Message Prep

Perry Noble – a new, must read blog for me – has been posting a series on how he prepares a message. It mirrors so close to what we do at Western Hills, I’ll just link his whole post.

Community is a huge value for us at Western Hills – we stress it in our services, we lead our ministries in community, we even prepare messages this way. The Creative Team and I try to stay 6 months ahead of the curve in message prep. This gives us plenty of think time on set design, videos, dramas, interviews, testimonies, and other creative elements.

Here’s the added benefit of planning this way – it gives God time to speak to us. If you’re not running around 900 mph trying to figure out what you are going to do the next Sunday, it allows you to stop and listen. There have been weeks when we’ve changed because we just felt the Spirit was telling us to go a different direction. With a plan, it’s much easier to do.

Over the next couple of weeks, we’ll sit down and start planning 2010. Lots of prayer, lots of silence. We’ll start with the question – what is God already doing in our congregation that we need to join Him? Where is it that He wants to take us that we need to speak to? What do we (congregation) need to hear from Him?