
I do not think that linking the audio is adequate. That will not work for many people. I never bother with someone's audio file. I doubt whether Granny in Wachahootchie Falls is going to use it either. Video files can be useful because the home-bound person is a part of the church service that way. As one man with ALS said, "I feel like I am there with you when I watch the video." Previously we had audio files for him to hear.
Video is fairly easy to manage, inexpensive to start. We are using Ustream right now. Bumping off the ads is going to cost members $4 a month. A large church could do that by paying the group fee, which is $100. There are other approaches, but all it takes is broadband and a $100 camera. One independent congregation uploads the file later. We broadcast live and save the file.
The Sermon is the Big Picture If the Christian Church is the way in which people receive grace, then the congregation and pastor are obliged to provide this grace as lavishly as possible. People do not come to church to be beat up by the Law and handed more Law as their medicine. That works with cults but it does not advance the Gospel.
The sermon is the primary Means of Grace in the Christian Church. The neo-crypto-papists want to elevate Holy Communion to that position. We provide Holy Communion each week for various reasons, but the preached Word is first. Holy Communion as the visible Word has far more meaning if it follows a real sermon that conveys Christ to the audience.
The congregation has many ways to support or undermine the sermon. I receive nothing but support from the readers and listeners, but my situation is unusual.
Members undermine the sermon by making the pastor the Keeper of the Flower Chart, the Man Responsible for Why the Church is Dirty on Sunday Morning, and the Main Reason Why Aunt Matilda Quit.
I am convinced that a Means of Grace congregation will exemplify what Luther taught about the Scriptures.
