Influence

 the shape of leadership

Spirit-Led and Strategic

How sermon preparation can be both prophetic and planned

Scott Wilson on November 21, 2017

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I’m familiar with two opposite approaches pastors use to prepare their messages.

My dad wanted to preach what God told him to preach. Every day during the week, he prayed and read the Bible, and he was open to the thoughts God brought to mind. Then, he got up at five on Sunday morning and pulled out a clean sheet of paper. He thought of everything God had put on his heart all week, and he put his sermon together. When I got older and started preparing my own messages, his method struck me as too unplanned, too spontaneous.

I asked, “Dad, I don’t understand. Why don’t you do more preparation before Sunday morning?”

His eyes got wide, and he told me, with passion in his voice, “Son, I want to cook up the message God gives me and serve it to ’em hot! Nobody wants to eat cold, canned food, and they sure don’t want to hear cold, canned sermons!”

In contrast, I’ve seen many younger pastors carefully construct their sermons weeks or even months before delivering them. This gives them a sense of direction, and it takes a lot of pressure off because they know what they’re going to say and when they’re going to say it. They certainly don’t think they’re not being spiritual. They believe God can clearly lead them long before they preach these sermons.

Often, the two approaches seem like incompatible opposites. Instead, I think it’s much better to see careful planning and Spirit-prompted sensitivity as two wings of a plane. It takes both for the plane to fly. We can plan and pray; we can be strategic and prophetic. We can project how we meet the needs of people in our community and allow the Spirit to lead.

Several years ago, I attended a conference at Willow Creek Community Church in South Barrington, Illinois, and heard, for the first time, someone describe what he called the natural “seasons” in a church’s calendar. The speaker explained that when you understand the seasons, you can plan events and the preaching schedule to fit the needs of the community. This insight has shaped my conception of planning for our church since that day. Careful analysis and planning, then, is one wing of the plane.

The other wing is sensitivity to the Spirit of God, trusting Him to prompt and lead, challenge existing assumptions, drive the truth of the Word deep into our hearts, and empower us to speak with His voice and authority.

In his first letter to the Corinthians, Paul quoted Isaiah and then made an application: “‘What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived’ — the things God has prepared for those who love him — these are the things God has revealed to us by his Spirit” (1 Corinthians 2:9-10).

That means God doesn’t want me to put messages together based on what I see other churches doing or what I hear other pastors preaching. He wants me to pray and allow the Holy Spirit to reveal the fresh and timely message He has for our church and community. So, without the wing of the Spirit’s vital involvement, the plane will crash and burn.

This is how God has led me to value both wings on our plane.

One Wing: Planning for the Seasons

When I walked out of the conference near Chicago, I began structuring our church calendar around the obvious seasons in the lives of people in our community. We looked at the needs, desires and stresses people experience at different times of the year.

For our audience, the center of the target is parents in their 30s who are busy raising their children and who often feel enormous financial and relational demands. We certainly want to inspire and motivate every person, young and old, but young families are at the heart of our strategy and our message. As we reflected on what’s going on in people’s lives at different times of the year, we identified four distinct seasons.

These seasons don’t restrict our messages and methods, but we’re wise to be aware of what’s going on during each one of them. The first three seasons are times of harvest, and the fourth is a time for sowing and cultivating God’s people so they’ll be ready for the next cycle of harvest.

The first season is September to Thanksgiving. Our community (like most others) revolves around the school year, so our year begins right after Labor Day. At that point, the atmosphere in the city is electric, full of anticipation, which makes it a perfect time to launch a new series and invite people to come.

I clearly remember last year a mom telling me about her hopes and wishes, as well as her concerns and worries, for her kids as they prepared to head into a new school year. She concluded her thoughts with, “I told my husband, ‘We’ve got to get this family in church when school starts. We need to get some Jesus in these kids.’”

We launch the year with two separate series. Each series is about six weeks long, targeting Primary Newcomers — first-time visitors to the church. The question that frequently comes up with this approach is, “How does developing a series that focuses on new people serve the regular attender?”

I understand that it seems counterintuitive, but I’ve found this approach to be a potent catalyst for the growth of any believer. After all, the gospel is the power of God for those who believe (Romans 1:16; 1 Corinthians 1:18). The message that God loves, forgives, heals and restores is good news for the sinner, the seeker and the saint. And at the end of the day, we all deal with many of the same life issues.

