Sunday Comes Every Week: Daily Habits for the Busy Preacher

Seasoned advice for pastors facing the weekly challenge of preparing sermons

For pastors, a new sermon comes every week. Conventional wisdom says that pastors need to sequester themselves to prepare their weekly sermon without distraction. But veteran preacher Frank Honeycutt suggests just the opposite: prepare your sermons as part of a daily, lived experience in the community.

Using the days of the week as a framework, Honeycutt describes practical and essential tasks leading up to the writing and delivery of the Sunday sermon—habits that will provide lasting spiritual nourishment for pastors who plan for a long career in parish ministry. With humor and candid acknowledgment of his own mistakes and doubts, Honeycutt reflects on the joys and hazards of ministry and explains how a faithful process of preaching shapes pastors for a lifetime of healthy ministry.

1. Monday: Listening
2. Tuesday: Hearing
3. Wednesday: Exegeting
4. Thursday: Naming
5. Reflecting: A Pastor Looks Back
6. Friday: Writing
7. Saturday: Rehearsing
8. Sunday: Offering

Frank G. Honeycutt has over thirty years of experience as a Lutheran (ECLA) pastor. His writing has appeared in venues such as The Christian Century and Living Lutheran. He is the author of numerous books, including Sunday Comes Every Week, Miracles for Skeptics, and Genealogy Theology. 

Thomas G. Long is Bandy Professor of Preaching and coordinator of the Initiative in Religious Practices and Practical Theology at Candler School of Theology, Emory University. His other books include The Witness of Preaching and Accompany Them with Singing — The Christian Funeral.