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SermonPrepDesk — Video Idea Backlog

Pastor-targeted, search-first (DECISION_LOG 2026-06-18 — do NOT re-title these "lay" for raw reach). Each idea below is a validated open lane: a moment pastors search with high intent + dread, where video supply is empty but text supply is rich. Build the hub (longform walkthrough) + 3–5 spoke Shorts, all pastor-search-titled.

THE RULE (why these work): compete on the PREP axis ("how to preach/prepare X"), on the specific situation a pastor is trapped in — never the lay-explainer axis ("what is X") or the generic verb ("how to write a sermon"). Title with the exact query a pastor types.

Status: ✅ published · 🎬 recorded/needs polish · 📝 scripted · ⬜ idea only

Update 2026-06-19: every open lane below is now 📝 scripted — a full pack each (hub script + word-for-word Shorts + paste-ready upload metadata), built on the graveside-committal-pack.md template, file-referenced per idea. The remaining work is recording + polish + upload, not writing. New playlists to create in Studio: Hard Texts, The Church Year, The Trapped Pastor.

✅ DONE — published​

AssetStatusLink
Funeral Prep Pack hub (Psalm 23 · John 14 · 1 Thess 4) + 6 Shorts✅shorts live; hub in 03-published. Lead magnet: sermonwise.ai/funeral-prep
Graveside / Committal hub + 5 Shorts✅hub: youtu.be/Mb9tHVdVl4Y · embedded on /funeral-prep + /prep-desk
Ep1 Sower · Ep2 Wheat & Weeds (lectionary hubs) + 4 Shorts each✅per PRODUCTION-TRACKER.md

These two end-of-life builds are the template for everything below: graveside-committal-pack.md (hub script + outline cards + upload pack) + shorts-kit-graveside.md (word-for-word Shorts).

THE BACKLOG — by ownable category (build the cluster, not one-offs)​

① End-of-Life Ministry (the moat — extend the funeral + graveside flagships)​

The funeral audience binge-links across these; best SermonWise demo fit; highest dignity bar.

  • 📝 Preach a stranger's funeral (Tier 1, best demo) · scripted → stranger-funeral-pack.md — "You've been asked to preach a stranger's funeral — the 1-hour process." Funeral-home referral on 2–3 days' notice = emergency intent; ZERO craft video competition. Hub: the 1-hour process + the 3 questions to ask the funeral director. Demo: feed the deceased's details into SermonWise → outline + Scripture + tribute. Short: "The 3 questions to ask the funeral director."
  • 📝 Preaching a funeral after a suicide (Tier 2, highest dread) · scripted → suicide-funeral-pack.md (988 crisis line baked in) — "What to say, what never to say." THIN→NONE video. Dignity-first, sober; crisis line in the notes (988 / 9-8-8). Short: "The one sentence to NEVER say at a suicide funeral."
  • 📝 Preaching the funeral of a child / infant / stillbirth (Tier 2, max dignity) · scripted → child-funeral-pack.md (child material longform-only; 3 craft Shorts) — "Words for the unspeakable." 2 Samuel 12:23 anchor. KEEP the child material in the longform only (per the funeral-kit discipline); careful Shorts.
  • 📝 Preaching the funeral of a non-Christian / unbeliever (Tier 2) · scripted → unbeliever-funeral-pack.md — "Without lying about where they are." Thief-on-the-cross text; commit honestly, entrust to God's mercy, no verdicts.
  • (later) wedding homily, baptism/dedication — lower dread, recurring; secondary.

② The Texts & Days Pastors Dread ("the desk you come to when you're afraid to get it wrong")​

Build a Hard Texts playlist. Title on the PREP axis, NOT the lay-explainer axis (Barron etc. own "what is the Trinity").

  • 📝 How to preach on hell (Tier 1 — opens this category) · scripted → preach-hell-pack.md — "...without scaring people away or going soft." THIN video; brand-safe (gravitas-and-mercy). Shorts: "The #1 mistake pastors make preaching hell" · "Should you preach hell at a funeral?" (deliberate bridge that pulls the funeral audience into this cluster).
  • 📝 How to preach the Trinity (Trinity Sunday) (seasonal twin to hell; ~late Apr for May Trinity Sunday) · scripted → preach-trinity-pack.md (also serves ③) — "...without giving a theology lecture." Explainer lane saturated; the prep lane is open. Anti-lecture framing.
  • 📝 Imprecatory psalms / Psalm 137 ("dash the little ones") · scripted → imprecatory-psalms-pack.md — near-zero help anywhere; great Short + a strong hard-texts spoke.
  • 📝 How to preach Revelation (without fear) — series-driven (whole-series watch-time). · scripted → preach-revelation-pack.md
  • 📝 How to preach Joshua / the conquest ("did God command genocide?") — high dread + skeptic objection; THIN video. · scripted → preach-joshua-conquest-pack.md
  • ⚠️ AVOID as standalone titles: predestination/Romans 9 and sexuality/gender/headship texts — high intent but denominational landmines / off-mission. Cover only inside a broader "hard doctrines" hub, never flagship.

