What can we expect on an inaugural cruise?

[General Max]

Reverend Neal, when do you find time to write your sermons or do you maintain a file of them and use them again?

 

Cheers

 

General Max

[RevNeal]

Sermons start on Monday morning when I look at the Lectionary for the following Sunday and begin doing some exegetical work on the four appointed scripture passages. By Tuesday afternoon I've decided which of the Lectionary passages of scripture I'm going to preach on and usually have a basic idea of what I'm going to say (i.e, baisc theme and approach). By Thursday the sermon is written and ready to preach. I do NOT believe in "Saturday Night Wonders," and I do not preach "re-runs" at Church. :) A "good" sermon can take anywhere from 5 to 15 hours to prepare. Sometimes longer; rarely, if ever, shorter.

 

Anyone who has trouble sleeping or who might be, otherwise, interested, are welcome to listen to any of my sermons from the last 5 years. You'll find them in RealPlayer file format on my website. :)

 

When I'm working a cruise as Chaplain I usually preach one of about 3 basic sermon outlines that I preach on, though I have been known to work up a totally fresh sermon for a Sunday aboard ship. You never know what kind of inspiration one might have while on a cruise. The views are amazing, and the people are always "interesting." :D

[RuthC]

OK, Greg, now please riddle me this: after spending anywhere from 5-15 hours to write your sermon, how long does it actually take to preach it?

 

(better watch it. this question may move RuthC from interesting to "interesting".)

[RevNeal]

A sermon averages between 1 - 2 minutes of preaching-time for every hour spent in sermon preparation. Hence, my sermons average about 25 minutes. My longest sermon currently on my website is 32 minutes. My shortest is about 5 minutes.

 

When I first began preaching it took me an average of 25 - 30 hours a week of work to get ready. That translated into 15 - 25 minute-long sermons. The ratio has flipped over the last 15 years; I now prepare more quickly (though sometimes a sermon can still take more than 30 hours a week to prepare!) and preach a little longer.

 

Some might ask why it takes hours to prepare just a minute of preached material. Well, it's not so much writing down what one is going to say as it is coming to grips with the scripture passage one is preaching on and figuring out how to interpret it for the people to understand and apply in their living. Some scriptures are easy to preach on; others take a great deal of work.

[Himself]

Rev. Neal:

 

The greatest Catholic Preacher of the 20th Century was a bishop named Fulton J. Sheen. He was asked to give a talk once and said "Do you want my two minute talk or my two hour talk?" He was asked what the difference was and Fulton Sheen replied: I prepare my two hour talk in two minutes and I prepare my two minute talk for two hours."

 

Himself

[bepsf]

Sure - we love to be next door! Let me know, we are seriously considering upgrading.

 

We can have some awesome parties, lol!!! :D

 

Laura--

Please drop me an e-mail if you get the chance - I have news!

bep_sf@yahoo.com

:D

[General Max]

Reverend Neal, you should do a sermon on the Noordam. Mrs Max and I would like to attend. It would be interesting to see how you would blend the inaugural sailing into the sermon.

 

Cheers

 

General Max

[General Max]

20 minutes would be fine.

 

Cheers

 

General Max

[bepsf]

20 minutes would be fine.

 

Cheers

 

General Max

 

Can we do in 15???

I need to make it to the shuffleboard tournament....

;)

[Spender Nui]

We did the inaugural on the previous Westerdam (before it was stretched). It was actually about a year old and had been the Home Lines Homeric. The cruise was a fine example of mass confusion from the waiters to the captain. We missed St Martin because they claimed it to be too rough to tender (this was before the current dock) although other ships were anchored and tendering with no problems. We made a way too tight turn going into St Martin ( the kind that causes things to slide off tables). The crew just wasn't ready to handle the ship. Wine buckets and other things bore the Home Lines Signature. The ship itself didn't have some of the problems usually associated with inaugural cruises, probably because it had been service for a while.

[General Max]

When was the inaugural cruise on the previous Westerdam?

 

Cheers

 

General Max