Preaching Practices

    Easter is now behind us. Ministry is ordered around several essential seasons and observances. Of course everything orients around the Lord’s own day. Every Sunday we gather for worship. We share the true word of God and partake of the true ordinances of citizenship in the Kingdom. For those of us who preach we have a fairly regular 52-week pattern of preparation. We have the opportunity, particularly as we gain experiences to refine our practices in ministry. There will be emergencies and unforeseen developments of course. But…Sunday’s coming.

Yet there are other seasons which require more intense input and which stand out in the year. Christmas and Easter are of course the two observances around which the entire Christian experience is focused. During the fall of the year we are building towards the Christmas season. Our preaching leads up to Christmas. Programing (you remember what that is, right?) looks toward the Christmas season with special events, gatherings, presentations. Then, after Christmas Eve services and the epilogue from Christmas to New Years, January arrives, the “excitement” dies and it is back to ministry life as usual. 

Until about mid-February when Easter season starts to loom on the horizon. A season of additional worship experiences, more preparation, and greater participation. So, the pastor-preacher buckles down, invests the hours, reaps the benefits—and all of a sudden it’s the Wednesday after Easter. The adrenaline has been released. The season has shifted. The load has lightened and the intensity subsided.

So my preacher friend, what to do now? Take it easy? Coast perhaps? A  late-spring vacation maybe? As tempting as each of these options might sound it is, after all, only April. What we do now may be less intense but practices we cultivate during the less stressful times of ministry help to provide the fuel and the foundation for the rest of the year. I would recommend several practices which will help streamline your processes for the rest of this year. 

Review

This year’s preaching calendar is now, depending on exactly how you organize your work, somewhere between 1/4 and 1/3 complete. This is a good time to review what you have preached, taught, and written so far this year. You can ask yourself whether there were some blind-spots in this year’s preaching that you did not anticipate. Did I miss something? This also is the time to asses any departures you have made from your preaching plan. 

Revise

There are two kinds of revisions to consider this time of the year. Do I need to revisit the whole plan and change it. During 2020 this became necessary because of the unfolding pandemic. While much of what I intended to preach was still usable there needed to be an ongoing process of revision to make sure that I addressed the various circumstances and scenarios which were playing out in society.

The second kind of revision you can think about is a matter of your on-going ministry and what use you can make of all of the study, preparation, thought, and writing you are doing. Some of what you preached can be preached again. Some of it can be revised and condensed for lessons, newsletter articles, and devotions.. Some of it can be revised and expanded for lectures or even publication. We tend to write and use without curating the materials we produce. This a season for that curation. Some material will need to incubate for a while and some of it can be marked for use in the near future. Revival sermons and messages for external preaching engagements can be constructed from sermons or parts of sermons. You can divide what you once brought together or combine what was once used in multiple messages. 

The point is you have, even at this point in the year,  read alot. You have thought a lot. You have processed information. You have analyzed and categorized, you have written and re-written and then preached. That material is yours! Your legacy of studying scripture and proclaiming it to others. Curate your own collection of material and revise it how you will.

Recalibrate

A final preaching practice for the next few weeks—recalibrate. Tune up some study, preparation and presentation matters which have been neglected during the busy seasons of Christmas and Easter. Maybe you need to spend some time looking at your workflows. What have you been reading lately? Have you been reading? I know that busy times tend to enlarge my “to-read” list. Maybe this would be a good time to look at what you intend to read and recalibrate what books need to be at the top of the pile. Look over your upcoming sermon calendar. Are you working a week or weeks of Christian Service Camp? Why not get a start on your preliminary preaching for the next 6 weeks so that when you have to get ready for camp you have room on your schedule.

I have tried to use this Blog to provide helps for preachers, basic Biblical insights and an overview of what is going on in my life and ministry. The irony of the Pandemic and slowdown is that for some of us ministry has gotten busier during the year where we mostly preached to empty auditoriums. As we moved much of our content online and to a streaming format we have needed to add opportunities to try and meet the needs of the body of Christ. 

This year…we Eastered! We gathered and worshipped. We celebrated. Then Monday arrived and it was “back to work.” How you organize your time during the next 2-4 weeks will help determine the flow for the rest of the year. It is my hope that your preaching practices are tip-top as we all go into what will be a new and exciting season of ministry. For those of you who read this blog and who are not preachers I hope that this provides you with some information about how you can pray for your preacher and provide support and encouragement for him. Ask him what he’s up to. Ask him about what he is reading and studying. He might be a little winded after a strange year and the busiest ministry season of all. Encourage him to do his best and you will find that both his preaching and demeanor improve! 

We are all in this together. We have different roles and responsibilities. We were given different gifts and allocated different tools. Yes, 2020 was difficult. We still worshipped every Sunday. The word was still proclaimed. And as we enter this new season it remains to be seen what harvest will be collected.