③ The Church Year (annual, compounds every year — publish 3–4 weeks early)​

  • 📝 Fall liturgical cluster: Christ the King + Reformation + All Saints (best calendar lane — one push, late Oct/early Nov) · scripted → fall-cluster-pack.md (3 hubs + 9 Shorts in one file) — all THIN video (only livestreams/recordings exist; prep = blogs). Christ the King leads: "the king who reigns from a cross." Reformation fits the founder's Reformed voice ("without recycling the 5 solas"). All Saints reuses the grief/funeral muscle.
  • 📝 Trinity Sunday (see ②) — ~late Apr. · scripted → preach-trinity-pack.md
  • 📝 Ascension · Transfiguration — thin video, lower volume; "the feast everybody skips." · scripted → ascension-transfiguration-pack.md (2 hubs + 8 Shorts in one file)
  • 📝 Mother's / Father's Day "without wounding the room" — the pastoral-landmine angle (infertility, estrangement, grief) is under-videoed; sensitive. · scripted → parenting-days-pack.md (one hub covers both days)

④ The Trapped Pastor (situational craft — doubles as a LIVE SermonWise demo)​

Speaks to SermonWise's core buyer (small/solo/bivocational pastor). Generic craft verbs are saturated — compete on the SITUATION.

  • 📝 Preaching to a dying / declining church (Tier 2 — core buyer) · scripted → dying-church-pack.md — "Preaching hope to 12 people when you used to have 200." YT only has "signs your church is dying" diagnosis, not the preaching craft.
  • 📝 Sermon prep when you're behind / Saturday-night panic (best live demo) · scripted → saturday-night-panic-pack.md — "It's 9pm Saturday and you have nothing — do exactly this." Demo SermonWise blank-passage → outline on the clock. Frame as the PANIC MOMENT, not generic speed.
  • 📝 From a passage to a sermon (beginner exegesis) — for the bivocational/lay preacher with no hermeneutics training. · scripted → passage-to-sermon-beginner-pack.md
  • 📝 "Never preached and you're up THIS Sunday" — the volunteer thrown in; MODERATE competition but beatable with a tighter angle. · scripted → never-preached-this-sunday-pack.md

Weekly lectionary spine (the conversion engine — from strategy §4)​

  • 🎬 Ep3 Mustard/Yeast/Treasure/Pearl (serves Jul 26) — recorded 2026-06-16, needs render/polish + upload.
  • 📝 Ep4 Feeding the 5,000 (serves Aug 2) — scripted, not recorded.
  • Marquee texts queued in strategy §4 (Peter's confession, Forgive 77×, Render unto Caesar, Beatitudes, Talents, Sheep & Goats, Advent→Christmas, Lent→Easter, etc.).
  1. Preach a stranger's funeral — extends the end-of-life moat, best SermonWise demo, emergency intent, zero competition.
  2. How to preach on hell — opens the hard-texts category, brand-safe.
  3. Preaching to a dying church — speaks straight to the core buyer.
  • Seasonal queue: Christ the King + Reformation + All Saints for the fall push; Trinity for early May.
  • Keep the weekly lectionary hub cadence running underneath (Ep3 render → upload next).

DON'T BUILD (validated saturated / off-mission)​

Generic craft verbs ("how to write a sermon / outline / preach without notes") · lay-explainer titles ("what is hell/the Trinity") · AI-for-sermon-prep as a hub (use only as a demo mechanic inside other videos) · predestination & sexuality texts as standalone titles · "the Sunday after a tragedy" (buried under news video) · sermon-illustration databases.

DEFERRED (founder decision)​

  • "I've led N funerals — here's what actually helps" / lay-facing human-authority flagship — Paddy's breakout idea. DEFERRED because it's lay-titled (we chose pastor-first; DECISION_LOG 2026-06-18). Revisit ONLY as an A/B test if a lay cut ever out-converts a pastor cut 3×+ on TRIALS (not views).

How to build each (production notes)​

  • Hub: follow graveside-committal-pack.md structure (cold open → standing stinger → segments → Walk-the-path-to-Jesus → recap card → CTA → "Trust the text. Love your people. The sermon is yours.").
  • Polish: the auto-pipeline render-episode.mjs currently can't run (Whisper.cpp + chapter-tag assets missing; it's hardcoded to the weekly-lectionary segments). Use the controlled equivalent proven on the committal hub: stinger intro + brand lower-third + outline cards (Chrome-rendered from the outline-card-ep1.html template) + outro + audio to −14 LUFS via static gain + alimiter:level=false (NOT single-pass loudnorm — it desyncs A/V). Keep video continuous if captions are burned in. faster-whisper (pip) gives rough timestamps for card placement.
  • Shorts: shorts-kit-graveside.md template — word-for-word scripts, hook on frame 1, cut dead air, <40s, pastor-search titles, related-video → the hub.
  • Upload: full pack (title A/B, description, real chapters, hashtags, pinned, playlists) per graveside-committal-pack.md "Upload metadata — the hub" + funeral-upload-optimization.md. Wire the hub's lead magnet into sermonwise.ai/funeral-prep + /prep-desk (the committal embed is the pattern).