Easter Inadequacy

I can't find it now, but earlier this week I saw a post that said something like:

Pray for the pastors this week who know their Easter sermons will be inadequate to represent the depth and glory of the resurrection.

Pray extra for the pastors who think their Easter sermons will be adequate.

Best Preaching Practices

I used to be a sermon-writing machine!  At Cornerstone, I preached 45+ weeks per year in well-crafted sermon series.  My sermons were biblical, interesting, relevant, balanced, and Christ-centered.  Sometimes I might have an off week, but in general, my sermons were awesome!

But over the last 6 years, I have preached very little by comparison.  At Renew, I preached for the monthly "preview" services.  But after we launched and went to weekly services, I hardly preached at all.  I played guitar and piano and led worship and taught classes.  But Adam was full time, so he did the vast majority of preaching.

So over the last year, as I've preached more, I reached back into my files and dug out the sermons that I preached at Cornerstone years and years and years ago.  And I would just kind of recycle them.  And it seemed to work well enough.

But now I'm a preaching pastor again in my new church district.

So I've been struggling with getting back into the flow of sermon preparation and writing and delivery.  I feel like someone with atrophied legs trying to run.  It feels awkward and I feel like I'm not able to think as clearly as I once did and OMG! have I totally lost the ability to write biblical, interesting, relevant, balanced, Christ-centered sermons???

Today as I was praying about this issue, I realized that I've been neglecting some "best practices" that I used to do regularly.

1.  Read the pericope!  And I don't just mean read it a couple times in the version I'm going to preach from.  I mean read the pericope over and over and over again in every version of the Bible I own.  The different versions translate the words differently, bringing out different nuances.  The different versions chunk the thoughts differently, emphasizing varied thought patterns.  I used to read it until I knew it and it filled my mind until everything I thought about was colored by the lens of that pericope.

2.  Watch great preachers!  I used to consume a couple of series by Craig Groeschel or John Ortberg or Wayne Cordiero or Ted Haggard or Andy Stanley or Ed Young in any given month.  I watched how they crafted a series to hang together.  I watched how they made the Bible relevant and how they brought biblical authority to bear on the lives of everyone listening.  I watched to see how they presented Christ so that people would fall in love with him.

3.  Pray for divine revelation!  I used to spend a very large portion of my sermon preparation praying for wisdom and understanding.  I used to go into the sanctuary and pray for the people who would be sitting in the pews the next weekend and ask God how he wanted to speak to them through the sermon.  I would imagine non-Christians coming in and I would ask God how he wanted me to preach to an unbeliever or an outsider.

4.  Watch great preachers!  I know I said that one before.  But this time I mean get your soul fed.  It is easy to be so caught up with producing sermons and leading and being up front and feeding others, that you end up starving your own soul.  So there are times when you need to be blessed by a sermon - not to pick it apart and see why it's good or what devices they were using or how the illustrations pressed the application home - but just to be filled with the word of God and let your soul be renewed and refreshed by the bread of life and the living water of Christ.

Time to dust off some of these best practices and put them back to work!

What to Do First?

I've been on the ground in my new church district for almost three weeks now.

I've been doing a lot of unpacking and moving things around and trying to get settled into our new house.  Kendra has started her new job teaching a couple of classes.  Nathaniel has started second grade at a new school and gymnastics at a new gym.

I've preached a sermon in each church and I've attended an elders meeting.

How do you get up to speed in a new church district?

Here's what I've done:

• Started weekly meetings with the associate pastor
• learning about who he is and what exactly he does
• learning about who the (elected and de facto) leaders are
• learning about the current ministry structure
• learning about pitfalls and areas of opportunity
• learning about recent church history and why things are the way they are
• learning about what's on the calendar
• chosen a book to read through and discuss together
• Started working on some upcoming sermon series
• Heaven in My Heart
• Children's Bible Heroes
• Advent
• Started meeting with elders and church leaders individually
• getting to know them
• trying to figure out the big picture
• Ordered the NCD survey
• Started exercising more regularly

Here's what I think need to do next:

•  Administer the NCD survey
• assess the church's health in 8 quality areas
• evaluate a starting point
• start work on two "minimum factors"
• Continue meeting with elders and leaders individually
• Move into the church office
• Establish my regular office hours and work routine
• Try not to change the whole world all at once

Any advice?

