Preaching with Power 3
Aug 13th, 2007 | By art rogers | Category: PreachingPreparing to preach …
As I struggle to get a hold on the time in my week that goes flying away from me, I realize some truths that I heard some of the old guys say when I was growing up are actually pretty accurate. I always thought they were exaggerations.
First, “The hours of 6 am to 8 am are longer than the rest of the hours in the day.” Which is to say, you can get more done in those hours than you can in other hours. I have also heard it this way, “I can get more done between 6 and 8 than I can between 8 and 5.” I thought that was a bit of an exaggeration, but I don’t any more. It’s true both for spiritual prep as for the other prep that I need to do.
Second, that Spiritual preparation has as much to do with powerful preaching as mental, oratorical, hermeneutical or even physical. Tom Eliff once said that he’d rather be prayed up than studied up in his sermon prep.
I think this is worthwhile. There is certainly a place for continuing your education and study is important, but sometimes I am in a place where I have to choose: Pray or read commentaries. It all comes down to how much time I have, and where I spend what is left to me by the demands of pastoring. I fear that I too often choose to read commentaries for fear that I will say something easily refuted by a lifelong student of the Word in my congregation and thereby be deemed “weak” for my ignorance. In so doing, I think I place my own standing in the eyes of the people above the need to be sufficiently surrendered.
Spiritual prep is more than just surrender, though. Remember that the Holy Spirit is our teacher, that he knows the situations in which our people reside – what they need in the moment – and that by spending time with Him, we train ourselves to be sensitive to His leading. That may be crucial in the middle of a sermon where He chooses to lead you where He desires.
What about you? Do you often find that you have to choose between spiritual and other preparations for preaching? Are the early parts of your day best for prep, or do you have another secret you can share?
If you are not a preacher, what do you think about your pastor’s preparation?
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You will never understand what a “God thing” it is that you posted this right now. I have been struggling mightily with this lately. Yes, I do have to make decisions which sometimes bothers me. Am I making the right one? I am reminded of a question I got while in seminary from a co-worker and friend when she realized what my schedule consisted of…I was a public school teacher by day, a seminary student three to four nights a week, a chaplain that performed services on Sunday, and a man with a family of four all the time. My answer was then that I wasn’t the best teacher I could be. I wasn’t the best student I could be. I wasn’t the best preacher I could be. I wasn’t the best father I could be. There simply wasn’t enough time. I tried to identify the most important and prioritize my time accordingly.
I struggle with time management in that same way. I get some folks that constantly tell me I should be visiting more. (Consequently pastoring in a rural area means 3 or 4 visits can easily kill off an entire workday due to drive time) Others seem to attempt to convince me that I ought to be putting in at least 40 hours a week of office time…hitting the books. Yes Art, there have been numerous days when I had plans to visit that ended up in prayer for folks rather than face to face. There have been days when I really felt I needed to get in several hours of good study when I instead ended up in several hours of prayer. Rarely have I ever felt I wasted my time in prayer instead of performing other tasks. I feel like the Spirit is the one that leads me to hit my knees in most of those occassions. Its His time and He knows what I need most.
I have never heard the saying about the first two hours of the day but I find it so wonderful that I may have it stitched in a pillow to put in my office! (Not that I nap during the day!… :) )
May I ask a question? I have also struggled lately with length of sermon. I don’t plan for a certain time. I find myself still more teacher (I did it for 8 years) than preacher (3 years vocationally). I just give out what God laid on my heart and what I learned in working through a given passage. There is one school of thought that says not to go over 20 minutes due to people’s short attention spans. I sometimes struggle with the concept of limiting God’s Word especially when I know most of my Sunday morning folks don’t spend any other time in the Word the rest of the week. What are y’all’s thoughts?
I found early morning to be one of my worst times for study and sermon prep (right after lunch is the only worse time). It seems that my most productive time was usually late afternoon and into the evening. I usually focused on more administrative matters in the mornings.
Regarding spiritual preparation, I have always been imbalanced on the side of Bible study and sermon research vis-a-vis prayer. In fact, I have always struggled to try to have a deep and consistent prayer life. In terms of personality I am much more intellectual and task oriented than emotional and relationally oriented, so I naturally gravitate toward the more intellectual aspect of preparation than the more relational one.