Make sure to plan your sermons in advance.
Five Types of Sermons:
- Fishing Expeditions — addressing the questions or concerns of non-religious individuals.
- Want to announce those at Candlelight Christmas Eve service which can be a great time to draw visitors.
- Discipleship Sermons — take folks deeper in their faith (usually in Lent)
- Healing Sermons — pastoral counseling from the pulpit. Pastoral care sermons that deal with brokenness. Usually right after Easter, and have connection to fishing.
- Equipping and sending sermons — XN ethics, mission, service — usually happens in the fall
- Institutional development sermons — focused on strengthening the church, including stewardship.
Every year he takes a week as a part of his work to prepare sermons. Invites the congregation to offer suggestions about their needs and what would make it easy to invite their friends.
After planning he invites church leaders to help him discern from a variety of ideas from the five topics lifted above.
Preplanning is revolutionary, allowing for coordination.
- Have folks write down the three hardest questions about why folks don’t want to be Christian, allowing unchurched people the opportunity to set the agenda.
We Methodists have a theological framework that provides answers to difficult questions of theodicy.
You need to preach about the issues of evil and brokenness regularly as folks need to hear it.
Equipping and Sending Sermons — pastors are the chief ethicist of the congregation. It is the job of the pastor to help folks understand how faith connects to daily life.
Tools that you can give people to help in their faith —
GPS — Grow, pray, and study guide. Weekly devotion, notes for sermon, and place for prayer requests.
Adam preaches regularly on the Wesley Covenant Prayer, giving it on a credit card and encourage folks to memorize it.
Remember you baptism prayers that you hang in your shower. I also gives to every high school graduate to help them remember their baptism.
Give folks tools to help them in their faith.
Only Wonder Understands 