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!).

Sermon Planning - Yearly Skeleton

What topics/series do you typically use as a sermonic year framework? What topics do you always address around the same time each year? Why?

Sermon Planning - Sermon Series Secrets

So, as I've mentioned before, I really like preaching topigetical sermons in topical series. The cool thing about this is that your six sermon series may be on one topic, but the whole series doesn't have to come from one scriptural pericope (because the series is topical, not exigetical). Each sermon, however, should be exigetical from one pericope that addresses a specific sub-topic. This is how I like to design my sermon series.

When I plan sermon series, I try to think like a spiritual dietitian planning a balanced spiritual diet for my church. So, throughout the year there would be a mix of Old Testament and New Testament, Felt Needs and Theology.

During a typical year plan, I would start with a skeleton of

• Personal Vision or Finances or Health series in January
• Life, Teachings, Death of Jesus series culminating at Easter
• Church Mission, Vision, Values series in the Summer
• Family or Marriage in September (after school starts)
• Prophecy series in October
• Advent in December

Then I'd fill in other series ideas between them.

Next post, I'll throw out some starter series ideas...

Till then!

Prepared for Preaching

Did you hear the one about the pastor who accidentally mentioned that he did all of his sermon preparation on the walk between the parsonage and the church? On the agenda for the next board meeting was a proposal to sell that parsonage and buy a new one 20 miles away.

A couple weeks ago in The Amazing Expanding Project, I wrote about short-scheduling your projects as a great way to manage time and beat procrastination. Unfortunately, the example I used was preaching. And upon further reflection, I have decided that I didn't really need to encourage pastors to spend less time on their sermons (in general).

In Thom Rainer's book Surprising Insights from the Unchurched, he points out that the first major reason for the unchurched to return or retreat is the impression they get of the pastor. And most of that impression comes during the sermon time.

The whole rest of your ministry can suck - you can quit visiting, quit evangelising, quit running effective meetings, quit planning, quit liking people - and people will still think you're a good pastor if you hit it out of the ballpark every weekend from the pulpit. (Wait, I know that pastor)

Conversely, the whole rest of your ministry can be great. But if you're not preaching well, people will think you're an idiot. (I know that pastor, too)

Obviously, you don't want either extreme. You want to be a great preacher and a faithful pastor.

But you can't be a great preacher if you don't spend enough time on it. You can't just think something up on the way to church and wing it every week.

Preaching is a sacred responsibility. It's not something that we should ever take lightly. It should weigh heavily on us. We are handling God's Word. Are we handling it faithfully? Or are we twisting it to fit our ideas and agendas? We are leading God's people. Are we leading them into His truth and will? Or are we just saying stuff that will sound impressive or not offend the saints?

Spend enough time really preparing to preach. Plan your preaching. Pray over your preaching. Read about preaching. Practice. Review your sermons. Analyze audio and video tapes. Evaluate your effectiveness. Improve. (It's a stewardship issue)

Prayerfully plan your sermonic year. (My Process)
Create compelling topical series. (Sermon Series Planning Worksheet)
Make each week's sermon Biblical, Interesting, Relevant, Balanced, and Christ-centered.
Take enough time each week to:
- Study your pericope and outline major themes and principles (early in the week)
- Find modern, relevant illustrations (early in the week)
- Decide what actions your listeners should take
- Find Jesus in the topic/text/theme
- Pray, pray, pray

Preaching Topigetical Sermons

Top·i·get·ic·al
adj. [syn. topositional]
"A style of preaching characterized by exegetical sermons preached in the context of a topical sermon series."

