10 Do’s and Don’ts For Brainstorming Sermon Topic Ideas

Speaker 0 00:00:00 Let's get this out there. We have all been there. Preachers block comes for us all. At some point, it's hard for us to come up with new sermon topic ideas. So in today's episode, we talk about 10 dos and don'ts for brainstorming great sermon topics. 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 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 Speaker 2 00:00:52 Ready to ready to get, Speaker 0 00:00:59 Hey guys, welcome to the reach right podcast. Number 94. I am your host Thomas Costello. And with me as always is my co-host Speaker 4 00:01:08 Ian Hyat. What's up Thomas. Speaker 0 00:01:09 Hey Ian, not much man. Excited to talk today and, uh, talk a little bit about something that I think is dear to my heart. We're gonna be talking about, um, the 10 dues and don't for brainstorming sermon, topic ideas. Uh, so I think having pastored churches and written hundreds of sermons, maybe now, maybe not quite thousands, but hundreds of sermons. Yeah. Over my years that this is something that a lot of pastors do struggle with. And so we want to give some, some guidelines on how to, uh, what we've seen to be effective. This isn't just from us. This is not just ideas from our own place. This is from conversations we've had with other, uh, church leaders and what's helped them. Yeah. Uh, to get over that hump. I think all of us have been in kind of that preacher's block kind of a place where we run out things where we run into some of these same old ruts when we come to preaching here. So we want to tackle, I guess, some of those, uh, those dos and don'ts here today. Speaker 4 00:02:07 Yeah. That's good stuff. Yeah. I mean, I think, um, every pastor can get it feel a little stale. I don't wanna say their sermons become stale, but, uh, but uh, feel a little stale. So hopefully this is helpful for a lot of pastors. Speaker 0 00:02:19 Yeah, absolutely. So I don't know. I'll I'll maybe tackle the don'ts. Uh, I'll be the I'll do bad cop. You do good cop. Does that sound good? Don't you do? Speaker 4 00:02:28 That sounds natural. Speaker 0 00:02:30 So that sounds good. I'll be bad cop. So right. First one, the first don't is don't seek popularity when you're brainstorming your sermon topics. I think this is something a lot of us fall into is we want to talk about topics that will make us, uh, more popular. Um, and this is something that is a critique of, I think so many, uh, so many megachurch leaders out there. Not, not necessarily a critique that I have, but I think that, you know, I, they, they've been given a special purpose, I think in a lot of ways and a special calling on their lives and, you know, God bless them with that. But I think that a lot of times we fall into this temptation of, Hey, what will people think of me if I preach on this topic? Uh, or what will people think of me if I don't preach on this kind of a topic there? Speaker 0 00:03:15 So yeah. Uh, I can think of, uh, lots of one, especially when it came to COVID over this last season. Yeah. Um, there are some people that, uh, their churches made up primarily of people that were very pro-vaccine and some that were very anti-vaccine and you felt kind of sandwiched into having to preach something that would be the most popular about this topic here. Right. Preaching about it at all, because that's something that is popular. I think you probably should have said something about it, but don't feel like you are, don't get caught in that trap of having to do topics that will make you more popular within your church or outside of your church. I think that popularity is not something that Jesus sought, he didn't preach to be popular. And so I think that's something important for, uh, for church leaders to think about too. Speaker 4 00:04:02 Yeah, exactly. Not much too. More to too much more to add. I know we're gonna kind of hit on a point of, uh, certain topics to preach on whenever, uh, whenever we, uh, keep moving forward through this, but, uh, I'll tech I'll tackle the next one. So, uh, one of the, the first dues, uh, would be, do pray about your sermon topic. So, um, so we definitely are for prayer. Uh, definitely God does give direction on, uh, you, you want to be led by the holy spirit first and foremost for whatever sermon topic or series you're coming up with and, uh, be spirit led. And of course that, that should be step number one. Um, and, and, and, you know, I think it's good, you know, might be sounding just like an obvious thing for a lot of pastors, but I think a lot of pastors can fall into the trap of, you know, when they've, they've planned out so much, they forget this extremely vital step, you know, and I think now in the, in the age of sermon series that are well thought out for the whole year year, uh, with most churches doing all of that, you know, prayer could be easily missed. Speaker 0 00:05:06 Yeah, I think so. I think, uh, the way I would do it, um, and what I have done, uh, is I, I would, I was that guy that was