Yale University Library Research Guides: Resources for Preaching: Forms & Outlines

Sermon Forms & Outlines

Christ-Centered Preaching: Redeeming the Expository Sermon by Bryan Chapell Focuses on preparation, organization, and delivery basics of expository preaching. Includes charts and creative learning exercises.
Determining the Form: Structures for Preaching by O. Wesley Allen Offers preaching students and clergy an overview of some of the most common sermonic forms and provides insights for determining which forms are most and least amenable to the claim that they want to make in their sermon.
Preaching the Headlines: Possibilities and Pitfalls by Lisa L. Thompson Reframes preaching as an ongoing conversation between the modern world and the world of the text, exploring where the divides between the two may be less rigid than is acknowledged.
The Four Pages of the Sermon: a guide to biblical preaching by Paul Scott Wilson Organizes both the preparation and the content of the sermon around its "four pages." Each "page" addresses a different theological and creative component of what happens in any sermon.

A Sermon Workbook: Exercises In the Art and Craft of Preaching (Online) by Leonara Tubbs Tisdale Addresses the skills and arts that are essential for effective preaching in modern society.
Birthing the Sermon: Women Preachers On The Creative Process by Jana Childers Sharing their experiences, various women preachers take us through their process from conception, through development, to the actual delivery of the sermon and beyond.
More Power in the Pulpit: How America's Most Effective Black Preachers Prepare Their Sermons by Cleophus J. LaRue In this companion and sequel to Power in the Pulpit (2002), more of America's best-known and most influential African American preachers describe how they go about preparing their sermons.
Preaching the Headlines: Possibilities and Pitfalls (Online) by Lisa L. Thompson Helps preachers do theological reflection on the everyday world as an integral part of sermon development.
Sermon Sparks: 122 Ideas to Ignite Your Preaching: Tagged By Theme and Lectionary Passage by Thomas H. Troeger Covers the entire three-year lectionary cycle with brief reflections designed to generate fresh and timely sermon ideas.

Bringing the Word to Life: Engaging the New Testament Through Performing It by Richard Ward; David Trobisch Walks the reader through what we know about the culture of performance in the first and second centuries, what it took to perform an early New Testament manuscript, and practical suggestions for exploring New Testament texts through performance today.
Imagining a Sermon by Thomas H. Troeger Shares insights on capturing the imaginative spirit through exploration of the creative use of sight, sound, touch, and taste that leads to new visions for truth-telling and revelation in the sermon.
Performing the Word: Preaching as Theatre by Jana Childers Destigmatizes the performance-based approach to preaching and shows how the experience, skills, and modi operandi of actors and performance artists may be applied to preaching.
Preaching As Poetry: Beauty, Goodness, and Truth In Every Sermon by Paul Scott Wilson Preaching as poetry (theopoetic preaching) allows for the bold imagery of scripture and the gentle invitation of art. This book teaches why this new approach is necessary today, and demonstrates with multiple examples how it works in real sermons.