Your Preaching Calendar Questions – How Far in Advance Should I Plan and More

Last week’s “How to Plan Your 2010 Preaching Calendar” Webinars were a great success and I’ve enjoyed hearing from so many of you about how your planning is going.  I have also received a number of recurring questions that I’d like to address, starting today, here on the blog.

Q: How far in advance does the preaching calendar planning process need to start?

A: The short answer is as far in advance as you can get started.  As I mentioned at the end of the webinar, planning ahead 6-8 weeks is better than nothing.  However, you’re typically going to be wrapping up the past year and looking ahead at this time of year anyway, so I’ve found that November is a great time to get started.

I would encourage you to carve out some time and get to work on planning your preaching calendar as soon as possible.  If you have never done it before and you saturate the planning process with prayer and fasting, you will be amazed at how clearly 2010 will begin to come into focus as you plan.

Q: You mentioned collecting ideas from your congregation about sermon topics for the next year.  Do you leave it open ended or have a list of topics for them to pick?

A: Like I said in the webinar, I’m not sure you want to solicit ideas from everyone who attends your church (unless you can clearly explain it), but you may ask for ideas from members, small group leaders and other key leaders.  I would place this type of input in the early “information gathering” phase of planning your preaching calendar, so it will probably be pretty open ended.

This information combined with the topics your teaching team comes up with is a great starting point, but again, you definitely want to hear from God on what to include in the upcoming year and what to hold off on for the time being (and be sure to save all topics that may work at a later time).

Q: I’m a church planter, where do I start? My leadership team is all volunteer and aren’t “pastors”, do I still give them the full weight that you are giving your team to help create series?

A: Early on in your church plant (especially if you’re the only teaching pastor), planning your preaching calendar can seem like a massive undertaking – no “teaching team,” limited time to work on it, etc. – but let me encourage you to make the time to pray, fast and plan out your preaching in advance.  You can still collect ideas from others, but the bulk of the responsibility for putting together the preaching calendar will fall on you.

However, by planning ahead you will be able to 1) involve more people in the creative process, 2) be more strategic about your Big Days & when to address specific topics, and 3) be more intentional with your promotional efforts.  On top of all that, you will be able to lower your stress by knowing far in advance what messages you will need to prepare.

Q: Did you state that you plan your preaching calendar with your staff?

A: If you have multiple teaching pastors on staff, they are a natural preaching calendar planning team.  Each person has a vested interest in the preaching calendar and will bring valuable ideas to the table – both about what series to include and how to best approach them.

Involve the people that you believe will be helpful to the process.  You are certainly free to include others (beyond the teaching team) in the planning process, but no matter who is involved, remember that the ultimate responsibility of the preaching calendar belongs to the Senior Pastor.

P.S.- If you missed the “How to Plan Your 2010 Preaching Calendar” Webinar, you can listen to a replay of the audio at: www.ChurchLeaderInsights.com/preachingreplay

P.P.S. – For a set of resources that will upgrade all aspects of your Worship Planning, check out The Worship Planning Premium Package.

Did You Miss the 2010 Preaching Calendar Webinar?

Thanks so much to the almost 2,000 of you who joined me last week to walk through the 2010 calendar in my “How to Plan Your 2010 Preaching Calendar” Webinars.

Whether you were able to be a part of the webinars or not, I’m giving you another chance to listen.

We have set up a special page where you can listen to an audio replay of one of the webinars from last week.

It doesn’t include my slides or the bonus resources that I gave to everyone who joined me in the live webinars, but you can get all of the content from the audio to help you plan your 2010 Preaching Calendar!

You can listen at:

www.ChurchLeaderInsights.com/preachingreplay

Also, I’ll be posting some of the frequently asked Preaching Calendar Questions from the webinars here on the blog later this week.

P.S. Feel free to share this post with anyone who might find it helpful.  I am excited to see and hear about all that God is going to do in and through our churches in 2010.  Thanks again for your support!

LAST CHANCE – Free Preaching Calendar Webinars

I can’t wait to get started with my series of 4 “How to Plan Your 2010 Preaching Calendar” Webinars today!

The first of the 4 is today, from 1:30 – 2:45pm EST.  Then, I’ll be leading 2 tomorrow and 1 final webinar on Thursday.

In each of these webinars, I’ll be walking you step-by-step through the 2010 Calendar, pointing out the pitfalls and possibilities that are already built in.

