I am struggling a bit with sermon prep and could use your help! Our church doesn’t yet have offices and my house of 6 is pretty crowded!
Right now I normally try to wake up super early in the morning to get some private time for sermon prep and this is working pretty good. I’d love to know how you prepare your sermons.
How long do you take? Where do you go? Any tips? Tell me all of your secrets :-)
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Though my church has an office but I still often find it necessary to study away from my office and / or my home in order to get away from all distractions. I use our local public library as an office. Usually pretty quiet there. If I get to the library early I can usually pick my spot and find a location in the corner away from all traffic. I also use Panera Bread restaurant from time to time for a change of pace. Again, if I get there at the right time I can find a place in the corner. Both the library and Panera Bread have free wi-fi so any online study tools I use are available to me at either location. Hope this helps
Thanks Mark! This helps indeed.– Shaun KingLead Pastor, The Courageous ChurchWeb: http://www.Courageous.tvBlog: http://www.ShaunInTheCity.comPhone: 404.461.9850
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Thanks Mark! This helps indeed man!
I understand your struggle. With a full time job and a family, semon prep is difficult. I have found the following to be helpful. Early mornings are definitely a plus. I start prep on Sunday night really, as soon as I get home from service. Preaching in series always helps me to stay focused. Often times 1 sermon turns out to really be 2-3 weeks worth of material, especially with a new church. I also keep a note pad with me at all times and try to piece it all together in few moments of private time. I also try to include my family in my prep time. You’d be amazed at how helpful they can actually be when studying.
I don’t think it gets easier so much as you will be able to find your grove and get in the zone when preparing.
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We actually do 2 things:
#1. We have a series prep meeting where we share the vision and direction for an entire series. Everything creative is discussed here, from music, to video, to order of service…
#2. Then for the next couple of weeks we do Sermon Prep as a team where the lead communicator will take everyone through each sermon and we help give input on content and scriptures and practical application.
We usually plan about 6-8 weeks ahead, and then once we get closer to the date of the sermon we'll have an unofficial refresher to go over notes. The actual "preparation" is up to the communicator though and they need to be sure they are spending time in prayer and study to make sure they are following God's lead.
For me personally, nothing beats being able to get away from evewrything for a few hours. Pick a spot that you love and go there.
- Wayne
Shaun,
I hope your well. I do believe, with the advice of Gardner Taylor, that for every 1 minute in the pulpit you give 1 hour of prep time. That sounds intimidating (especially with all you have to do), and it is hard to do, but does prove to be fruitful. However, preaching is what tends to grow church membership, which leads to discipleship, which out to lead to leadership. So sermon prep is essential to church growth because the average person doesn't realize all the pastor/preacher does during the rest of the week.
I would advise that you utilize a Seminary library. I graduated from Princeton Seminary and I miss the use of those AMAZING resource as well as the sacred space to hid myself with the stacks.
I have an amazing CD collection on preaching from Fred Craddock. He advises that you set a routine time and place. For example you ALWAYS do sermon prep from 9:00 AM-12:00 PM. You let everyone important to you know, that unless it is an emergency that you are always in the library during that time, sitting in the very same spot and should not be disturbed unless an emergency. Craddock says that over time you will train yourself (like any other discipline) that when you get in that seat, you are in prep mode. There are disadvantages to this…you don't want to limit God. But weekly prep habits are imperative to successful preaching.
BTW Im reading a great book, "The Next Generation Leader" by Andy Stanley. If preaching is one of your dominant gifts take the time to allow God to use your gifts there and delegate to "The Crew" to help you focus the time you need on prep.
Praying for you,
Courtney Clayton Jenkins
Awesome insight Courtney! FYI – I am a major fan of Taylor, Craddock, and Stanley and am glad to know someone else that is too!
Thanks!
Thanks for suggesting ways to include the family. I will do this.
I appreciate this insight Wayne! This will help me and our team for sure.
All that I have learned about preaching, I learned from people like the late E.K. Bailey, Ralph West, Haddon Robinson, A. Louis Patterson, Fred Craddock, Freddy Haynes, and Andy Stanley. I have implemented their advice over the years and I am the sum total of their influence. So, here are some things that have helped me personally. Sorry for the length.
