Pastor Roundup: How to Prepare a Preaching Calendar

I (Jared) began seminary in 2001. Shortly after I arrived on campus, my Greek professor told all the aspiring pastors in our class that we should attend an after-hours workshop on expositional preaching. The event was being held in a small lecture hall in the library’s basement, and it would be led by one of the seminary’s trustees, a pastor in Washington, DC, named Mark Dever.

I had never heard of him.

But I went, and I’m glad I did.

As you might expect, Dever began his lecture unpacking why expositional preaching is a mark of church health. He also shared his convictions about how God sovereignly uses the weekly sermon text to change hearers’ lives. But what stood out to me was how Dever worked out these convictions practically.

Next to Dever’s lectern was an overhead projector, and on the screen behind him, it displayed a list of the biblical books divided by genre. Referencing that list, Dever shared how he plans his congregation’s preaching diet. He said he typically alternates between Old and New Testament books, covers different types of literature over the course of each year, and varies the length of each series—sometimes preaching overview sermons on a section of biblical books and sometimes working through a single book passage by passage over the course of months. Dever also discussed taking into account other parts of the church’s diet. If, for example, his church is studying a New Testament book on Sunday evenings or during midweek discipleship, he’ll choose to preach on an Old Testament book on Sunday mornings.

When I heard these intentional plans, I left inspired. And though my own time in ministry has been spent planning curriculum outlines for children and youth instead of a sermon calendar, I’m grateful for preachers who exercise the same care I saw Dever model.

Recently, I reached out to some teaching pastors in The Gospel Coalition’s network and asked them to share advice on how they put together a preaching plan. Here’s what I heard.

Steve Bateman

Do you plan for breaks amid your exposition of a particular book of the Bible? If so, how often?

Planned breaks may be the wisest course, especially with longer books, but I keep breaks to a minimum. Preaching through a book normally requires a brief review each week as I build on the previous week’s exposition. Frequent breaks make that review more tedious and can cause people to lose sight of the big picture.

To minimize breaks, I consider our church calendar and align the text with special occasions. While preaching through Numbers recently, I was working with our elders on a long-range succession plan. Instead of interrupting the series to announce that plan, I preached Numbers 27 on the day we announced it, focusing on Moses’s succession. The application was straightforward: Fallible leaders come and go, but our infallible God never leaves his covenant people.

I also do this with special days like Easter and Mother’s Day, and for missions conferences. This allows us to move forward in the book while at the same time addressing special occasions. Beware the temptation to force a text to fit an occasion, but don’t be afraid to try out some creative sermon scheduling so you can simultaneously stay in the book, address special occasions, and stay faithful to the text.

Matt Boga

How often do you choose to do a topical series?

Perhaps it’s a developed allergy to my attractional church upbringing, but I tend not to use the word “topical” when it comes to sermon series that break our expositional preaching norm. Instead, I prefer the language of “occasional.” This word captures both the kind of series we’ll be in and how often we preach such series.

Occasional sermon series aim to address a particular need in our community’s life. So, we preach them as often as we feel the regular diet of passage-by-passage exposition needs a particular, seasonal supplement. A few years ago, for instance, when our elders discerned that our church’s unity seemed more strained than ever by the culture around us, we preached an occasional series that moved through passages of 1 Corinthians where Paul addresses division and unity head-on.

Yet even when we deviate from our norm, we still preach expositionally. Rather than picking a topic and collecting proof texts to support the point I want to make, the goal is to prayerfully identify passages of Scripture that fit the occasion and preach an expositional sermon from them.

Phil Newton

In what ways does your plan take into account the particular pastoral needs of your congregation?

Planning a preaching calendar shouldn’t happen in a vacuum. Biblical texts should be preached in a pastoral context. Knowing your people and their needs in every season should mark you as a faithful shepherd. Here are a few considerations.

First, any book of the Bible can meet needs in your church, so don’t fret about making a mistake with the book you pick. God’s providence works remarkably amid our lack of congregational insights. Faithfully expound and apply whatever book you preach.

Planning a preaching calendar shouldn’t happen in a vacuum. Biblical texts should be preached in a pastoral context.

Second, as you shepherd, counsel, observe, and pray for the flock, you’ll discern patterns of strength and weakness, progress and shortcomings, good disciplines and slothfulness in the church. Don’t hesitate to work through a book that addresses specific concerns while patiently making application.

Third, as a shepherd, you know your flock better than anyone else. Let their needs, not your preferences for genres you enjoy preaching, direct your book selections. If the congregation is struggling with trusting the Lord, you might preach 1 and 2 Samuel. If you’re seeing signs of legalism, preach Galatians. If you’re seeing a lack of assurance, preach 1 John. Need to emphasize holiness? Preach 1 Peter. In times of suffering, preach selected Psalms. If you see weak foundations, preach Genesis. Spiritual lethargy? Preach Haggai.

