15 hour, 4-Part Sermon Prep Outline

I preached my first sermon at age 16 in Mexicali, Mexico. I preached from the book of Job, a message about trusting God in the midst of suffering. I had no idea what I was doing. The people still smiled.

Fifteen years later, I have a better idea of what I’m doing, I love to preach, and I see that I have a lifetime of learning ahead of me regarding the preaching task and the preaching life.

Over the years, as I’ve learned from many different experiences and many different sources, I’ve put a few thoughts on paper about how to prepare a sermon. Recently I refined these thoughts into this little booklet, a 15 hour, 4-Part Sermon Prep Process.

This process is what works well for me. I’ve found that I work best approaching sermon prep in 4 “Parts” which I refer to as Till, Seed, Germinate, Reap (the gardening metaphor helps me approach sermon prep as a creation process where God is the primary Creator/Preacher).  I’ve also found that, for me, 15 hours is a sufficient and sustainable amount of time for weekly message prep.

This booklet represent the norm for me in sermon prep, but I often deviate from it depending on the text, the audience, and the circumstances of life. For example:

• The message I’m preaching tonight from Genesis 18 is coming together rather quickly. It has followed more of a 2-Part process and will probably come in at about 6 hours of message prep.
• Several Sundays ago my sermon required close to 20 hours of prep and I didn’t follow the 2 week prep process I encourage in this booklet.
• A few weeks ago I preached a message from one 3×5 card of notes even though I normally preach from an outline/manuscript hybrid.

As Ian Pitt-Watson said, sermon prep is like giving birth: the length and pain of labor varies with each message.

A number of preacher friends have found this booklet helpful in refining their own approach to preaching, so I post this here in hopes that some of you will also benefit.

Don’t do what I do. Do what you do. But maybe what I do can help you better do what you do as a fellow preacher of the gospel.

Download this booklet as a pdf: Sermon Prep

If you have InDesign, you’ll be able to make the pdf print out as a nice looking booklet.

Tullian and the Gospel: Christian Growth Doesn’t Happen By Working Hard to Get Something You Don’t Have

I enjoyed three days with my friend Tullian Tchividjian who spoke at our men’s retreat this weekend. Tullian’s Sunday morning message on Colossians 1:9-14 deeply moved many of our men. I will look into posting the audio. For now, here are three paragraphs (pulled from an earlier version of the same message) that helped us better understand the gospel and how it works in our life. Ponder these paragraphs.

Tullian is a great guy. We had a blast together this weekend. Our friendship really grew. Please pray for Tullian as he leads his church and serves as an important voice for the gospel in our generation.

It’s important to note that in these verses Paul doesn’t pray for something the Colossian Christians don’t have. Rather, he prays they will grow in their awareness and understanding of what they do have. Christian growth doesn’t happen by working hard to get something you don’t have. Christian growth happens by working hard to live in the reality of what you do have.

I used to think that when the Bible tells us to work out our salvation, it meant go out and get what you don’t have-get more patience, get more strength, get more joy, get more love, and so on. But after reading the Bible more carefully I now understand that real gospel fruit happens, not as we “work harder” but only as we continually rediscover the gospel. You could put it this way: rediscovering the gospel is the hard work we’re called to.

You see, the secret of the gospel is that we become more spiritually mature when we focus less on what we need to do for God and focus more on all that God has already done for us. The irony of the gospel is that we actually perform better as we grow in our understanding that our relationship with God is based on Christ’s performance for us, not our performance for him.

Against Self-Pity

A great post from Justin Taylor, making me thankful for Martin Luther-like friends in my life:

All of us need a Martin Luther in our lives now and then—a friend who is not afraid to stand on gospel promises and get in our face with gospel truth when we would rather wallow in self-pity.

Here is a portion of a letter from Luther to his friend Philip Melachnton (June 27, 1530):

Those great cares by which you say you are consumed I vehemently hate; they rule your heart not on account of the greatness of the cause but by reason of the greatness of your unbelief. . . .

If our cause is great, its author and champion is great also, for it is not ours. Why are you therefore always tormenting yourself?

If our cause is false, let us recant; if it is true, why should we make him a liar who commands us to be of untroubled heart?

Cast your burden on the Lord, he says. The Lord is nigh unto all them that call upon him with a broken heart. Does he speak in vain or to beasts? . . .

What good can you do by your vain anxiety?

What can the devil do more than slay us? What after that?

I beg you, so pugnacious in all else, fight against yourself, your own worst enemy, who furnish Satan with arms against yourself. . . .

I pray for you earnestly and am deeply pained that you keep sucking up cares like a leech and thus rendering my prayers vain.

Christ knows whether it is stupidity or bravery, but I am not much disturbed, rather of better courage than I had hoped.

God who is able to raise the dead is also able to uphold a falling cause, or to raise a fallen one and make it strong.

If we are not worthy instruments to accomplish his purpose, he will find others.

If we are not strengthened by his promises, to whom else in all the world can they pertain?

But saying more would be pouring water into the sea.

Stop Tinkering

Stop tinkering with your soul and look away to the perfect One.

-A.W. Tozer, The Pursuit of God

Rob Bell on Preaching

I wrote a post about Rob Bell over two years ago that expressed both appreciation and some concerns. That post received a lot of attention. Leadership recently conducted an insightful interview with Rob Bell about preaching. Here I think Bell is loaded with wisdom and help. Here’s an excerpt:

What do you teach these students about the spiritual side of preaching?

