Thursday, March 27, 2008

I've gotta preach this Sunday...

and I'm still emotionally, mentally and spiritually drained from Easter. Sometimes the 'relentless march of Sunday's' wears me out.
I know this is pathetic, but from the time I enter into the office on Monday until I finish my outline on Saturday, I've got this constant knot in my stomach, "I've gotta preach again this Sunday."

There's a great line about this from a post by Craig Groeschell about how a Pastor's life is different and we need to embrace that difference. One difference he listed was, You prepare new messages every week for the same crowd. (I can’t think of any other profession who does this without the help of curriculum or speech writers.)

Very well said. To read the whole post, click here. This post is a part of a series on the rhythms and seasons of pastoring. It's an entirely different animal than most 'regular' jobs.

It's hard work but I LOVE It! I get paid to talk with people about Jesus!
Just wanted to make sure and throw that in there!
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2 comments:

Joe Hayes said...

I used to get nervous (knot in stomach) before everything I did. Eventually, I accepted that I am pretty good at this stuff, and was able to relax.

We all have days where we're just putting one foot in front of the other and working one handed so the other can hold the coffee. That's OK.

I hope you won't be offended if I stick my nose in, but I feel compelled to remind you of how terribly important it is to take at least one day a week off. It's not a popular thing to say in our workaholic culture, but God commanded some rest. Even preachers need a Sabbath.

April 5, 2008 at 4:51 PM
Donnie Miller said...

Today was just a 'normal' Sunday, not as major of a deal as Easter but I still feel like I preached pretty well - passionate and informed. So I know I can lighten up a bit, but the nervous edge keeps me going. Nervousness makes me over-prepare, which makes my preaching better.

You're right on about the day off. I probably take 3 out of 4 Thursdays off a month. I can tell such a big difference in myself when I do, such as this week.

I think the discipline of sabbathing is like the discipline of tithing. I'm tempted to cheat on my day off when I haven't managed my time well the rest of the week. And there's a spiritual principle that if we give God 1 one the 7 days, the other 6 will be more effective (10%/90%). I've never struggled with tithing but I have struggled with sabbathing, but they're spiritually the same thing. Although if I were to quit tithing, I'd be fired but church culture can tend to enable not Sabbathing (although not so much at TF). Can I trust God to make me more effective with other 6 days if I honor him with the 1? If anything else, I'll still be pastoring 20 years from now if I'm consistent with Sabbath now.

Thanks for the reminder!

April 6, 2008 at 4:20 PM

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