Process 2.3.2022

 As I write this morning I have already read many of the accolades and tributes written about Tom Brady. He announced his retirement February 1, 2022. Tom Brady defined professional football in the 21^st century. Recent college graduates cannot remember an NFL season in which Tom Brady did not participate—and excel. The tributes this week focus on statistics and winning percentages. Winning is important, that is why the score is kept, and statistics are often a good general guide to that success. The best tributes I have read so far have been focused on the question “how could Brady keep playing so long at such a high level.” Statistically speaking 2021 was his best season at the age of 44. It is this longevity which has resonance beyond football. 

Every single person I know is getting older. Forty-four is old in athletics, but in most professions that is when someone hits their prime. It is also the potential thresh hold for burnout. It is not uncommon for individuals at the very top of their game to spectacularly flame out as the pressure of doing their job well destroys them. One of the words that cropped up around Tom Brady’s professionalism was the word Process. Oh how I love that word and the concept it describes. Tom Brady did not run the fastest. He did not have the best arm. He was not very nimble. He maximized the skill-set he had to become the best he could be. He made the intangible attribute of process the defining characteristic of his approach to his profession. 

Here is the lesson, preacher. We are not all eloquent. We do not all have the same physical skills or equipment. Not every preacher grows up in a supporting home Church eager to help him succeed in ministry. Not every preacher works with supportive and capable local leadership. Some of us get bad breaks. Some of us are the preaching equivalent of Mr. 199, a sixth round draft choice selected as a project. Tom Brady, judged on his original skill-set was not on the radar. Process. Discipline. Determination. Preparation. Tenacity. These cannot be measured. Often their presence or absence are only noticed because of the results. 

I describe (and encourage and teach) a process-driven method of preparing to preach. We might describe Tom Brady’s method of playing quarterback as Process Driven Quarterbacking. Refining a process takes many years. To others,  defining, refining, honing, dialing-in that process can seem like tedious, pointless, drudgery. Till the results begin rolling in. A consistent level of excellence. Reliable and predictable inputs and outcomes. Stability. Resilience. Mental flexibility and toughness. 

Process maximizes skills which can be improved and de-emphasizes those that erode over time. (If you can’t throw the ball as far, throw it quicker. If you have trouble organizing your thoughts, start sooner). 

Process elevates the importance of repetitive, cumulative, routine, behaviors in order to improve “game-day”. We tend to judge the end product. The sermon. The game. Process invests our time and talents and treasure in the hard preliminary work where improvement occurs. Sports is a helpful source of analogy and comparison here because virtually every sport begins with a baseline of  elementary ground principles the “fundamentals” which are the inalterable foundation of the game. Baseball comes down to throwing and catching. It does not matter how far you progress in the sport it will always come down to those fundamentals. Block. Tackle. Go to your left. It is actually possible to identify a sport by the catch-phrases which encapsulate the fundamentals. 

Process-driven preaching is a relentless search for the fundamentals of preparing and delivering biblical sermons, and honing those fundamentals into repeatable, achievable, yearly/monthly/weekly/daily routines. Tom Brady was not great merely on Sunday. His greatness as a player was built hour by hour, day by day, week by week of relentless, process-driven attention to detail. If you want to be the best preacher you can be and maximize the talents God has given you becoming process driven will revolutionize that pursuit. 

Creating a process for your working life is organic. It grows from your own gifts, abilities, weaknesses, strengths and interests. Using basic, common-sense methods of organizing and structuring the work of ministry you focus the best of your time, when you are most energetic and most focused on the process of studying and preparing to preach. 

Most of those who preach consider Sunday morning worship to be “game time.” The Sunday message is rightly the focus of our weekly efforts. If this is the case, how we prepare, the process we go through each and every week is central to the outcome. Process thinking focuses on several related concepts.

Routine

Process driven preaching is routine. To be effective the preacher blocks out the same basic times each and every week for long-term and short term preparation. Long-form reading, stud, and thinking insures that there is always more in the well to draw from. A routine is communicable to your Elder’s, staff, friends, and family. It should not take very long before everyone knows what your routine is and if you communicate wisely they will understand why you follow such a routine. 

Repeatable

A routine is only effective if it embodies repeatable activities which lead to reliable outcomes. Returning to the lessons of Tom Brady, practice only makes perfect if it is perfect practice. Learning how to follow repeatable practices with respect to exegesis, sermon crafting, writing, editing, and time allocation are essential to repeatable routines. 

Rigorous

Good sermons require hard work. Systematic study, deep thought, careful writing, relentless editing. Process Driven preaching means working hard a preaching, every single day. You’re not always working on a specific sermon but you are always working on your preaching. Every book, blog, newsletter, or article you read may have impact on something you say from the pulpit in the future.

Preaching can change the world. That change is only possible when we who are called to preach are fully committed not only to the Sunday preaching event but to all the behind the scenes behaviors which will yield solid, Biblical sermons which are powerful enough to shape the minds of believers and clear enough to provoke a faith-response from unbelievers. 

It is always possible that this will happen by accident. It is also possible that God can use my sub-par efforts to change someone’s life despite my sloth. Why leave it to chance.? If a guy like Tom Brady could work hard and enhance limited skills to become the best he could be, why would you or I, tasked with preaching the unsearchable riches of Christ do anything less?