# How long doe it take to you prepare a sermon outline / notes?



## Southern Presbyterian (Feb 26, 2011)

Preachers:

Outside of the initial spade work, reading, meditating and praying, how long do you usually spend preparing your sermon notes or outline?


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## Curt (Feb 26, 2011)

Southern Presbyterian said:


> Outside of the initial spade work, reading, meditating and praying, how long do you usually spend preparing your sermon notes or outline?



Once that stuff's all done, the rest is easy - and usually pretty quick. it might only be a coupe more hours. This "spade work," etc., however, is extensive.


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## JonathanHunt (Feb 26, 2011)

Yes, if you take out 'spade work', it could even be as little as an hour, but I would think the average is about three hours.


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## reformedminister (Feb 26, 2011)

Three to five ours or so, for a thirty to forty minute sermon.


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## JML (Feb 26, 2011)

reformedminister said:


> Three to five ours or so.



Same here. It usually takes me around 4 hours.


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## SolaScriptura (Feb 26, 2011)

I spend about 50% of my sermon prep time on exegetical related work and the other 50% on crafting a sermon. So I'd say that in terms of the # of hours I put into the "crafting" part, about 7-8.


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## jawyman (Feb 26, 2011)

I'm with Ben. It usually takes me about a day, but that is with exegeses and other related research.


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## KMK (Feb 27, 2011)

I try to force myself to come up with a skeletal outline fairly early in the 'spade' faze, but then flesh it out as I go. However, I end up tweaking that outline right up to the end. After the sermon I usually think of ways it could be tweaked to make it even better.


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## Backwoods Presbyterian (Feb 27, 2011)

KMK said:


> I try to force myself to come up with a skeletal outline fairly early in the 'spade' faze, but then flesh it out as I go. However, I end up tweaking that outline right up to the end. After the sermon I usually think of ways it could be tweaked to make it even better.


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## Notthemama1984 (Feb 27, 2011)

I spend about 3-4 hours on each of my three outlines. Once the final homiletical outline is completed, the polishing takes about an hour.


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## Ask Mr. Religion (Feb 27, 2011)

Southern Presbyterian said:


> Preachers:
> 
> Outside of the initial spade work, reading, meditating and praying, how long do you usually spend preparing your sermon notes or outline?


Back when I was actually pastoring, ignoring the heavy-lifting, which consumes around 8-10 hours, the outline fell out for me in about 3-5 hours.

AMR


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