Unrighteous Mammon

So here's my latest sermon done today about unrighteous Mammon:

(listen)

I didn't realize I only went 7 minutes until I was done. I'd like to get 10-15. I think I ended a little abruptly also. I also was struggling to say MAMMON and not MAMMEN (there were some of that very name in the congregation today...). I think after listening to it when I got home (it's a little weird carrying my mini-mp3 recorder with me when I speak, but I don't have a media team...yet :) ) I'm fairly happy with how it turned out, but I should have covered more material.

I've done 4 sermons this year, minus other speaking positions. As a lay non-seminarian, I try not to screw up too badly with my sermons so maybe I'll live to speak at Church again. Here are some observations I've made:

1) I'm far more comfortable outlining my sermons instead of writing them word for word. As a result of my terrible coffee habit, I'm a VERY fast talker sometimes. With an ethnic English-not-a-first-language audience, I have to slow down a lot. Formulating the thoughts in my head as I go keeps me steady.

2) I try to look through the audience and not at them.

3) The key is to absolutely detach yourself from anything that will tense yourself up. As soon as I become "aware" of where I am, I start sweating and start speeding up and fumbling. When I can feel like I'm talking to friends, I become bolder and more thunderous

(photo courtesy of www.bluffton.edu)

-Steve K.