With proper planning, the impact of your Big Days can be felt not only throughout the entire year but throughout other aspects of your church as well.
That’s the third reason you should plan a preaching calendar–
Reason #3: It builds enthusiasm and excitement in your church!
Having your preaching calendar allows you to go from Big Day to Big Day, building enthusiasm and building excitement in your church. I know that I’m going to have a little mini big day on Mother’s Day. Chances are, I’ll have a good, big day in early June, and I’ll have a bounce back big day mid June. If you’re not familiar with these terms, you need to go through the coaching network.
Now, knowing that, I can pray for those, I can collect sermon material for those. I can look for examples. Just recently, I saw something that another church did, it was actually at our Renegade Pastors Conference a little while ago. One pastor handed out something, and I put it in a file because I didn’t have time to go through it. But then, a couple weeks ago when I was going through that file, I saw something and it triggered the reticular activator in my mind. I said, “You know what? We’re going to be doing something like that next year,” and I used that idea.
You have this thing in your brain called the reticular activator. When you plan something, even though it’s a month or two months or 12 months or 14 months away, when you see something that connects with that anchor you’ve already put in your brain, your reticular activator goes off and says, “Hey, you need to be aware of that, because that’s going to help you out a little bit later.”
So, I’m already planning stuff now for the Big Days. If I see somebody do something really creative, I may want to use that idea. But it’s very hard to be creative at the last minute. In fact, my worship leader tells me that all the time. He’s like, “I can be very creative in the services, I just can’t do it on Saturday night.” I’ve got to give him time to prepare.
What that does is, it allows you to do the same work, for a bigger impact. It also allows me to maximize our Big Day, and it reduces stress.
I don’t like the stress of wondering on Thursday, what am I going to preach on. I know that when it comes to the preaching calendar, sometimes, some of you like that pressure of, “Hey it’s Thursday and I’ve got to get my sermon ready.”
What I’m telling you is, there’s a better way to live, there’s a better way to research, there’s a better way to prepare, there’s a better way to plan. The preaching calendar doesn’t solve everything, but it opens up opportunity for you to increase your impact, to get a greater return on your investment, to maximize your Big Day, and to significantly lower your stress level.
Your partner in ministry,
Nelson
P.S. If you need help planning your preaching calendar, you can register today for my Planning Your 2014 Preaching Calendar Webinar starting November 12th! Hurry, space is limited!
You’ll learn how to reduce your stress and increase your creativity over the next year. I will walk you, month-by-month, through the specifics of the 2014 calendar to help you plan your preaching in advance!
In this webinar you will also learn:
- When, specifically, to plan your 2014 Big Days (and when not to plan them).
- The pitfalls and possibilities built into the 2014 calendar.
- How to make the most of people’s natural seasonal patterns.
- The best times in 2014 for each of the 3 different types of sermon series (attraction, growth & balance).
- How to make Easter in 2014 more effective than ever at your church.
- Which days you can expect fewer people and how to best use those days.
- Plus much more!
Share This Post
© Nelson Searcy. All Rights Reserved.
About Nelson Searcy
