Sermon planning and a preaching calendar

Lee Stephenson: Welcome, everyone to the Unfiltered podcast. Lee Stephenson here - vice president Church Planting with Converge.

Danny Parmelee: And I'm Danny Parmelee. I oversee Church Planting for Converge MidAmerica.

Lee Stephenson: And today on the docket, we're going to talk a little bit about preaching. And specifically thinking through your preaching calendar. And so a couple questions to get us going, Danny. When it came to your planning, kind of your sermon series and the year, did you kind of go week by week? Did you plan month by month? Six months in advance? A year in advance? Three years in advance? Like what was your rhythm when it came to just the planning side of it?

Danny Parmelee: Yeah, well, when we started out, we did expository through books of the Bible. And part of that was I chose that. So even if we discuss - and I think we have before on this...you know, the difference between, you know, topical versus going through books of the Bible, I chose that just because it honestly was the easiest to be able to do. And so that was kind of dictated for me in the beginning. I think we went through the book of Matthew. I picked narrative. It was easy, because honestly, my prep time was I was finishing it up Saturday night. And you know, then okay, what am I going to preach on the next day? Well, I did Matthew chapter one. So now I'm going to do Matthew chapter two. So, in that sort of way, now, that actually stuck with us as far as doing expository and going through books of the Bible. But we did kind of settle into a rhythm. And then the more that we grew, and the more that we added other preachers and teachers to kind of the team, that rhythm solidified. And so for that, we would start a new book of the Bible, in September, based on when the schools started back up. And we did it basically through the school calendar. So then, if it was like, we were going to do Ephesians, that started, you know, Labor Day weekend, September. Did a big bash, because it was connected to our small groups. And then we would end that in June, when school was out. So that set the rhythm for us. But then I'll also add that we had a few times in there where we broke from the expository and did like a three week, you know, outreach type of sermon. So always after Superbowl Sunday, we would do a three week series. And that would be the you know, sex-love-romance. The politics, religion. You know, like some sort of shocking type of title. Catchy. Like, you know, bring your friends. This is the time we're going to dive into some crazy stuff. And that just became a great rhythm for us. And then the summers would kind of rotate some different types of things. So maybe it was going through our mission and values. Maybe it was picking a smaller book of the Bible. Or maybe doing some kind of miniseries type of thing. So for us, that's how we did it. Again, it created more prep. And the larger that we got, and the more that it was tied to our small groups, we had to do lots of planning in the summer in order to say, "Okay, here's how the passages are going to be broken apart. Here's who's going to be (we think) preaching on each one." And kind of the planning that way. And then, "Here's when we're going to do that special series," or, "Hey, this year, we're going to do an Advent. So, we're going to put, you know, five weeks in here, that's going to be based on the advent calendar."

Lee Stephenson: Okay. So, you would plan summer time?

Danny Parmelee: Yep.

Lee Stephenson: And would it be during the summertime that you'd actually plan out based on the school calendar?

Danny Parmelee: Yep. Based on the school calendar. And because it was tied, we did our small groups were based on the sermon. So, it…we literally had to, because we had printed material, like an actual book that was printed. So, all of the sermon outlines were completely done by August, so that we could go to print and have books in hand that we would give to people so that they would know, this is what it looked like September through June for all of that. And again, I know it's weird because it's like printed, everything's digital now. But there was something about people walking around with these books. And they were excited and they could, you know, they could write in them and have the sermons notes and that type of thing. So, for us, it really, it reinforced and it connected, the small group system that we had and the sermon series together.

Lee Stephenson: Now, you talked about like, say, you walk through the book of Ephesians. Now was that...did you literally take the entire school calendar to walk through the book of Ephesians?

Danny Parmelee: Yes, so it was almost always just one book. However, if we had shorter books... So, one time we did Amos and James. So, because both of those are smaller books and then we also - they had some similar themes. So, they were paired together. We still produced one book, but the cover was, you know, Amos first and then James second. And because it was shorter, we were able to do two books. And we always tried to balance content a bit. An Old Testament and New Testament. So, if we did Ephesians, you know, for one of them, then we would switch to an Old Testament book, and, you know, go through an Old Testament book the next year type of thing.

Lee Stephenson: Okay. Okay, so that makes good sense.

