Go ahead, use your manuscript

Editor’s note: This point-counterpoint column was written by a member of the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention’s Shepherds Collective. You can find the counterpoint to this column here. For more information on the Shepherds Collective, visit sbtexas.com/networks/shepherds-collective.

A few weeks ago, as I was on the stage starting my sermon in our church service, I opened my iPad and realized I never loaded my manuscript on it. A slight panic came over me, but eventually it got sorted out. After I launched into the introduction, our worship minister grabbed my paper copy from my office and brought it up to me.

You might hear that story and think I’d be better off if being prepared to preach without notes. If you plan to have no notes, it’s no problem if they aren’t there. For me, though, it was a reminder of how much relief I feel to have my manuscript with me each Sunday. I know common advice and teaching is to preach without notes or with very few notes, but if that stresses you out let me offer another perspective: Go ahead, use your manuscript.

Here are three reasons I still preach from a full manuscript:

Manuscripts maintain precision and clarity

Throughout the week, we do hard labor in the text. We gather a large amount of information and shape it into a sermon. During that process, we debate the exact way to structure the sermon, searching for the perfect way to capture the points, the main idea, the transition statements, and the applications that reach our members’ hearts. After spending so much time laboring over such precision, I do not want to risk losing it by leaving my manuscript behind.

Manuscripts provide guardrails

I love being funny. I also have lots of opinions. Going off script is dangerous for me. I don’t ever want to speak rashly or flippantly in a way that unnecessarily offends or causes confusion. I also stress about being able to find my way back to the main road of my point if I chase a rabbit. So as a measure of protection from myself in preaching, I use my manuscript as my guardian to keep me saying what I actually intend to say in the sermon.

Manuscripts remove unnecessary anxiety

Advocates of no notes or limited notes admit it can be disorienting or stressful at first until you find your groove. My question is, why do that to yourself? If you work hard to mitigate the pitfalls of carrying a manuscript, why not allow for things to be more comfortable?

Now, the anxiety piece cuts both ways depending upon the preacher’s personality. For some, having the manuscript is stress-inducing because there is pressure to say every word. For others like me, it is stress-relieving. I really do not want to go blank mid-sermon. With my manuscript, I don’t feel pressure to memorize the sermon out of fear of forgetting an important detail or stream of thought. Having my manuscript allows me to be more at ease because I know my safety net is there.

With all that said, preaching from a manuscript carries one significant pitfall: Manuscripts can kill the sermon’s impact. One staunch advocate for no notes was the famed W.A. Criswell. For him, it was wholly about connecting to the heart of his audience throughout the sermon. He once said, “Can you imagine those apostles reading a sermon?… Or the Lord Jesus at Nazareth, when all eyes were fixed on Him, reading His sermon? Why, when they looked at Him, He looked back at them and that’s the way we ought to preach—face-to-face, eye-to-eye.”

In their concern here, the few-to-no notes advocates are right. Their desire is to transform the sermon from a transfer of information to an appeal to the listener’s heart. Therefore, those of us who preach from manuscripts bear the responsibility to soberly assess our delivery and practice prioritizing eye contact. Nobody wants to listen to a sermon that is read to them, nor do they want to see the top of the preacher’s head as much or more than his eyes.

In this way, this debate presents a trade of burdens. With manuscripts, you remove the burden of recalling what you intended to say and how you intended to say it. On the other hand, manuscripts introduce a new burden: the requirement to practice until no one realizes you have one.

An honest look at my reasons for preaching from a manuscript are based out of caution for what I don’t want to happen while I’m preaching. Others who advocate for using no notes might lean on what is gained by leaving notes behind. While I think the difference in those approaches is noteworthy, neither is wrong. It’s really a question of what you as a pastor prioritize. Only you can answer that.