… for the Holy Spirit will teach you at the very hour what you ought to say.
–Luke 12:12

“How do you come up with your sermon themes?” I am asked this question from time to time. It’s not an easy question to answer. Certainly I believe that God puts themes and issues on my heart and mind. I have
methods of preparation to help me be open to God’s leading but the movement of the Holy Spirit is often spontaneous. Therefore, the way that themes and the sermons themselves develop can feel chaotic and surprising.

As with our discipleship in general, I find that I can hear God most clearly when I am calm and set aside time for that purpose. But I’ve also learned that I must tune the ears and eyes of my heart to watch and listen in every day life because I never know when a chance conversation or event will be a word from the Lord.

In general, our worship themes follow the Revised Common Lectionary. Th is is a 3-year cycle of scripture readings that include a passage from the Hebrew Scriptures, a Psalm, an Epistle lesson, and a Gospel reading. We are in Year A which means our gospel readings come primarily from Matthew. (Likewise Year B is Mark, Year C is Luke and the gospel of John is sprinkled across all three years.)

In 2007, I preached from a lectionary text every week. But this year, I’ve returned to an approach I began trying in 2005 and that is to leave the lectionary in order to do a sermon series after Christmas, after Easter and in the summer that are teaching sermons. I attempt to identify subjects that I think will encourage holiday visitors to keep attending worship. Some of those series have been “Difficult Questions Thinking People ask about the Bible,” or “God and Science,” or “Relationship Cures.” These are “evangelism” sermons because I’m trying to reach out to people who haven’t made a personal commitment to the discipleship journey of following Jesus or who have been way-laid for time.

I also try to balance the kinds of sermons that I do between Evangelism, Pastoral Care (support in difficult times), Discipleship (challenging us to grow in our faith), and Institutional (Mission, Stewardship, History, etc.). Typically, I work about six months out. I’m now planning themes for Advent and Christmas. But my goal is to have a preaching plan for 2 years. I’ve already developed some ideas for Lent and Easter next year and outlined a 10 part series for the summer of 2009. Th is summer, I will be taking a couple of days to work on laying out themes for the year after that. Doing long-range planning allows me to collect resources and do some advanced study as well as coordinate with our musicians and other worship leaders.

In all cases, I begin with prayer asking God to guide me. I spend time thinking about the context of our discipleship – world and national events, issues in our own community and the kinds of questions and issues I hear or observe in the lives of people in the congregation.

I often respond to specifi c requests. For example, a couple of people have asked me to address mental health issues that plague us. So, at the end of July, we will have a three-part series on Depression, Anxiety and Grief. Others have asked me what I think of the current presidential race and the faith language in the candidates’ speeches. Others have asked me what I think about the referendums to allow or prohibit Gay Marriage by the State. When people ask me what I think, they are usually trying to figure out what they think and believe and how these diffi cult topics relate to Christian faith. These particular questions have helped me frame a 4-part series beginning in mid-August called “Hot Summer Topics” in which we will address things like Faith and Politics and Gay Marriage from a Christian perspective.

If you have a topic that you would fi nd helpful to have addressed in a sermon, please let me know. God speaks to me through all of you and I try to pay attention to that!

Walking with you as we follow Jesus,

Debra