How Long Does It Take You To Create or Prepare A Sermon ?

[JimmyH]

Watching this trailer for 'How Sermons Work' , posted by Reverend Marsh, gave me some slight perception of what it must be like to know that on Sunday, perhaps twice on Sunday, you will have to stand before the flock and feed them. Who is sufficient for these things ? says the Apostle. Is there an average time it takes you to prepare a proper Lord's day sermon ?

 

[JimmyH]

Did a google search on the topic and came up with an interesting article. It can take from 1 to 2 hours for Mark Driscoll, or up to 32 hours for John MacArthur, and varying lengths for Tim Keller and John Piper among others who were interviewed.
http://www.pastoralized.com/2013/09...r-driscoll-and-5-others-spend-on-sermon-prep/

 

[py3ak]

John Stott gave as a rule of thumb that it takes an hour of preparation for every five minutes in delivery.

 

[timfost]

When I asked my pastor, he said no less than 20 hours.

 

[JimmyH]

My pastor said 15 hours. Seemed like a lot to me, but it is something that I wouldn't begin to feel even remotely competent to do. I have experience in public speaking, even in front of a hundred or so people, but I couldn't preach a sermon.

 

[jwithnell]

I've been in the situation of having to produce writing on a regular basis and from that perspective think it's the having-to-produce that's tough. (And that's before adding in the other responsibilities of an under shepherd!) It's one reason I absolutely support significant breaks and sabbaticals for pastors!

 

[reaganmarsh]

A typical Lord's Day sermon takes me anywhere from 10-15 hours to prepare, from initial exegesis and prayer, to final edits on my pulpit notes (usually about 10-12/hours, unless I get stuck on something). I'm a slow reader.

Wednesday evening Bible studies are still decidedly exegetical and experiential in nature, but for whatever reason, usually only take me about 5-7 hours to prep. Of course, it's a different approach when I'm preparing a lesson vs. a sermon; lessons are a bit more like teaching a class, vs. the monologue of preaching.

I have been so thankful for the elder candidates we are evaluating and training at RFBC. It's taken some of the load off my shoulders. Less pressure means better preparation, at least for me.

 

[C. Matthew McMahon]

If you are going to prepare a sermon on John 1:1 and you've previously written a commentary on the Gospel of John, your sermon preparation is going to be cut way down. However, most ministers are not in that boat.

You will have include the intellect to some degree, health, personal zeal or intensity, as well as personal piety. (If in personal piety the minister is not "connected" to God, how is he going to connect God's mind to the minds of his congregation in his preaching? Sermon preparation will be hard in that case, or it simply will come out as shallow.)

If its all from scratch, its much longer. Thomas Murphy gives a good outline (in his work Pastoral Theology which every minister should read) of the pastor's day which includes his studies: “We would venture to suggest as a rule about five hours a day, or from eight o’clock in the morning until two, with a recess of an hour. Our program, then, for the ordinary day’s work would be — one hour of devotion before breakfast; five hours of study; two hours and a half of visiting; and in the evening one hour and a half for reading and correspondence — ten hours a day for these various duties of the office.”

Seldom have I personally seen a minister take up this charge in this manner, which is certainly part of the deficiency of the office today. And those who don't "know" how to "put together" a sermon properly (see van Mastricht or Perkins) have a more difficult time, and usually either a much shorter time (not taking time to properly prepare), or far too long a time (because they are preparing in a manner that makes it more difficult for them without having learned the proper way to create a sermon).

Consider, Jonathan Edwards found himself (normally) 13 hours a day in study, among all his other duties, and look what kind of preacher he was. And God used him to revive America for a short time after years of faithful service.

What happens at this point is men tend to say, "Well, I'm not Edwards." Don't use that an excuse. If we studied 13 hours a day, would we be more like him? Try it and find out!

I tend to make it a personal rule for myself that for every 1 minute I speak I study 30 minutes. A 60 minute sermon, then costs me 30 hours to time to prepare minimally (with the most difficult aspect being the application), not including all the musing going on throughout the other parts of the day on the subject matter.

They taught us at RTS in early 1990s that for every 1 minute you preach one should study an hour. I thought that was a little excessive, but in some cases may certainly be necessary.

 

[joebonni63]

I think you spend more time than you account for, I like read some commentary but I think when start reading the verses other stories and verses come to mind. I don't use notes but bullet points in the bible I tried notes it just doesn't work for me ......... If anything know your bible well get to the point that if someone asked you can you do a study right now don't back out. Be always ready if anything I had too do this a few times in ministry school and in church

 

[Alan D. Strange]

I do not take issue with all the conventional answers offered: it takes some time from start to pulpit to compose a sermon.

But my answer to that question has become--more and more so with age--"The whole of my life up to that point." Every sermon, rightly composed, takes the whole of one's life up to that point. When I return to a previously composed sermon, my approach to the first horizon may change little, though more learning impacts that as well. The second horizon, however--me and my hearers and this Word brought to us--has always enriched, and the Word that I bring in the power of the Spirit, reflects all that I have lived and learned up to that point.

Peace,
Alan

 

[earl40]

As one who has sat in a pew for 56 years I can tell if any serious effort has been put into most sermons. Some sermons are obviously repeats, others are simply rehashing of other people sermons (of course what is new under the sun), and others are simply bad ones because the Minister was too busy with running the show that the ruling elders ought to have been tasked with.

 

[reaganmarsh]

my answer to that question has become--more and more so with age--"The whole of my life up to that point." Every sermon, rightly composed, takes the whole of one's life up to that point.

