Rekindling the Fire

9.9.2021 

Labor Day is behind us. We have had a couple of really nice temperate days. I’m a little bit behind for the middle of the week. A long holiday weekend resulted in 1/2 days of work Saturday and Monday, with very little beyond worship on Sunday. As we move into the last portion of the year, as we contemplate the Fall and consider the plans, programming, parties and gatherings and flings, and whatever Holiday celebration your church will have for Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas you might be experiencing a flame-out.

At the beginning of Jet aviation, a flame-out was just what it sounds like. The engine went out. If the pilot could not restart the engine he had to bail out of the aircraft. As first turbojets and then turbofan propulsion systems improved along with the overall quality of engineering and purity of jet fuel, flame-outs became less and less frequent. Sometimes the concept is a worthy analogy for what goes on in other areas of life. My specific concern, as always, is ministry, with a focus on preaching and teaching the Word of God. 

The transition to Fall is a strange creature because Summer is supposed to be the time for rest, recuperation, and resourcing. It does not always happen that way. Often we reduce one set of obligations and replace it with another. For example, I was done with camp the first week of July. Having two weeks of camp during June completely restructured my work time before, after, and during those weeks of Camp. When I got to July there was the increased workload of preparing the final draft of my book for the publisher and detailed background study for my next sermon series. Both projects were due September 1, that is, 1 week ago today. Needless to say, I was a little winded. I had been working three-shift days for about a week and a half  (Mrs. Beckman was at Katy’s baby-sitting. So it was just me and our Elite Feline Strike Force at home) the tank was getting low and the conditions for flame-out were present. What can we do during those times to get our “mojo’” back? What can we do to rekindle the fire so that the engine is running crisply and performing at the highest level possible? Here are three suggestions which I think will keep us motivated, lubricated, and fascinated.

Read

It is always one of the first things to go. We get tired. We get behind. We neglect to feed the curiosity which keeps ministering in the Post Modern world fascinating. If you don’t read broadly you are trying to apply the Bible in contexts that you have not fully investigated nor properly understood. If you don’t do the deep background reading for preaching you only skim the surface of the passages of Scripture you are preaching from. If you are not accessing fresh information in Biblical studies, Biblical languages, Biblical theology, Biblical application you will begin to lose freshness. You will get yourself into a situation where you need to make a high-performance maneuver and the aircraft will lose velocity, you will enter a stall, and the alarm klaxon will sound “flame out.” 

There is no substitute for reading. Read books of all kinds. Cultivate your interests and deepen them into areas of expertise. Be systematic. Keep notes. Annotate what you read (unless it is a library book). When you study for preaching read not only commentaries but other detailed literature which will help you understand the passage in question. 

Review

When the engine is not performing well that is a good time to remind yourself of when it was performing well. Rekindle the fire by reviewing your recent work. Compare what you have done this year with last year. Go back and look at the videos. Have you been trying to eliminate a distracting gesture or streamline your movement in the pulpit? Cue the tape and see what is happening.

Compare the sermon calendar you prepared for the year to the one you have actually been preaching. For me, 2021 was a year that pretty much stayed on Calendar. Last year, of course, was a little different because of the dislocation caused by the first phase of the pandemic. Reviewing the planning process as well as the execution phase helps with next year’s planning. Was I too ambitious? Did I underestimate the amount of time needed for the preliminary study? Was the theme just wrong? Was the plan unable to absorb events as they unfolded? 

No review is perfect and not every question can be answered. A thorough review helps to lubricate the machinery and get things tuned up for what is next. You should be thinking already about next year. You should be pre-planning your sermon calendar. You need to get that engine ready to function at maximum horsepower. Reading widely will keep you fascinated, intrigued and passionate about ministry. A good review will help keep the engine lubricated, tuned, and calibrated Now, for motivation.

Revise

I can always do better. All of us can improve. Real improvement comes from self-examination with a ruthless critique of past performance. Beyond regular reviews, I think it is productive to go even further back and revise work from many years ago. I’ve been preaching a long time. I have lots of old sermons. If you have preached for a while you likewise have files, notebooks, and hard drives of past work. Here is what I like to do. 

There are very few Biblical books that I have not preached. When I am preparing a new series I pull the analog or digital sermon files for that book. I print out a couple of those old sermons (paper is important here), get out a red pencil, and revise it. Relentlessly mark it up. Cut, add, reduce, move, eliminate. This is not revision to reuse the sermon this is a revision designed to make you a better, more motivated writer. No one else is going to see this work. You can be absolutely honest with yourself and commit to being a better student of scripture and writer of sermons.

Kick the tires and light the Fires…

The best way to rekindle the fire is to give it attention before it goes out. Every day your study is like the flight-line for a squadron of fighter jets. You are by yourself in the study but you are a part of a much larger group of preachers committed to doing good work in proclaiming the Word of God. You get up, leave your family, and go to work. As they say in the business when you sit down to work: “Let’s kick the tires and light the fires!” Salute your Master, encourage your colleagues, continue with the Mission.