In this series I’m asking Andy Stanley some questions about preaching but I’m cheating when I say that: I’m reading his book (Communicating for a Change: Seven Keys to Irresistible Communication

) and generating my questions that he answers in his book.

One of the most significant things about preaching is what happens when the sermon becomes not just something we’ve got memorized but something that we’ve internalized. Andy Stanley says we’ve got to “own it.” It’s got to become ours; it’s got to become so natural we can converse about it to two or three people. Great point made: he says it’s non-genuine when someone says, “I’ve got something really important to say” and then looks at his notes to see what is important. So true. 

Internalizing, or owning the message, comes by way of almost memorizing the sermon until it becomes natural. He also says to organize the sermon into chunks and remember your chunks. He practices introduction and stories and challenges, but not all of it.