Amen and amen.

 

[SolaScriptura]

John Stott gave as a rule of thumb that it takes an hour of preparation for every five minutes in delivery.

Interesting! I don't recall hearing this - or if I have heard it I've forgotten it - but as I considered it... when I do the math, for me, the average ratio turns out to be ~ 90 minutes of prep for every 5 minutes of delivery.

 

[Joshua]

6.7125 and three-eighths?

 

[Bill The Baptist]

6.7125 and three-eighths?

So you are saying that for every minute that you prepare, you spend 6.7125 minutes speaking?

 

[Bill The Baptist]

So you are saying that for every minute that you prepare, you spend 6.7125 minutes speaking?

Come to think of it, I've known pastors who do just this.

 

[Ask Mr. Religion]

Come to think of it, I've known pastors who do just this.

Ready. Fire. Aim.

No doubt what lies behind the old saying that when there is mist in the pulpit there is fog in the pews.

 

[Bill The Baptist]

Ready. Fire. Aim.

No doubt what lies behind the old saying that when there is mist in the pulpit there is fog in the pews.

True story. I knew a pastor when I was Utah who told me that when people ask him what he is going to preach on when they walk into church on Sunday mornings, he tells them "I don't know yet. Somewhere in between the announcements and the closing prayer I'll figure it out."

 

[Alan D. Strange]

That's similar to the minister who, upon being asked in the Session, told his elders that he prepared his sermon between his walk from the manse to the pulpit. At the next meeting, it was moved to sell the next-to-the-church manse and buy one at some remove.

Peace,
Alan

 

[Puritan Sailor]

I would add that prep-time also can depend upon the kind of text you are preaching from. Some genres are easier than others. And some texts are easier to apply than others. You could also include the biblical literacy and exposure of your congregation. If you know their exposure to a text is low or the concepts are difficult, it will require more time for you to figure out how to explain it clearly to them.

 

[LeeD]

Typically 10-15 hours, occasionally more.

 

[Alan D. Strange]

That my post above should conclude with "at some remove" (rather than "remote") prompts me to ask something I've been wondering: how does one edit already-posted replies in this new format?

Peace,
Alan

 

[Joshua]

I don't prepare sermons, but it seemed like a good number.

 

[Ask Mr. Religion]

That my post above should conclude with "at some remove" (rather than "remote") prompts me to ask something I've been wondering: how does one edit already-posted replies in this new format?

Peace,
Alan

Rev. Strange,

You have thirty minutes to edit your own post. After that, it will take a moderator to do so. If you do not see an "Edit" next to a pencil icon below your post, the time has passed. I will change the word for you.

 

[Jack K]

The replies that say it takes a certain amount of time for every minute you're going to speak have me wondering. I suppose that's true, to an extent. But my experience in giving talks is that it's rather easy to plan a long one; you just gather and order a collection of thoughts. Making every thought count, however, so that the talk is tight and well-paced, is much harder. It leads me to think that a thorough 25-minute sermon on a given passage of Scripture could take longer to prep than one that runs an hour.

 

[ZackF]

They taught us at RTS in early 1990s that for every 1 minute you preach one should study an hour. I thought that was a little excessive, but in some cases may certainly be necessary.

Sixty minutes

Interesting! I don't recall hearing this - or if I have heard it I've forgotten it - but as I considered it... when I do the math, for me, the average ratio turns out to be ~ 90 minutes of prep for every 5 minutes of delivery.

That's too hard to figure out.

 

[reaganmarsh]

I've read before re: the ratio of per-minute prep-to-preaching (in Stott, Between Two Worlds? I forget...), but have never considered making it a hard-and-fast rule for myself.

My typical week is unpredictable at best, so I have my method of preparation which takes an approximate (but fairly consistent) amount of time, and generally gives me what I need in order to preach, teach, or counsel. If I need more time, I take it. If that week's text requires less, I try to make another visit, work in another counseling session, or read an extra chapter in whatever book I've got going currently; or, I've been learning lately to thank God, go home a little early, and play with my kids.

Wear your own armor, I suppose!

 

[Cymro]

Can a woman tell what sort of labour she will have in giving birth to a child? Every birth is different, so it is with every sermon. Some come to birth easily, others are protracted and entail toil, labour and anguish. Some wrestle in the dark womb of the mind, others come willingly and energetically into the light of day.
I am reminded of an old saying respecting hearing sermons, and it can just as well be applied to the creation of same, "There are three kinds of sermons. Those which you cannot listen to; those which you can listen to, and those which you cannot help listening to." A formula which a preacher struggles with when he is dividing the word and rehearsing to himself.

 

[Bill The Baptist]

Can a woman tell what sort of labour she will have in giving birth to a child? Every birth is different, so it is with every sermon. Some come to birth easily, others are protracted and entail toil, labour and anguish. Some wrestle in the dark womb of the mind, others come willingly and energetically into the light of day.
I am reminded of an old saying respecting hearing sermons, and it can just as well be applied to the creation of same, "There are three kinds of sermons. Those which you cannot listen to; those which you can listen to, and those which you cannot help listening to." A formula which a preacher struggles with when he is dividing the word and rehearsing to himself.

This is very true. It normally takes me around 15 hours to prepare a sermon, and if I'm satisfied with it, that will be that. However, if I'm not satisfied, which is often the case, I may well spend another 15 hours revising it.

 

[Hamalas]

I'm still new at preaching (I've only preached about 20 times) but I'd guess something like 8-15 hours per message. It's tough to tell.