1. I spend time on Monday reading, rereading, and rereading the text to understand the flow of the passage and the logical thought of the author. Sometimes I read it in the Greek text and a variety of English texts. I try not to open a commentary until i have allowed my imagination to dance with the text.
2. If I am working in the greek text, I translate the text, looking for context buzz words, natural divisions and flow. I look for anything words or thoughts that need to be brought to the surface.
3. Then, I spend time interpreting the text. I try to spend time asking questions of the text. These questions normally lead me to fruitful research into the historical, literary and theological aspects of the texts.
4. I think through my message goal – Am I teaching for information, inspiration, or persuasion. or edutainment (Leonard Sweet). The goal of the message affects design and preparation.
5. i look for metaphors, something to which my mind can attract itself. I use a lot of visuals in my messages because our generation is very visual. We are doing a series on the Tabernacle and we have a wood shop teacher who is building the furniture for us. The series would not be as successful without visuals and metaphors.
6. I try to develop velcro points. This is where Andy Stanley and Haddon Robinson have helped me immensely. I attempt to say one thing in a way that is sticky.
7. I spend a lot of time crafting my introduction and conclusion. I want to capture their attention (jokes, drama skits, movie clips, questions, stories, dramatic entrance and exits) and give them a vision of what this truth looks like in our lives.
8. Here are some application questions i ponder: How does this concept fit into everyday life? What does this principle look like when it is implemented? What are some achievable steps toward implementing this truth.
9. A couple years ago we went to a teaching team. This has kept me fresh, introduced our congregation to different voices, and prevented communicator personality worship.
10. I ask for feedback from our team so we can always be getting better at communicating God's word.
I hope this helps.
Best thing you can do is get a routine that works for you and just stick to it. Some churches really do open it up to the staff during staff meeting during the week, and then sometimes its solely up to the pastor and no one knows until the moment the pastor announces it on Sunday morning. But there are always lectionaries that you can find online and that can always keep you ahead of what's coming in the weeks to come. Or if lectionaries aren't your thing, goes back to just finding a clean space of time that's just for you–now wife and kids. It's a hard sacrifice for a family, but meh, it's almost par for the course.
I would say brother a coffee house sit and just think. Think about your vision for the church and how each message brings you closer to bringing that vision to pass. Also time alone before the gathering. After the breakfast.(which i am happy to see was a success and you took care of the community.Real good look) Find you a place to chill. I know this might sound corny but allow the spirit to speak to you. Also the wives a lot of times have great material. Pick her brain on stuff. My wife always help me in one way or another. Be encouraged brother!!!
Hey Shaun,
I don't know if you have read this book or not, but Andy Stanley wrote a phenomenal book that discussed his system of sermon preparation…
"Communicating for a Change"
Hey Shaun!__My sermons often start on the beach. I live on the west coast and on my day off I often spend a couple of hours reading, praying and listening. ____Once I have a passage I do the usual research – commentaries, etc. I also use Google extensively to see what others from various “tribes” (ie: Reformed, Baptist, Catholic, etc.) have drawn from the text. At some point in the development of my message I Once I’ve done the research and made preliminary notes I put everything aside for a day and do other things. My senior pastor and I call this “crock-potting”. The idea is that you let the message “sit and simmer” in your spirit for awhile. ____Finally, one practice that I am adamant on maintaining when that when I have my message pretty much figured out I take my notes and go into the worship center for a time of prayer. I “sacrifice” the message. By that I mean that I put it before God and acknowledge that what I have to say isn’t important, what He has to say is
When the weather's good you can come post up on my balcony when you need to get away. Do you pretty much just work off your laptop and the internet? I got wireless, ya digz. It's quite quiet 90% of the time.
Shaun,
Most of the people in our community just come and share what the Lord has been showing them that week when it's their week to share. I guess you could say that just being in a real and messy relationship with God all week is their sermon prep. Then again, I'm not sure that we should call what they give us a "sermon" – it's more of a "conversation starter" because it's not about just what they are speaking about, but about how we all share with one another ….
Sermon to me seems a little bit passe' …. "Dialogos" my brother, not "sermon…."