A Weekly Strategy

Before you start this lesson, review the material you studied and created in Lesson 4. You will need your work from Lesson 4 to do the Practice for this Lesson.

As he begins this bonus lesson, Rev. Ingersoll assumes that you already know what topic you are going to preach on the next Sunday. Indeed, perhaps you have known for some time and have been banking ideas in something like Evernote or some similar idea-storing place.

Monday

Mondays are ideally the day when Rev. Ingersoll is fully focused on studying in relation to the coming sermon. If Monday is the day that you take off as your Sabbath, just shift the process a day. This is the day he reads commentaries and goes through all the notes and ideas he has been storing up in preparation for this week’s sermon.

Tuesday

Tuesdays for him focus on other areas of ministry. However, the sermon is still there germinating in the back of his mind. If ideas come to him, if the Spirit sparks a thought, he stands ready to add that material to his notes for possible incorporation into the sermon.

Wednesday

On Wednesdays, he returns to the sermon. This is the day that he tends to storyboard the sermon. He takes all the material that he has collected thus far and arranges it into a flow for the sermon. He sets the destination. He clarifies the purpose. He lays out the skeleton. He knows the main points. He has any PowerPoint slides ready for his tech team.

Thursday

This is the day that he fleshes it out. Preferably, he writes out a whole manuscript for the sermon. If not the entire manuscript, he likes to write out nearly all of what he plans to say. If you had 300 words per page and a reading speed of 130 words per minute, a 25-30 minute sermon might be around 11 pages long. This is roughly based on Times New Roman 12pt font, double-spaced.

Friday

Friday seems to be the day he sets aside for Sabbath. However, he often can’t shut if off. If God gives him ideas, he certainly puts them into the mix.

Saturday

On Saturday he cleans up his notes for the next day. If you are going to be preaching from notes, this is the time to have them in a format that you can seamlessly access during the sermon.

Sunday

Sunday is go time. He comes into the church two hours early and practices the sermon. He goes through the delivery at least once in preparation. He spends about 45 minutes in prayer. Then, of course, he preaches it.