Planning Your Preaching – Conclusion

A Great Preaching Resource!

As we wrap up our series on sermon planning, I want to emphasize that this is a work in progress. I closed with that last time but it bears repeating. When I started planning my sermons in advance, it was awkward at first. My only tools were a notebook, ruler, and a pencil. I made columns in the book, wrote the Sundays down, and then started working through the year. I still have those old notebooks and refer to them to look at how I started and how I do things now. I suspect my calendar will look different in five years but will contain much of the essential elements I’ve already shared with you. Another thing, once you get used to this method of planning, you may wonder how you survived before. It’s refreshing for me to kick off my week on Monday knowing ahead of time what I will preach on Sunday. I can print out my text, line it out, and focus on the spirit of the sermon rather than fumbling around for any and everything to give me an idea.

Here’s a few random tips as you begin and then I’ll close with some resources..

1) Give yourself time. You CANNOT do this in an hour. When you first get started, try lining out six months in advance or even three if you feel stressed. You’ll soon grow into a year and then, it’s just a matter of maintenance on your part to keep the calendar current. Find a quiet spot with a good cup of coffee or tea, plug in some calming music on your MP3 player, and set down for a few hours the first time out to get this started. Remember, you’ve investing your time now and will be grateful for it later in the year. In the end, you’ll save time doing this.

2) Leave some Sundays open. You never know when you might get sick or a preacher friend of yours plans to visit. You might wish to extend your pulpit to him to preach so it’s best to leave a few Sundays open for these types of things. I usually plan betwen 40-45 Sundays of the year on my calendar.

3) Be aware of your planned series as you read the news and/or see video clips that address the topics on your calendar. One of the great benefits of planning in advance is that you can take advantage of the media to give you all the illustrative material you need for your sermons. If I see something on the internet that will help me, I’ll print it out and save it. I have a business “tickler” file that I use for all of my paper and I simply drop these illustrations in their appropriate slots and when the time comes they are right where I need them. Again, planning ahead saves you time in many different ways.

As I mentioned at the outset, there are very few tools out there with advice in this area. A couple of my favorites include the book “Planning your Preaching” by Steven Rummage, “Preparing a One Year Preaching Calendar” (audio download) by Nelson Searcy, and the section on sermon planning the book “Can We Do That” by Andy Stanley and Ed Young Junior. Much of what I have shared with you and adapted over the years came from these resources. If you know of others, please share and let me know!

I hope you’ll take the time to plan your preaching in 2010. Your congregation will benefit and you’ll have much less stress as you go from Sunday to Sunday each week. If I can be of service to you in any way, please contact me through this site and I’ll be sure to get back in touch with you.

God bless and happy planning!

Planning Your Preaching – Organizing a Series

Think Through Your Preaching!

If you have been following our series on sermon calendar planning, you’ve lined out your year, added special days, identified any specific calendar items for your church and family and are now ready to start looking at the sermons you will preach in the coming year.

After I get through with my basic layout (step one) I begin to look at the calendar from the standpoint of attracting new families to church. The obvious times of Easter and Christmas stand out but for our church, Christmas really isn’t a time for new growth. Where I pastor, many families travel out of state for the holiday while some have families visit them. The transient nature of the congregation at this time doesn’t lend itself to growth but rather, reflection so I note this and plan sermons during Advent that are focused in that direction. Easter is another matter. Many families invite friends at this time so it makes sense for me to lay out a nice series that speaks to newcomers that will attend. Kicking off a series on Easter Sunday gives newcomers a “hook” to return to your church. They want to hear more of what you are speaking about. The resurrection is a fantastic kickoff but there are so many ways to tie it in with a series. We’ve had different series each year but all had the resurrection as their kickoff.

As for the series themselves, I find between 4-6 weeks are best for them. Longer series can be broken up if necessary or you can tie together stand alone messages into a loosely woven theme that stands alone each week but has a tie in overall. Summer time is a great time for this type of series. Knowing that many folks will be traveling at this time makes a loosely tied in series a natural between summer kickoff and back to school.

So what types of series should you include? As I stated, this type of advanced planning gives you a great opportunity to plan your preaching in areas that you wouldn’t naturally go. Do you want to preach through a book? Fantastic! Plan out the messages within the book and break it up by themes. Then, you can either go through the messages straight or break them up if they are longer into two or even three series. I once preached through the book of Romans this way.

It doesn’t matter if you are more of an expository preacher or one who is more issues focused (you really should do both and give your folks a variety). This type of planning works.

