A noteworthy sermon?

As I sat listening to the sermon at church last Sunday morning, I was struck by a big division. Some folk were scribbling earnestly in notebooks as the end of 2 Corinthians was unfolded for us. Others were just sat listening.

I've heard regular encouragements from the pulpit over the years, many suggesting that note-taking is a sign of real "keen-ness" as a Christian. And certainly there are some things to commend it:

• Expository sermons should be informational as well as exhortatory. Talks from the Bible should help us understand the meaning of what's in there, as well as encouraging us to live our lives differently as a response. I should end up knowing something more than when I started. So
• Notes can be an aid to understanding. The act of writing stuff down can help me concentrate, and also get a better grip of the structure and argument of a sermon. (Not to mention be able to "steal" it, so I can preach it elsewhere sometime)
• Notes can be an aid to further investigation. Sometimes I am prompted to ask a question, or spot something that puzzles me. Making a note of it means I am much more likely follow it up later.

The case against

But there is also a strong case against taking notes. Just because you are taking notes doesn't mean you are concentrating. You can be just as distracted from thinking about the meat of the message while scribbling as not.

Our media-driven generation has an uncomfortable disconnect between the way they use information and the age old biblical task of public preaching. Younger people in particular have a different relationship with information because of the way they access it. Lumps of facts and statistics are available at a click. Most of our young know how to get information, but are less sure how it should be processed. Hearing a sermon is not primarily about accumulating information, or about admiring the artfully alliterative point structure.

(Some people at church were even tapping away at their smartphones, raising the deep suspicion that they were not note-taking at all, but texting their friends about where to hook up for lunch, or trying to get to level 129 on Gemquest.)

And the anti-note brigade have some heavyweights on their side: Jonathan Edwards and Martyn Lloyd-Jones to name two.

Edwards said:

“The main benefit that is obtained by preaching is by impression made upon the mind in the time of it, and not by the effect that arises afterwards by a remembrance of what was delivered” (quoted in The Salvation of Souls, eds. Richard Bailey and Gregory Wills, 11).

Lloyd-Jones followed Edwards noting:

“The first and primary object of preaching is not only to give information. It is, as Edwards says, to produce an impression. It is the impression at the time that matters, even more than what you can remember subsequently … It is not primarily to impart information; and while you are writing your notes you may be missing something of the impact of the Spirit.”

And I certainly relate to that. I am not generally a note taker, because I find it easier to think about what is being said without the encumbrance of pen, paper or tablet. Although I have been known to reach for them if something is particularly noteworthy.

Are you a note taker or not? We'd love to hear the reasons why you do or don't.