This website is telling me that this is blog post #400. My guess is that most of my writing here happened over the last six months or so. Most of this recent activity centered around my illness during the summer. Putting my thoughts here was a way to communicate what was going on during that journey. I will be happy if there are at least ten decent posts out of all that is here. Sometimes my opinion of my writing is much higher than its reality. Thank you anyone for whoever may stumble upon this site whether on purpose or by accident. Maybe the future will find better material here. I really don't know or keep up with traffic to my blog. But one of my new year resolutions will be to make this a better place of insight or inspiration.

Let me sum up what I wrote yesterday. My point to writing was to offer some perspective on how ideas for sermons come together. Most of this week is devoted to more than just being ready this Sunday. I am also trying to think into the next few months as to what topics will be covered. You should know that it is easy for the minister to get into a rut with preaching. All of us have favorite passages or issues to talk about. Some ministers use the church lectionary as the guide each week for sermon preparation. This is a church calendar tool that assigns a particular subject for each week. I use the lectionary on occasion. Much of my Christmas and Easter messages come from this tool. It is a great resource in avoiding the temptation of the familiar. But my tendency is to combine this aid along with personal study and reflection.

Another thing that is relatively new in preaching is the use of sermon series. Pastors began about thirty years ago or so to really major on tying messages together. Some of these are simply bible studies in a given book of the Bible that are delivered over a period of time. My pastor during the college years used this approach. He would preach over an entire year over one book such as Acts, Romans and other places. Contemporary preachers often use more topics as the focus of their series. Very few pastors of the more informal worship experience will tackle an entire book for a year. This is not to say that they do not teach the Bible. Their goal is to relate scripture in a more modern fashion. I like to do both of these methods. It really seems to be a both/and situation to me.

Praying about the direction of the sermons is a given. Nothing good happens without that divine nudge to guide you in preparation. I know how I am however. Odds are good for me to revisit the same passages or themes that make me tick. This is why it is good discipline for me to spend time looking at other sources for creativity along with praying. You can only talk about John 3:16 so often even though it is a great verse. My mind needs to be challenged to stretch past its limits. The heart also needs to be confronted with the process of being fresh with scripture. It is very possible that all of my efforts still fall short of my intent. Preaching is till a daunting task after all of these years. Perhaps this will be the year to get it right. That is my goal heading into 2011.

Bro. Trey