Some Change of Pace 6.18.2026

     Reviewing and tidying up are focused on externals. We review to see where we have been so that we can move forward into our preaching calendar with confidence. We tidy up our control systems to make sure we can maintain control over the rules and tools that help us to manage our time. Today I want to discuss how a change of pace can help clear our minds so that all that redeemed time has mental bandwidth to do its thing. 

    We need a change of pace to help us keep the edge. We are nearly half a year into studying, thinking through, and writing about specific texts and themes.  As we move through our sermon calendars we read, study, make notes, do the research—all of which can dull the mental edge we began with. Like you, I still have quite a lot to do before I’ve written all and said all I intend to say in 2026. I have two more sermons in Proverbs and then the rest of the year will be taken up with more preaching from the Gospel of John and a brief series from 1 John. I have pretty much been on this Johannine glide-path the entire year and when studying the same basic subject(s) it is common to lose emotional enthusiasm, mental flexibility, and intellectual sharpness for the project. And I’ve not even mentioned plain ol’ fatigue or waning curiosity which are also lethal to good study and preparation. 

    The best remedy I know of is changing the pace of what you read and consider. These suggestions are not typical, and some might think that they are out of place in a preacher’s study. I disagree. We need to be sharp. We need to be curious. We need to be able to think critically. We need to be creative. We need to be flexible. We need to be engaged. The best way to accomplish these tasks is to find something to occupy our minds that keeps the synapses buzzing without just adding to the mental load of preparing sermons, lessons, essays, and presentations. It is not selfish or indulgent to keep your mind occupied and engaged with materials that do not dovetail into explicit, ongoing work. Consider the following. 

Reading for Profit and Pleasure

    Let me put it this way. You cannot read for “prophet” if you never read for “profit”. Some investments do not have an immediate return and if you don’t do that broader reading eventually the plumbing will get gummed up. 

    What interests you? What makes you laugh? Are you curious about history or architecture, archaeology or mythology? Read those books. Sit at your desk, engage with a text that does not immediately address something you’re preparing to speak about. Take notes, file them, and sit on the information.  

    Preachers need to know about Theology and History. Keep a list (or stack) of books to be read. Make sure that many of those books address broad hermeneutical and theological questions. These are the ones that slip through the cracks when you need to get cracking on this week or next week’s message. Read, learn, and file. At some point you will come back to those notes and find profitable data that will help you better forth-tell God’s Word. 

    God bless you if you live somewhere that still has a real newspaper. Read the thing. In detail. It will help you learn more about your community and region. The newspaper murderers did not realize that there was more to a local paper than advertising and obituaries. With many local radio stations serving primarily as outlets for media conglomerates the radio news is often thin and useless as well. Reading for profit and pleasure was once the sign not only of an educated person but of a person that was interested in the world. 

Rereading for Engagement

    What books helped to form your intellectual approach? What have you read that caught your imagination?  When was the last time you went through one of them? Do you have annal re-reads? Re-engaging with things you have read in the past not only keeps the information fresh, but it also reminds you of how a book contributed to your mindset. Pull quotes and write them down as a To-Do. They will remind you of contributions others have made to your thinking. 

    Throughout the week I have quotations that come up in Things, my task application. Little reminders of the ins and outs of ministry, the nature of learning, the importance of craft. None of these quotations are literary gems. They just remind me that many formative geniuses learned early on to not be impressed with their own genius. 

    I used to re-read The Lord of the Rings and The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy every year. The former because it is profound, the latter because it always makes me laugh. I reread William Martin’s Cape Code at least every other year because it launched an interest in and had a shaping influence on my approach to Puritanism and American Theology. 

Listen to some Different Music

I grew up in the 1970’s. I like the music of my generation. Like everyone else I think we had the best music. I’ll listen to it in my truck, and every once in a while, in the office, but generally I cannot work while playing music with words. 

I also like classical music. My favorite composer is J.S. Bach. Over the last 15 years I have also begun to discover contemporary composers such as (Arvo Pärt, Max Richter, John Tavener, Vladimir Martynov)with a focus on Holy Minimalism (You’re going to have to look that one up). Now, with the genius of Spotify I am able, nearly every week, to identify composers and performers whose musical output matches my listening habits in my study. Rarely does a week go by without discovering some new music.  

When we discover new things—musicians, composers, authors—we create a fertile environment for the intellectual curiosity necessary for growth. Incurious preachers preach incurious, cautious messages. When I am incurious, I find it difficult to look at familiar texts with fresh eyes. This makes me a very boring preacher. 

Let me close with this. We all occasionally get into ruts. Going over the same ground, using the same processes we become bored without selves and incapable of noticing the boredom we generate in others. When we find ourselves in that kind of a rut the task is to get out. Better still we need to work in such a way that getting into a rut is an accident—rather than a deliberate decision. Changing pace helps keep us on our toes so that we can focus on the task and hand and be at our best every time we enter the sacred desk.