Dread of Staring at a Blank Page

I kept staring blankly at the blank screen. I had no idea what to write. Father Michael had graciously given me a weekly page in the bulletin to write about youth ministry. Usually I could put something together, but this particular time I had nothing. Maybe because it was around Christmas and I was tired from the season and ideas just were not flowing. Maybe I just hadn’t given myself enough time or made it enough of a priority. For whatever reason, I had nothing. My mind was blank. It was 10 pm at night. I was tired and just wanted to go home but I could not go home until I finished the article. They were printing the bulletin the next morning. Maybe you have been there.

I called my wife Mia to share my plight. She said, “Why don’t you write a letter to Santa saying you have been a good youth minister and share a wish list for the youth program?” I thought, “That’s the dumbest idea I ever heard.” I don’t think I was dumb enough to say it but that’s what I thought. Probably I said, “Thanks for the idea” and hung up the phone. Then in desperation I began to write, “Dear Santa, I have been a very good youth minister…”

One of the items I wished for was a video projector. This was back when they were rare in parishes. I had seen one at the local Evangelical church and wanted one for our youth Mass. A parishioner read the article and decided to donate five thousand dollars so we could buy a projector. I am forever grateful to him.

Blessedly, happily God used that article, but I can say I didn’t enjoy the process. It is no fun staring at a screen with a deadline coming and not knowing what to say. It’s incredibly stressful knowing you have write a homily or speak in front of people and having no idea what you will say. It places a great burden on our shoulders. You might have your own story of staring at a blank screen or page. Maybe it is something you struggle with on a regular basis as a preacher, teacher or content creator. Sunday is always coming in the Church. Programs run on a regular basis. People come to us expecting us to have something to say and we want to offer them something substantive.

At Nativity we have found that planning our preaching and programs does so much to solve the blank screen and “Sunday is always coming” problem. Proverbs 21:5 says, “The plans of the diligent lead surely to abundance as surely as haste leads to poverty.” Planning communication brings about an abundant life both for communicators and for a community. Failure to plan leads to that stressful, uneasy feeling.

The way we plan is to break up the year into homily series. Our human brains can’t think or plan out 52 presentations for the year. However, our brains can break down presentations into groups of 4, 5 or 6. If you are interested in trying out a homily series or just want some ideas to avoid that dreadful moment of staring at a screen, check our content library.

The content library offers homily materials and resources we have created at Nativity over the last 12 years. It will give you material that will keep you from starting from scratch. It is lectionary based and will offer insight on the Scripture passages you are contemplating. You can read through the homilies and use the ideas you like and discard the ones you don’t. You can take and tweak it however best suits you.

The content will start to prime the pump of topics you want to bring to your parish community. Even after years of creating content and series, we still look to other churches for good ideas and listen to their sermons to find things we want to steal... I mean borrow. Whenever we take these ideas we personalize them to our community and in a way that fits our style as presenters. You can do the same with homilies and resources from our content library. You can check it out on this link: rebuiltparish.com/content

By the way, if you have found value in planning homily series and know someone who would benefit from this blog, please pass it on.

Many years ago we were helped and supported by Churches who provided content and helped us plan out our communication. We hope to provide the same support to you and your parish. We know that preaching and teaching changes lives. It matters and the more we plan it, the greater abundance we will enjoy.

Rooting for you,
Tom