Sermon Guidelines
SEATTLE FAMILY CHURCH
5.7.2015
Note: You are reading this page because you were asked to deliver a 20-40 minutes Sunday sermon at church.
Please take your time reading this page and follow through. This is our standard procedure and it is applicable to all
the speakers. I hope that you will find this page useful for your sermon preparations. If you have any question,
please feel free to call or text me: 206-574-8728 or email [email protected]. God Bless! - Nelson Mira
Goals of Delivering a Sermon
 The purpose of the sermon is to offer spiritual food / guidance to the congregation.
 Sermon should inspire, empower, connect, contribute (or at least any of the following):
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INSPIRE – Inspirational, uplifting approach such as testimonies, stories, video clips, or any other
approach related to your topic. This is vital to proceed to the next practices.
EMPOWER – Empower congregation through knowledge from the DP, TP’s words, Bible, etc.
CONNECT – Inspire congregation to connect to our community.
CONTRIBUTE – Inspire congregation to get involved in helping out our activities or ministries.
Sermon should inspire both Unificationist and non-Unificationist guests to come back.
Sunday service is an outreach opportunity.
Important to Note
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You are representing God & True Parents to the congregation.
You DELIVER God’s message, the sermon is meant to provide an opportunity for God to be able to speak
through you to His/Her children and positively impact their spiritual lives.
o True Father said, “Before I give a sermon, I spend more time praying for the members than I do praying
for the sermon. After you have gathered your heart and prayed, "Father, I have to bring these people up
but how do I do it? Is it this way or that way?" You preach according to your heart's commands.”
Some technical requirements
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Your sermon should be no more than 40 minutes, out of respect to the congregation.
Submit the topic or description of your sermon to Pastor Nelson Mira by Wednesday 10pm. (Some
members would like to know). You may text to Nelson 206-574-8728 or email [email protected].
Fillout online form for our Sunday Service production team by Friday at afternoon. This includes your
sermon title, readings, etc. (Submitting on time is very crucial because these information will be included on
the bulletin and will be announced via email on Friday evening or Saturday early morning.) You can find the
form from this link: www.seattlefamilychurch.org/sermonguidelines.html . Password: 2020
Your sermon can be recorded and can be made available to public or on our local website.
When using a screen projector / audio / video clips: Inform Brian Granstrom (tech person) (cellphone: 206778-4630) not later than Saturday evening for preparation. CC to Pastor Nelson Mira
[email protected] just in case if Brian is not available.
Must arrive at church at least 20 minutes earlier before service starts for technical set-up and rehearsal.
For any question, please contact Pastor Nelson Mira cellphone: 206-574-8728. Texting is also welcome.
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Please bear in mind that Sunday Service is not only for Unificationists. Also, we
strive to create an environment for anyone to have a positive experience, it is not
a place for discrimination. Therefore, please consider the following:
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Do not use the Unificationists’ titles that are incomprehensible by non-Unificationists, unless you put them
into proper context, such as:
o For example: Say “Rev. Sun Jin Moon”, not Sun Jin Nim
o If you want to say “True Father” , explain first who he is, or say something like, “Rev. Sun Myung
Moon, whom in the Unification Church we call, ‘True Father’”.
o Say “older/more experienced or veteran Unificationist” rather than “1st generation”.
o Say “young Unificationists” rather than “2nd generation” or “Blessed Children (BC)”
o Moonie – is a derogatory term. Say “Unificationist” or “Unification Church member” instead.
o True Children: When referring to True Children, identify them as our founders’ children. Otherwise,
non Unificationist visitors would have no clue of who they are.
Provide explanations for these words or terminologies, if you use them, that are not comprehensible by
visitors, such as: “ancestors liberation”, “3 days ceremony”, “Cheong Pyeong”, “Cheon Il Guk”, etc.
If you mention someone’s name during your sermon, use their proper titles or at least say their full names
as a respect.
Do not put down any particular person or group.
Do not share personal or private information (negative or positive) about any one particular person, or
organization, without talking to them and getting their consent first.
Do not put down our church, our church community, and any of our church related organizations
Do not bring up problems or “scandals” of our church, our church community, and any of our church related
organizations
Do not endorse any one political candidate or political perspective (we are prohibited by the law)
If you have any difficulty with this guidelines, please contact Pastor Nelson Mira cellphone: 206-574-8728. Texting is
also welcome.
