Sermon research packet + small group questions
Each week the assistant builds a research packet on the sermon passage and drafts small group questions. The pastor writes the sermon and edits the questions.
The problem
Good sermon prep means hours in commentaries, word studies, and background reading before you write a single line, and small group questions usually get written last, in a hurry.
What it does
Each week I give it the passage and the working title, and sometimes photos of pages from a printed commentary on my shelf. It builds a research packet: big idea options, where the passage sits in the book's argument, an outline of the text, verse-by-verse notes and word studies, historical background, the places where good interpreters disagree, cross-references, which of my commentaries to check, illustration ideas, application angles, and a possible outline. It also drafts small group discussion questions, which a pastor edits before they go to our groups. We recently added a new step: it scans X for useful insight on the passage from Bible scholars and pastors, because sometimes they comment on things that are relevant. Anything worth a look goes into a short “From X” section with links, flagged as unverified commentary for me to weigh. I still write the sermon.
Setup
- Give it the passage, the series, and the working title.
- Tell it which commentaries you own, and add photos of any printed pages you want it to read.
- Ask for the same packet sections every week so it's easy to scan.
- Have it mark debated points, and attribute a view to a scholar only when it can verify it.
- New: have it scan X for comments on the passage from Bible scholars and pastors, and put anything useful in a short “From X” section with links, marked as unverified.
- Have a pastor edit the small group questions before they go out.
Guardrails
- The pastor writes the sermon. The packet is research help, not a script.
- A pastor edits every small group question before it reaches a group.
- Views are attributed only when checked, from the photographed pages or a verified source. Everything else is stated generally, and debates are marked.
- Illustration ideas are labeled as ideas, not true stories, and no personal stories are invented.
- Posts from X are unverified commentary. They're linked, labeled as such, and kept in their own section for the pastor to weigh, never treated as settled scholarship.
- Anything it isn't sure of, like a quote or a book it couldn't identify, is flagged for me to check.
Time saved
We're still tracking this honestly, so there's no number here yet.
Questions pastors ask
- Does it write the sermon?
- No. It builds a research packet. I write and preach the sermon.
- What's in the packet?
- Big idea options, the passage's place in the book, an outline, verse-by-verse notes and word studies, background, interpretive debates, cross-references, commentary recommendations, illustration ideas, application, small group questions, a short “From X” section, and a possible outline.
- Can it read my printed commentaries?
- We photograph the relevant pages and it reads them, cites them by page, and flags anything it can't confirm, like a missing title.
- Who edits the small group questions?
- A pastor. The assistant drafts them, and a pastor edits them before they go to our groups.
- Why does it look at X?
- Bible scholars and pastors sometimes post comments on a passage that are relevant to what we're preaching. It's a newly added step: the assistant collects anything useful into a short “From X” section with links, flagged as unverified, and I decide what's worth using.