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Sermon Prep

Haven't Settled on a Passage Yet? A Guide to Passage Recommendation Mode

Half of sermon preparation is choosing the text. Once the passage is settled, the rest is a familiar process — but plenty of pastors have lost a few days to “what should I even preach this week?” That’s especially true for occasional Sundays without a fixed lectionary text: an anniversary service, an ordination, a homecoming.

Passage Recommendation Mode exists for exactly those Sundays. Instead of a passage, tell us the message you want to bring, and we’ll suggest two fitting passages — one from the Old Testament, one from the New — and build a full report for each.

When to Use It

  • A seasonal or occasional sermon — Christmas, Easter, a harvest thanksgiving service — where the theme is clear but several passages could carry it
  • An anniversary, ordination, or retreat sermon — where there’s no assigned text and you need to start from “what message fits this moment”
  • A one-off Sunday inside a series — pausing an ongoing expository series for a single week with a different message
  • When you’re stuck between two or three candidate passages — reframe the message you’re aiming for and get an independent recommendation to compare against your own instincts

How It Works

You submit the message you want to preach — the core content, not a text reference — and we recommend one Old Testament and one New Testament passage that fit it. It doesn’t stop at the recommendation: we build a full report for each of the two suggested passages, so you can decide which direction to preach after reading both.

Because one request produces two full reports, each one runs a bit shorter than a standard passage-based report — roughly 60% length, 9 to 12 pages. Supplementary sections like the small-group discussion guide and hymn suggestions are left out; what stays is the core sections you need to understand the text itself.

How to Request One

  1. Go to New Request, expand “Other request types,” and check Passage recommendation.
  2. In place of a passage, describe the message you want to bring.
  3. Everything else works the same as a standard request.

Available on Standard tier and above (Standard, Premium, Platinum, Prestige).

FAQ

What if I don’t like either recommended passage? Rephrase your message and submit again — the same underlying message worded differently can surface different passages.

Can I get just an Old Testament or just a New Testament recommendation? Not currently — it’s designed to always suggest one of each.

The reports are shorter — does that mean lower quality? No. The review standard for the core sections — original-language analysis, background research, scholarly discussion — is identical. The shorter length comes from producing two full reports per request and trimming supplementary sections, not from cutting corners on the sections that matter most.

For your next occasional sermon without a fixed text, start from the message instead of the passage.

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