Last week I gave away my bestselling Planning a One Year Preaching Calendar resource for FREE (nearly 1,500 of you took me up on that offer).  That one hour resource taught you the “principles” of planning your preaching calendar.

This week – through these 75-minute webinars – I want to help you APPLY those principles to the 2010 calendar to reduce stress, increase creativity and maximize the effectiveness of your preaching in the coming year.

It’s not too late for you to sign up, just CLICK HERE for more information and to Register Now!

FREE Preaching Calendar Webinars (next week)

Planning your preaching calendar in advance is one of the absolute best ways I’ve found to reduce stress and increase creativity as a pastor.  And I’m determined to help you implement this practice for 2010!

Hopefully, you’ve already seen and downloaded a FREE copy of my “Planning a One Year Preaching Calendar” Resource that I’ve been giving away this week and that’s just the beginning of how I want to help.

Next week, I’m doing a series of FREE WEBINARS for teaching pastors called “How to Plan Your 2010 Preaching Calendar,” where I will literally walk you through the 2010 calendar over the course of our 75 minutes together and help you plan what you’re going to preach over the next year.

I don’t remember being more excited about any of the webinars we’ve done than I am about these!  Here’s the information:

FREE – Register Now!		Join Nelson Searcy in this 75-minute webinar without ever having to leave your office or home! Nelson will walk you, step-by-step, through the actual planning process for your 2010 preaching calendar. Once registered, you will simply need a phone and a computer with internet access to participate. This is a great opportunity to train your entire staff with this webinar.
4 Convenient Times to Choose From! Tuesday November 10, 2009 1:30PM – 2:45PM Eastern Wednesday November 11, 2009 3:00PM – 4:15PM Eastern Wednesday November 11, 2009 7:00PM – 8:15PM Eastern Thursday November 12, 2009 4:00PM – 5:15PM Eastern In each of these webinars, Nelson will walk you through: When to plan your 2010 Big Days (and when not to plan them). How to make the most of people’s natural seasonal patterns. The best times in 2010 for each of the 3 different types of sermon series (attraction, growth & balance). How to make Easter in 2010 more effective than ever at your church. Which days you can expect fewer people and how to best use those days. Plus much more! These Webinars are FREE! Space is limited – Register today Tuesday November 10, 2009 1:30PM – 2:45PM Eastern 12:30PM – 1:45PM Central 11:30AM – 12:45PM Mountain 10:30AM – 11:45AM Pacific Wednesday November 11, 2009 3:00PM – 4:15PM Eastern 2:00PM – 3:15PM Central 1:00PM – 2:15PM Mountain 12:00PM – 1:15PM Pacific Wednesday November 11, 2009 7:00PM – 8:15PM Eastern 6:00PM – 7:15PM Central 5:00PM – 6:15PM Mountain 4:00PM – 5:15PM Pacific Thursday November 12, 2009 4:00PM – 5:15PM Eastern 3:00PM – 4:15PM Central 2:00PM – 3:15PM Mountain 1:00PM – 2:15PM Pacific

Church Leader Insights exists to help you maximize your ministry and this webinar is my virtual opportunity to sit down across the table from you and walk you through this planning process.

I hope you’ll sign up for one of the 4 times we have available AND pass this information along to any other teaching pastors you know.

Download Your Free Preaching Calendar Training (Free MP3 Resource)

NOW is the time to plan what you will be preaching in 2010!

To help you plan your 2010 Preaching Calendar, I would like to give you a FREE copy of Planning a One Year Preaching Calendar (one of my best-selling resources).

By planning your preaching calendar in advance, you can lower your stress, increase the creativity of your team and leverage the calendar more effectively than ever before!

To receive your Free “Planning a One Year Preaching Calendar” resource, click the link below and sign up for yours:

http://www.churchleaderinsights.com/preaching

P.S.  While you’re at it, be sure to sign up for one of the FREE “How to Plan Your 2010 Preaching Calendar” Webinars that I’m doing next week – 4 times to choose from!  You can sign up when you sign up for your resource at the above link.

How to Handle Announcements without Making Announcements

Announcements.  Not a big deal to most people, but to those of us in church leadership “announcements” can be equivalent to a four-letter word.

