Continuing from yesterday…
3. Find your best time and place to prepare.
One of the things that a communicator must discover is that we are completely unique in our preparation process…we have to find what works for us.
When I attended college many moons ago it became very evident to me that I did very well in early morning classes; however, after 12:00 my A-D-D and my desires to take naps often got the best of me! I am most likely to be “on my game” when it comes to preparation between 7:00 and 12:00…after that I am useless most of the time!
Thus, today my preparation time takes place in the morning and I guard that time like a pitbull. I do not allow meetings to take place in the mornings. I very seldom do breakfasts for anyone because the morningtime is my time where I am the freshest and able to think the most clearly in regards to what God wants me to say.
I mentioned time, let me also mention place. When we study we’ve got to separate ourself from distraction- give your cell phone to your assistant, put it on silent, do not twitter. From the time to time we need to get in a different environment-go to a coffeeshop, sit at a picnic table in a park. Do whatever it takes to find your best time and place to prepare. Do not schedule meetings, do not apologize, you’ve got a job to do to communicate to the people God has placed in front of you and we’ve got to find our best time and place to prepare.
4. Organize a creative process.
I used to do “week of” sermon preparation and planning and it was one of the most stressful things that I’ve ever participated in my life. One of the most harsh realities that a pastor faces on Sunday night is the next Sunday is coming really fast. So I’ve organized a creative process that helps me in my planning. It has to do with two parts.
1) Content. Our creative process always begins with scripture. We do not begin with, ‘There’s a cool song we’d love to do so let’s organize a sermon around that. “ We do not say, “I have a really cool illustration so let’s find a bible verse that fits with the illustration and revolve a sermon around it.” Correct theology must drive our methodology and once again what we communicate must always begin with scripture.
The other thing I do under the content is I bring others into a meeting to discuss the scripture passage because there are people at different stages of life that will see scripture through a different lens. You would be amazed at some of the conversations that take place in some of our meetings for example I will bring in women who point out, “You know what Perry, that is the fourth sports illustration you’ve used this week. It’s not really connecting us.” Or…I’ll bring in singles and ask how they believe this passage applies to where they are in life. In fact…I will bring in people that may be different on some minor theological issues that I would happen to think of because I want to take an all-around view of scripture.
Here’s the problem: Leaders, this takes work. It takes organization. It takes effort but if you want to teach the scriptures where you can connect with everybody, teach it in a smaller group and ask their opinions on it first. If you have the ego for it…
2) Creativity. Once we get the message ready then we try to organize the branding of the series and the days around it. Once again, I get different people in this mix. We brainstorm and we think BIG! What needs to be done musically? What needs to be done video-wise? I have a rule: no negative people in this meeting. We don’t need anybody to play the devil’s advocate. He doesn’t need an advocate and I don’t want anyone on his team around my table. When you brainstorm, you’ve got to have people in the room with a willingness to check their ego at the door. Because many times it takes about 9 really bad ideas to produce 1 really great idea. People have to be willing to speak their mind and say what their thinking which means checking their ego at the door.