- Jay Perry's Exhaustive Dictionary of Made-up Words (JPEDMW)

Topigetical preaching is really the best of both worlds, in my opinion. It is a preaching combination of both topical and exegetical styles. It maximizes the strengths of both styles, while drastically minimizing their weaknesses:

Topical Preaching
Topical preaching is very good at being immediately interesting and relevant to the listener. You can preach a series about stewardship, marriage, The DaVinci Code, Understanding God's Will, The End of the World, worship, community, stress, etc.

Typically, one major problem with a "topical" approach to preaching is the sparse use of the Bible. Typical topical (typtop?) sermons would be the preacher getting up with a three-point outline, a joke, some stories, a poem(?), and maybe a Bible verse thrown in for good measure. (Hey, I used to go to that church).

Another problem with a "topical" approach to preaching is "proof-text" preaching. The pastor gets up with a three-point outline and 28 unconnected, out-of-context Bible verses. Give this preacher a gold star for owning a concordance. The real, underlying problem is that we're not engaging the Bible text on its own terms, in its own context. Just being able to find a verse "supporting" your idea does not make your idea biblical.

(BTW, "Line upon line, here a little, there a little" is also taken out of context, if we think it means we should be preaching proof-text sermons.)

Exegetical Preaching
Exegetical sermons are really good at finding out what the Bible actually says in context. The exegetical discipline is supposed to include a historical survey, word studies, context mapping, etc. as a way to understand the original audience and original intent of the biblical text. Hopefully, this leads the expositor to larger principles that lead to an overall biblical world view.

One problem I've seen with exegetical preaching is the pastor who thinks it's his job to impress the listeners with how much he knows about Greek, Hebrew, History, blablabla. This type of preacher can turn the biblical text into nothing more than interesting Bible trivia.

Another problem I've seen with exegetical preaching is the pastor (no names, please) who preached an entire 13-week series on the church of Laodicea (if the church wasn't "lukewarm" before, it certainly was afterward). Great word studies, amazing scholarship, thorough grasp of the historical context. Would have made a great book. Not a great sermon series.

The problem here is not taking into consideration the actual life issues of the congregation. Preaching must be a divine intersection between the word and the world, between the truth of God and the authentic needs of the people.

Topigetical Preaching
As you can see by now, the answer probably lies somewhere in the middle. When you preach a topigetical series, you are operating within the larger framework of a topic that is actually going to be relevant or interesting in the life of the listener. When each sermon in that series is exegetical, you are making absolutely sure that the core of your teaching is radically biblical - coming from a disciplined study of the text itself.

In an article called Pulpit Evangelism, Outreach Magazine called this "topositional preaching:"

Brian Mavis, former pastor and general manager of the pastoral resource Web site SermonCentral.com, suggests that pastors combine an expository and topical method to be both biblical and relevant. He describes the style as “topositional” preaching.

I think this middle road is more difficult. It means you have to understand what the needs are in your congregation and community. And you have to know your Bible well enough to see larger biblical principles faithfully in context. It means you must be connected and disciplined.

But who said being a faithful preacher was going to be easy?

The Amazing Expanding Project

Here's a time management principle: Projects will naturally expand to fill all of the time we dare to give them.

If you set aside 20 hours of your work-week to spend on your sermon, your sermon will be more than happy to use up all of that time. Because you have allotted so much time, 1) there's no sense of urgency, so you're more likely to procrastinate; 2) you'll spend a lot of time on a turn of phrase, an illustration, or finding graphics (all nice things, but really worth the time?). And you'll wonder why you have no time left for your ministry, your spiritual life, your friendships, your reading, or your family.

If you are a preaching pastor in a multi-staff church, 20 hours worth of prep may be the exact right thing for you to be doing with your week. But if you are a lone pastor in a smaller church, there's ministry to be done.