You’ve probably had the same experience that I have: You’re having an amazing worship service – the music is just right, the message is spot-on, the Holy Spirit is moving and you can see on people’s faces that God is dealing with them – until… it’s time for the dreaded announcements.

We’ve eliminated announcements from our worship order at The Journey for this very reason.  Any time I mention that, I get email after email from pastors asking how we’re able to do that and still have people show up for our various events and activities.

Here are a few ideas to help you eliminate Sunday morning announcement time:

- Announcement slides before and after the service (similar to what you would see in a movie before the movie previews)

- Email blasts – Send an email blast each week or every two weeks depending on what events are on the schedule.  www.ConstantContact.com is a great resource for this, but there are dozens of similar mass email companies that will help out immensely in keeping people in the loop.

- Point people to your website. Stop right now and check your church’s website.  Is it up to date? If you’re like most churches, you probably take great pains to keep your website updated.  Make sure you use that as a tool to communicate your events.

- Small Groups – No matter what’s coming up, have your small group leaders announce events and remind people of what’s going on.

- “Preach Your Announcements” – this is the biggest tool of all!  When you’re preparing your message, ask yourself, “What events are we preparing for that will help people apply this message?”  This will also make sure that your church activities have a purpose.  Churches can have greater effectiveness by reducing the number of events to only those that help people apply what’s being taught.

- Over time, you can also train your church to look for the announcements in the bulletin.  This may take some time, but it will happen.  You may also want to have event info at your resource table so that if someone is looking for more information they can pick it up there.

- When you preach, tell stories of how previous events have impacted people’s lives.  Example – share a testimony on how small groups impacted someone and then briefly announce the sign up.  Or tell the story how someone was impacted by community event and tell people why they need to be involved in the next event.

- Have your ministries take responsibility for getting people involved in the event or activity.  Let them know that the stage is for communicating the weekend message not publicizing events.  Have them take ownership of getting people involved in the activities by personally inviting people.  A personal invitation is more effective than an announcement.

Lastly, people don’t need the announcements as much as we think they do.  The goal is not how much we communicate but how effective we are at communicating it.  Preaching an announcement is far more effective than actually announcing it.  Telling a story about an event is far more effective than announcing it.

I hope that helps.

P.S. For more on planning dynamic, powerful Worship Services, check out Planning Worship Services for Life Transformation.

New Worship Leader Insights Podcast

Jason Hatley over at Worship Leader Insights, our partner site for Worship Leaders, has a brand new podcast entitled:

Your Worship Team Can Grow … Today!
Click Here to Listen

If your worship leader isn’t on Jason’s list, be sure they sign-up at www.WorshipLeaderInsights.com (or better yet, take a moment and just sign them up yourself).

Nelson

P.S. For more from Jason, check out his brand new resource on “How to Double Your Worship Arts Team” by clicking here.

Free Sermons

Quick post this morning – I just wanted to share some free stuff with all of you.

Here’s a link for you to download 3 of my sermon transcripts for FREE.

These three sermon transcripts are designed to help you lead your church to be obedient to God, to live a life that makes a difference, and to focus on what’s most important:

• Pausing for What Matters Most
• What Drives My Life
• How to Get the Most Out of Life

Here’s the link:

http://www.churchleaderinsights.com/resources/free_sermons.php

P.S. For complete Sermon Series packages (messages, graphics, etc.), CLICK HERE.

Are Your Passionate About Sunday (A Sunday Quote)

“Only passions, great passions, can elevate the soul to great things.”
– Denis Diderot, French Philosopher

A “Wonder”-ous Opportunity

I have been invited to lead the Teaching Track at the Willow Arts Conference on June 10-12. The theme is “Wonder” and it’s definitely a wondrous opportunity for me.

In fact, with big names like John Ortberg leading this track in the past, it’s got me scratching my head… everyone else must be out of town that week.

Seriously though, it is a tremendous honor and I hope you will consider joining me. The folks at Willow put together a powerful conference each year and this one won’t disappoint.

Here’s the link if you’re interested:
http://www.willowcreek.com/events/arts/2009/index.html

Either way, I hope you’ll pray for me as I prepare.

Thanks!

P.S. If you don’t already have it, I encourage you to invest in my Planning a One Year Preaching Calendar resource by clicking here: https://nelsonsearcy.infusionsoft.com/cart/store.jsp?view=4&i=p93&navicat=35