I recently read Riding the Alligator: Strategies for a Career in Screenplay by Pen Densham who has written and produced Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, The Outer Limits, The Twilight Zone, and others. I have no intention of writing a screenplay, but I was curious to see the writing and creative process of someone who crafts stories that people engage with.
Obviously, preparing messages from God’s Word for the people I shepherd is profoundly different. Unlike screenwriters and filmmakers, pastors don’t create a story—they declare the greatest Story of all. Pastors should not be looking for something no one has ever said before; instead, we are teaching “the faith delivered once and for all to the saints.”
Ironically, Pen shared that there are only 6-7 great themes in all storytelling, and people are looking for new ways to communicate those great themes. One of his disciplines that resonated with me: Do everything you can to avoid a blank page.
A blank page on a Monday, six to seven days before you must preach, is agony. At least for me. I do all I can to avoid it. Here are three things I do:
1. Once a year: Study Break
Each July, I take four weeks off from my regular responsibilities and focus all my time on reading, praying, mapping out the sermon calendar, and spending time with my family. The deliverable is an annual teaching plan that begins in January. The annual teaching plan is a two-page overview of each week of the year and a series brief for each teaching series within the year. The sermon has not been prepared, but the passage and the theme for each week has been set. Every now and then someone will hint that advanced message prep is not being “Spirit-led,” which I insist is a low view of our God who exists outside of time and can lead me in this moment for any moment.
2. Each week: Half prep-time for a future week / Half prep-time for this week
The amount of time I give to sermon prep each week is divided between “this week” and a future week. Typically, I am 3-4 weeks ahead on message prep, which (for me) gives me more time to pray through a text and to see all of my life through the lens of that text. To stay ahead, I spend the first half of sermon-prep time in a week working on a future message. I meet with a team of pastors and staff to review the first manuscript of the message and then I file it away. The second half of my sermon-prep time, I pull out the manuscript from several weeks before and look at it again with fresh eyes. I beg God to burn every word He wants me to share into my soul and I don’t stop reviewing until I sense “this is the most important message I will ever preach.”
3. Continual: The Notes app on my phone and handwritten notes in back covers
I was relieved reading Pen Densham essentially listing all the creative organization apps and websites and saying, “None have worked for me, but do what works for you.” I say “relieved” because I am a bit old school. I take handwritten notes in books I read (always physical copies) and go back to them often for messages. I keep notes on my phone about future teaching series. I have a journal near my Bible with notes in it from Scripture I read. Basically, I jot down a bunch in those places, and it is not the most organized, but I can find it.
All of that helps me rarely (close to never) wake up to the agony of a blank page. Which I believe is best for the message and ultimately for the people I am serving.
