Effective Sermon Preparation: Combining the Classic Three-Point Outline with Modern Tools

Understanding the Preacher's Heart

Whether you’re new to preaching or have been doing it for years, you have a God-given burden for the souls of your hearers. Along with that, you have some niggling concerns about whether or not your church family is comprehending and practicing what you’re preaching. Every weekend, you’re trying your hardest to preach the Word of God with boldness. You’re praying that God gives you effective words and that His Spirit would prepare the hearts of your listeners. You yearn for your congregation to be convicted and comforted by the Word of God every single Sunday.

On the surface, we don’t know much about you. We don’t know if or where you went to seminary. We don’t even know where you’re located in the world or what your church’s demographics look like. We can’t say with certainty whether your Baptist, Pentecostal, Methodist, Anglican, some other denomination, or no denomination at all. After all that, it might seem like we don’t know much, but we do know something very important about you: Every weekend, you’re trying your hardest to preach the Word of God with boldness.

The Strategic Importance of Sermon Outlines

This may not be what you want to hear, but sermon outlines are your best friend for combatting these concerns. Having the right framework for organizing your thoughts and communicating your message can make the difference between confusion and conviction. Besides helping you speak your messages more clearly, outlines can also save you a TON of time when it comes to researching Bible passages and collecting illustrations. No matter what type of message you find yourself needing to preach this week, we think the right outline can be your perfect first step.

Sermonary: A Comprehensive Toolset for Preachers

Writing a sermon has never been this fun with a word processor developed specifically for writing sermons. We’ve embedded 6 different pre-built sermon outlines into Sermonary to help you get started. The platform offers a variety of features to streamline your preparation process:

  • Sermon Editor: Writing a sermon has never been this fun.
  • Research Suite: Includes Commentaries, Bibles, Illustrations & more!
  • Podium Mode: Never lose your place while preaching again.
  • Template Library: Say goodbye to the blank page forever.
  • Illustrations: Impactful illustrations for your sermons built right in.
  • Sharing: Sharing and collaborating is now easier than ever.
  • Integrations: Integrates with software you're already using in your church.
  • Multiply: Generate ready-to-share content directly from your sermon.

Structuring Your Message: The Classic Three-Point Sermon

Three-Point Sermon: Corvettes, apple pie, and three-point sermons are classics—loved and easily recognized by many. Although we acknowledge that it’s not the perfect outline format for every subject or preaching style, its advantages—mainly, that it’s straightforward to write and easy for people to follow—are worthy of consideration. The three-point outline is similar to the essays you wrote in high school or college—you introduce a topic, expound on three points relating to it, then conclude by recapping what you’ve discussed.

The Biblical Concept Template

As you’re plotting a three-point sermon, you can use this standard structure or tweak it to make it your own. For example, if you’re teaching your congregation about a certain Biblical concept, you can use the following format:

  1. Introduction: Start with an attention-getter and provide some thoughts that relate the attention-getter to the main idea of the message.
  2. Main Points: For each point (such as "God is all-powerful" or "God is love"), you should:
    • Introduce your point and explain what the Bible text says regarding that point.
    • Use an illustration to further clarify it.
    • Provide an application regarding how this idea relates to our lives.
  3. Sermon Conclusion: Summarize what you’ve taught and present a call to action—what should your congregation do, now that they’ve learned these truths.

Of course, once you’ve selected the right outline, the battle has just started. You’ll still have to make sure that you allow adequate time to develop your ideas, research, and practice presenting your sermon.