# Preparation Time



## wsw201 (Aug 21, 2006)

A friend of mine mentioned that he spends up to 35 hours a week in preparation for a sermon.

How much time do you spend in preparing a sermon?


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## BobVigneault (Aug 21, 2006)

All my life!


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## fredtgreco (Aug 21, 2006)

That seems excessive and overkill. Do the math: if you have two sermons to prepare - 70 hours? No way. Should you abandon an evening sermon? No way.

There are also pastoral duties to attend to. My guess is that sermon preparation time should be somewhere between 10-20 hours, probably closer to 10-15.


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## Ivan (Aug 21, 2006)

> _Originally posted by fredtgreco_
> That seems excessive and overkill. Do the math: if you have two sermons to prepare - 70 hours? No way. Should you abandon an evening sermon? No way.
> 
> There are also pastoral duties to attend to. My guess is that sermon preparation time should be somewhere between 10-20 hours, probably closer to 10-15.



I agree, but I agree with Bob too. Not only a lifetime, but also a life submitted to the Lordship of Christ.


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## fredtgreco (Aug 21, 2006)

> _Originally posted by Ivan_
> 
> 
> > _Originally posted by fredtgreco_
> ...



Obviously. In the broadest sense, every waking minute of a minister's life is used in his sermons. But I was talking about actual time spent working in books, etc.


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## crhoades (Aug 21, 2006)

Fred,

To have you elucidate...Would you say that using Logos/Bibleworks for your exegetical work allows you to save time? I think I know the answer but thought it might help to flesh that out a bit.


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## BobVigneault (Aug 21, 2006)

Because I'm not a pastor I have never been able to speak expositionally or stick with a series or a book. Because I'm a guest speaker I usually am dealing with a theme or a short portion of scripture.

I overread in preparing for the sermon. Basically I'm not changing my habit of daily reading I'm simply changing my focus to a specific topic or scripture. By Friday an outline begins to suggest itself and then Saturday morning I get up at 3:45, which is my habit, and the combination of quiet surroundings, adrenaline and the Holy Spirit help me to type out the sermon. I can't do it until then because I don't feel the passion for the topic or the urgency for lost souls until then. Sometimes I have waited until Sunday morning at 4:00 to start my final outline. I have never been able to do a sermon earlier in the week. I don't recommend waiting til the last minute to do the final, but for me it works. I don't think in a linear manner, I overstudy and then as the time gets closer I realize that things have begun to gel in my mind without my being aware of it. By Saturday and Sunday morning an unction has taken over and I type passionately as I will preach the sermon. If I try to do it earlier in the week it comes out sounding like an essay or article.

Practically though I would say that there is about 10-15 hours of prep in line with Fred's suggestion.


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## fredtgreco (Aug 21, 2006)

> _Originally posted by crhoades_
> Fred,
> 
> To have you elucidate...Would you say that using Logos/Bibleworks for your exegetical work allows you to save time? I think I know the answer but thought it might help to flesh that out a bit.



Chris,

That is a trickier question than you might think. In some senses it does, because I can find cross references and verses ("where was that verse in Paul where he says..." ) much quicker.

But in another sense, Logos and Bibleworks add time to my preparation. That is because they give me so many more resources, so much more to read, so many more options, that it can take up more time. Don't get me wrong, I am happy for that. But if you are not careful, you can get "lost" in them, tracking down some tangent that is not really vital.

This is my personal opinion, but spending more time in sermon preparation is not always good stewardship, nor wise for a pastor. I say this both as a Ruling Elder and now as a Pastor. Good, hard work in sermon preparation is essential, but it is not the only thing for a pastor. He must visit, be organized, do administrative tasks, etc. It is not good to let everything else slid just to read the 10th, 11th and 12th commentaries.


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## crhoades (Aug 21, 2006)

> _Originally posted by fredtgreco_
> 
> 
> > _Originally posted by crhoades_
> ...



So what you're saying is we should consult at least 9 commentaries...

Wise counsel. Didn't think of it that way.


