Episode Transcript
Speaker 0 00:00:00 It is my firm belief that a preaching calendar can transform a pastor's life for the better. And in today's episode, we're gonna tell you exactly why we hope this conversation helps your church reach more people and grow. This is the reach right podcast. You're listening to the reach, right podcast, the show dedicated to helping pastors and church leaders reach people the right way, hosted by me, Thomas Costello, and with me as always as my co-host Ian Hyat, we're here to help your church see more visitors and grow ready
Speaker 2 00:00:43 To ready to get ready to get.
Speaker 0 00:00:51 So, Hey guys, welcome to the reach right. Podcast episode number 99. I am your host Thomas Costello. And with me as always is my co-host
Speaker 3 00:00:59 Ian Hyat. We're almost at a hundred Thomas.
Speaker 0 00:01:01 We are, we are just around the corner from a hundred and a good topic today. You're talking about the question of can a preaching calendar, can it transform your work life balance or preaching calendars even helpful for, for churches and leaders? Now I I'm partial to this. Uh, I am one of those pastors that had a preaching calendar that was usually in the six months to 12 months out range. That's how far out I was. Yeah, that's not to say that I had every jot and tittle every word of every sermon written out or, uh, every outline created, but I generally had at least a, a scripture reference, a title and a rough working outline yeah. For messages, uh, six months to 12 months in advance. And, uh, I learned for me, and I've heard this from many pastors that it is transformational in the way that they do ministry, uh, the way their life works.
Speaker 0 00:01:57 And so today I think we just wanted to talk about, uh, some of the benefits and some of the pitfalls, I guess, some of the right. Good and bad of having a preaching calendar or not having a preaching calendar. So I think it should be a, a good conversation today. So I know you haven't had as much time in, uh, in, in preaching, but, um, I know that, uh, I know you have preached, uh, many times at churches and things before and yeah. Are you the kind of person that was usually like planned way in advance or are you like driving to church on Sunday morning? What am I, what do I have to read? Or what do I
Speaker 3 00:02:28 Say today? Somewhere in the middle? Probably because I, you know, as, you know, as an associate pastor pastored with you, as we've mentioned and all of that, and so I wouldn't be preaching all the time. So for me, you know, I, you know, I'm not sure if, you know, I was in the middle, put it that way, so yeah, yeah,
Speaker 0 00:02:45 Yeah. Gotcha. So, well, why don't we start out with some of the, uh, the things, I guess, the pitfalls that we can avoid by having a preaching calendar. Yeah. And so, uh, I'll, I'll tell you, like, I guess the first one that comes to mind for me, what is big for me is it helps me avoid some of like the like redundancy or gaps kind of both. It helps me avoid both repeating myself too much in my sermons or skipping over things that I don't like to talk about in my sermons. Right. And I think this is really important. Now, another thing for me is that I, you should, our audience maybe knows this already. If you've listened before that I've always been the kind of pastor that doesn't really do topical messages. Yeah. But I would go through books of the Bible. We spent two years going through the book of Luke yeah.
Speaker 0 00:03:29 Verse by verse. And so that is an additional help with this, but, and that does help having a preaching calendar because you can say Luke for two years and it kind of makes it easy. You don't have to come up with 11 different series for, uh, each month, basically. Yeah. So anyway, but I think what it does help us with is helps us to come up with, with overall themes. And it helps you see it in perspective, uh, where you're not repeating the same topics, your same hobby, horse things. I know maybe you're a pastor that loves to talk about end times. Like it's something that you really have a passion about. Uh, we have a pastor and our, our team here who, uh, he, he loves like, it's, it's, he's good at this. He doesn't make it, everybody else go through it, but he loves thinking and talking and the perspective of end times and, uh, all the things that come with it.
