If you are a ministry student or are new to the pastorate, you may wonder how to prepare and preach two or three sermons per week in addition to your other responsibilities. As I offer some help with efficiency and effectiveness in this vital part of your ministry, allow me to begin with two observations. First, although preaching is the most important thing you do all week, it and its preparation cannot be the only things you do all week. You have a responsibility to pray for your church, disciple others and minister to those in need, attend to church communications and marketing issues, keep yourself sharp in ministry, participate in church and community events, and attend to administration,
Preaching Planning – One way you can manage your preaching and teaching load more effectively is wise and intentional planning. First, you can preach series, and when you preach Bible book series, you only have to do the in-depth historical research at the beginning of each series instead of having to start from scratch each week. Additionally, you can try to stagger series so you do not have to do in-depth research on more than one book of the Bible at a time. Finally, keep a running list of possible preaching topics and sermon ideas, and re-visit those from time to time. These steps should streamline your research, keep you from having to generate new preaching ideas each week, and make your overall work of preaching and teaching more efficient.
Wise use of Academic and Personal Study – If you are a ministerial student, consider preaching from the books of the Bible you are studying or have studied in class. Your academic work doubles as sermon research, and your practical use of the material in preaching will help you more firmly grasp the Biblical content. Your schedule will be more efficient, and your people will benefit from your academic work. Whether a student or not, you and I should have a regular time of contemplative reading and Bible study, but do not use your personal quiet time as sermon preparation time. In fact, you probably should not use for your personal reading any of the Biblical material you are currently preaching. However, a rich devotional reading life can and should enrich your preaching and teaching.
Judicious use of Commentaries – Admittedly, some will not agree with my approach on this, and my time-mandated strategy developed during seminary and doctoral work probably means I need to broaden my use of commentaries, but I usually utilize solid historical and exegetical commentaries only (as opposed to homiletic or devotional material) and limit the number to three for each sermon. When you are pastoring full-time and preparing two or three sermons per week, time is of the essence, and when you are in school, this is doubly so. If you want exposure to what others have preached on the topic, my suggestion is to use driving time to listen to additional preaching or teaching so as not to cut into devoted study time. Another option is online resources and Bible study software tools. You need to use enough sources to be thorough without spending so much time in research that you do not exegete your congregation and their setting, praying and reflecting on what God needs you to say at this time to your people. If you have a hard time making practical application, you might want to modify my suggestion about not spending time in devotional or homiletic commentaries until you get a feel for your own work of communicating the practical application of God’s truth. Also note my suggestion is limited to commentaries and does not imply you should not consult other types of Biblical research tools as needed.
Alternate Formats and Overlapping Content – I am not suggesting laziness in preparation, but you can increase efficiency and educational effectiveness by utilizing formats other than standard preaching and by occasionally overlapping preaching and teaching content. You may sometimes use Sunday nights or Wednesday nights as teaching times rather than preaching times. Additionally, if your church is small enough, you occasionally can use the material you preached on Sunday morning for your evening or Wednesday teaching, turning it into discussion, application, and analysis time. In addition to helping the people wrestle with their own prior knowledge and apply the truths of Scripture, you may get some helpful insights into your own preaching and teaching that will increase your effectiveness. Finally, you might use a prayer guide approach for some services, taking a passage of Scripture and teaching the people to pray based upon it. Not only can alternate forms and overlapping content increase efficiency, they give you and your people a variety of ways to experience Scripture and hear from God, and they may increase your teaching effectiveness.