So I suggest that you short-schedule yourself on major projects so you won't waste time. If you set aside 6 hours for your sermon, it may take 7 or 8. You may go over, but you won't have wasted all of that time doing unnecessary things.

You work better under pressure, anyway. Don't you?

So, there's my Time Management Tip for the Day: Short-schedule your projects so they don't gobble up your life.

(Don't worry, I'll do a post later about building margin into your schedule. Just for balance.)

Sermon Relevance and Altar Calls

I originally posted this over at apokalupto as a response to whether or not pastors should be making altar calls:

After a couple of years preaching, I came under the conviction that I was actually training people to ignore God and Biblical Truth by NOT calling for commitment. Essentially, I was opening up the Word of God, preaching, applying, and then letting them leave. "Good sermon, Pastor."

The more people hear the Word of God and DON'T make a commitment to act or change, the more we are just training them to ignore the promptings of the Holy Spirit.

That is why I will never do another sermon without asking for some kind of commitment (even at weddings and funerals).

The hardest sermon for me to preach with any kind of personal commitment or application is State of the Dead.: What... I will never tell a "so-and-so died-and-went-to-heaven" joke again?

I have a very hard time asking for people to come forward or stand up. I feel that a lot of Altar Calls are manipulative (especially as I've been trained to do them in Evangelistic Meetings).

But I went to a church once that had the sermon first! And then participating in the rest of the service was a default response to the sermon time. The music, the prayer, the offering, the sign-up for ministry, the announcements - everything was couched as a personal response to the sermon.

That touched me. And when I realized that it's the only church service model that takes into consideration that true worship is a response to what God has done or taught, I was hooked. It wouldn't work well at my current church, but...

Preaching With PowerPoint

Ever since the beginning of my ministry, I have used PowerPoint for my sermons. There. That shows you how old I am.

Over at Genuine Curiosity, Dwayne writes about how he uses PowerPoint to focus his presentations:

1. Pick 3 to 4 points you want your audience to remember.
2. Create 1 slide for each major point.
3. Create 3 bullet short, crisp points for each slide (yes, get it down to 3 - not 4 or 5).
4. Practice using these slides as a sort of "teleprompter" to deliver your message and test the soundness of the message:
   • Does each point add real value to your message?
   • Is each point essential in achieving your communication objectives / desired outcome?
   • Do you have the fact to support each point, if questioned?
   • Is the order / flow correct?
   • etc.
5. When you formally deliver your message, you can either have a "6 up" handout view of the slides as a guide, or print the Outline view.

This is basically how I use PowerPoint for my sermons (Although I don't necessarily keep it to only 3 bullet points, depending on what the text is trying to say...).

Illustration for Main Point
Text 3:16
Bullet Point (principle from the text)
Bullet Point (principle from the text)
Bullet Point (principle from the text)

And then for each bullet point, I state the principle, show where I found it in the text, explain it or illustrate it, and then apply it to real life. Then I go to the next bullet point.

This is a great way to make sure the sermons are biblical, sound, focused, and relevant.

I also publish a sermon handout (fill-in-the-blanks) sheet in the bulletin every week to make it easy for people to follow along and have something to "take away" from the service.

Here are some links to show you how this looks in my last week's sermon:

PPT
Outline
Blanks
mp3

(Feel free to use any other sermon material you find on my site. That's why it's there.)

BTW, I haven't always done my PowerPoint this way. When I originally started, I used to spend hours and hours finding just the right pictures or putting all of my Bible texts on the slides. Back then, I spent more time on the look than the content. Don't fall into that trap.

Documents, Processes, and Worksheets (oh, my!)

