My Message Prep Process
Sep 4, 2008 Uncategorized
Earlier this week, I posted my iPhone Ap Review and while the review was considered “boring” by many, a few were curious about my message prep process. It’s also a question I get nearly every week, so I thought I’d post a bit here.
My process is entirely my own, influenced of course by everyone who I have ever heard teach or talk about how they prepare their messages. In other words, just like preaching its an odd combination of inspiration, sweat, plagiarism, and the Holy Spirit.
Step One - Farming
I know my preaching topics a few months in advance. I usually kick a few ideas past our Creative Team and some of my co-pastors. Once I have settled on a concept, my brain goes into “farming mode.” Every website I skim, every magazine I read, every movie I watch, every song I hear, every passage in the Bible I know begins to be farmed for inspiration. I always have my notebook and iPhone with me to capture ideas as I have them. I also scan a bunch of stuff into Evernote for future reference.
By the time I get to my next step, I have a huge stack of paper to wade through.
Step Two - Processing
I then take all of this raw material and spread it out on a table in my office. If I am preaching through a specific text of the Bible, I print it in 5 or 6 translations and that goes into the mix, as well.
The pile stares at me. I stare at it. Patterns emerge. I begin to chicken scratch concepts onto a pad of paper, all the while stopping to pray for a bit, take a walk, drink coffee, read the Bible, etc. Eventually, I transition to my white board and I start mindmapping out a message.
Once it has taken shape, I usually leave it alone for a day or so to marinade.
Step Three - Manuscript
I then stare at the whiteboard with my trusty MacBook Pro in front of me and I type away. I convert the mindmap into a manuscript and I play around with the wording. Sometimes I can get way too anal at this point, being picky about the exact words I want to use. However, this pickiness helps me to really turn the message over and over in my head.
Step Four - Practice
At this point, I practice the message outloud as if I was preaching it at church. I reword constantly as I go and I also time the talk, writing little timestamps all over the notes. I then type these changes into the manuscript and put the message away for a few days.
Step Five - Doodle
After a few days, I come back to the message and I reread it (half outloud), drawing little doodles on the edge of the paper. When I am done, I transfer these doodles onto a legal size sheet of paper and I talk through the message in my head while I do this. By the time I am done with this step, the message is mostly memorized. I scan it into my computer and when I am teaching the pictures are right there on my monitor to help me remember where I am in the message.
That’s it. My process has been evolving quite a bit (especially over the last year) and I think I am finding a bit of a rhythm that works for me. I am sounding more like myself and less like other guys I listen to all the time. That is a good thing.
Just in case you are curious, here are a couple links for you:
A copy of last week’s manuscript with doodles.
A copy of last week’s final doodles.
Any other pastors out there want to share their process? I would love to learn from you.
September 4th, 2008 at 8:04 am
(I’m no pastor, buuut) I do teachings regularly at our church and I’m surprised that my prep is actually quite similar to yours except for the doodle step.
I use Evernote for raw collection of random quotes, pics, articles, thoughts, etc.
I use Mindomo for mindmapping and brainstorming (using Chrome I now have it as its own application which is way cool)
I use Google Docs or Evernote for typing it out as a rough outline, then print it out, then practice and scribble notes. I can’t do the word for word thing since my teaching is always different when I actually do it depending on the signals I’m getting from the crowd.
The doodling is sweet, I just doubt I’m as creative as you are to doodle like that, let alone the fact I could never draw such cool stick figures.
But the idea of those squares, with your main points being a line each, combined with timestamps, is way cool and I think I’ll try that out next time.
Thanks for writing this up!
September 4th, 2008 at 12:50 pm
Very interesting post. I didn’t realize how much work went into it. Thanks for the hard work!
September 4th, 2008 at 5:22 pm
My favorite is the little guy on page 6 jumping off the conclusion cliff to his doom. Bwahahaha
September 4th, 2008 at 5:31 pm
Man…that’s really how I should have said that. Brilliant imagery.
September 4th, 2008 at 9:03 pm
What nutjob said the iphone ap review was boring? More like riveting!!
September 8th, 2008 at 11:03 am
I really wish I had this kind of time to devote to sermon study and preparation. As it is, it’s a huge chunk of my week but I’m the only teacher for Sunday mornings.
It’s really interesting to see your process.
My process is rather boring. I use W.H. Griffith Thomas’s process commended by an Anglican priest: “Thing yourself empty; read yourself full; write yourself clear; pray yourself keen, and then enter the pulpit and let yourself go.”
I have a 4 page outline that I must stick with otherwise my ADD gets the better of me and then a sermon becomes a hostage situation. I rarely stray from my outline which is mostly bullet points in order and it keeps me on track and prevents me from beating the application section to death (which I have a tendency to do when I stray from the outline!).
Everything is in MS Word and stays there. Usually I’m taking a 12 page outline with all my Scriptures, notes, reflections, ideas, stories, etc… and have to bring it to 4 pages (14 point, Franklin Medium Gothic) so it equals out to about 25-30 minutes with the way that I deliver my talk.
This basic process is how I’ve been arranging and delivering my messages for 17 years now. It’s very low tech but it works.
September 8th, 2008 at 11:26 pm
Great post noel, I was always curious what how you do what you do so well I say so myself. Keep Ironing you jeans….crazy but it sure must feel nice
September 8th, 2008 at 11:34 pm
Great post noel, I was always curious how you do what you do but never asked. Keep up the great work.I really miss hearing your culturally relevant engaging but biblical truthful messages. Ive been able to catch a few on my centro, because I can’t afford that fancy new newfangled apple phone but I am more of a palm fanatic myself. If a sling player ever releases for Iphone and you would like to borrow mine for a review let me know.