always a year out. I had everything kind of planned out and, you know, there was some, I mean, I think I probably leaned on the side of being inflexible, uh, when the holy spirit would lead that's to my own fault. So to be totally candid, like, uh, I, I did not want to change those things. I would. Uh, but I, I did not like to change things if I felt like it, because I would usually kind of pull aside for a couple of days and just prey over the preaching calendar. And again, my was easier because I was a, I've always been a preach through books of the Bible, uh, kind of person. So, uh, it's more about, Hey, is it Ephesians? Speaker 0 00:05:49 Or is it all of it is yes. Like every, every bit of the Bible is profitable for teaching. Right. So, but we still, you know, it was, something was really important to us is that we would, uh, really hear from the Lord and pray about it. So I think that's good advice. I know it's, it's something that seems so obvious, but I think maybe this brings some, uh, kind of a, a little prompt, my spirit, as you're listening to this podcast that, you know, I need to spend some time maybe consider that, that I need to spend, uh, a weekend or I need to spend a few days just kind of praying the Lord of what he would say to our church. Yeah. Uh, because I think that really dictates the way a lot of these other ones go here. So I'll get the next one is the don't is don't get repetitive. Speaker 0 00:06:26 That's something we do if we're, if we're not praying about it, I think we can sometimes fall into this temptation of becoming really repetitive because we have certain things and certain influences that we take in, in our lives. Uh, and we tend to start talking about the same things over and over every single one of us has our own theological Bens or, uh, different, uh, kind of, uh, scriptural issues or even political issues. God forbid that we kind of think about a lot or matter to us the most. And if we're not careful, we can very easily get repetitive and start hitting on those same things. Now, one of the things that I think is the church right now is famous for, uh, and again, this is so strange to say, but I'm never against talking about the love of God, right? Yeah. But how many, how many sermons do some church is out there kind of bring forward that are all about and exclusively about the love of God and not into some of the things like the, uh, the righteousness of God or right. God forbid the judgment of God and those things that are all parts of his, uh, his existence and who he is. These are all important topics. And when you, you to be talking about the whole of scripture. So I think be careful to not be repetitive and talking about the same things over and over again, we are pro love of God, but we just don't need to hear about it. 51 out of 52 weeks, a year as the primary theme of the sermon. Speaker 4 00:07:51 Yeah. And a pastor didn't want his members, uh, to think, uh, cuz I think sometimes, uh, a pastor could be, get repetitive be because they're thinking of new visitors needing to hear something that they know they've already said or a story, but, but you still want to keep it fresh for your members too. I think of, there's been times where I'm like, oh, here we go. My pastor's telling that story again. Uh, you know, heard all Speaker 0 00:08:14 Already. Huh. Speaker 4 00:08:15 Right, right, right. So, but you, you also wanna think of your members. We, we, we core us, wanna always put visitors and, and people obviously there maybe have never even heard the gospel first. You obviously want them first, but don't forget. Uh, made me think, don't forget about your members. They, they may not want to hear about love all the time they oh, right. Well, we know about love. We're gonna go down the road and uh, want to hear more about something else. So yeah. So anyway, Speaker 0 00:08:38 Exactly. So, Speaker 4 00:08:40 Well next one, uh, one of the dues is consider, do consider different points of view. So kind of a good segue, uh, from what we were just saying, get some other ideas out there. I think we can get, like you said, uh, just a minute ago, you know, planning out your sermons for the year. You're kind of like, I'm good. Uh, our, our I'm, I've already preached this before, you know, and I know it's a good, I know it's a good series or I know it's, I've preached through Ephesians before it was dynamite, then it'll be dynamite now. And yes, Ephesians is relevant forever and you preach on that forever and it's, it's a evergreen, right? The, the Bible is evergreen content. It is. Uh, so for sure as we know it's timeless, but um, but you know, G get out there, listen to other preachers, uh, listen to other pastors, listen to other, uh, podcasts, look at blogs. Um, you know, uh, what are, what are some bestselling Christian or pastoral books out there? Uh, so stay fresh, I guess, would be one of the ways to say it to, to get different points of view. Speaker 0 00:09:39 Yeah. I think we're preaching to the choir. I mean, the audience