During my first year of pulpit work (second year of full time ministry) we went on a foliage trip (October) with Pat's parents. Lisa was just 3 months old. We stopped every couple of hours so Pat could feed her. During one stop Lon and I got to talking (we were always talking Bible or some related topic) and the subject of planning one's sermons came up. Lon told me that the seminaries teach their students to spend a week during the summer planning their sermons for next year. I needed a plan badly because Monday morning was torture trying to figure out what to preach on Sunday. My plan was to preach sermon series. I started with biblical topics (worship, faith, salvation, evangelism, etc.) and wrote down titles of sermons that would help develop the big topic. I did the same thing with whole books of the Bible. I might choose a theme from a book and then develop that theme. Or I might just preach through the book verse by verse or paragraph by paragraph or section by section (depending on how big the book was). I might choose a section of a book that was just made for a sermon series (Sermon on the Mount, etc.). I found endless possibilities. That month I started my plan for the next year. I didn't have a clue as to the needs of my congregation. The congregation seemed to diverse to me to come up with a single set of needs. So I decided to preach a balanced set of sermons. Kind of like preparing a balanced meal for a family. I planned sermons from the OT, from the NT, from the Gospels, some expository, some topical, a book series, and I worked my plan. So beginning in 1980 to this present year, I have planned out my sermon titles and texts each year for the next year. Over the years, anytime the elders have suggested that the congregation needs a particular sermon, I have always interrupted whatever series I was on and fulfilled their request.
So what do you other preachers do in regards to planning your sermons? Do you do it by the year, by the quarter, by the month, or week to week? What plan do you use? Part of the reason I'm asking is because of a post Don just did (here). His discussion of how to preach to the entire congregation got me to thinking about how I plan my sermons. I recently found a book on planning your preaching that I haven't had a chance to read and digest. Maybe I will read it and do a review on it sometime soon. This is one area where I would really love to get some good ideas and input.
For those of you who don't preach, can you discern a plan or pattern in your preacher's sermons? Or have they shared with you what their plan is? Or maybe you've given this topic some thought and have some ideas of your own. Please share.
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4 comments:
Don made some good points in his post. I'm guilty of preaching to the minority sometimes. But preaching to the minority is not always a bad thing. I did like his post.
As for sermons ... I try to plan ahead, but not to far ahead. There have been times when things come up and I want to preach on and if I'm tied down I can't.
I do like series though. It helps you to know where you're going and what you'll be doing. I also think it's good to have a balance between topical and exegetical.
The thing I always try and do is to apply what ever I'm preacing to everyone possible.
How do you apply whatever you're preaching to everyone? Do you have a process you go through to figure that out?
Bob, the fact that you've planned your preaching has contributed to your longevity (which is something you know well, and which is not to say you're "old," a completely relative term,right?) ;)
Frank, thanks for you kindness to an old guy, relatively speaking.
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