This article was submitted by David Jones, senior pastor of The Village Church of Barrington in Barrington, Illinois.
Let’s be honest. At some point in your ministry, you probably at least one time when did not prepare adequately for a speaking event. Perhaps it was a small group Bible study or you were addressing the women’s auxiliary committee. There you were, hastily writing notes in the car on the way to the event, praying for a stoplight. Then, upon arrival, someone asked you how you were doing, and you responded, Fine, knowing that FINE actually stands for:
- Freaked Out
- Insecure
- Nervous
- Emotional
Failing to plan can cause pain, especially when it comes to your preaching. Yet some preachers prefer to live that way, flying by the seat of their pants. They decide from series to series what they want to preach, or even worse—from message to message. I have even heard of one well-known pastor who decides what to preach as he walks up to the pulpit! While you can get away with that once or twice, if you do it over the long haul, it will erode at the quality of your messages. It takes great energy to generate content from week to week. Having a plan is much more efficient.
Some pastors simply want to be led by the Spirit. But that is a cop-out. You can be led by the Spirit a year in advance. Scripture says, The plans of the diligent lead surely to abundance, but everyone who is hasty comes only to poverty (Proverbs 21:5) and The prudent gives thought to his steps (Proverbs 14:15). As Paul said, But all things should be done decently and in order (1 Corinthians 14:40). It actually takes less work to plan out a year’s worth of preaching in advance.
Two Horizons
In order to plan a year’s worth of preaching, we must take into account the two horizons. According to Acts 20, there are some things that God wants said (‘the whole counsel of God’; verse 27), and there are things that people need to hear (‘anything that was profitable’; verse 20). The former deals with the biblical text in its historical-cultural context; the latter deals with the practical needs of the people in your church. These two horizons are not antithetical to one another. We will examine each of them in turn.
The first question we need to ask is: What does God want said? The answer: The whole counsel of God. Paul said, All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work. (2 Timothy 3:16-17). This means every book of Scripture, including Leviticus and the minor prophets—even the genealogies—is inspired and therefore profitable. We must resist the temptation to preach only our personal favorites.
If we are honest, we avoid certain books because they bore us (Obadiah) or we do not understand them (Revelation). We cannot imagine how they might apply to our people. But that is a sure sign we simply do not understand that book yet.
Make it a goal of your ministry to preach through the whole of the Scriptures. This does not mean that you will spend the same amount of time or energy on each book. But by the time you die, you should be able to look back and say that you gave your people the whole counsel of God.
After we have contemplated the biblical horizon of preaching, we need to ponder the second horizon: What do my people need to hear? Your people have practical needs—family relationships, finances, resolving conflict, the Gospel. You as the pastor stand between two worlds, with one foot in the ancient world and one in the modern. You serve as a bridge. So as you plan out your preaching calendar, think about what your people need. Make sure that you include some practical teaching. It is okay to have a topical series, so long as you preach expository messages within that series. Every once in a while, you can have a truly topical series (although I do not recommend a steady diet of topical preaching).
The Need for Variety
Another principle of a good preaching schedule: Mix it up. Mix Old Testament and New Testament. Preach from all of the genres. Alternate between expository and topical series. Alternate between doctrinal and practical. Use one-off sermons as buffers between series. Vary the length of your series. It is not desirable to follow up a year-long study on Romans with a year-long study on Galatians. Most series will be between three and eight sermons. In the case of longer books, subdivide them into smaller series. Make sure you do a few big God messages.
Practical Steps
I recommend the following steps for composing a preaching schedule:
- Set aside some time in the summer to plan out the year ahead. Pray. You might want to fast as well. Proverbs 16:3: Commit your work to the LORD, and your plans will be established.
- Plan out all your special days first (e.g. Christmas, Easter, maybe Mother’s Day and Father’s Day, State of the Church Address, annual stewardship message). Add in your vacations and guest speakers. The pastor of a new church plant likely will preach as many as 48 Sundays. For an established church, you will want to preach 40-45 times. You’ll want to have guest speakers for the remaining Sundays—even if you are at the church that weekend.
- A theme for the year is not necessary, but sometimes it fits. But don’t force it.
- When you have completed a rough draft of your preaching calendar, submit it to your elders for review. Be open to their feedback. Without counsel plans fail, but with many advisers they succeed. Proverbs 15:22.
- Flex. Something might happen in your life or your church or the society at large that needs to be addressed. If so, you can set aside your plan for a week or two and address that issue. Your preaching calendar is not like the laws of the Medes and the Persians. It can be changed. Let your calendar guide you, but not enslave you.