Matt Smethurst

How does your preaching plan relate to your role as a shepherd?

A preaching calendar is an act of shepherding, not just a content plan. When we planted in 2022, I began with the Gospel of Mark because I wanted our young church to come face to face with the person of Jesus. After Mark 1–8, we moved to Philippians to help nurture a culture of unity and joy, and then we returned to finish Mark.

In fall 2024, amid the U.S. presidential election season, I preached Judges, because I wanted us to be reminded, week after week, that no human deliverer can satisfy or save. In spring 2025, we walked through 1 Peter to remember that while Christians should be good citizens and bold witnesses, we’re ultimately exiles in this world. More recently, I preached a topical series on the basics of the Christian life, mindful that our folks come from all kinds of church backgrounds and levels of discipleship.

This year, we began making our way through Acts, watching the risen and reigning King form a people who get the gospel right and get the gospel out. So, I try to plan with more than next Sunday in view, asking what kind of people we’re becoming over time.

I don’t remember 99 percent of the meals I’ve eaten, but they’ve kept me alive. In the same way, God uses faithful, forgettable sermons to nourish and beautify his Bride.

Brad Wetherell

When do you put together your sermon series plan? What season of the year have you found works best for planning?

In one sense, I’m always planning a future sermon series. I keep a running list of ideas that come to me, often during my personal Bible reading. This helps when it’s time to do the bulk of the planning, which typically happens each summer.

I don’t remember 99 percent of the meals I’ve eaten, but they’ve kept me alive. In the same way, God uses faithful, forgettable sermons to nourish and beautify his Bride.

During the summer, I work on a plan for the following calendar year. This has several benefits. First, it takes the pressure off during the busier months, since I have an idea going into them of what lies ahead. Second, it helps to set my study priorities. For example, if I know I’m preaching on the Sermon on the Mount in January, I know I need to do the preparatory reading in the fall. Third, it helps me factor in major holidays, church initiatives, and personal time away as I plan each block of preaching.

In the summer, I also work to finalize the plan for the remainder of the current calendar year. This allows me to ask, “Is what I’ve planned truly what the congregation needs in this season?” Often, the answer is yes. But sometimes, God will lead me in a different direction. As Martyn Lloyd-Jones says, “It is part of the romance of preaching that it is always living and alive. . . .  There is this constant interplay between the preacher and his people.”

Jamaal Williams

How much do you involve your elder team in your planning, and how do you involve them?

I try to involve our elders early enough for them to shape the preaching plan, but late enough that I can bring them something concrete to respond to. I’ll first get away for three or four days to sketch out a tentative two-to-three-year plan. I look back at what we’ve preached the last five years, paying attention to the different genres of Scripture, and I ask whether this plan will help us give our people the whole counsel of God over time.

After that, I bring the draft plan to our other teaching pastors and our full elder board, usually in an elder meeting. I ask them what they notice, what feels missing, and what they think our people may need. I don’t want the preaching calendar to simply reflect what I’m excited about. I want it to reflect what the elders as a whole see as they shepherd our church.

Next, I take a more detailed annual version of the preaching plan to our staff elders and key ministry leaders (our staff leadership team), and we spend a couple of hours walking through the calendar together. After that, I revise it into a final document. Then, the coming year is fairly set, but the years after stay flexible. We may change from one minor prophet to another (Amos to Habakkuk, for example) without changing the kind of biblical diet we believe our church needs.

Andrew Wilson

How do you ensure you’re preaching the whole counsel of God’s Word?

The main way we try to ensure this is simple: We aim to preach through every genre of biblical writing in a five-year cycle.

In most church years, we have three major 8-to-12-week series, and three minor 3-to-6-week ones (plus Christmas, Easter, and other one-time emphases). Some of those series will be topical, but three or four of the six will be book-based; that gives us 15–20 series of biblical exposition every five years. Our aim is to cover all eight major genres of biblical writing—law, narrative, poetry, wisdom, prophecy, Gospel, letter, and apocalypse—in that time.

Last year, that meant going through Daniel because we hadn’t done a series on apocalyptic literature since we did Revelation in 2019. Next year, we’ll take on Deuteronomy, because it’s been a while since we did Genesis and Exodus. We cover some genres such as the Gospels more often than that. But we’ve found this habit helpful in ensuring we don’t just stick to the books we naturally gravitate toward but represent the whole range of God’s Word in our preaching.