Speaker 0 00:04:13 And so if that's maybe one of your hobbies, if you don't have a preaching calendar, you might find yourself talking about end times or relating everything back to the book of revelation and the right, the prophecies of Daniel and those kinds of things. So, whereas a preaching calendar, it helps you really broaden things out and it, it makes you take a step back and look at, okay, over the course of this whole year, are we gonna cover everything that we need to cover? Mm-hmm <affirmative> if someone came to my church on January, the first will, they have heard within that time, everything that they need to hear in order to really be discipled out the way I want them to be discipled in a one year's timeframe. So, uh, I don't know. What do you think about that? That's
Speaker 3 00:04:50 A good way to put it. I think that it, you know, what you just said, uh, it, it touches on something very important when you're thinking about your messages and planning out your sermons. You need to think about that person. That's a first time visitor or someone who's new. Like you said, if they started right at the beginning of the year, you know, or if they come in a couple of months later, whenever, you know, are they gonna get, you know, the, the kind of discipleship of the teaching that, that they need not discipleship, but teaching, uh, that they need. So, um, I'm all for it. I think, too, that, uh, it, it definitely will help you avoid some of those gaps. I we've all heard some, well, I have at least at my church, even though my senior pastor, he definitely plans far out, uh, you know, for his preaching and everything. But, um, and even then sometimes he's redundant. Uh, so <laugh>, so I think it's definitely helped, uh, us and, and, and definitely to, to make sure that we're, you know, thinking about the calendar year, different seasons, of course, that's, we're getting get
Speaker 0 00:05:48 To that. I think there's some things that, like every church we know that we want to talk about certain things and some of them are harder to talk about than others. Like, I think we all know that, you know, that we'll do well when we talk about marriages and parenting and the grace of God and those things. But, you know, especially when it gets into things like giving, I know a lot of churches have a fear of talking about giving. Yeah. And I think if we're being honest, like we would want everybody in our church to know that giving is an act of worship. Yeah. And tithing is an important if, if it's something that you teach, that tithing is an important, uh, step of obedience for people that are following Jesus. And so I think that, uh, however you fall on those things, I think there are certain topics that we'll just have the tendency to try to naturally avoid. And if we don't have a calendar, you might just conveniently forget to talk about those for two to three years when you know, you should be doing it more. So I think that it really helps with some of those kinds of issues.
Speaker 3 00:06:41 That's good. Well, let me cover the next one that, uh, that we thought through, and this is a good one. I think that using a preaching calendar can avoid stress <laugh> so absolutely, uh, scrambling, uh, whatever. I mean, you know, as soon as you get done with one message, there's another one coming next week. Right. Right. If you're a regular teaching pastor, for sure. So I think, you know, to, to plan and with the calendar and, and do things in advance this way, you know, it prepares you to, to not have to do a last minute, you know, thing where you're praying Lord download something, uh, into my spirit <laugh>, you know, or whatever, uh, and, and be scrambling. So I think that this will keep you sane, uh, and, and less stressful. Let's face it pastures. They get hit with stuff on a weekly basis out of the blue. Maybe it's a smooth week, but then next week, you know, two people die or something like that, you know, we know funerals come all of those things. So I think this, uh, also prevents that, uh, prevents stress for sure.
Speaker 0 00:07:40 Yeah. I, I think it's not a, it's not a perfect solution, cuz I can tell you as someone that had a annual preaching calendar that I still had some late Saturday nights where I was still putting, finishing touches on or you know, that I just had too much on my plate to, and didn't feel totally comfortable yet. So it's not foolproof, but I can't imagine that each week, uh, weekend and week out trying to, uh, come up now again, maybe there's some out there that would say you're just not spirit filled enough, Thomas. Right. You need to rely more on the holy spirit. You know, I have some thoughts on that. I, I think that my preaching calendar time, usually how I would do it is I would take like a little mini retreat if not a day or a overnight kind of a thing and just be praying through what is that, that God wants me to be talking about.
Speaker 0 00:08:22 And we'll talk more about that in a little bit here, but I think that was a spiritual experience for me. And I feel like I had, uh, the holy spirit speaking to me in those times yeah. Of preparation. So, uh, I think that, uh, it is something that is a huge stretch reducer. I think you said it exactly. Right. I can't imagine like driving home from church on Sunday morning if I didn't know what I was gonna be talking about that next Sunday, I would, I would, you know, I'd be freaked out already. Yeah. It'd be hard to take a Sabbath at that point. Yeah. And take an actual break because it's just, it's, it's a tough rhythm to keep maintaining. So yeah. It is a great stress reducer. I think you're exactly right. That's
Speaker 3 00:08:57 It and said, it's so funny though. I still come across. I don't know how many pastors that, uh, you know, they, you know, just, they don't plan, they don't plan their messages. Yeah. And I, I ask, you know, that's when I consult with pastors, as you know, I do so often I, when I ask about, Hey, you know, what are you preaching on this Sunday? I, I, there's still a big portion of pastors that say, I don't know, the Lord hadn't told me yet. And I'm talking to him on a Thursday, you know, or whatever.