that we're talking to right now are the type that are listening to podcasts and, uh, trying to grow in this area. But yeah, I think you're absolutely right. I think just, I, I am the kind of person that loves to like listen to people that don't agree with me on certain topics and hear their point of view and I'm, yeah, I'm pretty, pretty stubborn. You know, I'm a, I'm a recovering Pharisee is what I, I tell people, is that something that I, my temptation is to stay set in my ways and yeah. Uh, so that, that's something that's, I'm a work in progress in that area. But I think that I still do in joy, uh, hearing other points of view, and I'm usually calculating why I disagree with them, but at least hearing them and considering them, I think it adds value to your messages when you do that. Speaker 4 00:10:26 Yeah. That's good. Awesome. Speaker 0 00:10:28 Good. Uh, next one is don't try to be too trendy. Uh, this is something that in our days and era of, uh, Christian celebrities and pastor celebrities and the ever, uh, increasing desire to have bigger influence yeah. Being trendy is something that is seen as a huge advantage. Like if you are on trend, uh, you can reach more people, but I want to give a caution, uh, about that, of being too trendy or trying to be trendy all the time. And the way I see this a lot is that how often do we see, uh, sermons that are always about like sermon series dedicated around movies? Like, I mean, I imagine there's, I've seen like 10 different the Batman related sermon series going on at churches right now, because the biggest movie that came him out in the last few months as the Batman. And so I think that I I'm all for staying relevant, uh, and staying connected with people. But when, when you sacrifice the authenticity or, uh, I guess the, the truth of the gospel to kind of just fit it into whatever the trend is right now. Yeah. I think you really miss a lot there. So you, the caution is be careful not to be too trendy. And I think the reason for that kind of goes along with what you're gonna go next on the next one here, the reason why we can't be too trendy is cuz it, it hurts this other area. So go ahead. Speaker 4 00:11:50 Yeah. And one thing I would say before I transition to is I think, you know, it is also, you can come across as not authentic too when you're trying too hard to be trendy. So, uh, in closing on that, but yeah, but you, and here's another reason why, like you said, good S segue do focus on longevity. Uh, we just use that, uh, word evergreen content. That means that information or content that's gonna be relevant, you know, years to come. Um, so as we know, uh, we have, uh, the most relevant timeless message that we preach from, uh, through the Bible. Yes. Um, so, um, we have a lot of built in evergreen content, but that's another reason why it focus on long longevity. You want to have a message that is gonna be just as relevant and applicable, you know, 10, five years from now plus. Speaker 4 00:12:41 Um, so that should be a goal when you're, when you're planning out your messages, for sure, for that reason. And, and we know this already that it is great to have it made me think of when we help churches with web design and it great to have a sermon archive that someone can go back into. Yeah. And, and, and look at a topic that they're maybe something they're struggling with and, and it, you could have something that was from six years ago that just hits the nail right. On the head for, for a issue that they're dealing with. Yeah, yeah. Speaker 0 00:13:10 Yeah. I mean, the reality is that most of us are putting our, our sermons in video format onto YouTube and these kinds of channels, which means they're going to live on, um, you know, most likely longer than we do here on earth. Yeah. Yeah. So, you know, I don't see any signs that YouTube will be at some point deleting all this old content it's still gonna be on there. It may be less and less ranked and less hard, be tougher to find, I guess, future, but you need to have things that are timeless. I was, I was listening to one of my old messages to refresh on something before I preached on a topic, not too long ago. Uh, and I, I come across, I had all of these like American idol references in the, in the actual sermon itself. I was talking about like these people, and this is I, I preached the sermon. Speaker 0 00:13:58 It was an audio recording. I preached it like back in the heyday of American idol. So it was probably like 2006 or something like that. And I appreciate, and, and I talked about all these, like these third place finisher on American idol that everybody was talking about. I, and it just made no relevant. So it's nothing relevant at all nowadays. So yeah. Yeah. Just realize that. Yeah. Well, it might be relevant or, you know, I promise you that people aren't gonna remember why you tied it in with the Batman when they look at this message in 11 years. Right. They're not gonna be thinking about, oh yeah. That was a reference to the 2022 movie. It's gonna be