I had a fabulous weekend at the Austin City Limits Music Festival. ACL celebrated it’s 1oth Anniversary in style with big name artists like Coldplay, Kanye, Stevie Wonder, My Morning Jacket, and Arcade Fire. I got to see some of my favorites too including Ray Lamontagne, Brandi Carlile, Cee Lo Green, Iron & Wine, and, a new favorite, Ryan Bingham and the Dead Horses. I had a blast and I hope I can attend this festival again.

The festival gave me an opportunity to relax and rest but it also gave me a chance to get some planning done. I spent most of Saturday and Sunday planning out my preaching calendar. I already have everything laid out through the end of the year but after this weekend I have the next 10 months of my preaching calendar planned out. For me, this is huge and very exciting.

I believe that planning ahead is a great way to trust in the Spirit and allow him to move  through the entire process from prayer to planning to study to execution. Over the last few weeks, I’ve been listening to God, praying, and asking for wisdom in planning this calendar and I feel like God blessed me this weekend as he helped me put it all together.

Here are 4 Reasons I Am Preparing My Preaching Calendar Months in Advance:

1) Planning ahead simply helps give me DEPTH in my preaching through advanced studying and preparation.

2) Planning ahead aids in giving the Spirit room to help me share the message of Jesus more CREATIVELY. (Note: I believe that it is next to impossible to go deep and/or be creative at the last minute.)

3) Planning ahead makes sure that I am being faithful to the WHOLE of SCRIPTURE and not simply preaching on the flavor (issue) of the month.

4) Planning ahead helps me ENLIST HELP in gathering resources, help, buy-in, prayers, and fuels an excitement among the leadership about what God will be saying to us. (I would like to see us move to sermon based small groups in 2012. To do this, you need help from other leaders and those leaders need material and time to pray, plan, and prepare.)

Are all of these series set in stone and immovable? No way! Will some of these series change or be scrapped? Maybe. What if God calls you to speak on something else? I’ll submit willingly and gladly!

I started planning out my teaching series about 4-5 years ago and it has helped make all the difference in the way I pray, plan, study, and prepare my lessons. Less pressure and more reliance on God to help and guide me means more encouragement and focus on what he has called me to do. That is a great place to be!