Sunday to Monday

You listened. That wasn’t the problem. You wanted to think about what you heard, perhaps look at the passage again or try something different during the week. It just never found a place in the day.

When you finally open your notebook, “What should I do with this?” can feel too big a question. The sermon had several points, and your notes jump between them. You’d like to come back to one thing that matters without setting yourself another long list to finish.

Sometimes a note stays a note because there’s no next question beside it. You reread the sentence, remember agreeing with it and close the book. Or you write “be more patient” and then wonder what that looks like on a rushed Wednesday.

A little more detail can help: patient with whom, in which part of the day? You can begin there. You don’t have to turn every thought from the sermon into a plan for changing your whole life.

Sunday to Monday is a workbook with twelve undated sets of pages. Each set has space for listening on Sunday, reflecting on Monday and coming back to one chosen practice at midweek. There’s also a checklist to help you look at the passage in context and keep track of your questions.

Bring a sermon you’ve heard and whatever notes you have. You can print the pages or use the fillable PDF. Start with the thought you remember most clearly, including one you aren’t sure you agree with.

On Sunday, write down the passage and the line that caught your attention. You don’t need to capture the whole sermon. Leave yourself enough to recognise what you wanted to return to.

On Monday, read it again. What did the speaker say? What do you think they meant? Look at the passage before deciding what it asks of you. A question you haven’t answered can stay on the page.

At midweek, come back to the small response you chose. What happened when you tried it? Did you forget, change your mind or notice something unexpected? Write what happened. You’re making notes for yourself, and they can be as ordinary as the week has been.

You can already use the free journal on Pray and Praise to keep sermon notes, and the Deeper Study pathway is there if you want to spend more time with Scripture. This workbook gives you the questions to return to after the listening is over.

The twelve sets are undated, so you can use them whenever you hear a sermon you want to stay with. You can also spend longer on one set. There’s no need to move on just because another Sunday has come around. What you write belongs to your own thinking, including doubts, disagreements and changes of mind.

Imagine the sentence you wrote down was, “Listen before you answer.” On Monday, you look again at the passage the speaker used and ask whether that was the point being made. Then you think about where it might matter in your own week.

You might write, “At dinner, I’ll let them finish the story before I jump in with mine.” By Wednesday, your note could be, “I interrupted again. I noticed this time, and asked them to carry on.”

That’s an example, not a model answer. Your week may call for a different response—or another question before you decide what to do. The pages help you keep those thoughts together.

You may miss a week. You may return to the same question several times. The pages will still make sense when you come back. Begin with what you remember, and see what you think now that you’ve had a little time to live with it.