Once you have some ideas lined out for the various sermon series you want to preach, put them on your calendar. At this point, you do not have to have specific messages prepared. Remember, this is a template to help you plan ahead. Just put the series on your calendar and take note of the Sundays you have left.

Next time, I will share some final thoughts and resources with you to help you on this journey. It’s definitely an ever changing work that I’ve made changes to over the years. Don’t feel like it has to be perfect to work for you. Just do it and make the changes you desire later.

…Til next time!

Planning Your Preaching – Getting Started!

Get Your Calendar Ready!

So today is the day we get started planning your preaching for the next calendar year. For today, I’ll lay out some initial basics and we’ll fill in some specifics later in the week. For now, what you need is a yearly calendar that you can plan with. What you choose to use is your preference. For me, I use a spreadsheet on Google Docs that I layout with my Sundays on the far left column. From there, I have columns for a series title, message title, scripture reference, special notes, and church emphasis in that order from left to right on the spreadsheet. You could use a ruled notebook, desk calendar, or whatever else works for you.

Next, I consult a regular calendar for special days. When is Easter? Mark it down. When does the school year-end in the summer and begin again in the fall? What about things like daylight savings time and a return to standard time if your region is so affected? Do you have any special plans like denominational conventions, growth seminars, or other professional development that will have you out-of-town on any days when you have worship? All of this needs to be included in your sermon calendar. This is what I use my “special notes” section for.

Once you have these types of days outlined in your sermon calendar, you will notice that your planning is already taking shape. To help me visualize the year, I highlight the various days in colors that coordinate with my planning. Any system will work if you like. It is up to you.

A final note on this section, take time to include major holidays like Labor Day or Memorial Day on your calendar and note these weekends. Chances are these will be weekends where your attendance is lowered and it might make for a good time to book a special speaker in advance. I also include extended breaks in the school calendar like spring break so I can plan ahead for the various sermon series I want to preach. Nothing says bad planning like promoting a big growth series that runs right into a major holiday or extended break.

You also want to include any special church holidays that might be specific to your church in this step. I don’t have this issue at my church since we are a new plant but you might be in a church where certain times of the year might signal a significant remembrance of some sort. You have to be aware of these and plan ahead.

Okay, step one is done! Now we can move ahead to the next step which is lining up what types of preaching your will be doing and at what times of the year you will schedule it.

To be continued…on Wednesday!

Planning Your Preaching – How to Plan!

I’ve read many books on the subject of preaching but very few are written on the subject of planning what we preach each week. Even as more and more bi-vocational pastors enter into church leadership, the idea of putting together tools for the preacher to outline his speaking months or even a year ahead of time are quite sparse.

With this in mind, I plan to spend the next few posts sharing with you my method for staying ahead of the game and planning my preaching an entire year in advance. Now, some might ask how I do this or is it even spiritual? The answer to the latter question is most definitely yes! God can speak to you as you prepare your preaching calendar for the coming year. There is nothing spiritually superior to planning week to week. In fact, you can stunt your preaching significantly by “winging it” each week. Planning your preaching in advance has several advantages that we will discuss in this series but for now, here’s a few…

I. You will preach on a wider variety of topics in the course of the year.

This is a great benefit for me. Every one of us is passionate about certain parts of the Christian life. For a preacher, it’s natural to focus more in those areas because we are excited about them and their benefit to the body of Christ. But consider others in your congregation each week. Perhaps there are other things they need to hear about that you haven’t covered in a long time. Maybe the church would benefit from a refresher course on the spiritual disciplines? Whatever it may be, planning your preaching in advance gives you the opportunity to be deliberate in planning and preparing for topics and areas of the bible that you wouldn’t normally cover.

II. It helps to plan your down time.

Let’s face it, we all need to rest right? Well, by planning your preaching, you’ll schedule your time off in your preaching calendar and you’ll have plenty of time to secure a guest speaker for the weeks you will not be speaking. This pays a double benefit as the guest speaker gets plenty of time to prepare and will be impressed by your professionalism.

III. You can give extra time to planning “big” days at your church.

Are you planning a big series for Easter? Maybe a series for back to school? Planning in advance gives you the opportunity to coordinate worship music, plan a flyer handout for your church family, or secure prizes for a outreach service. The possibilities are endless.

That’s enough for now. In my next post, I’ll begin laying out the process I use each year to plan for the next. I’m currently in the middle of the process now and you can get started too with a little advance planning.