Whether I’m preaching about marriage, stress, health or work-life balance, Christians and non-Christians alike can relate (though people who know Jesus are certainly in a better place to navigate the challenges of living in a fallen world).

I’ve also realized from my own life that I grow more in discipleship when unsaved people ask questions about the Bible that make me think, seek God and search the Scriptures. I pray more, asking God for wisdom on how to present my testimony and reach the lost.

Interacting with people who don’t know Christ — people who are struggling with heavy burdens of guilt, fear and addiction — makes me more aware of the devastating effects of sin and the spiritual battle that is raging all around me every day. This kind of dynamic drives me to my knees and causes me to draw closer to Christ and grow in Him like never before.

The second season is after Thanksgiving to Christmas Eve. Our Christmas Eve service is one of the highlights of the year. The blend of tradition and creativity, plus the inherent hope of Christmas, makes this the most attractive time for our people to invite their friends to come. The series we preach during these weeks focuses on the wonder of the Incarnation and the matchless love of God — and we pull out all the stops for Christmas Eve and encourage everyone in our church to bring people with them.

Careful planning and Spirit-prompted sensitivity are like two wings of a plane.

The third season is January to Easter. Every person expects the beginning of the calendar year to kick off something new. They make resolutions about all kinds of things: diet, exercise, church, smoking, drinking, spending, saving, staying away from social media, not speeding, etc. The hope of change is the theme of this season.

We have two series, each again about six weeks long, to inspire people to look to God for real and lasting change. And then, of course, we focus the next series on the Cross and the Resurrection at Easter as the ultimate source of life change. We end every service in the series before Easter having people pray and strategize about those they are going to bring with them on Easter weekend.

The fourth season is after Easter to the end of summer. In the weeks after Easter, many people are preoccupied with graduation, finishing school, and preparing for summer vacations, weddings and countless other activities.

We don’t try to compete with all the things pulling at people’s time, energy and attention. Instead of this being a season of harvest, we invest our energies in plowing and sowing truths about the character of God and the nature of spiritual life in the church. During the six weeks after Easter, we recast the vision, mission and goals of the church for the coming year, and we clearly outline the resources we’ll need to accomplish these goals.

The sermon series addresses the heart of generosity and encourages people to give out of deep appreciation for all God has given them — especially His grace. We ask people to make a commitment to give for the upcoming year, and we celebrate their radical selflessness. This enables us to set our annual budget.

In June and July, we focus on the church’s vision and the power of serving to change lives. We applaud every person who has served in the past year, and we invite people to explore opportunities for the coming year. Many stay in their current roles, but others want to try something new. As we enlist and begin to train those who serve, we point them to the importance of the new season that’s coming up in a few weeks. Their eager and effective service will have a powerful impact on the families who come for the first time.

In August, our emphasis is always on getting people into a small group. Strong, supportive communities are the backbone of the church. We enlist new group leaders to prepare to meet and invite new people to their groups in September when the small group season starts. We host a Small Group Connection for people in our church who aren’t yet in a group and want to join. This emphasis tells our people that groups aren’t an ancillary ministry at The Oaks; they’re central to the vibrant life of our church.

The Other Wing: Listening to the Voice of God

The seasons of our church’s life give me a framework to understand the needs of people so we can meet those needs more effectively, but that’s not enough. My job is to hear the voice of God and preach only and always what He gives me to share.

In a concentrated time during May each year, I ask God to show me what people are dealing with in our community and church family, and I trust Him to give me clear direction about the topics for the series in each of the seasons of the coming year. In May of this year, I spent many hours each day for several days listening to the voice of the Spirit regarding our upcoming year.

I asked God to remind me of the concerns people had shared with me, and I asked Him to put particular biblical insights on my heart. In all this reflection, I’m trying to acquire a necessary but elusive skill: I’m learning to be quiet and listen to God’s voice and hear what He has to say about the issues facing our people.

