Part of the transition between being a staff pastor and a lead pastor is the weekly preaching responsibility. As a staff pastor I preached just about every week for our youth, but as lead pastor I have the overall mantle for scriptural direction for the church. Because we value alignment the small groups including our youth ministry all start with Sunday's message as a starting point a baseline, and build on it from there. I have always looked forward to this responsibility. It is not an easy one, but it is an enjoyable journey as I work through it.
Right off the bat in this church plant I spent considerably more time in preparation then I ever had. I tend to spend between 12-16 hours a week in sermon prep. That would make my professors happy. For what it's worth, most homiletics (that's a fancy word for preaching) teachers recommend around 15-20 hours a week for preparation.
Typically I spend Wednesday and Thursday in teaching prep. We have a different week this week as we're welcoming Marc SanGiovanni to share the teaching with me in a question-answer format related to banking, investing and retirement. So not as much exegesis (another word of my trade which means study of scripture). So I'm working ahead...I know, my wife wouldn't believe me either.
I've been studying for next weeks message today (yes even during the Terps game). I'm excited because next week we try our experiment of One Church, Three Locations. For those who haven't been hearing the announcements I'll explain. The first part of our vision statement at SRC is to be a multiplying church. And we are going to experiment with multiplication. March 25th we don't have access to the campus, so what is it they say about Neccessity being the Mother of Invention. We are hosting three meeting places for one church. This time we're doing it in our homes. Matt Boyer, Doug Grace, and I are opening our homes for our small groups and whoever else wants to join us for our Sunday gatherings in our homes. We're going to have one message that each location will see simultaneously called Legacy Giving in Digital Video. Music, Prayer, Communion, Giving, Donuts, everything you've come to experience at SRC will happen at each of our locations.
One thing we enjoy is making everything an experiment. The fact is that we have our eyes focused on the future. One day, we will experience the same basic thing only it will be a campus at AACC, a coffee house, a bowling alley, or bar. there are a number of venues that could facilitate the growth and multiplication we're aiming for. I want to thank everyone at SRC in advance for being part of this exciting weekend. I'm looking forward to how it will turn out.
--Ben
2 comments:
Fascinating.
I'm going to be called on occasionally to preach; how does one spend the 15-20 hrs for prep?
Does that include dry runs/rehearsing in front of a mirror? making note cards, etc? Do your homiletics professors provide a breakdown of activity for those 20 hours?
Good preaching comes out of good "exegesis" (this means determining the true meaning of the text.) So you have times of selecting the text, and then a regimen of approaches to the text including prayer, reading repeatedly, prayer, multiple versions, prayer, original languages, prayer commentary, outlining, dictionaries, prayer, theological application and other reference books. Then when you've got a firm handle on the passage, what and who received the message originally, how they received it and how it would be lived out by them; you can begin writing the sermon on how to apply that same thing in our context. Then you enter into the creative side of how to present it. Articulating points, transitions, introductions, conclusions, arranging Information, Explanation and Application.
Do that well and it isn't hard to rack up hours.
You can preach on much less time preparing, however you get what you prepare for.
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