A Week in the Life of this “Preacher”
Some pragmatics for the last two posts in this chain. Today I want to give an outline of my “preaching” week. Tomorrow, I want to shoot off a list of basics about arriving at a solid, Biblically-based, logical, sermon.
Monday Morning
I drop my daughter off at Kindergarten, stop by the church, pick up my laptop, my planner and my “sermon notebook” and head to Panera for the morning. With bagel and Diet Pepsi not too far away, I lay out my week and then get my first look at the lectionary texts for the week. I’ll discuss my “sermon notebook” and the lectionary in tomorrow’s post.
Monday Afternoon
With a good, scholarly study Bible by my side and blank sheets of note book paper, I start moving verse by verse through the text; asking questions and postulating possible answers to those questions. I try to get through at least half of the verses in the passage before the end of the “work day” on Monday.
Tuesday
Day off! I try not to think about the sermon as much as possible. Hobbies can help with this.
Wednesday Morning
Finish studying through text. Take any unanswered questions to good Commentaries, Bible software, etc. Put together The Tool Kit. This is an insert in our bulletin each week that outlines a few questions that people can talk about over lunch on Sundays and Bible readings and questions for the week that are based out of the lectionary and other texts I have studied.
Wednesday afternoon
Decide a format for the sermon and begin jotting down ideas. If possible, get started on page one.
Thursday morning
Usually in meetings; not thinking about the sermon
Thursday afternoon
Finish page one and two. Begin on page three.
Friday morning
Finish page three and page four. Edit and revise.
Friday afternoon
Prepare Powerpoint/MediaShout slides for sermon.
Sunday morning – 7.30am
Outline manuscript so that outline can be used in preaching that morning.
Well shared! (Don’t forget the part about how you pick up doughnuts for the congregation Sunday mornings…)
Do the doughnuts soften the blow of the sermon or just give people a full-enough belly for a good nap during church 🙂 ?
I really do love getting into the Bible and talking about it. Rob, thanks for being a big encouragement to me in my preaching!