How to Prepare an Annual Preaching Plan

One of the best things you can do as a preacher is to create an annual plan for your preaching. There are tons of advantages to planning ahead:

• greater intentionality
• greater diversity
• more cohesive worship services
• allows you to address difficult topics
• saves and protects time
• reduces stress
• allows for deeper preparation
• heightens creativity

Here are some things that I find helpful. I typically work through books of the Bible, but many of the same tips apply to all types of preaching. You can do many of these together with your team, or alone.

• Take a retreat. I've found the payoff from a week of planning to be a wise investment of time.
• Pray.
• Think about the needs of the congregation.
• Think about providing a balance over the year: Old and New Testament, various genres (Law, OT History, Wisdom & Poetry, Prophets, Gospel, Acts, Epistles, Apocalypse), and themes.
• Think about the major themes of Scripture and theology. You can't cover everything in a year, but I aim to cover all the big themes over a three-year period.
• Begin to read, listen to, and pray through entire books. Absorb all that you can.
• Begin to break the book into sections, with one eye on the text (literary units) and one eye on the overall series length.
• Begin to jot down preliminary big ideas of each text.
• Begin to fill in a calendar, taking into account special days and annual rhythms.

I'm sure there's more. What tips do you have on preparing an annual preaching plan?

Comments

[Peter]

Thanks for the post. In my earlier years of ministry I didn't score big points for planning but as time has gone by that has changed. When it comes to preaching planning is very important. You are responsible for the feeding of the Word to your people and this should not be a hit and miss situation. I would add two points to your list. 1) Take some extended time maybe once a quarter to spend a couple of days just working on sermons. This concentrated time is a bit of insurance against the unpredictableness of ministry. 2) In your weekly schedule be working on more than one sermon at a time. When it comes to sermon prep being ahead is always better than being behind.