Recently, I was talking with some pastors and church planters about how to make sure that each week's messages connect with the vision frame of your church.
Many times I have heard a pastor preach a great message, but give very little thought as to how that message connects to the over all vision of the church.
With some intentionality, each message can help your people connect the dots between the biblical text and the vision of the church.
At CVC, we plan our messages months in advance. We meet as a Creative Team each week and usually debrief about the previous week, look ahead to the very next weekend, and get started on planning the message and service 2 weeks out. We use a message template every week to help us. I've provided it below.
Note especially the section that says, "Connect to the vision frame."
This connect helps our pastors not to merely preach "stand alone" messages that might be good, but do little to move the congregation toward our specific mission, values, strategy, measures, and vision proper.
Why not use our message worksheet or come up with one of your own?
If you do create something new or tweak ours, let me know. We want to keep improving here at CVC!
Teaching Pastor Message Worksheet
Due Thursday by 2:00pm
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Teaching Pastor
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Message Date
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Message Series
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Message Title
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Main Teaching
Passage |
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Connect to
Vision Frame |
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The Big Idea
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Message Outline
(flow, points, fill ins, support verses, quotes, etc.) |
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Life Message
(Take Home) |
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Response Card Actions
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Search Key Words (web)
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Creative Elements (slides, props, media, testimony,
etc.
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Study Guide Questions
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Special elements
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Prayer Targets (3-5 prayer requests for the Sunday prayer
team)
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Blog Resources
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Rick, at my church we use a response card at the end of the sermon that is divided in half by a perforation. One half is to return to the church (name, contact info, request for prayer or more info, sharing a decision made that day). The other half the person takes home as a reminder. It contains three to five checkboxes with options for next steps from the message. One has to do with conversion, one is for rededication, and one is followed by blank space. But at least one of the checkboxes has an application point that is one of our "handholds." A handhold is a habit to build into one's life to live out one of our six measures. Each measure has two to three handholds associated with it for a total of sixteen. I usually specifically, orally reference the handhold at or near the conclusion of the sermon as a next step. So an explicit, prominent application point every week directly ties to one of our measures. I also keep track of when I've offered which handhold so that I ensure an even balance through the year.
ReplyDeleteJust now seeing this response, bro. Thanks for the insight. I'm. sharing this with Chad, our new Lead Pastor. Blessings to you!
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