The Surprising Key to Writing Your Sermon Faster
Photo by Jessica Lewis on Unsplash
We often think we can be more efficient by working harder.
Scheduling more efficiently.
Studying more thoroughly.
Applying ourselves more diligently.
And there are certainly times when those strategies are effective.
But there are also times when muscling a sermon from the blank page through gritted teeth is actually counter-productive.
When more is actually less.
And when effort is not proportional to results.
Why?
Because this do-more, be-more, achieve-more mentality often squeezes out the very time and space our minds need to see things afresh, make new connections, and receive insights the Holy Spirit reveals through details we miss in our harried pace.
Play.
That’s right.
Childlike, wonder-filled, pressure-free play.
Ample research reveals that play is essential for creativity (we wrote more extensively about this previously).
And writing a sermon is nothing if not creative.
If you find your jaw is clenched, your breath shallow, and your shoulders tight when you begin writing your sermon, this challenge is for you.
It’s also for you if you’d simply like to find more joy in your process.
Your mind needs margins—white space, free time, even boredom—to generate creative content and birth a sermon into being.
Believe it or not, you will fill your page more efficiently, and more effectively, by taking a walk, staring out the window, doodling in a notebook, or listening to an album on your back patio.
You have permission to rest, delight, experiment, and marvel.
Walk through a museum, see a movie, or pick up a favorite book of poems. Even just five or ten minutes will spark your creative fire.
How it Works
Every day for five days, you'll receive a new exercise in your inbox.
When it's time for you to work on any aspect of your sermon:
grab some paper and gather your pens/colored pencils/markers
fill your mug
light a candle and start some music
set a timer for ten minutes
complete the exercise
This isn't about perfection or artistry!
It's about making yourself—your whole self—available to the Holy Spirit. It will prepare and renew you while the Spirit renews your congregation with the Word of God through you.