Podcast Episode #097
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Preparing to preach a sermon, or multiple sermons, each week is the most daunting and most important thing a pastor does as the shepherd of a church. So this week, we cover some essential practices for pastors to employ that will aid in sermon preparation.
Some highlights from today’s episode include:
- Preaching should be one of the highest priorities in the ministry of a pastor.
- Worship leaders love pastors who communicate what they are going to preach and when.
- If you try to do sermon prep in your margins of time, you’ll never have enough time and the sermons will suffer.
- What gets calendared gets done. — Michael Hyatt
- Add an extra 20% of time to your sermon prep time to have margin for emergencies.
- Set a sermon completion target date. Try to make that earlier in the week to account for issues that may come up in the church.
The 9 keys for successful sermon preparation are:
- Make it a priority
- Determine your comfort level with planning in advance
- Let your congregation know of the priority
- Put it in your calendar
- Allocate 20% more time than you think you will need
- Allocate your time according to your study plan: reading the text, draft, commentaries, etc.
- Determine a completion day: ex: done by Thursday
- Be prepared to change
- Don’t leave out prayer
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Great advice!!! The anointing of God should not be defined by something thrown together at the last minute. God is the same yesterday, today and forever…HE CAN SPEAK IN ADVANCE!!!
Last Sunday, I preached a message out of Ruth, titled “A Famine in the House of Bread”, where I outlined that the main reason Naomi’s family left Bethlehem (the “House of Bread”) and traveled to Godless Moab was because they weren’t getting fed. I’m convinced that’s a major cause of the formerly churched being unchurched today. Sermons need to be anointed messages from God, not just a feel good, “put on a happy face” messages or a dry “lesson” pulled from a collection of outlines on Saturday night. My people need to hear from God, not me. If you are phoning it in, stop it. Love your people enough to feed them fresh bread.
“Preaching should be the highest priority in the life of a pastor.”
I hope you meant “work life”.
Let me first say, I love reading your blogs and books. They are practical and reflect what is truly going on in the life of our churches and pastors. Today, I have to take issue with one comment and it is not actually in the list of nine. In your intro you state: “Preaching should be the highest priority in the life of a pastor.” In the list of nine, you only say “Make it a priority.” To me, these statements imply vastly different approaches to the level of importance the preaching part of ministry should have.
Please understand in advance that I am a teacher by spiritual giftedness and believe that the “right handling” of the Word of God is an art that is beginning to elude many of our pastors. And, many pastors give up actual preaching/teaching of the Word for something more entertaining and memorable for an attender’s experience. I agree that ample study is necessary, and that it should be a priority both to the pastor and understood as such by the membership. My disagreement is with the statement that preaching is to be the “highest” priority in the life of a pastor.
As a lifetime associate pastor and now a Director of Missions, I believe that relationship-building should be the highest priority in the life of a pastor. In my ministry roles, I have been able to see the attitudes of the people often closer and more clearly than the senior pastor simply because of my proximity to the membership through a given ministry. What I have observed far too often is that those that are great in the pulpit have their ministries in a given body cut short by their inability to be “in and among the people.” Their weakness in relating to the people often becomes the cause of their demise.
In recent days, I have seen the rise of personal investment by pastors through small group discipleship or other more intimate approaches gather far more momentum, trust, leadership development, vision casting, and in turn, church health than the most powerful sermon on any given Sunday. I’m reminded of Dr. Gary Chapman’s 5 love languages and that one of the most important love languages to many people is “time.” As much as I personally love the study of the Word and am convicted by its preaching, I have to believe that the highest priority for a pastor in today’s ministry (aside from family and personal walk with God) is building genuine relationships with his people through time spent.
Don’t get me wrong in thinking I am saying adequate priority and time shouldn’t go to preparation for preaching. I fully agree with all nine points. And I am aware that the sheep, and some of the goats that are mixed in with the flock, can suck you dry emotionally and spiritually. I just do not agree that preaching should be the “highest” priority for a pastor. Thank you so much for your role and your work…it causes us readers to think.
I don’t know that I would say that preaching is the highest priority in my life as a pastor. I think – I hope – I aspire – to assign that priority to prayer. I would say, however, that preaching is my highest ministry priority. And my sermon preparation is saturated with prayer.
Thanks for this practical and helpful post/podcast.
Bob and others:
I totally goofed on the wording of my tweet and notes for the podcast. What I meant to say is that preaching should be one of the highest priorities in the ministry of a pastor. Thanks to all of you for the gentle corrections.