a totally different time. So yeah, careful with that with, again, this is back to the don't, but it goes with the do right. Be careful with trendiness focus on longevity. I think that's really important. Speaker 4 00:14:43 Awesome. Speaker 0 00:14:44 Good. Next one. Don't scramble at the last minute. Don't scramble the last minute, this goes back to kind of the timing of thinking through this here. I, uh, could not encourage our audience enough to have a long term preaching schedule, uh, and have it drawn out, invite other people to be on it ha have that helps people kind of keep you accountable to keeping it there, but I would really encourage our audience to spend the time that it takes aches, uh, to get things drawn out for at least a couple of months ahead of time. Yeah. So it's not, God forbid that it's Saturday night that you're writing messages and the Lord gimme a topic. I mean, that, that can be okay in a pinch, but I think the Lord speaks to us just the same today as he will two months from now. And so it makes a lot of sense, uh, for us to be really listening to the Lord and coming up with these topic ideas and thinking through them and even coming up with outlines months in advance, if you can do it. So, yeah. Um, that's big encouragement to our audience, Don scramble the last minute. Speaker 4 00:15:44 Yeah. I'm kind of chuckling cuz uh, I, I know, you know, you know, I, I speak to a ton of pastors, uh, on a daily basis and I often will ask, you know, what are you preaching on this weekend? And uh, and I sometimes will hear, you know, I don't know yet. And uh, and then I'll hear, you know, and this is funny, not that the Lord does not do this, but I, we come across a handful of pastors that just say, you know, I just, I'm gonna start praying. And the Lord, he, you know, sometimes he'll just download the message. The holy spirit will drop it right on me, uh, when I'm on the way to preach. And I'm like, wow, okay, well, and he can do that. He can do that. But, uh, there's some risk in there too, if, uh, if he doesn't <laugh> Speaker 0 00:16:25 Anyway, you think Jesus prepared his messages? Speaker 4 00:16:28 He that's a great question. I think he did. Yeah. Obviously he was com perfectly by the spirit. Uh, but, uh, uh, I think he did. I think he kind of, I'm sure he considered what region he was going into to preach. And, uh, I would guess, yes. And I don't know if there's a scripture reference about Speaker 0 00:16:44 All terribles that he would tell. I mean, I wonder if you like had, I mean, I'd never really considered that before. Like whether he, um, whether he was downloading them on the spot, I think we kind of have this as that. That's what Jesus did. Like he was standing there, he looked at them in the eyes and then it just Speaker 4 00:16:58 Was being, Speaker 0 00:16:59 Let me tell you the story about a Samaritan that was helping the guy on the side of the road, you know, so I, I wonder if that, but I mean, there's nothing that indicates one way or another, how he came up with it. It might, if we really think about it, I would assume he he's the Lord. So he's is different in how he from you and I, however, I, I believe he probably had that planned, he had it planned for the beginning of the earth, right before the, the foundations of the world. He had it all planned and knew he was gonna say it. So, yep. He was definitely prepared Speaker 4 00:17:26 And most certainly was more Speaker 0 00:17:27 Than 18 months in advance. Let's put it that way, way. I, I, Speaker 4 00:17:29 I would think so. Yes. And, uh, let me also say this, that, uh, uh, one of the things that you do want to do to, uh, prepare and plan is do brainstorm, set aside some time for brainstorming. Um, yeah, this is kind of in the vein of what we were saying as far as keeping things fresh. So, um, you know, and, and so I think that a lot of pastors maybe don't set aside, it's it almost sounds maybe a little funny to, uh, have an, uh, an hour or two that you set aside to just brainstorm different ideas for your messages. Yeah. So, um, so I think that's a, a really good actually when we came, when we were planning this podcast that I was like, oh, that is, that is a good one that maybe I didn't think about, but not just planning your message, but brainstorming. So Speaker 0 00:18:12 Yeah, absolutely. I think that's really important, uh, doing it and doing it consistently. I know what I have always done is what we would, I would bring people in together with me, so I didn't brainstorm by myself, but we would have a team, uh, at our church that, you know, were kind of on our preaching team. And in the end I was the one IDing on what topics we are gonna preach on and those kinds of things, but yeah, having ideas, we can bounce off one another. Is this something people need to hear? Have we talked about this recently, uh, you know, talking about what, you know, a little bit on trend and you know, what, how can we make it timeless? Some of those kinds of things is really valuable, I'd say