Memorized Manuscript vs. Extemporaneous Preaching

Sermons from the last few weeks at First Christian Church can be found here.  The sermon "I Will Survive" was preached on May 13.  It was my traditional pattern of crafting a manuscript and then reducing key words and portions of the manuscript to a piece of paper--normal paper printed landscape with two columns, folded in half.  I practice this so that more or less I am preaching from memory.  There were a couple of long quotations  that were  read.  The sermon "Wouldn't It Be Nice" was preached on May 20.  It was preached from an outline only.  There was no manuscript anywhere.  Both sermons were good sermons for me. 

The extemporaneous sermon had problems with fluency at the beginning.  Too many vocalized pauses.  The memorized sermon had problems toward the end.  When I got to the section where I used the "Praise the Lord" refrain, the refrain "Praise the Lord" comes out flat because I was trying to remember the next pair of experiences. 

This past week, May 27, I again preached from an outline.  The sermon was worse than the previous two but, I don't know that the outline was to blame. 

1.  I had convoluted cultural lead-ins--The sermon series has taken "B-Side Hits" (i.e., pop music songs that were originally released on the B-sides of a single that did better than the A side) and compared them to texts from the Minor Prophets (i.e., the B-Side of biblical prophetic literature.  However, I also used Peter Bregman's "Two Lists You Should Look At Every Morning." Trying to incorporate references both to "Focus" and "Ignore" lists and "Everyday" by Buddy Holly got convoluted.

2.  I had too many ideas.  Fred Craddock warns than when preachers preach three point sermons they often end up with three sermonettes rather than one complete sermon.  That was the case here.

3.  I didn't have strong examples or narratives.  The supporting material was lacking. 

4.  Failure to rehearse.  One of the things I'm finding thus far with the extemporaneous approach is that I struggle to find the motivation to practice the way I do when I'm speaking from a manuscript.