Guides for small-church pastors
Plain, practical pages for the pastor who writes their own sermons and, often, their own bulletin. No hype, nothing to buy to read them. Where we mention our own tool we say so.
Sermon preparation
- Short on time
How to write a sermon when you have run out of weekA way to write a true sermon in three hours, or ninety minutes: one sentence, three moves, one honest illustration, a landing, and an edit for the ear.
- Outlines
A sermon outline format that keeps your voiceA one-page format that makes you write the joints of the sermon in the words you would actually say. With a worked example from Luke 15.
- Preparing a sermon
How to prepare a sermon from a passage in one eveningAn hour-by-hour method for one evening, for new and bivocational preachers: read aloud, context, the one sentence, moves, landing, draft. Plus the two short edits later in the week.
- Series
How to preach a series without repeating yourselfWhy series repeat by week four, and a one-page planner that stops it: every week's sentence written first, three sermon shapes, an illustration ledger, and what may repeat on purpose.
- The big idea
Finding the one memorable idea in a sermonWhat memorable means to a congregation (repeatable, not clever), four places in the passage where the idea hides, four tests for the sentence, and what to do when it will not come by Thursday.
- Tools
Sermon prep tools compared: Pulpit AI, Sermonly, ChatGPT and PastorPrepWhat each one is for, what it costs, and how to choose. We make one of them and put it last.
The bulletin
- Microsoft Publisher
Microsoft Publisher alternatives for churches: what replaces Publisher in 2026What the October 1 shutdown means, what to do with your .pub files, and every realistic alternative compared, free ones included.