This is a guest post by my friend Casey Graham. Casey is one of the most innovative church leaders I know. He is passionate about Kingdom building and helping those who desire to Kingdom build. I haven’t seen any project of Casey’s yet I can’t support.
Here’s a word from Casey about a new project to help pastors:
After talking to hundreds of preachers, we’ve found most preachers love preaching, but the grind of preparation can often become a pain. Here are three things we’ve seen.
Here are 3 Ways To Remove The Pain From Preparing A Weekly Sermon:
1. Great preaching comes from a great preparation system. Perry Noble doesn’t prepare in a vacuum. He has a team at NewSpring Church that helps him prepare. Perry will talk about how this works at the PreachBetterSermons.com FREE online event on March 15th.
2. A Preparation day is better than feeling like you have to prepare all the time. Andy Stanley sets aside every Wednesday to prepare messages, and his team helps him keep this time guarded. While Andy is gifted, his commitment to preparation helps make his messages memorable. Andy will talk about the structure of his preparation day on the Preach Better Sermons online event.
3. Developing a sermon planning system takes the pain out of preparation. There are things you can do on a daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly and annual basis that will dramatically improve your preparation time and help you deliver better messages. Helping you put something like this into place will be a part of the free online event.
Make a commitment to be a better preacher. Sign up for the free online conference. Here are the details.
Date: March 15, 2012
Time: 1pm – 4pm EST
Speakers: Andy Stanley, Perry Noble, Louie Giglio, Dr. Charles Stanley, Vanable Moody, Jeff Foxworthy. The event is being hosted by Jeff Henderson.
Registration: Free sign up at preachbettersermons.com
Are you there? I am. Thanks Casey!
After reading out your blog i have come to know about 3 Ways To Remove The Pain From Preparing A Weekly Sermon which tips was so very important for me because i am suffering this type of pain. I am sure your tips will be most useful to me. Thanks!!!
Casey! I am looking forward to this online conference. ( I feel that timing will fall at 10:30 pm here in India).
thanks ron. as a guy who preaches 40+ weeks a year (3 services/weekend) and in other settings, I agree that a system of sermon preparation, which includes individual study and team input/creativity, is an utter necessity. finding regular time to do long-term series planning (1-3 years out) is also a huge help. but one additional thought. even though the blog post is about systems that will help relieve the "pain" in weekly prep, there will always be that "holy burden" and even the pain of "birthing" as sermon (my wife would roll her eyes and possibly punch me if she knew I was comparing sermon prep/delivery to bearing a child). there will always be the pain/holy burden of "am I accurately interpreting this passage? is my application in line with what the text actually says? is this what my people need to hear today? is this where the Spirit is leading me/us? will i have the courage to say the hard things? am i in a rut in my sermon structure/delivery?" a system helps relieve the tension of last minute cramming and increases the likelihood of creativity, but it will never relieve the tension/beautiful burden of getting up in front of people as a "mouthpiece" for God.
As a young seminary student I would love to be involved in this free conference, but I'll be flying back from preaching my first revival during this time. Do you know if they're planning on doing this again sometime? Will the videos be available later?