Danny Parmelee: How about you guys? What's worked for you? What are some different things that you've heard as far as you know, calendar planning, and how far in advance and how much flexibility?

Lee Stephenson: Yeah, I personally like to plan a year out. And usually... Now, this time around, I just haven't had that luxury, just with the schedule and stuff. So, I work about six months in advance at this point. And that just gives you... I mean, it just makes life so much easier. Knowing okay, next Sunday, this is what's planned. Following Sunday, this is what's planned. My typical rhythm is I like taking a week, you know, kind of study break during the summer. And just kind of plan it out. Pray. Think through. Write out. And then I plan around the big weekends. So again, like every community has its rhythm. So, you want to pay attention to that rhythm. And those, the key kind of points are school. When are the school breaks? When are sports kicking back in? Christmas, obviously. New Year. Easter. Like you want to plan accordingly around those types of things. I was kind of a mix. So, there were seasons of the year where we do a book study, and we just go verse by verse through the book study. And then there were other times that it was like...

Danny Parmelee: Wait. So, you actually preach the Bible at your church? This is new information.

Lee Stephenson: I know. Yeah. So, I don't care what people say. We still talk about the Bible. But, and then I kind of interchange moments of kind of more of a topical series. I still preach through it from an expository standpoint. But we'll introduce, you know, "Hey, we're gonna do a generosity series for three or four weeks during the month of November." That that type of thing.

Danny Parmelee: Yeah. Can you tell me a little bit more about the week kind of study break? And how detailed when you come out? So, let's say you go to your cabin. This is how I imagine it.  You go to your cabin, and, you know, what do you end up with on the other side? Is it large categories? Like, hey, I'm going to do four weeks on giving and six weeks on serving? Or do you get down to the name of this one is "Tough Love." And it's all about speaking the truth in love, and you even come up? Or do you set just general categories and then as you bring a creative team in? Talk to me a little bit, what's the outcome?

Lee Stephenson: No, I'm a little bit more detailed in kind of the outcome. So, I will typically try to create at least a title. It may not be what we actually use. But I'll create a series title that kind of gives direction to where the series is going to go. And then creative team will come in and help kind of, "Okay, no, that's perfect." Like, "I love that title." Or, "No, that's too negative, we need a more positive feel." You know, that kind of thing. And then I'll try to break it out. So okay, is this gonna be four weeks? Is it going to be eight weeks? You know, that type of thing. And then I actually will come up with a key passage for each week of kind of, "Hey, I think this is where we need to go." Now, it may change last minute, but it still gives clarity. And then I'll kind of write maybe a one sentence idea of what do I want to see accomplished in that week. And then I put it all on the calendar for the team to be able to begin to look at. And then we look, we look at eight weeks out. Kind of firming things up. Six weeks, it's locked and loaded. So that the worship team and anybody else can...if there's a special element that we want to include, it gives us time to figure that out. Plan. If we need a testimony to get recorded, we have the time to get that taken care of, edited. Be used, you know during that service or that series. And then we kind of code it. So we have what we call A series, B Series, C Series. A level series are all in. Like key leaders, staff, like you cannot take a vacation. You've got to be there. We're probably going to do some type of external marketing campaign. But it's gonna be a high push type of experience. And we at the most may do four of those a year. That's where we're probably the most creative as well. B is internal marketing only. You know, we may encourage our people, "Hey, invite." But we're not gonna...we're not marketing, Facebook or Google ads and things of that sort. C level series like, that's when people take your vacations.

Danny Parmelee: That's when you invite me to come and preach?

Lee Stephenson: That's what I invite Danny to come preach. That's when I plan my surgeries, you know, that kind of thing.

Danny Parmelee: I was wondering what that code was like, "Hey, Danny, will you preach on this weekend C?" So...you know.

Lee Stephenson: You thought you just had to show up and be average, right?

Danny Parmelee: Yeah.

Lee Stephenson: But that kind of coding that really gives clarity, I think to the entire team as to what's the expectation is, as they kind of move forward,

Danny Parmelee: That’s great. How much flexibility, I guess, theoretically, do you have? But then also when it works. I'm assuming you're saying, "Hey, yeah, we're flexible." If there's some sort of national crisis. Or, "I'm just feeling like, hey, we need to do one on marriage or something like that." Because if all the sudden, you know, you've got all these couples in your office. Counseling is like, "Man, we need to hit this." But in practicality, how would you say, you track as far as this is what we plan, it's usually spot on. Or yeah, there's usually a time where we, you know, flip flop a couple different things.