so. Yeah, yeah. Doing that consistently is important. Yep. Speaker 4 00:18:48 Awesome. Speaker 0 00:18:49 Uh, next one, uh, do not, don't avoid hard topics. Yeah. Uh, that is something that I think all of us, uh, feel that temptation towards. Maybe there's a few pastors out there that want to talk about the things that are most controversial and will upset people in their church. Uh, but it's so hard now because there are so many things that are so political and divided right down the middle. I know. Uh, so whether it comes to, um, L G B T Q issues or the war in Ukraine or COVID response or Donald Trump and Joe Biden, or again, I don't know that we need to be preaching specifically on who is the president and who we should. I'm not saying that, but you probably, you know, with all of the, um, the civil unrest surrounding George Floyd's death, I think those kinds of things, there is a lot of division that can be created, but it is important that we not avoid those topics just because it might make people uncomfortable or certainly because we are afraid that people might think differently of us. Yeah. Or our big givers might not give anymore, or it might make them look for another church or those things, you know, you're called to preach what God's called you to preach. So if you've done the work you're doing, um, you're praying about it. You're doing the brainstorming. You're focus on, along on the things we're talking about. Uh, you need to go head long into some of these biblically relevant, hard topics that are out there. Yeah. So agree, Speaker 4 00:20:21 Totally agree. And one of the things I love about my church and my pastor being, and we've, I've said this on many podcasts, um, that, uh, basically, um, being a part of a mega size church, a lot of times people assume, you know, for that church to stay large and keep reaching visitors, uh, they better avoid hard topics. And one of the things I love about our church and our pastors, we don't avoid those topics. Sure. Have we lost probably a good chunk of visitors often. Yep. But, uh, but we go there, we go to those hard topics and, and, and, and you're healthier when you do that because you're not, uh, watering things down. And so, uh, I think that that's told for every pastor to do, but I, especially like it, uh, when, uh, big name pastors and churches don't avoid those topics. Uh it's because it, it shows where their heart's at. So I think that's great. So Speaker 0 00:21:11 Why don't you hit, I mean, I don't know if you said this, but yeah. It is the last one basically. Right. Speaker 4 00:21:15 And most certainly not least do preach biblical truth. And that's, that's exactly kind of where we were going with that is that, uh, that is what every pastor is called to preach. Every minister's, the preach is biblical truth. We cannot, uh, we cannot veer away from that. Uh, especially in this day and age where I, I think it's easier for a lot of churches. We do see a lot of churches veering away from that, unfortunately, but, uh, that is, uh, I think, um, definitely something we have to, uh, I know <laugh> that we can't do. So, yeah. So <affirmative>, Speaker 0 00:21:48 That was always my favorite thing about preaching through books of the Bible, as opposed to coming up with topical sermons is that it forced me to not avoid hard topics and to always, you know, preach biblical truth preaching from scripture and what Jesus served, you know, whatever the pat, whoever the writer of scripture was in that case, what they're saying in scripture there. So, uh, yeah, I couldn't agree more, Ian, I think that, um, going ahead long into what the word says, not shrinking back from it not being ashamed of it, uh, you know, we have to own it never apologizing for it, for sure. But yeah, absolutely preaching biblical truth instead of avoiding hard topics. That's really important. Speaker 4 00:22:26 Yeah. Awesome. Speaker 0 00:22:27 Awesome. Good. I hope this has been helpful. Um, I, I know that I know I've been, uh, caught up in many of these before. I know I've experienced preachers block before. Uh, so hopefully this is something that kind of maybe jars something loose, uh, and, uh, gets you over that hump, if it has been, if that's been your experience too, if this has been helpful to you, it would mean so much to us. If you rate review, subscribe, also let us know in the comments, if there's anything that you do to help you get over preacher's block, when you need some help, kind of coming up with a new topic idea or something like that, we'd love to hear what you think kind of, uh, join in with, uh, our reach, right family here and help other pastors that are maybe watching or listening to this. That would mean a lot to us. So thank you so much for being a part of our reach, right family. Uh, and we hope to catch you next week. Speaker 4 00:23:13 See you, Speaker 0 00:23:16 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 Wright, studios.com. If the, 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. Speaker 2 00:23:45 Ready to get.