Preaching, Priorities, Preparation

Can I start with a commercial? 

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Please check out my book! 

https://www.amazon.com/Presence-Solitude-Pastoral-Promise-Pandemic/dp/1666733695/ref=sr_1_1?crid=380ACZ2EJILW7&dchild=1&keywords=presence+in+solitude&qid=1635433431&sprefix=presence+in+%2Caps%2C204&sr=8-1

If you regularly read this blog, you know that my passion is preaching the Word of God and helping preachers to improve their workflows and end product. This book is just another example of “taking it to the streets.” Exegesis, that is. Please buy it, read it, and review it on Amazon! Thank you. Now, back to our regularly scheduled blog.

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Ministry can be as elusive as it is rewarding. Much of what a preacher-pastor does is unseen. We rarely advertise. Quite a bit of the criticism leveled at the ministry would never occur if people realized this single truth. There is a lot that you just can’t nail down or that defies the idea of punching the time clock. Just an example. I left my study around 6.15 last night (Wed). Mrs. Beckman was working so I worked as well. I went home, fed the boys, relaxed a little bit. By 7.15 I was working. I have piles of things to read and when filing them in dropbox so that they are available on all my devices I specify some which I will read at home. And I stuck with it until Georgia arrived home. I made the notation on my calendar Study Block 7.15-10.15. I was of course at home, in a comfy chair with a cup of tea on the table and a cat laying on the floor. Yet those couple of hours may end up being just as significant as time spent here behind my desk. 

Do not think of this as a complaint, it isn’t. I signed up for this. I am obsessed with this. This is the mission. I have spent this entire month preparing a plan for preaching and teaching the Word of God to this congregation for the year 2022. I’m already turning the soil, planting seeds, and preparing for a harvest. The work done in October 2021 will begin to yield a harvest in December. The work I did yesterday will resonate next October. 

The Church lives amid crises. It always has, it always will. Not because God is faithless, or because the promises have faltered. The Church exists in crisis because we humans are fallen. We are works in progress. We are adrift in a sea of our own sin and grace is the life-preserver that keeps our chin above water. Many are tempted to reinvent the ministry, turning its focus to this or that good work. In difficult times such as now, we hear concerns voiced and questions raised such as:

• “We need to do something.”

• “What should we do?” 

• “Can’t something be done?”

The assumption behind these questions is essentially the same. Crisis calls for a change in plan. It’s bad. Worse now than ever. It is time for drastic measures. 

This sort of reminds me of the story in Acts 6. Some widows were hungry and felt neglected. They brought the issue to the Apostles and asked them “what are you going to do differently?” Their stunning answer? “Nothing.” Rather than changing the focus of their ministry, they expected other, competent people to fix the problem while they did what they were called to do, specifically…

“But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word.”” (Acts 6:4 ESV)

If you want to preach well if you want your congregation to know what the Word of God teaches them about the richness of grace and the mercy of God you will make preaching your priority. You will plan and prepare like lives depend upon it because they do. If you want to preach well and be constantly improving you are going to need to give the same answer the Apostles did in Acts 6 when asked what new, innovative program they were going to implement. What are you going to do? Pray, study, preach. That is the Apostolic model for ministry. And it may be written rather than spoken but that is God’s Word for us today.