Sermon Preparation

Sometimes people ask me, "So what do you do all week?" Pastors have interesting jobs in that we tend to do a lot of different things, including counseling and cleaning, research and repair, ministry and maintenance. (I was taught in school that writing in three's and alliterating were effective communication tools—I use them sometimes, but mostly I find them amusing.)

Yet the most important thing I do each week is deliver the sermon on Sunday. That's the time when I have an opportunity to be used by God to reach the greatest number of people. So I really enjoy preaching. And that means I need to prepare a message each week.

Don't get me wrong, I love studying the Bible. But sometimes it is hard for me to stay on task during sermon prep each week. I take Friday's off, so that means that my sermon needs to be done by the end of the day Thursday. That means that Thursday is crunch day.

I liken sermon preparation to writing a term paper each week. I probably spend in the neighborhood of 8 hours on each sermon. Sometimes it's more, sometimes less. It's easy for me to go down a rabbit trail, studying something that really doesn't apply to the sermon. It's also easy for me to get distracted by an email or some news online.

So that's part of what I do each week.