How long does it take to write a sermon?

It takes longer in the first years of the Ministry than it does as one gains experience. This is to be expected. Experience ought to bring efficiency. Unfortunately, experience can also bring an ability to fake it. Many can preach convincingly on any Biblical text with no preparation at all. They can open the Bible randomly and expound upon whatever passage is read. That is a good skill to have, but it is a skill that can easily be abused.

For me, these days, sermons usually take 4-5 hours of preparation. That includes the hour plus that I spend talking to Jason Braaten each week for the Gottesdienst Crowd podcast “Thinking Out Loud.” Those 4-5 hours are spread over at least two weeks.

The Petersen Pomodora Method of Sermon Writing

I work in 25 minute blocks of time. This is the time management system known as the Pomodoro Technique. In those 25 minute blocks of time I focus in the most narrow of ways. It is extreme uni-tasking. I set a timer. While the time runs I do one single task and will not do anything else. I will not answer the phone if it rings. I will not respond if someone knocks on my door. If the fire alarm goes off, I stay put. I’d rather burn to death than violate this rule.

For the first block of sermon prep, I sit at my desk with the timer running. This is usually early Monday morning of week 1. There is nothing in front of me except Reader’s edition of the Greek New Testament which has a built in lexicon at the bottom of the page, an English Bible, a legal pad, and a pen. I read the text in English. Then I translate the text as best I can. I skip words I don’t know and just move on. I only translate the pericope that I am preaching on. I don’t translate the whole chapter or the other readings. I use the English Bible to get the context and to fix my translation.

The whole time, I am taking notes of anything that pops into my head or things that I need to look up. Rather than think in terms of Law and Gospel as categories, I think in terms of doctrine. I ask myself the following questions: “What is the thesis of this pericope? What does it teach? What errors does it reproof? What morality does it express or immorality does it expose and condemn? What disciplines might it suggest or name? What virtues does it suggest?”

I am thinking explicitly about the 5-fold use of Holy Scripture in accord with Walther’s Pastoral Theology, attempting to align my thinking about the text’s narrative, vocabulary, and context to those categories. The proper distinction between Law and Gospel is always at work. It is most essential for pastoral care and it is always part of exegesis. It can be, at times, a valid sermon outline that follows a text closely or is otherwise chosen by the preacher. It can also be a doctrine that is preached on. That being said, it is only one doctrine. It is not the only doctrine taught in the Scriptures. It should not be the default method of developing ideas, outlining, or drafting.

If I think of other things at any point in this process I write them down. If a sermon outline or an example or a quote I need to run down pops into my head, I scribble it out right then. The uni of unitask here is not rigidly discovery or invention. Rather is the simplicity of the text. I do not allow myself to veer from sermon prep or to get caught up in multiple tools. So if an idea comes for outline or draft and the mood is upon me, I seize it so long as it can be done without moving from my seat and with pen and paper.

I also write down anything that pops into my head that needs action. I might remember, for example, that someone needs a call or I need to check when my dentist appointment is or to pick up milk on the way home. Writing these things down frees my memory and improves my concentration. Since they are written down, I don’t have to try to remember them and erode my focus for the task at hand.

If I am in the zone when the timer goes off, I just keep working. If not, I take a 5 minute break and a quick walk, usually to fill up my coffee cup. I also then deal with those things I wrote down that weren’t related to sermon prep but need action. I might check e-mail and other messages. Then I start the timer again for whatever my next task is which might be sermon prep or might be some other task.

I will do at least one more 25 minute block for sermon prep before I talk to Jason on either Monday or Tuesday of week 1. This is when I will run down other things that I wrote. If CPH has a commentary in the blue series on the text I am preaching on I almost always consult it. I might also read a Luther sermon or track down some doctrine I wrote down in Pieper or the modern red Confessional Dogmatics series or in Gerhard and the Book of Concord. I still avoid screens. I don’t touch a keyboard. I am still reading and taking notes about ideas. This is usually where I might look things up in Wallace’s intermediate grammar or a lexicon. Again, as I read and take notes, I am thinking specifically about what that text teaches.

Depending on the week, I might do one more block before talking to Braaten but almost never more than three. Finally, I talk to Braaten for an hour usually on a Tuesday late morning of week 1. That hour has become a highlight of my week and an important source for mining and refining ideas.

After that, I need at least a week for it to sit and germinate. I have rarely started actual drafting or editing. Now I pick up the text I worked on a week or two before which will be for the immediately following Sunday. Call this Wednesday of week 2. This is a text that I have sat on for a while. This lag is important. Unconscious thinking, which is where our best insights and creativity tend to come from, needs content. Even though I am not consciously thinking about the text, I have identified ideas and problems and my unconscious mind is working on it while I am exercising or in the shower or half-engaged in other things. If I don’t have the lag I lose this benefit. I also take the week 2 text, that is the text I am preaching on the immediate next Sunday, to shut-ins and other visits as a preview. I don’t count those visits or unconscious thinking as part of my 4-5 hours of prep time but they are important.

At some point in week 2, even as I have started some exegetical work and list-making on a text further out, I set another timer and read the text and my handwritten notes. I like to do this on Monday afternoon but sometimes it waits until later. If I haven’t read any sermons on this text or looked it up in the Book of Concord, I do that now. I normally want to spend two 25 minute sessions looking at how others handled this text. Again, if I am in the zone and having fun and the timer goes off and I don’t have something scheduled, I just keep going.

A lot of pastors resist this. They are afraid of trying to hold two sermons in their minds at the same time. I am sympathetic but find it easier over time to do this. None of us has much choice but to do this during Holy Week and at Christmas so we might as well make the effort to get better at it. That being said, I don’t really hold two sermons in my mind at the same time. The week 1 text is not a sermon for me at this point. It is just background work. I rarely start any drafting or outlining on that text before the other sermon is preached and thus I don’t find it difficult. I do think, however, that this process has made it easier for me to handle back-to-back sermons with no time in between when it is necessary.

On Saturday morning of week 2, I write the actual sermon. I often do this in a single 25 minute session. I do so as an outline on a legal pad with a pen. Sometimes I still type a manuscript but not very often. It takes longer to write a manuscript. To this point I have put three and half hours into the sermon over two weeks and if needed could preach it on the spot. On Sunday morning, though, I do serious revising. I typically arrive at Church early and preach it out loud before anyone else arrives. Then I rewrite the outline and do it again. I might do that as many as three times. It also takes about an hour. I don’t set a timer on Sunday mornings. The pressure is already there and provides all that I need to focus. Altogether then, including Sunday morning prep but not the actual preaching or shut-in visits and the like, I am spending about four and half hours a week on formal sermon prep.

I can and I do write sermons faster than that. I do so for weekdays on a regular basis. I don’t always consult the Greek. I don’t always read any other sermons or commentators. For some situations or based upon other circumstances I will just open up an English Bible, read it, and write a sermon. I can do that because the Bible and the Lectionary in particular are very familiar to me, as is my audience most of the time, I have a lot of experience. But if I did that all the time, I wouldn’t grow or learn new things. I wouldn’t be reading or thinking deeply. So, normally, for Sunday mornings I slow myself down on purpose. I invent resistance and go through the process. It is an act of worship for me and I believe that it pays off, that is, that it keeps me from simply repeating myself.