By Chris Moon
Mark Messmore believes the church needs more competent—and confident—preachers.
The lead pastor at Mount Olivet Christian Church in Williamstown, Ky., is hoping to help create more of them.
This month, Messmore published his first book, Simple Preaching Prep: A Guide to Finish Your First Sermon and Flourish Beyond. The short book is aimed at helping equip both aspiring preachers and seasoned lay leaders for the task of preaching sermons to their congregations.
Messmore said the first line of his book recalls a biblically knowledgeable elder who asked Messmore never to ask him to preach a sermon. A lot of people have that same kind of anxiety about preaching—and for good reason.
“That is an incredible responsibility that we have,” he said.
But too many churches don’t have full-time ministers. And small-town, solo preachers often don’t have adequate help in preaching.
“What happens if he wants to go on vacation? . . . What happens if he wakes up and has no taste or smell [because of a COVID-19 infection]?” Messmore asked. “Is there somebody else prepared to step in.”
Messmore said he wrote the book for three different groups of people—preaching students who are just learning how to craft sermons, lay leaders in the church who are tasked with preaching or teaching, and pastors who are looking to help raise up additional preachers within their churches.
Messmore likened preaching to having a bunch of puzzle pieces without the picture on the box showing what the finished puzzle is supposed to look like.
“What do I do with all these pieces? How do they all fit together?” Messmore asked.
PREPARING TO PREACH
Messmore, 41, said he preached his first sermon at age 15.
The Kentucky Christian University and Campbellsville University graduate has been in vocational ministry since 2006, including the past three years at Mount Olivet Christian Church.
Messmore said his book frames the preaching process in an hourglass shape—taking all the information a pastor gathers, including the text and the research surrounding it, and narrowing it down to a single big idea or main thesis.
Out of that singular idea, the preacher then builds the message.
Messmore lists the steps in preparing and preaching a sermon using the acronym INSIDE—interview the text, narrow the focus, state the main idea, include structure and support material, deliver the message, and evaluate the result.
“This book is focused on the preparation part,” he said.
POSITIVE REVIEWS
Messmore said he’s gotten good feedback on Simple Preaching Prep.
Daniel Overdorf, director of the preaching program at Johnson University, and Philip Perrey, a preaching instructor at St. Louis Christian College, have endorsed the book on Messmore’s website—www.markmessmore.com.
In a review, Tim Wallingford, executive director of the Christian Church Leadership Network, said Messmore’s book provides “a clear yet ‘simple’ six-step hermeneutical model that helps the preacher discover the 1st-century truth and provide a 21st-century application.”
Messmore said he’s even gotten good feedback from non-preachers. One attorney reviewed the book and said it helped her better formulate her legal arguments.
“It helped her to communicate her ideas more clearly,” Messmore said.
Messmore said he hopes he eventually hears from a wide variety of people within the church who found the book useful.
“Here’s how you can finish that first sermon,” he said.
Simple Preaching Prep: A Guide to Finish Your First Sermon and Flourish Beyond can be purchased from Amazon. Mark Messmore’s website includes free downloads and links to additional resources.
Chris Moon is a pastor and writer living in Redstone, Colorado.
Found another audience for your book: Bible College Alumni who trained in a field other than Preaching who are trying to fill in for the preacher shortage for congregations. I trained to be a Youth Minister, but now I am applying for other places of service including Preaching.