How Long Does It Take You To Create or Prepare A Sermon ?

[Pete Williamson]

10-15 hrs usually.

 

[Phil D.]

No time at all - but then again I'm not a preacher...

 

[JTB.SDG]

Not to be trite or over-spiritual, but I remember hearing an account of a son hearing his father preach, and afterwards asking, "How long did it take you to prepare that sermon?" His father's response was something to the effect of: "My son, it took my whole life to compose that sermon." I do find there is truth in that. I think many of you will know what I mean.

I also think that since we're all different there's not necessarily any true rule of thumb here. Spurgeon both chose his texts and put his sermons together, I believe, Saturday night. Not all of us are Spurgeons. For some it will take longer. For others that are really gifted with preaching, it may come faster--but if it does maybe that means they need to be spending the extra time soaking it in prayer.

 

[Backwoods Presbyterian]

I've found that it usually takes roughly 15-20 hours for sermon writing, but as many others have noted that can vary based on texts, etc... Also, something that cuts down on prep is those of us who preach through books from Ch.1, v.1 to the end do a lot of the prep work ahead of time, so just naturally the more time you spend in the book the less "initial" discovery needs made each week since you are well aware of the context, genre, etc... and more time is spent preparing the actual text.