It’s funny how one single word can set the world ablaze. I just had to send out an apology and explanation for something I said to a group of Christian leaders last night. They all understood, but it was still a goof on my part. All the more reason to follow those 9 steps and be fully prepared when we preach. Thanks again Dr. Rainer.
Of all these keys listed, I cannot overemphasize #9. I remember one Sunday morning I was late leaving for church, and I accidentally took off without my sermon manuscript. I usually spend the Sunday school hour studying my manuscript, but that morning I spent it doing some serious praying. When it came time to preach, I did the best I could, and I think I got at least as many compliments on that sermon as I have on any other sermon I’ve ever preached.
I’m firmly convinced that if your sermon is not bathed in prayer, all your other preparation will be in vain.
I have to admit. I have been quite discouraged following this blog. Sometimes it is helpful and encouraging and other times it is just down right discouraging. As a country church pastor, the impression I get from this blog is ‘ya got to do more’, ‘got to get out there in the community more’, ‘see non church people more’ and ‘bi-vocational is best, and if you’re not doing it, then you’re doing ministry wrong’, ‘full-time pastors is a thing of the past and not ideal’. I know you’re not saying that, but that’s how it comes across to me at times. Then there’s today’s blog which I don’t see how it’s compatible with the push for bi-vocational pastors. From conversations with pastors and church members concerning bi-vocational ministry, their concern and criticism is that over a long period of time either their family life, work life, or pastoral life will suffer. Some have done it well for a short period, but eventually it burns them out. One case in point, I know a local church where the pastor sought to do all these extra things outside the local church at the expense of his teaching/preaching and the church body felt neglected and malnourished. Doesn’t the verse in 1 Cor.9:14 set the standard for churches to take care of missionaries, evangelists, teachers and preachers “that those who preach the gospel should live from the gospel.”?
I’ve been very blessed to be full-time in a country church. Here are a few things I’ve take delight in:
1) Flexible time with Family – going home for lunch, arriving home for supper, taking kids to doctor’s app.
2) Flexible time with church members – able to visit the hospitable, deathbed, an accident, or the house of church members. Even being able to visit non-church people on their deathbed or in a hospitable has been a blessing.
3) Day off – a real one, whereas preparing messages and part-time work would make it difficult.
4) Flexible day off – being able to work on that day-off in order to save money for car repairs,Christmas, presents,etc.
5) Flexible hours – being able to stay at the home office due to weather, sickness in the household, or stay late at church office
6) Study time – actually being able to dedicate much needed time to prepare three or more messages/bible studies a week. (I’ve heard the average time needed is 10-12 hours per message)
7) Availability – church members can actually call or visit the office without feeling like they are robbing my time
The main function of the pastor is preaching/teaching the Word, prayer, and care for the sheep. The church should see to it that he can do these things well. 1 Timothy 5:18 “For the Scripture says, “You shall not muzzle an ox while it treads out the grain,” and “The laborer is worthy of his wages”.
>Then there’s today’s blog which I don’t see how it’s compatible with the push for bi-vocational pastors.
I don’t know which branch of Orthodox Christianity it is, but all of their clergy are expected to:
* Have a secular job;
* Perform Mass for the laity every day;
* Visit the sick, infirm, elderly, etc every week;
* Be available for spiritual counseling to the laity, or other clergy, every day;
Even with The lectionary/Daily Office providing the Scriptural readings for the service, one still needs some time in homily preparation. In this case, six or seven 5 minutes homilies per week, and the main (long) one on Sundays.
It is compatible, but one needs to set strong boundaries, and have excellent time management skills.
May I add paying attention to the events of the week before giving the sermon. As an Anglican priest said one Sunday that by Thursday he realized that his already-written sermon was too weak giving the events of the week. This was the week when the Christian woman in the Sudan almost became a martyr. Many other events had occurred that week which led him to preach an appropriate, rather forceful sermon.
Great podcast–Love all that you do Dr. Rainer! Quick question. You suggest in the second point that preachers may want to prepare sermons in advance, perhaps 2-3 weeks ahead. A sermon title, rough outline, and the major theme would be sufficient and then the preacher during the week can do the exegetical work. I would love to do this but my issue is how does the preacher formulate a quick outline and major theme before doing the exegetical work. I was under the impression that the big idea and outline come after the exegetical work. What if the outline and title that is initially created changes after one’s exegetical work is complete? Thanks again for all you do and any suggestions you may have to my question.
I usually start with the exegetical work, but I suppose it is possible to discern the outline and basic theme of the passage without much exegesis. My Greek professor in seminary was very big on breaking down the passage into clauses to determine the structure of the text. That way, your sermon structure is consistent with the structure of the text.