Here are updated links to some of my processes and worksheets. Feel free to use them as you deem fit. They are registered under a Creative Commons License: Attribution, Noncommercial, Share-Alike – CreativeCommons.org

Time Management:

• Time Log (MSWord) - No Longer Available
  
• Time Log (PDF) - No Longer Available
  

Personal Vision Workbook (now a book):

• Personal Vision Workbook
  

Sermon Planning:

• Sermon Series Planning Worksheet
• Sermon Planning Calendar (MSWord) - Sample Filled-out
• Sermonic Year Planning Checklist

Pastor's One Minute Job Description

In Kenneth Blanchard's classic One Minute Manager, he talks about having One Minute Goals so you (and your supervisor) know what you're about (and not about). Something that you have prominently displayed so that you can review it in about One Minute every day.

One of the biggest problems facing a pastor is that there is virtually no agreement on what a pastor's job description is or should be. Your denomination thinks your job is to promote denominational programs, values, and initiatives (and get your paperwork in on time). Your church thinks your job is to visit everyone (especially the elderly (especially those in the hospital)), preach good sermons, do some janitorial work, be good at fundraising (but not always talking about money), do a lot of Bible studies with the lost, and make sure the next generation doesn't leave the church. You (straight-out-of-seminary-smartypants) think your job is to "equip the saints for the work of the ministry," give yourself "continually to prayer and to the ministry of the word," and "go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them..."

It's really easy to fall into the trap of trying to make everyone happy all the time. But there just aren't enough hours in the day. If you try to be all things to all people, you'll end up losing your sanity, spirituality, family, sobriety, or will to live (or a combination of all of them).

In Ron Gladden's book 7 Habits of Highly Ineffective Churches, he describes a situation where he was half-time pastoring in a multi-church district. And the small church wanted him at their worship service every week. He was able to refer them back to a mutually-agreed-upon job description that revealed the priorities of the position. His point is that every time we say "yes" to one thing in ministry, we necessarily say "no" to something else. We must be sure we are saying "yes" to the right things.

I created a One Minute Job Description just over six years ago. It has served me very well. I laminated a bunch of copies and put it on my wall at work, on the mirror in my bathroom, on my bedside table, and on my computer. I shared it with my church board. My only regret is that it doesn't include an evangelistic component (quite the oversight). Here it is:

Goal 1: to get as close to God as possible through daily Bible study, prayer, and meditation, putting aside all things that destroy my relationship with Him.

Goal 2: to produce one sermon by Friday of every week. Each sermon will be biblical, interesting, relevant, balanced, and Christ-centered.

Goal 3: to train and equip my church board members to be effective leaders in their various areas of responsibility so that they can train and equip all church members to live a life of faithful service to God.

This has really helped me to remember the essentials. It's what I'm paid to do. Everything else the church gets out of me is a bonus.

GTD Review Scheduling for Pastors

The weekly GTD system review is a very important component of the whole Getting Things Done process. In fact, I think the review is the only way to make yourself trust the system enough to use it consistently.

The Getting Things Done literature says that Friday afternoon is the ideal time to do your weekly system review.

As a pastor, building toward a public worship event at the end of every week, I find that my weekly review works best on Monday morning. It gives me an opportunity to review the last worship service, judge my sermon effectiveness, process all the new inbox stuff that was dumped on me during church, see who I need to visit, look at what I need to do to be ready for the upcoming sermon, and plan my week accordingly.

I also find that without the impending deadlines associated with every weekend, my mind is free to do higher-level thinking and strategic planning. So my weekly review is scheduled for 10 AM on Monday morning.

When do you schedule your system review?

PVW - Free Mind Mapping Software

A great way to do do exercise #4 (God at Work in My Past) in the Personal Vision Workbook is to create a Mind Map.

You can use a mind mapping program to brainstorm every major experience, transition, disappointment, loss, accomplishment, spiritual milestone, etc. that you've ever experienced.

You can then drag the different nodes around so that they're chronological. Save that as your "life history."

Then, you can color-code all the negative things you've ever gone through. Save that one as "negative experiences."

Then, you can drag the nodes around into groups and arrange them in different ways - spiritual experiences, life skills, bad habits, breakthroughs, sinful nature, relationships, etc. And then save that mind map as "life themes."