Speaker 0 00:09:23 Hey God, bless those guys. That's awesome. Hey, Hey, I hope we can show you a better way, but Hey, far it from us to say it's the only way. So that's it. All right. Let me get the next one. I think that there is a tendency to do, uh, is a pitfall, is that there's a tendency to do superficial preparation. Uh, if you are not building a preaching calendar and what I mean by that is that, uh, it doesn't give you the time. Uh, and the ability to really let yourself marinate in some of those topics really spend the time that you need to in order to truly understand what we're talking about. Yeah. So, uh, I think that, um, for me, um, if I'm preaching over, uh, through the book of Ephesians for the next, let's say, uh, 12 weeks, we're gonna do a long series on Ephesians.
Speaker 0 00:10:08 Yeah. That gives me time to pick up a commentary or two to be reading on these things, to let it marinate, to, to read other quotes. Yeah. And see what other theologians taught and, and work on my illustrations. And it gives me time to like kinda let all these, all these things go. And I just have found for me that I can't put in as well. I kind of put it together as well in one week, uh, as I can in eight weeks. Right. Or in 12 weeks, I'm really giving this time, knowing what I'm gonna be preaching about ahead of time. I have more time to let it just kind of sit there and think about it. And I just, I preach better sermons when I know what it's gonna be in the future. Yeah. So that's my experience. Thoughts. Yeah.
Speaker 3 00:10:45 I think, you know, if you could look at the calendar and you can see what's coming, you know, like you said, six months out or whatever you might actually yeah. Get some mentally, you're gonna start thinking of some things, uh, to yeah. To, you know, freshen up that message. Oh wow. You know, you might have, uh, you know, if you're preaching on, I don't know, uh, let's just say, uh, generosity or something like that. And you know, you, something happened in the day where God compelled you to give or do something like that. You know, you have that experience to say, Hey, yeah. When I get there, let's make a note. This is gonna be a great example. So I think it's just that
Speaker 0 00:11:19 You, yeah, that's exactly right. Yeah. Cuz if, you know, it's there and sometimes it's even, you know, you know, you might talk about generosity, but maybe, you know, that there's a, a message coming up about, um, oh, I don't know, just, uh, something political or something like that. You want to avoid those topics. Right. But you have to get into them or, you know, things that are more obscure. Yeah. Um, you're talking about, uh, you know, maybe about baptism, for instance, you don't talk about baptism once a month. Yeah. You may mention it, but if you're preaching an actual sermon on the sacrament of baptism around communion and you get these illustration ideas that come up. Yeah. I think you kind of can log them if you know that that's in the future already. So I think you're exa that's a good one. Good. That's a good way to call. Cool.
Speaker 3 00:11:57 That's probably a good segue into the next thing, which is, uh, the benefits, right? <laugh>
Speaker 0 00:12:01 Yeah, yeah, absolutely. So, yeah. We'll, we'll talk about, so those are some of the pitfalls we just mentioned. Yeah. We have four benefits. So, so things that I think really help you, uh, if you create a preaching calendar and really the longer, the better on these, but these are, uh, a few things. So I don't know. Why don't you go into the first benefit? Would you say? What would you say
Speaker 3 00:12:18 That? Yeah, the first one I would say is that, you know, and this sounds maybe a little bit, uh, you know, counterintuitive, but uh, taking time for prayer for this will give you, yeah. This will, or another way to put that this will free you up by having a preaching calendar for more prayer instead of the, oh no, Lord, what do I preach on, uh, you know, give me something on your, praying that on a Friday, give me a word. I mean, if you know the message, this frees up ti you have it planned out this frees up more time. Okay. I know I'm preaching these specifically in this, this book of, or the Bible or this chapter of that book. These are my key scriptures that I will be preaching about. Um, then you can pray deeper about those Lord. I know your word says this, Hey, give me some ideas about that, that, and this and the other. I think it just gives you more time to Polish the message cuz obviously we know, you know, praying and the holy spirit will speak and, and, and obviously guide people through certain things. That'll help the message even more.
