I've started to work with some of my interns and volunteers trying to help them be better teachers. This is my attempt to start writing down my primer on preaching.
Fill the Bucket
One of the most helpful ways to improve your preaching is to systematically record ideas as they come to you. I've heard other preachers call this, "Filling buckets."
I try to always have at least the next two months planned for my teaching schedule. Beyond that, I keep running files on sermon series ideas. Anytime I come across an idea or illustration I write it down in an file cleverly titled, "Ideas." I start with an idea file for a sermon series, and then when I start the series I divide it up into individual idea files for each sermon.
Random Ideas on How to Fill Buckets:
- Always have a rough plan for what you'll be teaching on for the next two months
- Write down every idea that comes to you
- Keep a file which archives all of your illustrations
- When starting a new series, spend 20 minutes brainstorming ideas
- Find a fellow preacher/teacher to meet with regularly to bounce ideas off of
- Find a group of non-teachers to bounce ideas off of
- Form a creativity team
Do you use your phone to help you make note of ideas? Also, do you use Evernote?
ReplyDeleteI use my phone a little bit to record notes, but not as much as I should. In fact, I had a really good idea for a blog, but I forgot it. I had it in my head for several weeks and didn't write it down. Then I went to record some stuff and all I remembered was the name of the blog series, "Good Idea/Bad Idea." Very annoying.
ReplyDeleteI do not know what evernote is. What is it?