First, the public nature of preaching exposes you to a wide spectrum of feedback—from the really good compliments to really venomous criticism. Both can be dangerous because they lead to either pride or pain. We need to work at becoming the kind of person who is so deeply grounded in who we are, the work we are called to do, and the words we are called to speak, that the ambient hype that surrounds the preaching event doesn’t get the best of us.

It’s important to create a circle of trusting, loving people around you who will tell you the truth no matter what. They can help you think rightly about the criticism and keep you balanced. Preaching isn’t just about the sermon, it’s about becoming the kind of person who can actually handle the role. It’s like a Ferrari. If you don’t know how to drive the thing, you’re going to crash into a tree.

Based on your metaphor, I imagine you’ve hit some bumps on the road.

Oh, for sure. Preaching will inevitably reveal all sorts of stuff residing in your soul. The stage is like a magnet, and any little shards of insecurity, pride, fear, or greed in you will eventually be pulled to the surface. So you have to go down a journey toward becoming a particular kind of person or it will consume you.

What does that journey involve?

If you’re going to preach long term and do it with more hope, more joy, more passion, and more wisdom, then you’ve got to be willing to dig down into your own soul and psyche and history. How do you seek approval? What messages did your parents send you? What voices do you hear on your shoulders?

The other part is sustainability. That’s an important word for me. Some pastors think about how to survive the next five years. The better question to ask is, how are we going to thrive? How do we construct a rhythm and pace of life that ensures five years from now we’ll have more passion, more energy, and we will be filled with new and fresh ideas about life in God’s world?

How Leadership Works

This is good and very funny: how leadership works, via the dancing guy.

HT: Dustin Neeley

Guam

Last week was full of unexpected difficulty. Now, as promised, I will blog a bit about Guam and the Philippines.

After a 10 hour flight to Tokyo, we boarded a 3 hour flight from Tokyo to Guam. Japanese vacationers filled the plane. We soon learned that Guam is Japan’s Hawaii, Guam is where many Japanese go to spend a week vacationing under the sun and in the water.

We began our time in Guam in the water. I took the picture above at a secluded beach where our host took us snorkeling. After hiking 1-2 miles down the coastline we had the ocean to ourselves, it was just the four of us snorkeling in the Philippine Sea.

During the hike we learned more about Guam.

Guam is a territory of the United States. Though just 30 miles long and 4 miles wide, Guam is the largest island in Micronesia. Guam’s present population of about 180,000 is expected to double over the next 5 years because of the American military buildup.

Guam holds a strategic, prominent position in Micronesia, making the work of Pacific Islands University incredibly significant…

Close to Quitting

Here’s a very helpful post by John Piper:

Are you so discouraged you don’t know what to do next? I want to help you get through this. Maybe this will help.

The following quote is from my journal dated November 6, 1986. I had been at Bethlehem 6 years. If you have ever felt like this, remember this is 24 years ago and I am still here.

The point is: Beware of giving up too soon. Our emotions are not reliable guides.

Am I under attack by Satan to abandon my post at Bethlehem? Or is this the stirring of God to cause me to consider another ministry? Or is this God’s way of answering so many prayers recently that we must go a different way at BBC than building? I simply loathe the thought of leading the church through a building program. For two years I have met for hundreds of hours on committees. I have never written a poem about it. It is deadening to my soul. I am a thinker. A writer. A preacher. A poet and songwriter. At least these are the avenues of love and service where my heart flourishes. . . .

Can I be the pastor of a church moving through a building program? Yes, by dint of massive will power and some clear indications from God that this is the path of greatest joy in him long term. But now I feel very much without those indications. The last two years (the long range planning committee was started in August 1984) have left me feeling very empty.

The church is looking for a vision for the future—and I do not have it. The one vision that the staff zeroed in on during our retreat Monday and Tuesday of this week (namely, building a sanctuary) is so unattractive to me today that I do not see how I could provide the leadership and inspiration for it.

Does this mean that my time at BBC is over? Does it mean that there is a radical alternative unforeseen? Does it mean that I am simply in the pits today and unable to feel the beauty and power and joy and fruitfulness of an expanded facility and ministry?

O Lord, have mercy on me. I am so discouraged. I am so blank. I feel like there are opponents on every hand, even when I know that most of my people are for me. I am so blind to the future of the church. O Father, am I blind because it is not my future? Perhaps I shall not even live out the year, and you are sparing the church the added burden of a future I had made and could not complete? I do not doubt for a moment your goodness of power or omnipotence in my life or in the life of the church. I confess that the problem is mine. The weakness is in me. The blindness is in my eyes. The sin—O reveal to me my hidden faults!—is mine and mine the blame. Have mercy, Father. Have mercy on me. I must preach on Sunday, and I can scarcely lift my head.

Mavericks Surf Competition Photos

Go here to see a slideshow of photos from Saturday’s Mavericks Big Wave Contest, an unforgettable day in surf history. We skipped watching the competition and went to the San Francisco Zoo instead with the kids. The waves we saw from the zoo were huge. Down in Half Moon Bay the waves got so big that spectators were hit by the waves and swept into the sea.

Books

Oswald Chambers in a letter to his sister:

I have been having a reveling few days. My box has at last arrived. My books! I cannot tell you what they are to me–silent, wealthy, loyal lovers. To look at them, to handle them, and to re-read them! I do thank God for my books with every fibre of my being. Friends that are ever true and ever your own.