Lee Stephenson: Yeah, it's, I always try to plan three to four Sundays in the year that aren't scripted. So, it's not like, "Hey, this week will be an off week." And that gives us opportunity to either, hey, we need to extend a series. That gives us the freedom to be able to do that. Or we need to have a one-off special conversation. We have the freedom to kind of move the series around in order to take whatever we need there. The other thing that honestly gives us a level of freedom is baptism Sundays are not connected necessarily to the series. So, we'll maybe preach a specific series leading up to baptism to kind of, you know, encourage people what it means to step out in faith. Live a life that's Christ-like. That kind of thing. But baptism, specifically, I just teach on baptism.

Danny Parmelee: Yeah. That's great.

Lee Stephenson: And so I take 25 to 30 minutes and just... It is almost the exact same script every time we do baptism service. And so if for some reason, it's like, "Man, we really need to extend the conversation," I can also bring that into a baptism service, if necessary. And that happens on the occasion.

Danny Parmelee: What are your thoughts on ripping off series from other people? And I say that kind of tongue-in-cheek because some churches even provide resources for that. So, I think, for example, I don't know if they still do, but I remember that Life Church would be like, "Hey, you know, we did this, you know, here's the graphics for whatever." You know, creative sermon idea that they had. And you're welcome to use it, you know, make it your own type of thing, of course. What are your thoughts on that? Using it? Not using it? Or if you even have, if you're for other resources, besides maybe Life Church that that people could go to?

Lee Stephenson: I'm not against it. I wouldn't make it a regular diet of it. But honestly, especially for church planters, where you may not have somebody to do graphic arts and creative elements and stuff of that for you, when it comes to marketing and video clips and creating bumper videos. I mean, that stuff takes a lot of time, a lot of planning, and it takes resources financially to be able to pull that off. I think you can elevate the quality by using some of this stuff that's out there, that some of the mega churches are producing, I would still encourage you, like figure out a way to spin it. So, it fits the context of where you're at. Because Oklahoma Life Church isn't going to necessarily translate to New Jersey. And so thinking through my context, I think this is a good conversation. I'm going to use the title. I'll use their graphics. But I'm going to rework the way that the series operates to best fit my people in the message that I feel like God's calling me to our group. There are a lot of churches out there honestly that are doing that at this point. I know Life Church is a big one. Eagle Brook, one of our Converge churches - if you're part of the association, you have access to be able to see and use some of their resources. 12 Stones Church, North Point, there are a lot of those churches out there that are now at the point where they're sharing their sermon series, or at least the graphics and stuff of that sort.

Danny Parmelee: You don't even need to erase their logo off it. They literally provide it for you, you know, so you can put your logo here.

Lee Stephenson: Yeah, absolutely. And we don't market it. But even like in our church, if a church... Occasionally I'll have planters or something like that reach out go, "Man, we really liked that series. Can we use that?" And I'm like, yeah, absolutely. We're more than happy to share our resources.

Danny Parmelee: For a small donation to Unfiltered podcast, you can definitely do that.

Lee Stephenson: There you go. But I think when it comes to sermon planning and creating the preaching calendar, I think it's important like, don't wait till the last minute. You know, think it through. If you have people that are creative and really understand even scripture, bring them into the room to help you with that. And have fun. I think that's the other thing I would encourage people to do is leave some margin but enjoy the process of thinking through communication. Great conversation, Danny. And I know that you're probably anti- "using anybody else's resources."

Danny Parmelee: No, I wouldn't go that far. No need to recreate the wheel. I don't think it's a bad thing. I like what you said, though. Not a steady diet of it. If someone is going to your church and they're like, "Hey, you're two weeks behind Elevation Church." That's when I start to go, "Yeah, you kind of..."

Lee Stephenson: There's a problem there.

Danny Parmelee: You're getting a little bit lazy.

Lee Stephenson: Exactly. Well, great conversation, Danny. And everyone, thanks for tuning in. Until next time, keep it real.