*** End of sermon guidelines ***
Helpful SUGGESTIONS ONLY, not mandatory: What to Do to enhance your
presentation
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Include / base your sermon on religious scriptural texts (does not have to be limited to our church texts)
Have an overall positive, spiritually uplifting and empowering message
Follow basic public speaking guidelines:
1st, come in with a nice greeting; 2nd , explain what would you like to speak about or your topic, 3rd, make a
big deal about that topic with your explanations, readings, testimonies, etc, and 4th , make a strong conclusion.
Conclusion normally summarizes your topic and a call for action, for example: “From what you hear today, therefore
let us….”
o Stick to 1 main point only, with supporting points. Normally, this could easily use 40 minutes of
presentation, having too many points could create confusion.
o Re-state/summarize your main point at the end of your sermon or conclusion.
o Maintain eye-contact with your audience.
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Use humor where appropriate.
Speak slowly and clearly by enunciating your words.
 Avoid using filler words such as: um, you know, right, like, uh
o Avoid making distracting body gestures
 Examples include: shifting your feet, touching your face with your hands, moving your
hands around a lot, clearing your throat
Do not be overly informational or intellectual. There is no time for note taking. In a research made, church
congregation remember only 1-3 items from sermons, particularly humors and personal testimonies.
Do not be self-deprecating
o Example: Do not say that, “you are not qualified to give this sermon” (even if you feel it). If you say
so, you are giving an impression that you should not be speaking, therefore you are discouraging
the congregation to listen to you. It may be the case that you want to say, that you are not worthy,
and for this you may say, for example, “I feel not worthy to give this sermon, but I am very grateful
that I have this opportunity to speak to you.”
Include a short personal testimony and, or examples from your own life that support your main point
Address cultural & social issues facing people across the world
Include scriptural texts from multiple religions.
Include short videos or music clips to be played during your sermon
Include a few facts and figures that support your main point
Show visual aids for your readings, explanations, arguments, etc. on the screen.
Bonus tips (SUGGESTIONS ONLY, not mandatory):
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It would be nice if we remember everything what we need say, but this is not always the case especially
when we are on stage. DON’T BE SHY USING NOTES OR OUTLINE. In fact, when people know that you’ve prepared
your notes, they will appreciate your investments. BUT, try not to break eye contact with your audience, and
speak from your heart, “not from your notes”. PRINT YOUR NOTES, or at least an outline, and use it during your
sermon. Use bigger fonts, underlines, or highlights. A teacher prepares his / her lesson plans and uses it in the
classroom to teach. Delivering God’s words requires preparations too.
 Notes/outlines helps you remember, therefore it boosts your confidence.
 Notes/outlines helps you to stay focused on your theme.
 Notes/outlines helps you to stay in an allowable time frame. You only have 20-40 minutes.
Joel Osteen (Mega church pastor) carries scripts of his sermon at the pulpit. This is what the Forbes business says:
Osteen’s preparation shows because he rarely speaks from notes, although he does have notes. The
notes are placed discreetly on his lectern. He always speaks in front of the lectern or next to it. As
he moves to another part of the stage, Osteen glances at his notes, makes eye contact and continues
talking.
Don’t break eye contact with the audience by speaking from notes. Give yourself enough time to practice so you
can deliver your message with confidence.
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REHEARSE YOUR SERMON with your notes at least once. Look for a place that you are comfortable with and
pretend that you are facing the audience. You will be glad that you did this. Several sermon givers said that next
time they will do better, they will practice it first. A stage performer invests hours and hours of rehearsal to deliver a
4-minute song. Delivering God’s word for 20 - 40 minutes requires preparations too.
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This guarantees a 100% boost of your confidence.
This helps you analyze your time frame.
This helps you analyze appropriate body movements. If you plan to use the projector, pretend that you are
holding the remote and practice your body gestures swinging your head back and forth between the
projector screen, your notes, and your audience.
Successful preachers start rehearsing on Wednesday for their Sunday sermons. More from Forbes:
Practice well ahead of time. Osteen said that he prepares for five days ahead of each sermon.
That means he begins to prepare, write, and rehearse on a Wednesday for the following Sunday’s
sermon. He’ll spend hours for each 30-minute presentation and he starts fresh every week.
Whenever you see a leader who communicates so well it looks “effortless,” know that there’s a lot of
practice that went into it.
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