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## fredtgreco (Aug 21, 2006)

Actually, and honestly, for me it is about 7: Calvin, Henry, Poole (does not take very long), one or two other older commentaries (e.g. for Galatians Lightfoot, Luther) and two moderns (e.g. Bruce, Ryken)


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## JonathanHunt (Aug 21, 2006)

I lay preach, but several pastors are bi-vocational and have to fit their prep in around jobs too - surely anything above 10-15 hours is almost impossible unless you are at least p/t supported by your people - especially where in the UK Sunday means two sermons, not one as it can often be in the USA.

Personally, I'd say it depends. It depends how much I actually know about a topic. For example, the first message I ever preached was on 2 Chron 31. I must have done 20 hours on that because there was so much 'history' I felt that I had to have absolutely right in my head.

Some messages have taken as little as 5 hours, particularly evangelistic messages where I have sat and written the sermon without any recourse to commentaries at all. I have then gone over my sermon and checked the language and the comments of leading expositors as a 'check' that I have not handled the Word poorly - but even so I'd say the whole thing doesn't go much above 5 hours.

My average would be about 8-9 I think. But that doesnt include the fact that (as most of you would probably agree) I think about sermons in much 'dead time' - in the car, at work between phone calls, in bed at night, etc, etc.

JH


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## MW (Aug 21, 2006)

> _Originally posted by crhoades_
> To have you elucidate...Would you say that using Logos/Bibleworks for your exegetical work allows you to save time? I think I know the answer but thought it might help to flesh that out a bit.



I gave up using electronic resources in actual sermon prep. It saved time by having a ready reference, but I discovered I was not retaining as much as a result. Hence I reverted back to the mechanical method of pulling out the book, looking up the reference. etc. The process itself is valuable, and it takes time for things to sink in.

As an aside, my favourite picture of Calvin is the one where he is standing by his library perusing an open book.


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## Arch2k (Aug 21, 2006)




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## MW (Aug 21, 2006)

That's the one. Thanks!


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## daveb (Aug 22, 2006)

> _Originally posted by wsw201_
> A friend of mine mentioned that he spends up to 35 hours a week in preparation for a sermon.
> 
> How much time do you spend in preparing a sermon?



I do some lay preaching so I thought I could answer:

First answer: as much time as I can get! 

Second: I usually find 8-15 hours to be appropriate.


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## JOwen (Aug 29, 2006)

> _Originally posted by wsw201_
> A friend of mine mentioned that he spends up to 35 hours a week in preparation for a sermon.
> 
> How much time do you spend in preparing a sermon?



Sermon preparation time is a very subjective thing. One sermon may take as long as fifteen hours to prepare, and the next, not even six. Depending on the outward and inward circumstances surrounding the sermonization of a text, the preparation time will vary. I do not believe there is any set time, your done when your done. A friend of mine, who's also somewhat of a homiletical mentor to me (Rev. T. Atkinson) told me once that he is still working on a text that came to him several years earlier. He has preached on it many times, but he is still perfecting it. Spurgeon once said, "œIf a sermon is worth preaching once, it is worth preaching again". I'm coming around to that opinion myself.

Yet in my quest for the perfect blend of homiletics and hermeneutics, I have stumbled upon a few interesting bits that might shed some light on the question of preperation time.

1.Musing

2.Undirected Reading

3.Directed Reading

4.Personal Spiritual Condition

5.Prayer


Musing

I have discovered that you can begin to prepare for a sermon long before your fingers ever set over a keyboard. If the text you have chosen has been committed to memory (a very helpful hint), musing becomes the natural outflow. David says in Psalm 119:148 "œMine eyes prevent the night watches, that I might meditate in thy word." The word for "œmeditate" in this verse means "to ponder, or to muse". One will be amazed how quickly a sermon develops if the preacher has given it adequate forthought. This can be done in the car on the way to a Pastoral visit, in a reception room, or in line at the bank. Your text is portable. Meditate and muse.