I understand there are a lot of mind mapping programs out there. I have just recently started using Free Mind, which is an open-source, free download. I found it pretty easy to start using (tab for a new child node, double return for a new sibling node). You can use mind mapping for all sorts of things - taking notes at meetings, brainstorming, planning a speech or presentation, sermon series planning, outlining Bible studies, designing website navigation, creating flowcharts, etc.

Getting Things Done - Projects vs. Tasks

I finally understand why lists never worked for me before I read Getting Things Done.

My mom is a compulsive list maker. And I had a PalmPilot with a ToDo list (and priority ranking!). And I had read that some important (and productive) person wrote out a ToDo list every day before he started work, so he could be really productive (or something). So I would write everything down that needed to be done that day. I thought it would help my time management. But the opposite happened. In fact, my pre-GTD lists seemed to cause procrastination.

The problem was that I didn't understand I should be working from a task list instead of a project list. I would put a bunch of multi-step projects in my ToDo list - Do 1 Year Strategic Planning, Plan Sermonic Year, Plan Sermon Series, Write Sermon, Plan Budget, Find a New Graphic Designer, Create CD Process and Delegate, etc. - along with my tasks. So I would look at my ToDo list and freeze. I hadn't thought about the next physical action for any of the projects. So they just became an overwhelming amorphous mass of ToDo hanging over my head.

In GTD, I learned to put anything that takes more than one physical action on my "Project List." And then for each project, just come up with the one next physical action, and put it on my "Task List."

So, I ended up breaking down my projects into smaller steps so I could do them. I know, you've heard that a thousand times. But did you ever hear it applied to lists? It all just makes so much more sense now.

I can't actually just sit down and "Plan a Sermonic Year." I have to gather calendars from the church school, individual ministries, and denominational headquarters. I have to figure out which events and holidays would go on our church's master calendar. I have to sketch out individual sermon series (another 20 individual tasks for each sermon series) and place them in the calendar. I have to brainstorm possible guest speakers, prioritize them, look up their contact information, and invite them. Planning a Sermonic Year might actually be a few hundred individual tasks (read my Sermon Planning posts).

No wonder I would look at my list and glaze over and go back to playing Sudoku. I know what the next action is in Sudoku!

For sanity's sake, please separate your project list from your task list. Your brain will thank you.

Lifehacks - Set a Timer to Thwart Procrastination

Set a timer to trick yourself out of perfectionist procrastination.

If I thought of how much work it would be to clean my whole kitchen, I would never even get started (perfectionists are the best procrastinators).

So I set the kitchen timer for 5 minutes and see how much I can get done (before I go back to playing sudoku or surfing the web). If I only get 5 minutes of cleaning done, fine. But sometimes, when the timer goes off, I'll want to finish up what I've started ("I'm so close to being done!"). And I end up cleaning 10 or 15 minutes. And my wife is astounded at how clean the kitchen is when she gets home from work (hurrah!).

Setting a timer is the best way I know of to trick yourself into defeating procrastination. Are you so overwhelmed with the thought of writing the whole sermon that you can't even make yourself start? Set a timer for 10 minutes and see how much you can get outlined. Chances are that once you start, you won't be able to stop.

Sermon Planning - One Day Retreat

The last few posts have concentrated on how I plan my sermonic year. And I see you shaking your head and saying, "I don't have three months to plan! It's January already! I need something quick!!!"

Truthfully, you can do about the same process in a day, if you have to. Here's a link to a plan for a one day sermon planning retreat. They also have several other great links. Enjoy!

Sermon Planning - How I Plan a Sermonic Year

Planning out my sermonic year seemed like such a good idea. So I would put it on my list: "Plan Sermonic Year." And I would look at those words every day. And the guilt would build. I knew I needed to do it, but I didn't know where to start. Every year, I would take a couple of months and reinvent the wheel. No more! Now I have a written process that I use as a checklist.