That being said, I believe every preacher’s method of sermon preparation varies according to the preacher’s gifts and personality. If one method doesn’t work so well for you, keep experimenting until you find one that does.
>but my issue is how does the preacher formulate a quick outline and major theme before doing the exegetical work
Something I was told years ago, by a pastor that was expected to pray for at least six hours pay, and study the Bible for another six hours per day, and do all the things that a pastor is supposed to do every day, including preaching weekly sermons that were at least four hours long.^1
Buy several gross of journal books. Lable them “Genesis 1”, “Genesis 2”, etc through “Revelation 22”
For the first six months, write an outline of each book.
Then write an outline of each chapter.
Then write an outline of each pericope.
The outline should include both major and minor themes of the passage in question.
Then you go through the text, verse by verse, doing an exegesis of each verse.
Make liberal use of concordances, and topical Bibles, when doing both the outline, and the exegesis.
When you reach Revelation 21:22, start the process again, writing an outline for each book, chapter, pericope. This time, instead of doing an exegesis of each verse, do an exegesis of each chapter, and pericope.
When you need to preach a sermon, you go through your notes in the journal.
Assuming that the exegesis still applies, that is your starting point.
If it doesn’t apply, then redo your exegesis.
Today, you can do all that on your computer.
Ideally, your Biblical software allows you to write your outlines and exegesis, from within, and as part of the software, as if they were your own commentary. This self-created resource should also behave as any resource from the developer/creator of that Biblical software.
(I am acutely aware of several major software programs, that fail both of those criteria.)
Hopefully, your Biblical software package includes both concordances, and topical Bibles. (I can point to a number of programs that don’t have concordances as a matter of policy, and several that don’t have topical Bibles for reasons that I not only don’t understand, but can’t even attempt to parrot, becuase they are so vaugly fuzzy.)
^1: The sermon was four hours long. The church service, if it was short, lasted somewhere between six and eight hours long.
Thom,
I appreciate you put yourself out there for all of us to take our shots. I admire your sweet spirit while being the CEO of one if not the largest religious publishers. Preachers make a big deal out of semantics. I remember talking about ellipses for two hours in a doctoral seminar over 30 years ago. In my first 4 churches I preached Saturday night specials where I told stories and entertained the people in a short period of time. Nobody complained about my sermons. In my last church after 25 years as a denominational worker I made preaching a priority and prepared a manuscript. I enjoyed my study and my people kept telling me how strong our pulpit was at our church. That is the biggest thing I miss about being retired is the private prayer and study time that was motivated by the need to produce a new sermon three times a week.
I love this all also 8 and 9 Keys it may help,too many people findout that their talented and start thinking as they are much better than other when we talk about repent as a christians we might know that we always hunting all people to change,theres another vision of people who are not attending churches is not that they don’t wan’t to Change but as usually those people might change if we don’t put sins over them,such as everyone who make things wrong honestly he know that he is in wrong place so he already accepted hell if he still not changing meaning he is unsave but simple things,we as learders know that sins we know that we wan’t all people to change,no one can come at church without looking for change so what if he is seened people don’t know how to forgive but God he simple forgave,Adam and Eve was simple sinned to God himself but he forgave them and he sue them,learders are hard on Relationships like now God he gave me power to heal but people are still Judging as am coming from poor family let the Holy be the Holy or Any Laws that have putted by the failure in life must tolerated as “spawns”Law,people they like their in jail from the earth that God gave them for free,am not brave than other and also am not matured than other,hopefully i will never do what is coming from my mind hopefully there is pain in me,too many people look like they don’t have freedom of life,why people Suffer is God who wanted them to Suffer i honestly had that feeling cause still people are fear to be in church of God which is for Free to Everyone it you enter people will look you like a thug,why must people suffer,is God wanted them to Suffer,Anyone who think am disrespecting him/her for truth Ye shalt thou unto you my God will never allow you to make others to Suffer as am speaking peace to the people and shalom will make everyone be matured to God,every pastor will Love by people,every people will know that God is everywhere,as am talking now am not against someone cause there other people which is Against others and now What for?people must work harder and loving the world,fear not am Your God,the one who is in heaven,someone have Die for our sins also people also wanted someone to die For peace,but still people are failure God already know that people don’t know,what they wan’t only death God is not For blood to people,he don’t wan’t people to see him he only wanted people be free and ask also we must love each other like we love ourselves…prayer is the key of life judges are not for us…it is God’s job…we are not allowed to put people in hell before death