Undirected Reading

It is amazing to me how many of the most effective thoughts during a sermon come from the most unlikely places. Spurgeon is said to have read a book a day, on a wide variety of spiritual topics. If you read Spurgen often enough, as well as the Puritans, you will quickly notice that Spurgeon was greatly impacted by whatever author he was reading that week. A wide range of topics and authors will give much fodder for the sermon. I was reading Bunyan's All Loves Excelling last week, and found some deep thoughts on the Nature of God. I was not looking for it, nor is the book directly on this topic, yet there it was. Similarly, I was reading Guthrie's The Christians Great Interest, a book about assurance, and I found a wonderful piece on the subject of presumption in salvation. The point is, a wide reading of good authors will dig a well of recourses for preaching. Even if you cannot remember the exact quote, the impetus behind the thought will help you develop it into something of your own making. So the need then is adequate undirected, personal reading time, on may subjects, by several authors. My own Pastor, in my Seminary days, was a fine example of this. He always had 4 kinds of books by his reading chair- one history, one biography, one devotional, and one systematics. Believe it or not, thoughts will flow in a sermon, especially in an experiential fashion, by doing this.

Directed Reading

This should be self explanatory. Directed reading is doing all the necessary groundwork of the text itself. There is no better book on this subject that Jay. E Adam's Preaching with Purpose. If there is a single book that will remind the preacher of the task at hand (in understanding the passage), this is the book. If we would work out the language apparatus from the inside out, doing word studies, as well as contextual analysis, the flow of the sermon itself would break into its natural order. Finding the three points within a text is often best discovered this way. This is what Paul means when he says to young Timothy, "œStudy to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth" (Ti 2:15 ). Lexical, as well as expositional and experiential works are needed here.

Personal Spiritual Condition

There is nothing more impossible than preaching before a congregation when the preacher's heart is far from Christ because of indwelling sin. We must remember that we are vessels in need of cleaning and filling too! When we allow unrepeated sin to inhabit our life, is it any wonder we struggle with providing for others? Writing a sermon often becomes a burdensome work when we are not keeping a short account with Christ ourselves. The Spirit is quenched when we ignore His motions and checks in our own lives. David says, "œSearch me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting"(Psa 139:23,24). This should be our prayer as well. David knew that if there was to be any lasting effect in ministry, we must be clean in our hearts from the stain of sin. Are we finding a text not developing as we write? Let David's prayer be our own, "œCreate in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me. Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit. Then will I teach transgressors thy ways; and sinners shall be converted unto thee (Psalm 51:10-13).

Prayer

This last help in the writing of a sermon is the most important. John Bunyan once said, "œYou can do more than pray, after you have prayed, but you cannot do more than pray until you have prayed." Prayer is vital in sermon preperation.

It is vital,

Before you write. 

We often plunge into a text with no prayer at all. But this should not be so. A sermon from beginning to end needs to be bathed in prayer. Is there not some aplication here for the preacher, " Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and shew thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not" (Jer 33:3)? We are weak, and in need of divine help. Who is able or capable to deliver the Words of Life to needy souls?

A Puritan Prayer goes like this:

"I myself need thy support, comfort, strength, holiness,
that I might be a pure channel of thy grace,
and be able to do something for thee;
Give me then refreshment among thy people,
and help me not to treat excellent matter in a defective way,
or bear a broken testimony to so worthy a redeemer,
or be harsh in treating of Christ´s death, its design and end,
from lack of warmth and fervency.
And keep me in tune with thee as I do this work."

As you write.

The Puritans were big on ejaculatory prayer (also called extemporaneous prayer). It is a spiritual work to through up prayers as we write our sermons. To ask the Lord for clarity, simplicity, a dilated heart, doctrinal faithfulness, and a picture of the congregation before our eyes. As we write, ask for direction to the several kinds of souls that will be in the congregation. The unsaved, the backslidden, the cold, the indifferent, the hurting, the growing, and the mature. It is amazing how the flow of a sermon develops when one prays as he writes.

Before you preach. The learned "œRabbi" Duncan of Scotland was a man of prayer before his sermon. Recently when I was in Scotland, I was reminded of an account that has impacted me greatly.

John "œRabbi" Duncan was late for Lord's Day morning worship. This was not exactly unique as the man was well known for his absentmindedness. After a long duration ( I think an hour or more), the elders decided to send a runner to the Manse to fetch the minister.