I’ll see you next week!

Book Review: The Most Loving Place in Town

What if your church could catch a vision as being the most loving place in your town? Perhaps others have given you indications that this might not be the case in your congregation. In a nice little story, Ken Blanchard and Phil Hodges share the story of a pastor and his elder who have both had epiphany moments in their ministries to take Beacon Hill Community Church in a new direction. A letter begins the transformation and a phone call from a departing member brings about a realistic look at many church situations that exist today. So many times, the church is about the programs, ministries, and busyness of being that it forgets about the basic reason for its initial formation.

The story is of course fictional and takes our main characters on an inward journey to identify what’s most important in their lives and the lives of those they lead. In the end, a new course for the church is charted and new blessings abound. In between, many of the all too familiar problems that plague churches crop up and are dealt with through the lens of this new direction.

“The Most Loving Place in Town” is an excellent story and is designed to challenge church leaders to make their churches the centers of love that Jesus calls them to be. I would have liked to have seen more pages included to add some finality to some of the story lines the characters enter into but that was not the book’s purpose. It was meant to be a short, fast moving story. I was able to finish the book in three days and still have time to review the study questions in the back.

You can read this as a stand alone book or include it as a study guide for a small group, leadership team retreat, etc. Blanchard and Hodges weave a nice tale in a short book. If you serve in church leadership in any form, I think you’ll like “The Most Loving Place in Town”!

Book Review: The Pomodoro Technique

The Pomodoro As A Time Keeper!

Can a tomato shaped timer enhance and improve your productivity? For Italian software designer Francesco Cirillo, it made all the difference in the world. In designing his “Pomodoro Technique” time management system, Cirillo developed a way to stay focused, lessen the severity of interruptions, and get more done during his work day.

I heard of this system last week when a Twitter friend directed me to a time management piece written by the Wall Street Journal. Columnist Sue Shellenbarger tried out three time management systems and then reviewed the pros and cons of each one. Included in the three were the venerable favorites, GTD (Getting Things Done) by David Allen and Stephen Covey’s “Focus” method. Sandwiched in between was “The Pomodoro Technique”. The system is named after a tomato (Pomodoro in Italian) and has its roots in the fact that it was through the use of a tomato shaped kitchen timer that Cirillo developed and perfected his system.

In a nutshell, the system breaks down into managing your time in short bursts of productive time with a brief interval of recovery (A Pomodoro). This isn’t unlike the recovery methods discussed in the book “The Power of Full Engagement” that I reviewed last year. And it’s very much like the “Power of 48″ method I’ve discussed where you work for 48 minutes and take a 12 minute break.

The real beauty in a system like this is its simplicity and the way it can integrate with methods you might already feel comfortable with. The technique, like any time-management system, requires you to keep a log of your tasks (an inbox to process), a list of activities to accomplish each day (a results or to-do list) and a record of your achievements that you can keep either on paper or through a spreadsheet so you can manage projects more effectively and budget the right amount of time for them in the future.

I particularly liked Cirillo’s method of handling both internal and external interruptions to your work day. This has many applications depending on your employment situation but is adaptable to any method.

You can purchase a bound copy of the book describing the method or you can go to Cirillo’s site and download a free copy of the eBook for “The Pomodoro Technique”. It’s 45 pages long and took me less than two hours to read after I downloaded it. It also includes sample forms for you to use to get started measuring your projects and actions in “Pomodoros“.

One observation from my first read: This system would seem like a no-brainer for people working in offices and tied to their desks all the time be it home office or work office. For a pastor like myself, I can see the benefit in timing out the administrative and study time I need by budgeting my mornings and/or afternoons and thus, freeing up other time for visitation or meetings. Since the nature of my work has me out for several hours at a time some days, it makes sense to minimize distractions when I’m at my desk to get things done in a timely fashion so I can move on to activities that involve people, which is my main business!

All in all, I like the idea of the “Pomodoro” technique. Cirillo has found a way to simplify tracking your tasks and getting more done with less distraction and the fact that he has made the system free for downloading is quite nice indeed. Download a copy of the eBook and share your thoughts on this new way of looking at time management.

And I wrote this piece in one Pomodoro! So now, I’m taking a break!

Courier Tablet by Microsoft

I don’t know much about the development of this product but I know this..I want one! Microsoft’s “Courier” tablet is in the process of coming to market and I think it will change the way we work with computers.

