Each minister develops his or her own style of preparing sermons. I have always been most comfortable writing my sermons in full manuscript form. Actually, I enjoy writing, so this style suits me well. For the past twenty years, I have taught new ministers New Testament Greek, with special attention to how this study might enrich their sermon writing. One discovery I made was that some ministers are not comfortable writing out a full sermon manuscript, preferring to make an outline and preach from the notes. Don’t despair if this is true of you. Many of the great preachers of the past seldom wrote their sermons in full manuscript. One practice that encouraged me to be faithful in my writing was that I started laying my sermons on the altar before preaching them. Standing at the sacred altar is awe inspiring. The altar is a thin place, to use a Celtic concept, where heaven and earth meet; and God comes to be with us. As I lay my sermons on the altar, I say a brief prayer like this: “Loving God, as I lay these words of mine on the altar, let them be inspired by the same Spirit that inspired your Holy Word. Let each person here today hear a special word of encouragement for the living of their life.” I then usually turn toward the congregation, staying before the altar, and preach the sermon without notes. This took a lot of courage at first, and I delivered a few short sermons until I became comfortable with this practice. What I discovered was that the people did not mind if the sermon was shorter, in fact some liked it!