Speaker 0 00:13:16 Yeah. I, I think that one of the, the secrets that I think I've picked up over time and I guess a lot of people don't wanna admit this, but I think there's a lot of pastors that feel, uh, I don't know if the right word is guilt, but it's something pretty close to guilt that they don't pray enough. And I think especially they feel that way about, uh, their sermons that they're preaching is that they, they, they just kind of feel like it's something that they put together and they know they're supposed to pray. But if you took a survey of pastors that really most of them would tell you that they wish they could spend more time in prayer before each of their messages there. So I think that's exactly right that having this and not having to, to think it up and, and you know, again, maybe it's counterintuitive cuz you think, well, if I didn't have a message, I'd really be praying hard if I didn't know what I was gonna talk about this weekend, but I think it actually frees you up to be able to be just more deliberate with your prayer and spend more time really seeking the Lord's face about what he would have you say and how he would communicate it.
Speaker 0 00:14:12 Yeah. Uh, so, um, I think that's really a good one. The next one I'll say is that it helps you having a, a preaching calendar. It helps you get input from the right people. It helps you kind of talk to the right. People have the right conversations. There are so many things that I think that we can be ways we can be more creative in our messages, uh, if we had enough time and thought and the space to put into it. Yeah. So I'm thinking about how often do we preach messages, where it would be great to have some kind of a testimony of this exact thing, right. That I'm talking about, how it already impacted someone's life. It always makes a big impact when we can do those kinds of things. So that's one area yeah. Where you can get input from the right people.
Speaker 0 00:14:52 I think another big one is just on creative elements. We're gonna do a, a podcast episode, I think next week. Yeah. Where we'll talk a little bit more about creative elements and those things in your messages. But I think what's really, what's really helpful is if you have the time, you can spend time talking to people, maybe on your creative team, maybe someone on the video team, uh, maybe at certain props or ideas and there's different inputs you can get from your teaching team that I think can make for better messages. Yeah. So, uh, I think it really makes a lot of sense to, you know, kind of try to get that input from other
Speaker 3 00:15:24 People. Yeah. And I know my, uh, pastor actually delivers the message ahead of time to the other, to the other leadership and, and gets intentional critique from them. And, and uh, so, and again, yeah, because it's been planned out already, uh, and he has that message. Right. And it gives him good practice. And it also, yeah, when you get inside from others, there might come, like you said earlier, there might be another story or testimony that your leadership or someone else can share, but yeah. Oh yeah. Uh, or, Hey, you know, someone can remind you cause we've been talking about redundancy. Someone can say, well, you know, pastor, you just preached about that a month ago and you used that exact same thing. So really that's another, another benefit for sure. So I like it.
Speaker 0 00:16:05 Yeah. Yeah. That's
Speaker 3 00:16:06 Good. Yeah. So that's good. Why don't you get the next one? Next one is, uh, syncing with the seasons. I almost said this earlier, cuz it's just a, kind of, to me, a no brainer to think about, we know a lot of church life and just culture is seasonal now. Right. We know. So we obviously we know Christmas, we know Easter, uh, in, in, in church life and all of that, but you know, there's other seasons like, uh, of course around, you know, uh, February, you got, you know, that's when a lot of marriage series and things happen cuz of it's Valentine
Speaker 0 00:16:34 Your Groundhog day, sir,
Speaker 3 00:16:35 Groundhog day that's right. But you got mother's day, you got father's day, you got fall when back to school happens and people focus on getting back in sync. I know that's when we do a lot of like neighboring series and those things at our church, like, you know, cuz people are kind of, they, they they're done with their move moving and they're more settled in that fall season. So I think that's another huge benefit is that, and, and that you're hitting people with content, uh, sermon content. That, that is that where the timing's good because of the season. Yeah.
Speaker 0 00:17:08 Right. Yeah. I, I think this is really helpful cuz I think I've been on the other end of that where, um, I, I think the one that always get gets me is, and I'm not from a liturgical tradition that celebrates like lent and does all those kinds of things or even the term advent, right. Is kind of foreign to the, the churches that I grew up in. But um, you know, but like lent is one that always kind of surprises me right. Where it's like, uh, I'll, I'll usually hear about like two weeks into lent say, well it is someone will say, oh it's lent. So I I'm usually surprised by it that way. Yeah. But a preaching calendar, it would help you to at least be aware that there are some people that have that background
Speaker 3 00:17:45 And, and that's important to
Speaker 0 00:17:46 Them. Yeah. I think that the, the big one is usually Easter and Christmas, those kinds of things. And it really helps you think about, well we probably want three weeks ahead of Christmas that we wanna be, uh, going into Christmas themed and birth of Christ type messages. Right. And you know, Palm Sunday is right before Easter. So we wanna make sure that we, if we're gonna end a series that we can end it the week before that that would go perfectly into our Easter series, nothing wrong with taking breaks, but it just helps you to think through all these things. And I have found that for some of those more, um, not to say that they're minor holidays, but things that aren't traditional church holidays, things like veterans day, Memorial day, some of those kinds of things, um, it's a chance for you to be able to, to, to remember that at least, and maybe put it into your sermon, but at, at a minimum, get it into your, your service time, just kind of honoring veterans or honoring those that lost their life for a country. Some of those kinds of things there too are really that's
Speaker 3 00:18:39 Great.
