Lucado: 25 minutes

Preaching: How far out do you plan your sermons?

Lucado: We plan the sermon series out a year in advance. We know what the series are going to be. For example, I know what I’ll be preaching in the spring, what I’ll be preaching in the summer, and what I’ll be preaching next fall. As far as specifically preparing the sermon that is only prepared two weeks in advance.

Preaching: Which, in your mind, comes first, the sermon series or the book?

Lucado: The answer to that is the sermon series. I’m first a pastor and then a writer. I meet with our elders and we pray and I will come to them with several sermon series ideas and they will help me make the decision. So then my hunch is if the church needs to hear it, then perhaps the body of Christ at large might benefit from it. Not all sermon series become books; probably half of them do.

Preaching: That’s interesting that you have your elders involved with helping to select the series. Tell me why you do that.

Lucado: Because I think that the Holy Spirit works through the pastors of the church. It helps me avoid the trap of writing to the reading market. It helps me stay a pastor first, because they have no agenda; they are not thinking: “This would this be a good book someday.” They’re thinking: “How this will help Bob and Suzy who are going through a tough marriage? What series can encourage them?” And so I really bow to their preference. Never have we really gotten into a conflict though. It seems like what I feel and what they feel is clear within 10 or 15 minutes. We really come to a quick consensus and we interpret that as from the Holy Spirit and press on.

Preaching: Have you ever had an issue where you really disagreed with them on a series?

Lucado: No. There was an occasion last year that one of the elders felt real strongly. He said it’s been a while since you’ve done a series on Jesus. And I said, you know what, you’re right. And so we’re going to correct that next fall and do a series out of the gospel of John.

Preaching: What are some of the factors that help you determine what kind of series you are going to preach?

Lucado: There’s quite a bit of “hunch” in it. I’m sorry it’s not more technical. (Laughing) You know you kind of have a gut feeling as I talk to people and listen to the church. For example, this new book that just came out, Cure for the Common Life (Thomas Nelson), you can trace its infancy back to several conversations with the staff on how can we mobilize volunteers. You know every staff wrestles with that. We’ve got more to do than we have people volunteering to do and do people really know their spiritual gift. Do they know their place in the church? How can we help them do this? So we began exploring possibilities for a sermon series. Initially it was going to be a more traditional series of lessons on spiritual gifts. As we got into it we decided to expand it and talk about the uniqueness of every individual and how to use it and the individual can find their gifts. Kind of a long answer there, but it actually came out of conversations with the staff on how we can mobilize more volunteers.