Creating a preaching calendar is not merely a matter of organization but of among the most effective leadership instruments a pastor will have and David W. Stokes makes this absolutely clear in his bestseller book From the Pulpit to a Movement. The reactive nature of many pastors in planning and delivering sermons week to week to hope that the inspiration will come before Sunday is the reason why too many pastors end up delivering inadequately planned sermons, lacking a clear vision, and neglecting to implement spiritual formation. A properly planned preaching calendar, however, does much more than simply organize the year; it also plays a vital role in making the church healthy, offering purpose, fellowship, purposeful discipleship and preaching that brings a congregation effectively forward.
The solution to church renewal over the decades has been on programs, leadership training, and administrative restructuring. Renewal, however, as Stokes makes so eloquently clear, starts not in a meeting; it starts in a message. His book rebrands the discussion on church health by demonstrating how preaching, which is guided by the Spirit and strategy, would be able to bring the congregations closer, rebuild mission, and ignite long-term change.
The book, From the Pulpit to a Movement, was written specifically to address the needs of Associational Mission Strategists (AMSs) and transitional pastors who have to guide churches during times of change. Instead of abstract theology and shallow tips, Stokes provides an in-depth, practical guide to preaching as a leadership instrument that can reinvigorate a local church and give it a sense of direction again.
The book presents the reader with a notion that is coined by Stokes as strategic preaching an approach that transcends the weekly encouragement to offer the reader a clear Spirit-led pathway to unity and renewal. He describes strategic preaching as a planned communication that helps to give biblical truth and organizational purpose. It is the way pastors make inspiration work and sermons walk.
Stokes says the lack of alignment is the missing component in most revitalization efforts, not passion, resources or even faith. Most churches have vision statements and mission plans, and their preaching has not been projected or supported by those plans. The outcome is lost leadership, lack of focus and slowed growth. That gap is filled by From the Pulpit to a Movement. It educates leaders on how to employ preaching in bringing hearts, minds, and ministries into coherence and coming to a common calling.
All the chapters in the book have a sequence of steps in making the pulpit a vessel of renewal. Stokes touches on the basics of choosing themes of Spirit-led sermons and creating yearlong preaching schedules, as well as series that lead to action after conviction. His techniques will enable the pastor to tie Sunday messages to the weekday ministry, making preaching the engine of discipleship, outreach, and unity.
Using the Scripture, Stokes refers to such leaders in the Bible whose model worked long before it was even named. Moses was envisioned by means of godly messages that rallied a nation. The words of Nehemiah revived a beaten nation to restructure their city. Paul employed preaching as the basis of extending church to other continents. And Jesus, the great communicator, used sermons to specify a kingdom that has been growing for two millennia. Any revival in history, as Stokes observes, has always started with a strategically preaching person, with the power of the Spirit and the clear vision of the leader.
Among the most creative aspects of From the Pulpit to a Movement is that Stokes includes some of the newest tools of leadership, such as a chapter about applying artificial intelligence (AI) to ministry ethically.
At the last page, the reader will find out that revitalization does not require bigger budgets and more fashionable approaches. It relies on its leaders who preach with passion and purpose and permit all sermons to be the spark of renewal. Stokes is equally prophetic and practical in his message, where he is essentially challenging the current-day pastors to emerge again as communicators of change.