Five Strategies for Crafting Your Sermon in a Short Week
Photo by Cristofer Jeschke on Unsplash
Though we know Thanksgiving lands on the last Thursday of November every year, it still seems to catch us by surprise.
How will I get my sermon put together when I’m losing a day for Thanksgiving?
Some preachers will lose more than a day due to travels or hosting out of town guests.
To help you prepare in this short week, here are five ideas to craft an authentic sermon and still take time away for things that are just as important — like giving thanks.
1. Employ Your Funeral Prep Process
If you found out you had to preach a funeral sermon by this Thursday, you’d get it done, right?
You’d adjust your schedule and squeeze it in, and have something meaningful to say by the time you got to the service.
What exactly do you do?
Adjust your schedule?
Double up on your study time?
Follow a pattern for funeral homilies?
Whatever your practice is, do the same thing this week. Employ that pattern and you might even have your sermon done by Wednesday!
(In need of a sermon pattern? See below!)
2. Preach the Pattern: What, Why, How
Just because it’s the First Sunday of Advent doesn’t mean it can’t also be a simple message.
In fact, a simple message would be great modeling for toning down the expectations and hype of the Christmas season.
Simpler sermon prep and simpler Christmas prep.
Works for me!
For simpler sermon prep, follow this pattern: what, why, and how.
The pattern is employed like this:
Introduction: What is the Good News?
Body: Why is this Good News for your listeners?
Conclusion: How do we take this Good News out to the world?
See? Simple!
3. Offer a Homily versus a Sermon
Continuing in the spirit of simplicity in #3 above, craft more of a homily than a sermon.
Although “homily” is synonymous with “sermon,” many use “homily” to mean a short sermon, more like a “sermonette.”
(Did you know “sermonette” doesn’t need quotation marks, as if to indicate I made it up? It’s an actual word! I discovered it during my research below, and it made me laugh out loud because it sounds more like a 1960’s female pop singing group: “And now…The Sermonettes!” But I digress!)
While homily and sermon do overlap in meaning, there is nuance.
“Sermon” has its roots in Latin sermonum, meaning, to string words together, a discourse. By the thirteenth Century, it was applied to religious use, meaning, a discourse on the Scriptures.
Homily, however, evolved from the Greek houmos, meaning, “together,” and homilus, “an assembled crowd.”
Again, while there is much overlap, when thinking of crafting a short sermon on short notice, you could think of a homily as a conversation between you and the gathered faithful.
For example, choose one of the assigned texts or a portion of a text.
Do enough research so you can offer some context and put some flesh on the bones of the words (but don’t make it a lecture!).
Then ask your listeners these questions for an actual conversation.
Where do they hear the Good News?
Why would that Good News matter to the people they know who aren’t in church?
How might they share it with them in word and or deed?
4. Take Advantage of the Road
More Americans than ever are predicted to travel this Thanksgiving weekend; perhaps you’ll be among them.
If so, take advantage of the downtime while sitting in the passenger seat in the car or on the plane.
What do you need to bring with you to prepare your sermon? Start gathering your resources two days before you leave so you have time to add to your list (and don’t forget something crucial when you’re preoccupied with getting out the door on time).
Here’s a resource and to-do list I put together for you so you’re completely ready to head out the door.
Gather the texts, either online or make copies.
Search for your online resources.
Search your commentaries, and copy or photograph the pages (since it’s for personal use it’s OK to copy).
Gather a legal pad, clipboard or other writing surface, and a couple of your favorite pens.
Put your resources in a folder on your computer, and/or in a paper folder. Put it in your car so you don’t forget it!
If you plan to use your computer, make sure it’s charged before you go.
If you think you’ll be distracted by ambient noise, bring earbuds to listen to something to block it. If you won’t have access to the internet, make sure it’s downloaded on your device.
Bring a sleep mask. When you need to let the the texts and exegesis sink in, put in your earbuds and put on the mask to “disappear” to create some distance for a precious few minutes.
Alternatively, take advantage of Sermon Prep to Go, which was designed to shorten your sermon prep time every week with one significant, additional advantage: you can take it on the road and have everything you need literally at your fingertips.
SPTG is an all-online resource that contains everything you need for sermon prep, from texts to drafting:
RCL and NL lessons, both pdf and audio formats
Multiple English translations
Greek interlinear for the RCL Gospel; Hebrew interlinear for the NL
Collated online resources, vetted for you with resources you can trust and count on
Guided process to be used as much or as little as needed to move from reading the texts the first time to writing a draft
Return to it as many times as you need.
At the end of your reflections, a completed sermon draft (whether notes, outline, or manuscript) are sent to you by email.
It’s the perfect tool when traveling because anywhere you have access to the internet, you’ll have everything you need in one place.
SPTG is available every week to members of the Backstory Preaching Collective.
5. Attend Live Lunch Hour Lectio (or watch the recording)
Every Monday on the Backstory Preaching Facebook page, we pray the coming Sunday’s RCL Gospel in community, from 12-1:00 Central.
Live Lectio has become a staple for many preachers because they hear ideas and perspectives that would not otherwise have occurred to them, resulting in new ideas for sermon messages.
Even preachers who honor Mondays as their Sabbath day make it a practice later in the week to watch the recording.
Find the recording from yesterday’s Live Lectio on the Backstory Preaching Facebook page. And consider joining us next week!