When I believe I’ve heard from God, I have no pretenses that I’ve heard everything. I have a series of planning days with my teaching and programming teams, and I ask them to come “prayed up” and ready to share what they’ve been hearing from the Lord. As we talk about each series, they bring fresh, Spirit-prompted ideas. Our collaboration fills in lots of holes in my thinking, praying and planning. It’s powerful when I’m not the only one hearing from God.

Paul reminded the Corinthians, “For we know in part and we prophesy in part” (1 Corinthians 13:9). That’s humbling and true. And only a chapter later, he explained, “What then shall we say, brothers and sisters? When you come together, each of you has a hymn, or a word of instruction, a revelation, a tongue or an interpretation. Everything must be done so that the church may be built up” (1 Corinthians 14:26).

It’s not all up to me. Everyone on the team plays a vital role so our church will be built up. They’re not in the meeting to be cheerleaders for my ideas. They’re vital contributors to shape each series, service and sermon. When everyone is engaged, they bring their unique contributions, and then they can let their creativity fly. They write songs, create videos, and produce art and literature to make worship as God-drenched and powerful as possible so the entire service is a unified message.

Taking Flight

Finding the right balance has been an ongoing process. I admit, our planning process used to consist of everyone going online and searching for message series from big churches across the nation. Then we’d adopt and adapt their concepts to make them our own. We no longer do that. At a crucial point, God told me, “Those are the messages I’ve given them, not you. If you’ll listen to Me, I’ll tell you what I want to say to My people at The Oaks.”

Of course, we’re open to inspiration and instruction from other leaders. We give credit when we get ideas or quotes from another ministry, and we occasionally recommend books. But other pastors’ messages are no longer our primary resource. Our own study, reflection and prayer connect us to God’s mind and heart.

After we listen to the Lord and feel clearly led about the year and each series, we kick into a different gear to prepare each week. I come to our team on Tuesdays with my thoughts for the message for the next Sunday, and we bathe these ideas in prayer. We focus on the message God is putting on our hearts for that week. I get feedback and input from the team, and each person crafts his or her unique contribution to the worship service so it all fits together.

I spend Wednesday praying and outlining the sermon in detail. Later in the day, I send my notes to our team for more feedback so I can tweak anything that needs work. On Thursday, I write out the manuscript and send it out again to the team for their input. I memorize it and speak it to several people who haven’t been part of the planning, praying and preparation to see how it strikes them. Their feedback often helps me fine-tune (or scrap) a point or two.

We are always open to what God wants to do in the worship service. We prepare carefully, but we know God sometimes has other plans. We schedule the service to last an hour and 15 minutes, but in case God wants to do something we haven’t planned, we leave 10 minutes open. We’ve had song leaders spontaneously sing an additional song or someone share a timely prophetic message; there have even been mid-service altar responses for healing and deliverance.

Several years ago, God showed me that I was too self-reliant and too scripted — and trying to be too cool. I hadn’t made room for Him in our services. In my book, Clear the Stage, I tell the story of how God broke me and then rebuilt me as a pastor. Now, like Jesus, I only want to say what the Father tells me to say (John 12:49) and do what I see the Father doing (John 5:19). I made a vow to our church to never say anything God hasn’t given me to say.

The Holy Spirit leads me strategically as I pray and plan, and He also leads me spontaneously at every point in the process — including when I’m on the stage in the middle of a service.

I’m fully committed to Spirit-led analysis of the needs of people, Spirit-led planning to meet those needs, Spirit-led preparation to be as clear as we can be, and Spirit-led worship that brings people into the presence of their gracious and mighty God. That, I believe, is the power of being Spirit-led spontaneously in the middle of the service and strategically three months before.

Bringing together the Spirit-led and the strategic wasn’t something our church arrived at overnight. It’s a journey we’ve been on for years — and a vision we’re still pursuing.

What about you? Which side do you tend to lean toward when it comes to message preparation? Do you tend to get your messages together on Saturday night or several weeks ahead? Do you think you need to change anything about how you are planning your preaching calendar? Do you know the natural seasons for your community and church? If so, what is God wanting you to preach in this season and in the approaching seasons?

I encourage you to consider prayerfully these questions with your team. Just think what could happen if everyone were working together for the same goal: to be Spirit-led and Spirit-prepared every single Sunday.

This article originally appeared in the October/November/December 2017 edition of Influence magazine.

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