Tuesday, July 24, 2007

My Sermon Preparation Schedule

Monday: Select Scripture passage.

Tuesday: Exegesis.

Wednesday: Write rough draft of manuscript.

Thursday: Write final draft.

Friday: Go on date with wife.

Saturday: Practice sermon recitation up to 8x, bare minimum 4x.

How about you? What's your schedule?

7 comments:

Dale Tedder said...

Sleep Monday through Friday. Get up late on Saturday. Find a good sermon online and print it on Saturday night. And Preach it on Sunday morning. It's a pretty good gig if you can get it.

Actually, John, my schedule is similar to yours. (By the way, I've found John Stott's "Between Two Worlds" to be an invaluable resource for preachers.)

Blessings,
Dale

latoberg said...

I set out a preaching schedule about 3 years ago. I know the series that I will be preaching. This way I can be looking around for resources.

At 1-2 weeks out I begin to glean from the resources I have accumulated. This shapes what each sermon will look like but not any specifics.

Each week on Monday and Tuesday I am developing the outline. Thursday I try to have the outline rough drafted. Saturday night or Sunday morning I type out the outline.

Andy B. said...

4 weeks out - choose scripture and theme.

3 weeks out - worship order finished.

2 weeks out - read, reflect, and pray.

Week of - outline by Wednesday.
Thursday through Saturday - rehearsing and memorizing.

And the cycle overlaps, so that I'm (almost) always 4 weeks ahead.

Christopher said...

Saturday 6:00PM--Select passage

6:30PM--Select hymns...call musicians

7:15PM--Eat Supper

7:45PM--Type up Bulletins while playing Yahoo Pool

8:30PM--Select iPod playlist which will accompany my sermon writing.

9:00PM--Check out the textweek link

9:30PM--Write a damn-good blog post about something completely different from my sermon topic

10:30PM--Sketch out notes for the sermon

11:15PM--Try out the intro, while playing Yahoo Pool.

11:55PM--Scribble out to-do list for Monday.

12:00AM--Take it to the Lord...and leave it there.

Sunday 7:30AM--Head to church to copy bulletins.

8:30AM--Head over to first church.

12:05PM--Shake hands at church #3 while everyone tells me how good my sermon was.

John said...

At this point, I have a sketchy text-based outline for the next few weeks. Last week, Gospel. This week, Gospel. Next week, Epistle. And the next, OT. But I don't have a Scripture passage selected more than a week beforehand. Maybe that can change after CPE is over.

Anonymous said...

lectionary

Rev. Daniel McLain Hixon said...

Sunday afternoon: brainstorm
Monday/Tuesday: pick text and begin exegisis
Wednesday: brainstorm illustrations, and if I'm doing really good start outline
Thursday: outline and first draft
Friday: practice and revise
Saturday: practice and revise more
Sunday: practice and revise and deliver
but I doubt this is the best way to do it...