Every week, pastors research, study, write, and deliver a sermon to their congregation. Every week. Then, just mere hours after they finish this process, they begin writing a new sermon for the very next Sunday.
It’s a rinse and repeat cycle that can be greatly undervalued.
While preaching is one of the most public aspects of a pastor’s duties, it’s not the only thing they do. Pastors usually oversee a slew of other responsibilities, leading and managing while still carving out time to write their next sermon.
It can be a daunting task to say the least.
Think of it like this. Writing a sermon is like writing a college term paper every week on a particular subject. Beyond just the physical task of writing the paper, the message has to be presented to a diverse audience of people every week. How does a pastor make his/her sermon palatable to the single mother with no Bible background, the senior Sunday school couple, and everyone else in between?
The weight and responsibility of communicating the Gospel so that people not only hear, but understand . . . it’s hefty. No wonder half of the pastors we recently surveyed said writing a sermon adds stress to their life.
And, for most pastors, they do this almost every week with no end in sight. In fact, 60% of pastors said they preach at least 40 times per year.
Can you imagine writing and presenting 40 college term papers in one year? And doing this while still carrying all of your other responsibilities?
Preaching is largely a solo sport. This applies not only to the actual presentation of the message, but to the preparation of it as well. While some larger churches have the resources and personnel to assist the sermon prep, most pastors do not have the luxury of help.
They are plodding away, week after week, with little to no help, writing a mountain of critical and life-changing content. To be certain, it’s a worthwhile pursuit, and something I know every pastor wants to do well.
Because I have struggled with the sermon preparation process every week, I began devoting my focus to making this process a smoother one for pastors. This year, our team committed to create exemplary tools and resources so pastors save time every week and have the margin to improve their craft along the way.
Justin Trapp
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