The weekend is rapidly approaching, and that means one thing for my blog. The number of people (and I must assume these folks are pastors) coming to this site to look at my two wedding sermons begins to climb. By Friday and Saturday these sermons will be my two most highly visited posts, sometimes outnumbering the visitors to all my other posts combined. While I certainly appreciate the visits, I hope these gentle folks will stay around for a look see at other things I have written.

Please know that I am not disparaging anyone who comes looking for help with a wedding sermon/meditation. Lord knows I have gone googling for sermon helps many times myself. After all, preaching at weddings can be such a thankless task since so few people are really listening in the midst so much matrimonial bliss. Further anyone who comes by is more than welcome to use anything that they find useful in their own preaching. The danger for me is to pander to such obvious trends and post more wedding-related sermons and helps so that my blog traffic and page views increase even more. Just the title of this post is sure to draw a few more visitors, of course, but I will try to refrain from such self and blog-aggrandizing moves in the future.

As an additional service to my clergy colleagues, however, let me share one thing I learned from reading a book by Adam Hamilton, pastor of one of the largest United Methodist Churches in the U.S. He suggests that the pastor ask for written responses to three questions from the soon-to-be bride and groom. They are:

• How did you meet?
• Why do you want to marry your future husband/wife?
• What is one funny (and clean) story you can share about your fiance?

Hamilton then adds that he uses the couple’s answers (done separately so that each person does not know what the other has written) in his short meditation. He has found this practice to be very beneficial and that it has helped personalize the wedding experience for the bride and groom and their families and friends. I have found the same to be true the times I have followed his advice, and would recommend that every pastor try this at least once.

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