If you had asked me years ago how I prepared sermons, the answer would have been different from the one I’m about to give. Forty years ago, I would have been forty-four years old and in the prime of my pastoral ministry, I think we could say.
Back then I would have told you that a couple of times a year I take my Bible and some books and leave town for a few days in order to plan my preaching schedule for the next six months or more. I would decide on topics, scriptures, and themes, and little more than that. Then, back at home, I would try to reserve a few hours two or three days a week for sermon study, and give thought to the sermons in the hopper for the next month or two.
In the meantime, in all my thinking and reading I was on the lookout for material to flesh out those sermons: Illustrations, stories, insights, ideas, burdens, conversations with anyone, everything.
I was a sermon producing machine. You have to be–every pastor knows this–to turn out several sermons a week year after year, and not repeat yourself. Trying to stay fresh, always biblical, and forever interesting.
And we would laugh at the jokes about how pastors work one hour a week. My wife (wives) could tell you of the times I got up in the middle of the night to write down something about an upcoming sermon. Even in my subconscious, I was working on sermons.
But no longer.
I’ve been retired from “paid” ministry since 2009. A full fifteen years. And yet my schedule has been comfortably filled with invitations to fill the pulpit for pastors, hold revivals, do senior meetings, deacons retreat or such. I’ve addressed state conventions, done numerous banquets, and–well, you get the idea.
The point is I’m no longer pastoring. And I’ve never been asked to serve a church as an interim pastor. Which is fine. I love traveling here and there and preaching to people I’m meeting for the first time. Last weekend, I was in the Southaven, Mississippi are, sketching at a wedding reception on Saturday afternoon and preaching at a nearby church Sunday morning. Two hundred miles up Saturday and two hundred miles back Sunday afternoon. I love it.
This means I can use the same material again, something pastors are rarely able to do. But I’m careful about that. As soon as an invitation arrives to preach, I start praying for the Father to lead me on what to preach. God said to the prophets of Israel in the days of Jeremiah–
Who has stood in the council of the Lord, that he should see and hear His word? …. If they (the prophets) had stood in My council, then they would have announced My words to My people and would have turned them back from their evil way.… The prophet who has a dream may relate his dream, but let him who has My word speak My word in truth. What does straw have in common with grain? (Jeremiah 23:18, 22, 28.)
So, here’s what I do. Here is my modus operandi, my sermon preparation method…
–I’m reading all the time and praying constantly. So, I listen to the Lord. And yes, I still rise in the middle of the night to jot down an idea, insight, burden that I believe is from the Father.
–Once I have chosen the text, I read everything I can find on that scripture. After combing through my personal library, I visit our church’s much larger media center. And once I’m satisfied I have it, I stop. (You know when a message is ready. You just know.)
–Finding the ideal outline for a sermon is important to me. I’m looking for something that works, that is simple, that is memorable (so I don’t have to take notes into the pulpit with me). I may have notes on the pulpit, but they’re there only in case I have a senior moment and go blank. That hasn’t happened yet. Hey, I’m only 84. Give me time!
That’s my method. Simple? Yep. Simple is good, particularly for me.
At the moment, I’m not scheduled to preach again for two weeks. So, while I’m asking the Lord to lead me on what to preach, I don’t obsess about it. Now, a week from now, I’ll get serious about asking and listening.
And next month I’m scheduled to preach only one time. I’ll be teaching the Sunday School lesson twice (a class of my peers; we rotate teaching) and have three events scheduled where I’ll be sketching people. I’ve not mentioned this above, but as a cartoonist-and-sketch-artist, 90 percent of the times when I preach in a church I will sketch people in the 90 minutes prior to the service, and often afterwards. It’s nothing big but people seem to appreciate it and I love doing it.
Couple of questions–
1) Do I preach sermons from past years? Answer: Not intentionally. But any veteran preacher will repeat insights from scriptures he learned years ago, even if he doesn’t preach the exact sermon.
2) Do I try to use other methods in preparing sermons? No. There have to be some advantages to being in the ministry for over six decades, and not having to obsess over sermon preparation is one of them.
