How I Write a Sermon in 6 Hours : PP101
A 6 hour sermon?
You are kidding me...right?
Since ministry has changed over the last two years, I have had to adapt how I prepare to write sermons. Let me run it all down for you.
Ministry has changed for me in the last couple of years. I went from the pastor of an 8 year old church plant, fully modern in every way, to a bi-vocational pastor in rural churches with hardly any technology. That meant I had to adapt. What I want to share with you is how that adaptation happened, as well as how my own experience allowed me to optimize the time I had available.
The Presuppositions
This is no way meant I was devaluing the sermon and the role of preaching in worship. I just went from a massive amount of time availability to a more limited space of time. Not less important, but more focused.
I also had 15 years of experience in my commentary and resource library. I started building this competency years ago when I would have to prepare in short notice serving as the youth pastor of a church in Kentucky. In many ways, this is about slowly developing an understanding of how YOU preach. I knew that I typically preached using the same 3-4 outlines and communication strategies. I learned this through going back and assessing what I called “good” sermons I preached in the past. There was also a technological limitation of not using visuals and screens. This easily trimmed off 5-7 hours of weekly time.
I am also a MASSIVE fan and believer of having a yearly sermon calendar. This makes sure I both know where I am going in the future, as well as having a dumping ground for ideas and thoughts to start with on Monday. I teach this process in my course Trello for Personal Ministry.
Productive Pastor episodes on Sermon Calendars
How I Plan a Year of Sermons | Episode 83
Prepping to Preach | Episode 80
Writing on Sermon Calendars
The Sermon Calendar as a Collection Tool | PP Email
3 Ways a Preaching Calendar Gives You Margin | PP Email
Reading for Sermon Preparation | PP Email
Part of preparing to preach means coming up with an understanding of how you prepare, so for me, this broke down into 4 days a week, with focused work on each day.
Monday (1-2 hrs)
Monday is devoted to reading the text. I spend time working through it, asking questions, and beginning to understand a basic idea and outline for the message. I check to make sure I haven’t read it and thought through part of it in my devotions already this year, as well as go back into previous years’ Bibles to see if I might have had some thoughts or writing.
My Sermon Worksheet | https://bit.ly/3v2bBnO
Tuesday (2 hrs)
Tuesday is research day. Answering questions. Reading commentaries. Working more on the outline.
Wednesday (1 hr)
On Wednesday I write my basic manuscript. I am pretty much filling in the outline and making sure things connect
Thursday (1 -1.5 hrs)
On Thursday I revise my manuscript and try to preach through the message a couple of times. My focus here is to make sure it communicates well.