Creative Sermon-Notes

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Christians take sermon-notes to teach themselves Biblical insights from those sermons, so they can build themselves up in God's Word.

There are sermon-notes, of a particular kind, which Christians can write to impress God's Word on their hearts in such a way that no other kinds of sermon-notes can. Let's call these "Creative Sermon Notes." Like regular sermon-notes, a Christian writes down Biblical insights he learns from a sermon. However, in these sermon-notes, each insight in each note is fleshed out in a creative and summary way (it's basically flash-fiction for sermon-notes).

The best way to explain how creative sermon-notes work though is likely by example. So, let's say a pastor preaches a sermon on 1 Peter 5:7, which reads: "Casting all your care upon him [i.e. God]; for he careth for you" (KJV). Obviously, the theme of this sermon will be about Christians entrusting their worries to God, knowing that He'll work them out, in His Providence, in the way where He'll be glorified and His people will experience their true and eternal good. So, sentence-by-sentence in this paragraph, let's show what notes taken from this sermon would look like so we can clearly see what creative sermon-notes are. The first note begins with "Essay", followed by a colon. After the colon, there will be a brief description of an outline by which to go through and exegete all Bible passages on the subject of worry, the final product being an essay that articulates a Biblical/Christian view of worry. The second note begins with "Story," followed by a colon. After the colon, there will be a flashfiction-style description of a story of a Christian as he strives, by faith in Christ, to process his worries in a Biblical way. The third note begins with "Song," followed by a colon. After the colon, there will be a brief outline and a brief description of a song about how a Christian Biblically deals with his worries. The outline concerns the poetic technique[s] by which the song will be written. The description will be about the song's content. The fourth note begins with "Game," followed by a colon. After the colon, there will first be an outline of how the game will be played, and then there will be a synopsis of the game's plot. More examples of creative applications of sermons could be given, but we'll stop here. These notes can either be 1) blueprints by which to make these applications tangible products or 2) guides by which to meditate on the Biblical insights in a sermon. And, obviously, no one taking creative sermon-notes must follow the formula outlined here, because different writing-styles work for different Christians.

May God use this post to develop godly creativity in the hearts of His people!