A Preacher's Week

How to prepare a sermon
I am sure we have all heard that a preacher only works one day a week…As a Pastor, I assure you that a man called by God cannot get everything done in one day that needs done!
I have also been asked how I prepare a sermon… and how much time it takes…To do it right it takes me about 10-15 hours a week for one sermon.The following describes what I usually do through the week to get my sermon together…
I usually know 3 to 4 weeks ahead of what text I am going to use…
I only preach one “sermon” a week..Wednesday evenings and Sunday evenings are Bible study. Both are very interactive in which I am teaching the church how to study the Bible.. we pick a text, and just have fun tearing it apart to learn from it.. some weeks we go 3-4 weeks on the same verse! The church loves this… and they are growing..
But…This is my usual sermon building week….
Monday (my usual day off, yeah right!! lol)- Pray, read, pray, re-read, pray re-read the text in my quiet time.
Tuesday Start picking it apart by words, context, cultural influence, other scriptures…read commentaries..other sermons..Etc…
Wednesday… devoted to Wednesday night bible study… but in the back of my mind, looking for illustrations from real life…
Thursday… Back to Sermon…. Outline the meat of the sermon… sometimes 3 (or more) pointer.. sometimes an acrostic… sometimes storyline if preaching on a biblical character..etc
Friday... complete outline with opening illustration and closing applicational illustration.. I also start putting together my powerpoint slides based on my outline…
Saturday… complete powerpoint with transitions, pictures, etc… Print out slides and go over with my son either Sat night, or early Sunday morning.. He runs my powerpoint while I preach away…
Sunday… Go over sermon early… make sure everything works… go to church, and watch the Holy Spirit work…Sunday afternoon… work on Sunday night Bible Study…But usually I just bring up a topic or text, and I never know where the church will go with it.. so I don’t prepare too much except to learn the definitions of the words, context, etc… This keeps me on my toes!

Thank God for e-sword.. I have it on the wall as we discuss the scriptures… so if we have a question I can’t answer, we dig into it…
Then on top of all this, I teach free guitar lessons at church, teach a Sunday School class, help direct our association’s youth camp this year, hospital visitations, other visitations… phone calls, (both pleasant and not so pleasant), emails (both pleasant and unpleasant), counseling, checking on people that miss a couple Sundays, getting my announcements together for the Bulletin, other administrative work, associational meetings, committee meetings, helping with the youth, events with the activity group, planning for the future events, making sure the church is staying true to it’s vision statement, plus all the other pastor duties that always need done!
For entertainment, I like TVland, and computers.
Could you imagine doing all of this in one day?
But we all know the preacher only works one day a week…