When they young man entered the study of the "œRabbi", he found him on his knees uttering these words over and over, "œI will not go, unless Thou go with me. I will not go, unless Thou go with me". They runner softly closed the study door and returned to the elders with these words, "œHe will be with us soon". And indeed he was. That sermon, it is said, converted many that morning.

Rev. Duncan knew that if the Spirit is not working in him, he would be an ineffective tool. Pray before you preach, that the Holy Spirit would do the work.

As you preach.

This is always more difficult to do when you are in the midst of preaching. Yet not impossible. Often these too are ejaculatory prayers. In the mind, to pray, "œLord give light", Lord help me", "œLord, do Thy perfect work". These should be short and from the heart. Spurgeon, it is said, as he ascended the spiral staircase of his pulpit at the Tabernacle, paused on every step and said, "œI believe in the holy Spirit. I believe in the Holy Spirit." Pray as you preach.


Pray after you have preached. 

We often think that after we have pronounced the benediction that we have done our bit. In one sense this is true. Only the Holy Spirit can make a sermon work in the hearts of the people. Yet do we saturate our sermon in payer after the service? One Highland minister, on returning home after Church, was asked by his wife, "œso how did the sermon go?". To which he answered, "œIt's not finished yet!", and promptly went into his study to pray for the application to continue.

Sermon preparation is more involved than we think. At least this is what I have discovered for myself. It begins long before it is written, and ends long after it has concluded. Perhaps these brief thought will help us understand the preparation of a sermon in some small way.


JL


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## VictorBravo (Aug 29, 2006)

I've also preached, and I ususally took 8-15 hours to prepare, not counting personal devotional study. It was best if the hours were spread out over a week, rather than all in one day, because it allowed for a sort of gestation or brewing in the back of my mind. 

Then I think of Spurgeon who sometimes seemed not to prepare at all. Yet his whole life was spent in preparation, I think.


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## fredtgreco (Aug 29, 2006)

Excellent thoughts, Jerrold!


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## Puritanhead (Aug 29, 2006)

> _Originally posted by victorbravo_
> I've also preached, and I ususally took 8-15 hours to prepare, not counting personal devotional study. It was best if the hours were spread out over a week, rather than all in one day, because it allowed for a sort of gestation or brewing in the back of my mind.
> 
> Then I think of Spurgeon who sometimes seemed not to prepare at all. Yet his whole life was spent in preparation, I think.


 

Though, I spent more time in prep.


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## JOwen (Aug 29, 2006)

> _Originally posted by fredtgreco_
> Excellent thoughts, Jerrold!



Thanks Fred.
I decided to place this post on my blog as well.

KERUGMA

JL


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## C. Matthew McMahon (Sep 3, 2006)

For me, it depends on the text and the sermon itself.

If I am preaching topically, which comes and goes, that much easier (in my mind) than expositionally going through a book or chapter.

On the other hand, it also will lend to "when" you preach things. For example, if I decide in 5 years to go through some certain subject that I have already covered in Genesis 3, for example, preparation is going to take MUCH less time because I've already done the work needed previously (so long as my notes are not lost). Maybe the application (hardest part) will be different, but the time I spend will be considerably less.

If it is a topical sermon series, or the like, that tends to take less time because for me, my forte is set in systemtic and historical theology. Expositionally, (or with any text) I have to take more time. Grouping texts, though, is much easier than expositionally dealing with an entire chapter.

I can't place a time on it, though seminary said that for every minute you preach, you should study an hour. 

In any case, or however long, it should always be "enough" time.


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## VirginiaHuguenot (Oct 16, 2006)

I read this in J.I. Packer's _A Quest for Godliness_, p. 282:



> Most of the Puritans were still writing out in full to the end of their lives. Of [Charles] Simeon's sermons, Bishop Daniel Wilson, in a posthumous tribute, wrote: 'Few cost him less than twelve hours of study -- many twice that time: and some several days. He once told the writer that he had recomposed the plan of one discourse thirty times.' To prepare good sermons may take a long time -- but who are we, whom God has set apart for the ministry, to begrudge time for this purpose? We shall never perform a more important task than preaching. If we are not willing to give time to sermon preparation, we are not fit to preach, and have no business in the ministry at all.


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