Apple’s working on their iTablet to try to beat Microsoft but I think this might be the superior product. I will wait for a while and let the market bear out.

Check out the videos on the Gizmodo site that shows off some of what this new generation of tablet PC’s will be able to do!

Reading Proflections

As the holidays approach, I always like to think ahead and plan for some good reading during that time. Last year, I shared some books with you that I took in during that time. This year, I’m open to some new suggestions..

What books have you enjoyed this past year? Are there any you would recommend to a bibliophile like myself?  Comment and let me know!

Book Review: Dan Kennedy’s Time Management

Kennedy's Book

As a collector of time management ideas and tips, I picked up Dan Kennedy’s time management book on recommendation from a friend.  Kennedy has made a bunch of money in sales and knows how to manage his time for maximum efficiency. The book is part of a series of books written by Kennedy under the “No B.S.” label. As a Christian, you might be offended by the label but long ago, I learned that you can mine the good stuff from literature and throw the rest away. Other than the title, there’s no language to deal with within the covers and the information here is pretty solid.

Kennedy’s methods are designed for the business professional but have value to ministers also. His tips on managing the phone, focusing on goals, and preparing your execution plans are all valuable nuggets to adapt to your situation. In Kennedy’s words, he looks for the “Time Vampires” in your life, those people or things that can suck the life right out of you, and he gives you workable advice for handling them.

The book pulls no punches. Kennedy himself says you might not like all of his ideas and that is perfectly alright. Take what you can and run with it. He gets to the point, gives you a problem, a solution, and the way to get there. Chapter done. Then, he discusses something else. He writes like he speaks and he doesn’t waste paper here.

One of the things I liked most about this book was Kennedy’s insistence to focus, focus, focus! In ministry, we can get caught up in the mundane and keep ourselves busy but if we aren’t making progress in certain areas, then we really are just spinning our wheels regardless of how busy we are. Near the end of the book, Kennedy shares his best advice when he says to identify three things you know will make you successful in whatever enterprise you are involved in. From those three things, identify an action you can take from each one and DO THEM. Focus on your goal, what it will take to get there, and don’t get sidetracked by meaningless details. This rang quite true to me as I’ve heard veteran church planter Steve Sjogren say essentially the same thing in his writings. As a church planter/pastor, I could easily get bogged down by the latest craze, endless ministry programs, and meetings with others than avail nothing. These aren’t bad in themselves but when they become the bulk of our execution for the day, they rob us of truly accomplishing what God wants to do in our church and our life.

Again, if you can get past the title, there’s much to be gained here. It’s a good book with good information.

Product Review: Alvin Aluminum Pencil Lengthener

If you’re like me and enjoy a good quality wood pencil to write with but hate having to throw them away after using only about half of the pencil, keep reading.

A few years back, I switched back to wood pencils in my writing. I’ve written before about my attempts to switch to mechanical pencils with no success. When I switched back though, I began a search for quality pencils that I could enjoy using. Much of what is marketed in stores today is cheaply made wood with lousy lead fillers. No wonder though if you throw them out every few weeks, why spend more?

But after you’ve used a quality pencil (and paid a bit more for it), you want to use as much of it as possible. Enter the Alvin Aluminum Pencil Lengthener. As the picture at right show, the device is a simple aluminum barrel with a screw top clutch that holds your pencil securely. When you’re nice pencils wear down like before, simply put them in the pencil lengthener and get many more weeks use from them. For a while now, I’ve used the Lyra Beechwood extenders with a collar that slides down over a semi-hollow barrel. These were okay but not what I was looking for. A few years back, I read about a Japanese manufacturer named Kutsawa that built nice pencil lengtheners but they weren’t easy to find. My good friends over at Pencil Things started to carry these so I waited until I needed some new pencils to have them throw one of these in there.

I wasn’t disappointed. The devices are relatively inexpensive ($3.00 for one  or $7.97 for a three pack) and they are nicely built for that price. As I mentioned earlier, the barrel in these lengtheners is hollow so you have put a half used pencil in them and work it down to the nub before throwing it away. This will extend the life of my pencils by at least 40% and looks professional in my messenger bag when I use it.

You pay good money for your quality pencils. Now make sure you get as much from them as possible. I recommend the Alvin Aluminum Pencil Lengthener for its balance of price, value, and convenience. I’ve not seem these in any store though since most office supply stores don’t see a need for stocking quality pencil products. You can order these online from Pencil Things and have them in your hands usually within a week.