ESTELLE:I'm all in favor of no written sermons...that's why we hired Buddy.. Any sermon, talk, lecture, speech or whatever is more interesting when not read. A story is ok as long as it doesn't just repeat ad nauseum what we just heard in the scripture before it. The story needs to be short...then the lesson from it...the main point...and then get out. A sermon should do three things to be successful:
1) educate the congregation on the scripture and background
2) relate the relevance
3) leave us with a point to ponder or move us to action.