An Interview with Max Lucado: Preaching John 3:16...Continued from page 3

Preaching: Every word has dynamite in it.

Lucado: That’s a great way to say it.

Preaching: You preach mostly in series. How do you go about selecting the series that you preach?

Lucado: I haven’t run out of ideas for series, but I haven’t had time to teach all the series! I keep in the back of my Bible a running list of sermon ideas, sermon series. When I’m about two or three months out from the end of a series, at a leadership meeting with our staff and our elders I’ll run the ideas past them, and I’ll ask them to spend a week thinking and praying about it and get back to me, let me know what they think the church needs to hear. John 3:16 came out of that meeting; I was actually going to do something else, but our elders said, “It’s been awhile since we really studied something from the lips of Jesus, the life of Jesus.” So I took the nod from them and went that direction.

Preaching: So you start planning a series about two or three months out?

Lucado: I do; I try to figure it out. Ideally I’ll try to get away and spend about a week reading and praying, but I’m not always able to make the calendar work on that. Like I say, I’m about to start sharing my teaching time – we’re going to bring on a new senior minister – and I’m looking forward to having more study time, more preparation time.

Preaching: What does your preparation week look like as you’re moving toward Sunday?

Lucado: First of all, my messages are done a week in advance, for the sake of our worship team and tech team. But I do try to prepare one a week. Monday is in for meetings. Tuesday and Thursday are study days. Wednesday afternoon I try to leave open for study time or for publishing-related events or needs, like working on a manuscript or cleaning up something or even interviews. So Tuesday and Thursday are my primary study times. Usually if I can get two days in on a sermon I can get a good first draft. I’ll try to sneak in some extra time on it, and of course by the time it makes its way into a book I’ve really spent more time on it.

Preaching: How many hours would you say you invest in a typical sermon?

Lucado: I would guess sixteen. That might be on the low end – twenty would not be uncommon. There’ve been some days I’ve had to clear Friday off, not take a day off – I know that’s not good, but if I’m not getting it I have to take the time.