Note: The following article was originally published on The Gospel Coalition website as part of the “The Preacher” toolbox. S Toolkit? [The Preacher’s Toolbox]? Joseph Hearne, director of content at AIC.
This question is easier to ask than to answer. Temptingly to respond with the “15 on point” scheme and gladly follow our path. But the preparation of the sermon, explanatory or not, defies simple calculations; combines science and art, and is ignited by the stimulating and unpredictable fire of God’s active presence.
- It’s like the kid asking the experienced fisherman.
- “How long does it take to catch a fish each week?”The experienced fisherman stops.
- Knowing that the question challenges an easy answer.
- Because each fish shop contains elements completely out of his control.
- It may be your weekly routine.
- But there’s nothing routine about fishing.
Preparation for preaching is no different. Time spent preparing sermons becomes a combination of competence and providence, effort, and admiration; we must live in tension between our well-ordered and variable rhythms that are not fully controllable.
But that doesn’t mean it’s impossible to quantify. If you like calculations, here are some things you need to know to start your estimates.
The time of preparation for the sermon is determined by the experience, gifts, study, notes, and soul of the preacher.
There is a lot of difference between the twentieth and the second year of preaching. As you experience the preparation rhythms of the weekly sermon, you will grow in your understanding and skill with the tools of the craft: familiarity with the biblical narrative, simplified study habits. , an experienced look at the organization of the exhibition and a very precise ear for illustration and application, to name a few. And without saying the obvious, experience can reduce preparation time.
Let us accept this: as lamps, some gifts burn with greater power, I say this because I have known and admired high voltage preachers in my life, if you are a man who works with more mental power (intellectual capacity, mental clarity, memory capacity, creative ability), organizing the sermon becomes easier. It also means you finish the sermon faster. If it’s you, then thank God now. And pray for all of us.
A series of exhibitions requires considerable initial study. One of the advantages of this study is that, theoretically, you can keep some and bring others for next week. And it helps. In a series of exhibitions, each week is not a new excavation in a new context or author’s land. You get familiar with the living situation behind the book, the human author, the great ideas and the flow of the exhibition.
People who only preach by topic have a much harder field to plow each week, especially if they are seriously trying to understand and disseminate the text, and if they do not, perhaps they should consider another vocation.
Turning what you have studied into preaching notes is an essential part of preparation. The evaluation of the time it takes to separate depends on what happens in the pulpit. More notes can mean more time. Someone who writes the full sermon often spends more time formulating prayers; a preacher who elaborates “only major themes and subtopics, can spend less time at this point. If you have the extra step of memorizing your manuscript, take more time.
And if you are the doctor who simply studies and preaches without notes, check if anyone other than you and your wife agrees that this results in clear and useful exposure. So join us in the world of note-taking.
It’s just a joke. More or less
Preaching includes prayer, or at least it should. Sometimes sermon preparation takes longer because the preacher feels his need for God in a unique way. Desperation is part of preparation. Should the preaching also include time for meditation and reflection? This discipline is often lost through lack of time or through neglect of the need to search one’s own soul in the text; By doing so, the preacher may conclude that his life is a poor reflection of the message. Then, in addition to preparation, there is the subtlety of speaking with integrity and leading in weakness. Ay, no more time.
What is the main point of the work of the soul?Preaching is not a service you offer, it is a commitment to the Word of God that begins in you and then reverberates throughout the church.
If you’ve read so far and you’re still desperate for some kind of problem, I’ll tell you that preparing my sermon during a series of exhibitions usually takes 10 to 15 hours, unfortunately these numbers are higher than on my first trips outside the port preaching, mainly because I was sailing on a newsship, rather than an explanatory warship. If you’re like me, you soon discovered that ignorance certainly reduces preparation time. Ironically, it also prolongs sermons.
If preparing to preach requires a lot of work, then I have achieved an important goal in this section. It is a glorious, resplendent and inspiring work, both for what is lost and what it finds. But work fatigue is not debilitating when the caller also gives you power and revels in it.
“Is it a privileged privilege,” said the recently deceased, but still insightful, Alec Motyer, “to be led into such involvement with the Word of God, to be forced to bow down to the precious scriptures? Yes indeed, but it is also demanding, often tiring, rarely easy and always, in this case, infinitely delicious.