When Northside Church suspended onsite services in March, I considered ways to maintain connections with the congregation. The idea for “Sermon Prep” came to me in the middle of the night.

Creating a sermon is like building a house—there’s always materials leftover. Instead of lumber, nails, shingles, and tiles, preachers keep unused research, illustrations, quotes, and jokes. Newly ordained pastors make the rookie mistake of using extraneous material that should have been left on the editing floor.

Therefore, I decided to make use of these leftover scraps. Each Wednesday I publish a video that provides background on the upcoming Sunday’s sermon and Scripture. It gives viewers a homiletical preview along with contextual information.

The entire endeavor is fairly low-tech. Think more public-access than Hollywood-slick. With the help of a desk tripod and a wired mic, I record the videos on my I-phone. Then our amazing Production and Creative Services teams take over. They magically transform the clip into a Vimeo video link emailed to the congregation.

The medium may change, but the message remains the same. The church must learn how to tell the old, old story of Jesus and his love in new, engaging ways. Therefore, this preacher who is no longer a puppy is learning some new tricks.