Speaker 0 00:18:40 Yeah. Awesome. Last one is, and this is the most, no brainer of all. I think it will help with your personal wellbeing and your balance in life. If you have a calendar, uh, it really helps you to plan things out. Here's the best thing that it does is it helps you to get vacations on your calendar. Uh, if you know what your preaching calendar is like, uh, I was a six weeks on or like five weeks on one week off. Yeah. Kind of a, a preacher. So I would usually have someone come in every sixth week or so and do a message. Yeah. But usually I'd want to maybe get a couple of weeks back to back in the summer or something like that. And it helps me if I have a preaching calendar out there that I can plan that in. And I tell you, my wife and my
Speaker 3 00:19:21 Kids
Speaker 0 00:19:21 Really love this, that I can say, these are two weeks that I am not gonna be here. I can do this ahead of time. Cuz I think a lot of pastors are like, oh, when am I ever gonna get a time for a vacation that, or if you're just kind of, if you're doing it week in and week out and you're having to find someone to preach here and it's just really a hard system to live in. So I think that just for your own sabath's sake for your own, uh,
Speaker 3 00:19:41 Sanity wellbeing
Speaker 0 00:19:42 For vacations, for your family, I think having a calendar like this is of the utmost
Speaker 3 00:19:47 Importance. Yeah, absolutely. And I think, you know, a again, you know, consulting with so many pastors, I can tell the ones that are really like just burning the candle at both ends and that are stressed out and, and uh, you know, and, and, and often they're unorganized, not just with their preaching, but in other areas. I mean, I can tell you, we, our best clients are, are ones that plan a little bit more.
Speaker 3 00:20:11 You hear me the right way. Not saying we don't wanna work with you if you have a problem planning, but just saying, you know, I've recognized that, you know, uh, and also just you, you, you hear the demeanor, the, the, the joy, all of that, just, you can tell the, the, the ones that are organized. And I think that, again, we're just talking about a preaching calendar, so I don't wanna, uh, you know, get off into the weeds. But I, I just think that this is one O other big area to plan, to keep you sane and at peace and organized. So yeah.
Speaker 0 00:20:43 Yeah. I, I really couldn't agree more agree more. I think that it's something that, uh, if you do not operate this way, I'm not, I'm not here to say that there's a, it's not a sin. You know, it's not something that's necessarily wrong. That's not angry at you. You do it. However you feel called to do it. I just have seen the benefit for people of having a consistent calendar that's going off in the future. And even if it's a small increment, even if you say, you know what, I might not be able to be that one year ahead kind of guy, uh, or gal. Uh, but I think that if I can, if you can get two months, you know, start with a, or maybe a quarter, if you can figure out what your next 12 messages yeah are. And I'm talking about, you know, the, the series, uh, maybe the passage you want to preach from and what the topic is, those kinds of things.
Speaker 0 00:21:27 If you can get just that nailed down and kind of work from there, I think get ahead like that, and you will not regret it. It's gonna make a huge difference in your life. And I think it'll be a blessing to your church at the same time. Totally want. So, uh, I hope that's been helpful. Hope it's helpful to our audience, if it has been, let us know in the comments below, uh, that is one of the best ways for us to kind of build up momentum with this channel. It does mean a lot to us. And, uh, we want to thank you for being a part of our reach, right? Family. Absolutely. So like, subscribe, give us a thumbs up, let us know, uh, what you think. We really appreciate it. Thank you for being a part of our reach, right family. And we'll catch you next week, episode a hundred coming up. We'll see you then. Thanks for listening to the reach right podcast. We hope this episode will help you reach people the right way, looking for more resources for your church. Check us out online at reach, right studios.com. If this episode has been helpful to you, it would mean the world to us. If you would rate, review and subscribe on iTunes or wherever you get your podcasts. Thanks again for listening. And we'll see you next week.
