A 3-Step Review to Preach More Compellingly and Joyfully This Year (& All Year)!
Compelling sermons don’t just happen.
Joyful prep and preaching require intention.
If you’d like to preaching more compellingly and joyfully this year, this 3-step review will help you reflect on the craft, process, and spirituality of your preaching last year so you know what to carry forward or let go in the year ahead.
This preaching review is simple and doesn’t have to take long (unless you want it to!). Even hitting a few highlights will create growth and direction.
With this information, you’ll better understand why your sermons turned out as they did and what effect preaching had on you.
All in all, this process increases the likelihood that in the coming year:
sermon prep will go as smoothly as possible
you’ll preach as compellingly as you’re able
you’ll be transformed to become more like Christ
Our hope is you’ll continually find creative challenge, awe, and joy in your vocation and say, “I get to preach!”
Let’s dive in!
REVIEW YOUR PROCESS of preaching
Tools:
Calendar.
Optional: sermon notes that will help you recall the process used when developing your sermons.
Step 1: Look
Scan your calendar from the past year for the occasions when you preached, including Sundays, holy days, weddings, and funerals.
Recall two sermons: one when the process went smoothly and your sermon was done when you wanted, and another when the process felt like the opposite.
Step 2: Describe
Describe what happened by dictating into a smart device or writing about each occasion.
What was the environment?
Where did you work?
What resources did you have?
Were these due to a plan you made or because of luck (good or bad)?
What was the schedule?
Did the deadline motivate you?
Did you work in short spurts or in larger chunks of time?
Did you arrange your schedule or did you get lucky?
What was your attitude?
How did you feel about preaching on this occasion?
What gave you energy or drained it?
Were there emotions that made it easier or harder?
Step 3: Plan
Based on the above, what might you replicate and what might you avoid?
Pay attention especially to what you have control over.
Even if a sermon was done on time because you got lucky when your schedule opened up unexpectedly, use that to guide the amount of time you need to prepare so that you enjoy what you’re doing.
What can you say no to in the future to be consistent with the amount of time you need?
What schedule and environment can you create that will enable you to enjoy your sermon prep and have it to look forward to throughout the year?
REVIEW YOUR CRAFT of Preaching
Tools:
calendar
sermon notes, manuscripts, or recordings for two sermons
Step 1: Look
Review your preaching calendar from the past year.
Find two sermons: one sermon that you feel especially good about and another from the past year (or further in the past) that you don’t.
Read the notes or manuscripts, or ideally, watch the recordings of both sermons.
What contributes to your feelings about each sermon? Consider:
Use of strong verbs and sensory language
The transitions between ideas—from text to anecdotes/latches to exposition of context, etc.
Your conviction about your message
How you felt emotionally when preparing and offering it
The sermon illustrations or anecdotes used or listener participation (e.g., listeners did something during the sermon), and whether they effectively illuminated a point
An insight into your listeners because of adept or overlooked exegesis of them
Effective introduction or conclusion
The way you used preaching tools like a manuscript, notes, music, or visual aids
Step 2: Describe
Compare the two sermons and reflect on their differences. What do you notice?
Identify trends in the skills you’re developing. In general, what are you getting better at? What informs that perspective?
What do you want to keep doing?
What do you want to stop doing?
Step 3: Plan
Based on the above, what’s a skill you want to develop in the coming year and how will you do so?
Prepare the resources you’ll need, like books, online recordings, a course you might take this year, or work with a preaching buddy or mentor.
REVIEW YOUR SPIRITUALITY OF PREACHING
Tools:
calendar
sermons
journal
Step 1: Look
Review the sermons you gave during the past year either by looking at your calendar or sermon notes.
Pull out a few that particularly had an effect on you, ones that changed your spirit. If you journaled about the experience, have that in front of you, too.
Recall what moved you. Maybe you gained a particular insight into the text, or were affected by a colleague’s or listener’s comment that resonated deeply, or the process of composing the sermon shifted something in your heart.
Step 2: Describe
What changed in you? What lesson did the Spirit offer?
What emotions did you experience?
Because of the sermon(s), how do you view God/Jesus/Holy Spirit differently?
Who were you before those sermons, and who did you become afterwards?
What, if anything, was carried forward as a result?
Step 3: Plan
How do you want to rely on God in the coming year when you develop your sermons? What would that look like? What would be different than what you’re already doing?
What affect do you want to ask for from the Spirit? For example, perhaps you will want to feel more courageous, empathetic, or authentic in your preaching this year. How will you cultivate that feeling through prayer, journaling, or conversations with your spiritual director?
What gift from the Spirit—combined with your choices and actions as you begin your prep for each sermon—would lead you to say sincerely, “Thank God I get to be a preacher!”
Finally, pray for an intention that will guide you through your preaching this year, and make a plan to keep it front of mind and heart.
Wouldn’t it be great to Have Support For your preaching INTentions within a community of preachers?
Enrollment in The Collectives opens in February.
Stay tuned for details.