Time Enough to Learn

    Next year I will celebrate the thirty-ninth anniversary of my ordination into Christian ministry. I began my preaching ministry two years before in the Summer of 1981. That would appear to be 41 years ago. This week I have read and studied Scripture in the original language. I was able to read with understanding detailed, academic commentaries on the text for the week. I was able to thoughtfully reflect and interact with what others have said before. And I was able to look back upon my own most recent journeys through the same text. As is most often the case, despite the number of times I have gnawed over the bones of the same texts, I was able to find something new to say about it. Not novel. Not a discovery which had laid dormant unseen by any exegete in the last 2000 years…just hard work providing a new perspective on one particular story recorded by John in his Gospel. 

    I might be getting the hang of this. Some young preachers wake every Monday morning in fright “what will I preach on Sunday!?” I never do. Not because I am arrogant but because I have a plan. I knew the coming Sunday was, in fact, coming on the very date in the calendar. I made preliminary forays into the text and prepared a plan which gave order and symmetry to the entire process. On Monday I turn to the plan and begin going through my weekly checklist. 

    Why do it at all? When I opened LOGOS there were at least 2 past messages cataloged from the passage in question. Why not re-preach one of them? Sometimes it is possible and desirable to rework new material into old material reusing prior exegesis. (If of course, the exegesis was sufficient, to begin with.) Surely after all these years of experience, I could just “wing it.” Forty-one years of preaching is enough time to learn that “winging it” is an affront to the God who called me. It is an admission that I am lazy and unfocused. Sunday is/was/will come. Every week. All that experience in ministry, some of which was very hard-earned, has taught me that I still have enough time to learn what can be known about ministry and how to preach the Word well…just enough time every week. 

    I get tired. Everyone gets tired. Yet, when I hear of preachers who do not have enough time to prepare thoroughly every week to preach whether because of excessive other work or misplaced priorities I am baffled and concerned. “What did you think you were getting into?” Our main job—really our only divinely appointed task is “prayer and the ministry of the Word.” That is it. Everything else we are called to do flows from that divine appointment. Calling. Visiting the sick. Leading in worship. Leading in meetings. Leading staff. Everything flows from our word-formed pulpit work. If you are prioritizing these other activities at the expense of the pulpit you still have a lot to learn. 

    I hear of preachers who are burned out and discouraged by their work. Often those who cite such difficulties are the very ones who have allowed other priorities to creep in and handicap if not cripple their preaching. With little time to devote to exegesis, reading, writing, study, and prayer they have allowed other people’s priorities to crowd out what should be their single priority because it is God’s.

    You have the time to fix this. If you are behind, burned out, or burdened by the hamster-wheel drudgery of badly defined ministry you can stop, recalibrate, and get back on track. There is some natural talent involved, but for the most part, it is a matter of work, direction, commitment, and pluck. You have time enough to learn good ministry habits. You have time to learn from your mistakes. You have time to learn from the ancients. You have time to learn from the contemporary masters of the craft. You have time to learn from trusted mentors. You have time to learn from both academic studies and from practical. You have time to learn from deeply committed men of renowned faith and from cynics who question everything. You have time to look back at what you have done and correct your course and you have time to look forward and chart the future. You have time enough to learn. It may just be a matter of will.