Planning Sermon Series Again

So... I'm still on a leave of absence from pastoring (read more here). But our pastor is leaving for another church. And I'm the head elder.

So... I find myself planning to preach quite a bit in the upcoming year (quiet "hurrahs" fill my soul; how I've missed preaching!).

I've been working on the sermonic year (assuming we don't have a preaching pastor for a while). This time the pent-up series and sermon progressions practically burst out of me! Look at my sermonic calendar in progress.

In related news, I've been writing quite a bit recently. So I've started using Scrivener writing software to outline and organize and research and flesh things out. It's really amazing software! (Download a free 30-day trial)

It dawned on me that I could use Scrivener for organizing my series and writing my sermons. So I set up my workflow and created a template and BOOM! It's incredible!

If you're a pastor using Scrivener, you can download my sermon series planning file here (zipped file comes with pdf examples, my sermon calendar, interwebs links, doc templates, and other resources for creating awesome sermon series). After you've opened the file, you can save it as a template. Then it will always be there as a series planning option when you start up.

Happy sermon writing (to me!).

You cannot lead if...

Over on Ja Cook's Don't Survive, Thrive! he has a great post about what disqualifies someone from being a leader. Not sexual blunders or embezzling (although, I'm sure those are also disqualifiers).

Ja's list hits close to home with things like...

• You cannot lead if you cannot love those you lead

and

• You cannot lead if you cannot lift others up to be better than you

and

• You cannot lead if you cannot last through trials and hurdles

Be sure to check out the rest.