An open Bible and a coffee mug sit on a table as sunlight floods in from the window.

Sermon Preparation for the Coming Year

Every New Year allows us to reset our preaching schedule. Done with the old, we can focus on new goals for the church and ourselves. Even those of us who choose the exposition of books as our norm for preaching can benefit from looking ahead at the coming year and deciding what emphasis we would like to make in our preaching schedule.

Prerequisites for a preaching calendar

As I prepare to preach, certain presuppositions and prerequisites help me plan a schedule for the coming year. The first is understanding that preaching is a means to an end, not the end itself. It is a God-given tool for delivering His Word and thus is content-driven. The second is to consider the purpose of the church. The church is Christ-ordained and is God’s plan for this age.

Hence, the purpose of all preaching is to advance the cause of Christ’s church to evangelize the lost (Matthew 28:18-20; Acts 1:8), to exalt God (Ephesians 1:3-14; I Peter 2:4-10), and to edify the saints (Ephesians 4:1-16; Colossians 1:24-29).

Our preaching must advance at least one of these purposes in the coming year. Thirdly, like the Apostle Paul, we are under the same mandate to declare “the whole purpose of God” (Acts 20:27), to declare all that is profitable for God’s people (Acts 20:20). This includes all doctrines that God’s people need to know. It is to focus on the essentials of the Christian faith and address them to our congregations. This calls for prayerful and careful planning. 

The great temptation today is to preach to the audience’s felt needs or to the passing fads of the day. In the short term, fads draw a crowd but do not necessarily build a church. Paul did not preach to fads or self-serving ends (I Thessalonians 2:1-9) and exhorted Timothy to follow his example, not to give in to tickling the ears of his audience (2 Timothy 4:1-5). A purposeful, prayerful, sustained, planned preaching calendar will help us accomplish the true purpose of preaching, which is to glorify Christ by building up His church. At the end of the year, we need to say what Paul told the Ephesian elders, “Therefore, I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all men. For I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole purpose of God” (Acts 20:26-27).

Preparation for various styles of preaching

If one’s preaching style is topical, thematic, and textual, we can identify certain themes we want to address in the coming year. By identifying the congregation’s needs and the times in which we live, we can plan a series of sermons on various topics throughout the year. These can be a series of sermons on particular doctrines the church needs to know, areas of the believer’s Christian growth, or the congregation’s needs. The social, political, and economic landscape may call for a series of sermons addressing current events (as we foresee them).

Our preaching schedule for the coming year should also consider any themes we have preached in the last few years. We should only repeat them if it is necessary. We might need to honor special holidays and church traditions throughout the year, such as Easter, Christmas, and other holidays that might fall on a Sunday. Certain churches have traditions such as Founder’s Day, Law Enforcement Day, Educator’s Day, etc., which might call for special sermons. As in some businesses, our greatest growth and impact come by means of these special days, as is the case with Easter Sunday and Christmas Day. Sometimes, a series can begin weeks before these special holidays and climax on that day, to the advantage of all. Again, this calls for careful planning.

My style is to preach through various books of the Bible, some of which take more than a year to complete. Even then, the selection and preaching of these books is not without some planning.

All 66 books of the Bible have a theme and emphasis. Hence, there can be a time and place for the preaching of each of them.

If the church needs to develop a Biblical worldview, there is the book of Genesis. If the church needs a deeper understanding of the nature and practice of the church, there is Ephesians and I Corinthians. If the church needs to comprehend the person and work of Christ, we have the Gospels. We should not preach through books just to say we have preached through the entire Bible. I heard of one preacher who killed his church preaching through the Book of Job. The pastor needs to know his flock and what the flock needs in the new year.

Particular needs to consider

In addition to carefully selecting the book I plan to preach, I also consider some of the ongoing needs of the people that directly impact the life of the local church. Every church needs more people (numerical growth), more spiritual maturity, more workers for ministry, healthier marriages and families, and more money to pay its bills and fund ministry. A church lacking in one of these areas will face stagnation, inefficiency, and, in some cases, survival. Hence, it warrants the repetition of certain themes year after year as it endeavors to build a strong, vibrant, and healthy church.

The beauty of Scripture is that it repeats certain truths. In fact, some repetition is verbatim. Why shouldn’t we have the same luxury? 

With these needs in mind, I plan to interrupt the exposition of the book I preach to address these key issues. I usually begin in January, emphasizing setting individual goals and calling it a “series of Christian stewardship.” Here, I address the stewardship of our lives, time, money, and spiritual gifts. Depending on the year, I may address one of these in January and the others later in the year or address all four on the four Sundays in January. We also set aside the month of March to emphasize evangelism and missions, addressing the need to reach the lost in our neighborhood and the world. Mother’s Day and Father’s Day are big in our culture. I address the respective themes these days and very often do a series on the family or marriage, starting with Mother’s Day in May and ending with Father’s Day. To address the need for ministry workers in the church, we plan a ministry fair in the spring or fall. On these Sundays, I address the importance of spiritual gifts and how to use them in the context of the local church. It allows me to expound the rich chapters on spiritual gifts (Romans 12:1-8; Ephesians 4:1-16; I Corinthians 12-14; and I Peter 4:10-11). We often address the stewardship of money in April (when taxes are due) or September (on Labor Day). We should never be afraid to discuss the use of the Lord’s money. If our people fail in one of these areas, the church fails with them.

Benefits of preparing a preaching calendar

By preparing a preaching calendar for the year with the respective themes and emphasis, we advance the cause of Christ through His church. We aim at something definite and will have something definite to analyze at the end of the year. The New Testament letters were written with a purpose and were read to the churches with that purpose in mind. It only seems natural that today’s preachers preach these letters with the same purpose in mind. In reality, it makes our preaching so much easier.

The great advantage of planning a preaching schedule is that it gives us the whole year to prepare these sermons.

We can create a file to deposit illustrations, statistics, and research material for these sermons long before we preach them. Since we know what we will preach, we can choose specific books to read to help us prepare. We do not need to begin every sermon “from scratch,” but we can examine the landscape by preparing for the entire year. Preparing ahead of time also helps you avoid the “tyranny of the sermon.” It might even create excitement in us as we anticipate delivering sermons on topics, themes, or texts that excite us. 

I prefer expository preaching through books of the Bible because it simply explains God’s word to God’s people. It helps me grow, and I pray it helps them grow. But I also prefer it because it always has the themes for the sermons laid out for me. It is simply a matter of formatting them into individual sermons. The important thing is to pick books that contain themes I want to address at certain times during the coming year. This calls for prayer and discernment. In exposition, the preacher is free to interrupt the format to address any issue or need that may arise, either in a single sermon or a series of sermons. Preaching is much like practicing medicine. Most of it is preventative but can also be medicinal for the present need. As we approach the New Year, let’s be prepared to do both.

©2024 Alex D. Montoya. Used with permission.

About The Author

Alex Montoya
Alex Montoya

Alex D. Montoya is the senior pastor at First Fundamental Bible Church in Whittier, Calif. He is the author of the book, Preaching with a Passion.

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