Planning out the sermonic year is a long process. It takes me three months. I spend an hour or two on it each week. I spend a lot of time praying for wisdom. I need to hear from God and discern what direction he wants me to lead the church in the upcoming year.

Here is an overview of my steps:

1. Create a master calendar

In October, I start working on the master calendar for the next year. I include holidays, conferences, special events, vacation, communions, etc. on a master calendar. Then I use a one-page calendar (formatted in MSWord) for the sermon planning, so I can see the whole year at a glance.

2. Prayerfully choose major themes to address

There are certain topics I do every year - Vision in January; Life/Teachings of Christ around Easter; Values/Mission of the church in the Summer; Marriage/Parenting after Labor Day. I plan 3-4 other major topics (spiritual disciplines, OT Bible characters, denominational distinctives, book of the Bible, Christian basics, prophecy, stewardship, etc).

3. Prayerfully create 8-10 sermon series

I collect sermon series ideas wherever I find them all year long. I plan series 3 to 6 weeks long (I get bored with my own series if they're much longer). I use a sermon series planning worksheet and put it in my sermon planning workbook. In November, I take a look at what I've collected all year long from books, devotionals, church needs, current events and culture (we'll address sermon series planning more later).

4. Figure out where the series fit into the calendar

I try to put 1-3 weeks of space between series. That way, I can address current events and issues, bring in a guest speaker, or take the series a bit longer if the Spirit moves. The completed calendar is a beautiful thing.

5. Find guest speakers for off weeks (or special weeks)

In December, I start to invite guest speakers. I invite certain speakers every year - my conference president, for instance. I try to prioritize my speakers and give the important ones all of the available dates before I fill in the rest.

6. Give the completed calendar to team members

I give it to the board members, church secretary, musicians, graphic designer, outreach coordinator, etc. - anyone who needs to know.

The calendar changes sometimes. I changed the sermon schedule the weekend after 9/11. I got sick for a couple of weeks in 2006 and had to change things around.

Here's the checklist I use to keep me on task.

Sermon Planning - Why Plan a Sermonic Year?

I try to plan my sermon schedule out a year in advance. Every October, I get out my sermon planning notebook, a calendar of next year, a few completed sermon series planning worksheets, and my sermonic year planning checklist. For me, planning out the next year is a three month process. (A lot of this is already taken care of if you use a lectionary system).

I plan a year out for the following reasons:

1. It is a leadership discipline to think in advance.

God plans ahead (Jer 29:11). And God expects us to plan ahead (Prov 13:16; 16:9). The pastor is a leader. Therefore, the pastor needs to be out ahead of the flock, planning and setting direction.

2. It helps my sermons suck less.

There is something about planning that the Holy Spirit uses to make my sermons suck less (Prov 16:9). When I've planned ahead, I can give advance information to my music, drama, and planning teams to make each week more cohesive and excellent.

3. It balances my teaching.

I think of myself as a spiritual dietitian - feeding my congregation. I need to make sure the congregation is getting a balanced diet of theology and practical Christianity, Old Testament and New Testament, denominational distinctives and basics. If I don't plan ahead, I tend to fall back on my pet ideas and favorite topics. The whole Bible is inspired and useful... (2 Tim 3:16; cf. Acts 20:27)

4. It lowers my stress level.

If I don't plan my sermons in advance, I find myself freaking out half-way through the week trying to come up with a scripture. When I do plan ahead, I have a sense of peace knowing that I have a plan for where I'm going (and how I'll get there).

5. It helps me keep my eyes open for illustrations.

When I've planned my sermons in advance, the Holy Spirit seems to drop sermon illustrations into my lap. I'll be listening to a news story, and I'll think, "that would make a great illustration for my sermon on [blank] in three months." I'll write down the story and note it on my sermon series planning worksheet.

So much for why to plan a sermonic year. Next time, I'll write about how to plan a sermonic year.