Four years ago I was going through a stack of boxes a woman had donated to the Church I was leading in Alaska. She had been a long time teacher of children in the Church in various settings and was now past her days of teaching. She had donated 15-20 boxes of material to the church and my wife and I were slowly going through them. I opened one of the folders in a box and there I saw a group of flannel graph figures like my teacher used when I was a child.

At that moment an idea flashed into my head about using these figures for a sermon series. I took the folder of figures and placed them on my desk. Next I opened my Evernote app and typed the idea into my digital sermon idea file. Then I took the folder and put it into a stack of other articles and ideas.

The idea remained in my digital file for over two years. During that time I moved from Alaska to Missouri. Nothing had really sparked with the idea during that time and so it remained in my idea bank until last year.

Last year while working on the sermon series plan for 2016 I went to my sermon idea file and there I saw the phrase, “sermon series using flannel board.” I took my idea and began to search the internet. I have learned that none of my ideas are completely original. Someone, somewhere has had a similar idea. Sure enough I found 4-5 preachers who had preached a similar series of sermons. One of them had a great graphic for a series they called “Flannelgraph Jesus.” And with that one discovery I now had a title for a series and a graphic.

Then I sat down with my Bible and said, “Now where do I want to take this?” After thinking, reading and praying I decided to stick to the book of Matthew and do a series leading up to Easter. After I had decided the timing and the topic for the series I focused in on individual sermons. Over a couple of weeks I read through most of the book of Matthew and decided on some big topics. It took another couple of weeks to come up with specific texts and titles.

At this point I was almost done. The final step was to find a flannel graph. I knew if I was not able to find one that Pinterest or something on google would help me build my own. Fortunately I found a company that made exactly what I was looking for and it would have even more material for other uses. The downside was that it was pretty expensive. So I continued to search the web to find cheaper options. Finally I nailed it down to two or three options that I had bookmarked. Then my computer crashed and it was back to square one. Another two weeks past and I finally decided to order the expensive one or I was going to run out of time.

The order was made and three days later it arrived. Failing to read the fine print I opened the box to find over 600 pieces needed to be cut out. Upon trial I found I had no scissors to cut felt. Off to the story and $30 later I had two pair of heavy-duty scissors. My mother was visiting and she jumped right in to help and I begged my boys to help me in the process too (more like bribed). Finally after two weeks of cutting the material it was now ready to use.

The final part of the story was to take the title, the text, the cut outs and come up with a sermon. Each one took a full week to develop before presentation. This is nothing new as every sermon takes a full week to prepare.

All total it took about 4 years and uncounted hours to take an idea from inception to completion.

I have dozens of ideas that come and go. I suppose each one of us does. Don’t give up on them too quick. Today’s idea might be what God uses to touch someone’s life years from now.