Which… maybe one or two of you?
If you don’t mind, I would love and appreciate if you could send me old manuscripts of your sermons.
Actually, it doesn’t even have to be a manuscript of your sermon, but an example of what you take up with you to the pulpit (or music stand).
In my quest to be the best preacher I can be, I just wanna see how other people’s manuscripts look like.
I have been toying with different methods. One is having the word for word manuscripts and having it near me to look at just in case I get lost. Other times, I have a condensed as much as I can on a paper the size of my bible and paper clip the notes on the cover (I was Bishop Willimon do this). Other times, I have post-it notes within the Bible next to the Bible verses. And of course, other times, I just go up there completely memorized. Actually, I have the sermon pretty much committed to memory, regardless of what method I use.
Care to help me out?
=)
Joseph Yoo 
I bring a full manuscript into the pulpit. I often condense it into “shorthand” but since I post it to a sermon website for people to read and send it out for some of the shut-ins to read, it’s helpful to have it written out (even the illustrations, which I usually shorten to “Coke story” in the one in front of me).
You can see pretty much everything I take up there on my sermon website, which is at brian-sermons.blogspot.com
Oh, and the other thing I make sure to do is to put anything into a large font to make it easier for me to see it. No sense having to strain to read it.
AND I give a full copy to the guy doing the powerpoint with the changes highlighted. Thus I have to be careful to say the right transitions in order to facilitate smooth transitions.
A full manuscript never works for me, because if I look up and have gotten away from it for more than a few seconds, I usually get lost. I usually use what I’ve heard called a “notated outline”… works for me because points I have more memorized, I just make a note to jog my memory, but if it’s something like a quote, etc. I can write it out.
I write out a full manuscript and I do put it in the pulpit, ready to go in case of disaster or memory lapse. However, the lead pastor and I both move away from the pulpit to preach, so I don’t have it in front of me at all. (And I agree with your recent blog about prefering not to stand behind a pulpit! I love the freedom of having the whole room to move!) The only time I do move back to read from it is if I’m using an exact quotation that I don’t have memorized.
For me, writing the manuscript is part of the discipline and process of crafting the sermon. I need the time of working and reworking it. But by the time I am done, I don’t have to look at it or even at notes, because I have internalized it, not memorized it (big difference in my opinion).
I agree with Kristin and don’t typically stay with the manuscript. Half the time if I try I end up ditching the notes completely half way through the sermon. I do however, keep the practice of writing to make sure I am finishing thoughts and making connections and generally post my sermons here: http://preachingsister.blogspot.com/ (though obviously, by the dates, not always….I will have to catch up with a few I haven’t posted).